252 EEPOKT— ] 888. 



he is very tired . tigga istdstca 



he is not tired to istastca 



are you not tired ? to stanistcaki lah? 



where have you been ? astakotoi disiya ? 



what is your name ? tatanisiita ? 



I don't know miitsikonishra 



I don't understand t6 nidistcl 



do you understand ni ditcaki lah ? 



I have none nitowd,. 



Notes on the Language, 



It will be noted in the above vocabulary — 



1. That the first, second, and third persons of the personal prononii 

 appear to be sinna, ninna, iniila ; when used as possessives with a noun 

 si ... , ni . . . , ma ■ ■ .; and when governing a verb {e.g., to smoke, see 

 vocab.), si . . . , ni . . . . , i. . . . It appears, however, from the various 

 verbs given in the vocabulary, that (if correctly obtained) there must be 

 a great variation in the mode of forming the persons ; and this, I expect, 

 is due to their belonging to distinct paradigms. 



2. The negative appears to be to prefixed to the verb. The Blackfeet 

 Indiana prefix mat to the verb, and follow it by ats. Ojibways prefix 

 kawin, and end the verb with si. The Sioux simply use sJini after the 

 verb. Crees prefix ncimd. 



3. The interrogative particle appears to be Jcilah, or lah after the 

 verb. Blackfeet express this by kiif before the verb and pa after it. 

 Ojibways by 7id, Crees by tci, Sioux by lie — all after the verb. 



4. The numerals in this language are rather puzzling. There appears 

 to be a double set. Kositd was given me as 5 ; yet 15 was iviltauniitan; 

 and 50 took again the first form, kositiite. So with 16 : kostrani is 6 ; 

 wistaiimitaii, 16 ; kostrate, 60. I notice also that the word for 6 seems to 

 be an extension of the word for 3, and the word for 8 an extension of the 

 word for 4. 10 seems to stand alone, the endings for the ' teens ' 

 being mitan, which seems to have nothing to do with hunisnan. It 

 seems curious also that the ' teen-ending ' should be continued through 

 the ' ties ' ; twenty-one would seem to be expressed in Sarcee as 10-f-ll ; 

 but this is merely a surmise of mine, and if I knew more of the language 

 I could probably explain these seeming irregularities. I may mention 

 here, in connection with this, that the Ojibways count 1 to 5 with distinct 

 words, then seem to begin 1, 2 again with the ending ivaswi from 6 to 10. 

 Ojibways and Crees have almost the same words for the numbers 1 to 6, 

 entirely different words for 7, 8, 9, and are nearly the same again for 10 

 and 20. 



6. The plural of the noun appears to be ika or a. There does not 

 appear to be any distinction made in the plural endings between animate 

 and inanimate objects. 



6. There does not appear to be any distinction made in the first 

 person plural of the verb between ' we exclusive of the party addressed ' 

 and ' we inclusive.' In these two points (5 and 6) there is a decided 

 divergence from languages of the Algonkin stock, and a leaning towards 

 the Siouan. 



7. Itfra, ninna, it seems, mean — the first, ' father,' or ' my father,' the 

 second 'mother,' or ' my mother,' the possessive pronoun not being used 

 in the first person for nouns of near relationship. This agrees with the 

 Sioux. 



