2l8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 428 



several parts of speech for real or fictitious flexions, and will pre- 

 vent him from dividing sentence-words and derivative words in a 

 capricious and erratic fashion, to give plausibility to etymologies 

 and methods of verbal analysis based on a fatuous misconception 

 of the structure of the language. 



Moreover, the discriminating student, in pursuing his researches, 

 will soon find that there is no published work on Iroquoian ety- 

 mology and grammatic usage sufficiently elementary and accurate 

 to be considered decisive authority in such matters ; and whoever 

 relies mainly or exclusively on published materials for his data 

 and proofs should not be surjirised to learn that his work is not 

 scientific and not trustworthy, and that he labors without profit 

 and without the attainment of truth. 



Before beginning his analysis of denighroghkwaieii, Mr. Hale 

 changes its spelling to tenirokwaienn, in an attempt, as afterwards 

 appears, to give validity to his fanciful derivation of it. 



Mr. Hale puts forth this analysis in the following language : 

 "teni, 'we two' (thou and I); rokwa, the 'theme' of the noun 

 garokwa or karokwa ('pipe'j; i, a vowel inserted for euphony; 

 and e?i (or enn), the terminal inflection of the present imperative, 

 in the second conjugation." 



This alleged derivation is erroneous, and clearly at variance with 

 all the structural and grammatic principles of the language. 



For orthoepic i-easons, the writer will employ, in the i^resent 

 analysis, the orthography tenihrohuayeil instead of the spelling 

 adopted by Mr. Hale. 



The true etymology of tenihrokuayeil is as follows : te (meaning 

 "two") qualifies the noun-stem; ni (denoting "thou and I") is 

 the pronominal prefix of the inclusive dual first person; lirokua 

 (denoting "pipe," and "a portion of tobacco") is the noun-stem; 

 yen, 'Mr. Hale's ienn (signifying "to place," "put," or "lay 

 down"), is the verb-stem, being in the exhortative mode, which 

 in this language has no mode-sign, notwithstanding Mr. Hale's 

 unfounded assertion to the contrary. Hence etymologically this 

 sentence-word means, "Let thee and me lay [our] two pipes 

 down," and figuratively, "Let thee and me smoke." It is thus 

 evident that tenihrokuayeil (for denighroghkivaien) is not an in- 

 stance of the noun-stem hrokua used as a verb. 



Thus it is seen that Mr. Hale en's, first, in making the dual 

 numerative te a part of the pronominal prefix ; second, in virtually 

 begging the question by miscalling the noun-stem hrokua a 

 "theme," to give some plausibility to his erroneous assumption 

 that it can have, as required, either a nominal or a verbal oflice, 

 better to accord with his illusive treatment of it in his supposed 

 etymology; third, by mistaking a common verb for an "inflec- 

 tion " unknown to the language, by his division of the well-kno^vn 

 verb ienn {yen in the writer's lettering) into a vowel i for euphony, 

 and his supposed mode-sign, enn. 



In Iroquoian grammar the fact that a certain stem is combined 

 with verb-stems to form compound or sentential words, is conclu- 

 sive evidence that such a stem belongs to the class of generic or 

 abstract nouns which cannot have a verbal function in addition to 

 their nominal office. 



A generic noun is one the stem of which may be compounded 

 with verb-stems and adjective-stems, and one that cannot be a 

 verb. When not in combination, i.e., when standing alone, its 

 stem must have a prefixed pronominal gender-sign, and com- 

 monly a final vocalic sound which generally undergoes transmuta- 

 tion when the stem is compounded with other elements 



In the "Iroquois Book of Rites" (p. 130, Section 9) appears the 

 sentence-word tetyathrokuanekeH. There it is faultily printed as 

 written in the original manuscript, thus, — thadetyatroghkwane- 

 kenh, — and its common but metaphoric meaning, "Let thee and 

 me smoke together," is also given. The initial tha is evidently 

 the misspelled contracted form tho of the locative adverb eHho 

 (" there "), which is not a proclitic, and should not therefore be 

 treated as such. The etymologic elements of this sentential com- 

 pound are the following : te (meaning ' ' two ") qualifies the noun- 

 stem; ty (for ni by regressive assimilation) is the prefix pronoun 

 of the inclusive first person dual, meaning " thou and I; " at (for 

 a't, sometimes the sign of verbal reflection) has bete rather a 

 possessive force, denoting "our" or "our own," and qualifies the 

 noun-stem; hrokua (meaning "pipe," "a portion of tobacco") is 



the noun-stem; nekeil (signifying " to set or place, together or 

 side by side") is the verb-stem, being in the exhortative mode. 

 Therefore the compound means literally, "Let thee and me place 

 together our own two pipe[s]," and metaphorically, " Let thee and 

 me smoke together." 



The following examples confirmative of the abstract nominal 

 character of the stem hrokua are cited from the " Radices Ver- 

 borum Iroqueeorum " of Father Bruyas, as published by Dr. Shea. 

 These sentential compounds, although recorded for more than a 

 hundred and seventy-five years, show that when they were re-" 

 corded, hrokua was used strictly as the stem of a generic noun, and 

 in exact accordance with the genius of the language. The forms 

 in parenthesis are in the lettering of Father Bruyas ; and the others, 

 in the writer's orthography, are severally lettered to express their 

 orthoepy. The first of these citations is kahrokueMa'o'^ for kahro- 

 kuaeilta'o^ (garokwentaon), i.e., "One has finished smoking," but 

 literally, "One has ceased from [his] pipe or tobacco." Its ety- 

 mology is as follows : ka, " one " (a person) ; hroku- for hrokua, 

 "pipe" or "tobacco;" erltd', "to stop," "end," "cease from," 

 "finish;" and o", the sign of the perfect tense. This verb eflta' 

 is erroneously classed under " Accidents Verbaux," with the title 

 "Du Cbnsomptif," by Father Cuoq in his "Judgement Errone" 

 (p. 65). It is, however, a verb, and not a flexion. The next is 

 ronathrokuayentC^' {atrokivajenton), i.e., " They severally have 

 their own pipes or tobacco," but literally, "They severally have 

 laid down their own pipe[s] ortobacco." Its analysis is as follows : 

 ron (meaning " they") is the plural masculine third person of the 

 prefix pronoun of the anthropic gender; at (usually the sign of 

 verbal reflexion) is here the mark of possession, meaning " (their) 

 own;" hrokua (denoting "pipe" or "tobacco") is the noun-stem; 

 yen (signifying " to place " or "lay down ") is the verb-stem, which 

 in the perfect tense means "to have or possess;" to^ (denoting 

 " severally " or "individually") is the distributive flexion; "'" 

 (an apostrophe) is here the sign of the perfect tense, and repre- 

 sents a suddenly interrupted guttural sound. This peculiar sound, 

 although of the first importance and of essential and indispensable 

 use in Iroquoian etymology and phonology, has, with a single 

 exception apart from the present writer, been overlooked and dis- 

 regarded by the students past and present of the language of the 

 Iroquois. The Rev. Asher Wright, who, until his death in 1875, 

 was a missionary among the Senekas in the State of New York, 

 refers to this significant sound in his Senekan "Spelling-Book." 

 While speaking of the phonology of the language, he says, "This 

 letter {h, Hy never precedes a vowel ; following one, it should be 

 spoken by giving the vowel an explosive force, and breaking it off 

 suddenly, in such a manner as for the instant to stop the breath 

 entirely. . . . This sound is very abundant in Seneca, and, used 

 in conjunction with certain vother modifications, the mode and 

 tense of verbs, and various other circumstances, are denoted by it. 

 Often, also, it forms the chief distinction between words of very 

 dissimilar meaning. No one can read or write Seneca intelligibly 

 who does not pay the strictest attention to this character." . . . 

 These important remarks are equally pertinent to all the other 

 dialects of the Iroquoian tongue, including the Tcerokian dia- 

 lects. 



The third citation is ronathrokuakhaho'^' (atrokwaghahon), i.e., 

 " They severally are apart smoking," but literally, "They sev- 

 erally have their pipes apart." The pronominal and the nominal 

 parts being the same as those explained in the last example, it will 

 be needful here to speak only of the verb and its flexions. The 

 verb-stem is kha, and means "to separate," " divide," or "have 

 apart;" ^o" is here the distributive flexion, meaning " severally," 

 " individually; " " ' ", previously explained, is the sign of the per- 

 fect tense. The last citation from Bruyas is twathrokuanekeU 

 {twatrokwanneken), i.e., "Let you [plural] and me smoke to- 

 gether," and literally, "Let you [plural] and me place our own 

 pipes together." The following is the analysis of this compound : 

 tw- (signifying " ye and I ") is the inclusive plural first person of 

 the prefix pronoun ; at (commonly the sign of verbal reflexion) 

 means here " our," " our own ; " hrokua is the noun-stem, denot- 

 ing "pipe" and "a portion of tobacco;" neken (Cleaning " to set 

 or place together or side by side ") is the verb, being in the ex- 

 1 These letters should have an oblique line through them. 



