482 THE ODAHWAH INDIAN LANGUAGE. 



With respect to the parts of speech, although I am without a guide 

 on the subject, I may venture to say that the Indians have the sub- 

 stantive, the adjective, the verb, the adverb, the pronoun, the conjunc- 

 tion, the interjection, and a sort of a preposition ; but they have no 

 article either definite or indefinite. The genders are two, namely, the 

 common and neuter. In Indian, nouns seem to be divided into two 

 classes, viz., nouns without life, if I may be allowed to use the expres- 

 sion, and nouns possessing life. The latter class includes many sub- 

 stances without life, which are nevertheless spoken of as if they 

 possessed life. The former does not contain one single noun possessing 

 life. It is the custom among the Indians to speak of every species of 

 animated nature precisely in the same terms, no matter how small 

 soever the living object may be, — from the largest of quadrupeds to 

 the most insignificant worm or insect, every class of animals may be 

 placed Under the heading of common gender, or living nouns. Sub- 

 stances which appear to be capable of motion, growth, or of producing, 

 are generally of the common gender, such as the sun, the moon, the 

 stars, trees, fruit trees and other kinds of vegetables ; but those which 

 are without motion or growth, such as land, soil, a stone, a rock, an 

 island, belong commonly speaking to the neuter. Though a tree be- 

 longs to the common gender as we have seen above, yet the different 

 parts of it, viz., the branches, bark, roots, leaves, are of the neuter 

 gender. On the other hand some common nouns may be divided and 

 actually taken into parts without any change of the kind; for instance^ 

 a corn stock is common, though the ear may be removed from it, and 

 the grain from the ear, yet all these parts would be of the same gender 

 as the whole. I state these particulars in order to give you an idea 

 of the peculiarities of the Indian language. 



The plural number is generally formed by adding g or ug to animate 

 nouns, and un to those inanimate ; thus, ahmoo, a bee, ahmoog, bees ; 

 ahnine, a man, ahninewug, men ; minis, an island, minisun, islands. 

 Some few vowel endings only take g for the animate, and n for the 

 inanimate. There are of course many exceptions. 



Taking it for granted that a few specimens of modern compounds 

 will be acceptable, I submit the following, viz., Ahshkoda-naube- 

 gwun, a steamboat, from Ahshkoda, a fire, and Naubegwun, a ship ; 

 Piwahbikomekun, a railroad, from Piwahbik, iron, and mekun, a road; 

 Tibahkonigawenine, a lawyer, from Tibahkoniga, he gives law, and 

 ahnine, a man ; Tibahahkiwenine, a land surveyor, from Tibahiga, he 



