68 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. 
In the Choctaw, Mr. Byington (Grammar, p. 36) gives some of these forms for the 
verb takchi, “to tie”: ta*kchi, “to be tying”; tatyAkchi, “to tie firmly”; taHa"kchi, ‘to 
keep tying”; taHkchi, “ to tie instantly ” or suddenly ; takcutchi” to cause to tie,” ete. 
In oni of the Algonkin languages there is a special form of the verb for denoting 
a pretense of doing or being, “feigning to do.” In the Cree, this form has the char- 
acteristic -kds; from nipp/ow, “he sleeps,” comes nippaka’soo, ‘he pretends to sleep”; 
muskowissu, “he is strong,” muskowisseK A‘Soo, ‘ he pretends to be strong,” &c. (Howse’s 
Cree Grammar, pp. 20, 84.) 
What I have called generic formatives have been regarded by some writers on the 
American languages, especially by Mr. Schoolcraft, as “ primitive nouns never disjunc- 
tively used.” All, however, which are found in the Algonkin languages may be shown 
to belong to one of two classes: verbals and participials regularly formed from primary 
verbs—some of which still retain their independent places in the language—and inflec- 
tions, with a characteristic particle prefixed to each. They may be described, generally, 
as terminations which denote the class or kind to which the object designated by the 
synthesis belongs. Examples of these formatives may be observed in many geograph- 
ical and local names. In the parts of the country where Algonkin dialects were spoken, 
-paug or -pag final (or followed by the locative sign, -wt, -it, -ing) denotes “ water at rest,” 
“standing water,” and is the substantival component of many names of lakes and 
ponds; -hanne or -han, “flowing,” distinguishes a “rapid stream” or “current”; -tuk 
(Abnaki, -tegmé ; Delaware, -ittuk), “driven in waves,” from a root signifying ‘to strike,” 
is found in names of tidal rivers and estuaries and of broad, deep streams; -ompsk, con- 
tracted to -psk or -msk (Abnaki, -peskoo; Cree, -pisk ; Chippeway, -bik), denotes ‘“‘ hard 
or flint-like rock.” * 
-Minne, or its contraction -min, is the generic affix of names of berries, nuts, and 
other fruits which may be eaten. It is never used independently, though a nearly- 
related word, meen, pl. meenun, is found in the Chippeway and some other dialects 
specially appropriated to a single species (the blueberry), and in the Cree the diminu- 
tives menis and menissis are used for “berry” generally. The cranberry was called by 
the Narragansetts, sasé-min, “very sour berry”; by the Chippeways, muskegé-min, 
‘‘swamp-berry”; the strawberry is (Chip.) odéi-min, “heart-berry”; Indian corn, in 
Massachusetts, ewdchi-min or weatchi-min, but among the western Algonkins, monda- 
min, “manito” (#. e., supernatural or wonderful) “ fruit.” 
-Pin denotes an esculent tuber or tuberous root; as in (Chip.) o-pin, “potato”; 
witi-pin, “wild potato”; muskode-pin, “prairie-root”; warwbeze-pin, “‘ swan-root” (a 
species of Sagittaria), ete. 
-Asq in the Massachusetts and Narragansett dialects was the generic formative of 
the names of fruits which might be eaten “raw” or when “ green,” particularly melons 
and edible gourds. In the plural, -asqg makes -asquash—whence our name “squash” 
for several varieties of Cucurbitace.t 
*Since the above was written a more extended notice of this class of generic formatives has been 
given in a paper, ‘‘On the composition of Indian geographical names,” printed in the second volume of 
the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. 
+ The primary meaning of asq or ask seems to have been ‘‘ before-time,” “immature,” ‘ unfinished,” 
or the like. As an adverbial prefix to verbs it denotes that the action is not yet performed. Hence, aski- 
and ask-un, ‘‘it is raw,” i. ¢., not yet prepared to be eaten; or “‘it is green,” 7. ¢.,not yet matured. 
Eskimo is the Algonkin name of one who “eats fish or flesh raw”; Abnaki, ’ski-moo-hoo ; Mass., aski- 
