ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LXXXIII 



Shawnee languages, recorded l)y him during the ^jreceding two 

 3'ears. This work gave aliundant opportunities for comparing 

 the two tongues with the forty or fifty other dialects of tlie 

 Algouquian stock, and the interesting results of the comparison 

 were embodied in a comparative vocabulary of the Algouquian 

 languages. By this comparison the intimate relations between 

 the dialects is strikingly shown, and at the same time the mul- 

 tiplicity of forms into wliich the original tongues have been 

 diversified has been brought out. Morphologically the Algou- 

 quian tongue is built on a purely nominal basis, yet in the 

 various dialects a wide variety of ideas are expressed with 

 surprising- perfection. In all the Algouquian dialects verbal 

 roots combine with other verbal roots in a single word, giving 

 a peculiar and forcible expression to the verbal form. The 

 compounding of words is further extended by numerous adject- 

 ival suffixes descriptive of qualitv, these suffixes indicating 

 whether the noun qualified by such an adjective is an animate 

 or inanimate subject, and showing whether complexion, size, 

 age, or other qualities are to be determined. This method of 

 adjectival suffixes extends also to the numerals, and in some 

 dialects there are special suffixes to qualify numeral cardinals as 

 determining animate or inanimate objects in the plural. Dr 

 Oatschet's recent studies have brought out the fact that the 

 Algouquian languag-es of the western group (Arapaho, Chey- 

 enne, and Siksika) differ considerably in their phonetics from 

 the eastern dialects, these difterences being especiallv shown 

 in the nasalization found among the western representatives of 

 the stock. 



Mr J. Owen Dorsev spent the earlier part of the year in 

 office work on the Biloxi language, completing its systematic 

 arrangement for preservation and reference. He also revised 

 the proofs of Contributions to North American p]thnology, 

 volume IX (Riggs' "Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnogra- 

 phy"), as well as his own memoir, entitled "A Study of Siouan 

 Cults," in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau. Both 

 of these documents have now been published. The month of 

 Januarv was spent on the Kwapa reservation in Indian Terri- 

 tory in investigating the social organization of the tribes and 



