April 17, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



219 



hortative mode, which, as has been said, possesses no distinctive 

 mode-sign. 



These several examples of the compounding of the stem hrokua 

 with different verbs furnish conclusive evidence that it is a noun- 

 stem, and that it is never used as a verb: hence it cannot, of course, 

 have an " indeterminate verbal" form yehrokua', although Mr. Hale 

 has been misled to believe it can have. 



In the writer's article tirst above mentioned the conjectured 

 "indeterminate verbal" form yehrokua' (Mr. Hale's ierokwa) was 

 rendered "one smokes by which" by the writer, instead of the 

 words "they who smoke," suggested by Mr. Hale. 



Evidently overlooking the reasons for the correction, he says, 

 "The indeterminate form, however, is constantly used with a 

 plural signification." The writer's correction, however, was in- 

 tended primarily to show that if yehrokua' were a verb, ending as 

 it does in kua', which with verbs is the instrumental sign, it would 

 have an instrumental or causative meaning in addition to its 

 assumed predicative meaning, ' ' one smokes ; " second, to empha- 

 size the important fact that ye, its pronominal prefix, has not a 

 relative meaning, expressed by " who" in Mr. Hale's rendering, 

 for it is certain that in this language there is no pronominal pre- 

 fix which has in itself both a nominative and a relative meaning, 

 and also to show the writer's preference for rendering a singular 

 pronoun by an equivalent of a like number Furthermore, the 

 correction was intended to bring to view the all-important fact 

 that since a sentence-word in the instrumental or causative mode ' 

 predicates the means or instrument of an action or a state or con- 

 dition of being, it may become the descriptive name of that means 

 or instrument, and, lastly, it may become a generic noun through 

 further development; and that it may not become a name of the 

 same thing or things of which its nominative prefix pronoun is 

 also a name, as implied in Mr. Hale's faulty translation and un- 

 founded etymology of this conjectured verbal form. These are 

 among the chief reasons why the writer objected to the deriva- 

 tion of the word " Iroquois " from the supposed verbal form ye- 

 hrolnia'. 



Only a misconception of the grammatic and morphologic struc- 

 ture of the Iroquoian tongue could be the basis of the errors and 

 linguistic fallacies to which Mr. Hale has given utterance in the 

 following language. He says, " The manner in which Iroquois 

 verbs are formed from nouns, and in turn yield nouns expressive 

 of agency or condition, will be apparent in the inflections of the 

 word Jcanonsionni, the well-known name of the Iroquois confed- 

 eracy. It means literally 'the extended house,' from kanonsa 

 ('house') and ionni ('to extend' or 'lengthen out'). Replacing 

 the noun-forming prefix ka by the verb-forming prefixes, we have, 

 in the third person, singular and plural, ranonsionni and rotinonsi- 

 onni, literally 'he [who] extends the house,' and 'they [who] ex- 

 tend the house,' but understood to mean ' he is an Iroquois,' 

 'they are Iroquois;' or, as nouns, simply 'an Iroquois,' 'the 

 [plural] Iroquois.' " This is a series of erroneous statements. 



Now, a " noun-forming prefix " and " vero-forming prefixes'' 

 are unknown to this language. Mr. Hale's ascription of such a 

 novel office to the prefix pronouns of this language is therefore 

 pure fancy. 



The very prefix ka, which he calls a "noun-forming prefix," 

 has no such function, as it is a prefix pronoun ; and the sole ofiBce 

 performed by the prefix pronouns of this language is to express, 

 more or less clearly, person, number, case, and, in third persons, 

 gender and generally sex. 



The pronoun ka cited above is used indifferently with verb- 

 stems, adjective-stems, or with noun-stems; and yet it does not 

 transform the verb-stems and the adjective-stems into noun-stems, 

 which it would most assuredly do had it a "noun-forming" 

 function. It is a pronominal afBx to the following and other 

 verbs, — kanoflhwe's, "it loves, cherishes, [it];" kahnino^s, "it 

 buys [it];" kahraraks, "it bores [it];" kake'^, "it sees [it];" 

 karytis, "it kills [it];" kariks, "it bites [it]," — and yet these 

 verb-stems do not become noun-stems. This fact is conclusive 

 evidence that the prefix pronoun ka has not a " noun-forming " 

 office. 



Moreover, as Mr. Hale substitutes the masculine prefix pronouns 

 ra and rati (the latter erroneously for 7-ati) for the prefix ka, they 



must be, therefore, two of the "verb-forming prefixes" men- 

 tioned by him. But with what has been said concerning the 

 prefix pronoun ka, and the general purpose of the pronouns, it is 

 only needful to add here that the pronouns ra, rati, and rati, 

 mentioned above, are used indifferently with noun-stems, adjec- 

 tive-stems, and verb-stems; and yet the nominal and the ad- 

 jective-stems do not become verb-stems, as they would if the pre- 

 fixes ?'a, rati, and roti possessed " verb-forming " powers. The 

 following examples confirm what has just been said, — roti'- 

 niko^ra, "their [masculine] mind;" rnorihwa', "his matter, 

 business;'" rotirihwa', " their [masculine] matter, business:" and 

 the following with adjectives, — vaJioWtci, "he [is] black;" rati- 

 hon'tci, "they [are] black;" ranaye, " he [is] proud;" icitinaye, 

 "they [masculine] are proud;" r&kowanefl, "he [is] large; " rati- 

 kotDaneil, "they [are] large." 



These facts make it clear that Mr. Hale is wholly mistaken as 

 to the natiu'e and office of the prefix pronouns in this language. 



Again, judging by his translations, it is evident that he employs 

 the letters ionni to express two very distinct forms of the verb- 

 stem yoil'iii, — the present of the indicative, and the perfect tense 

 participle, — a distinction of which he appears to be unaware. 

 The stem of the present may be accurately lettered thus, yoUni; 

 and that of the participial form thus, yoiliii'. In both, the final 

 vowel i is short, but in the latter case followed by the peculiar 

 and important sound represented by ■' ' " (an apostrophe). 



Mr. Hale's rendering of his ranonsionni and rotinoiuionni by 

 "he [who] extends the house" and "they [who] extend the 

 house," respectively, shows that he was unaware of the fact that 

 the two prefixed pronouns were peculiar to different tenses, 

 and that consequently they could not be rendered in the same 

 tense, else he would have indicated this fact in his orthography 

 and translations of the two forms cited ; and his interpolation of 

 the relative " who" in these translations is gratuitous and fanci- 

 ful, for reasons already stated elsewhere in this article. 



In Mr. Hale's orthography, the letters nonsionni express the 

 compound stem of the sentence-word kanoasionni. The writer 

 will represent this stem with the following letters diacritically 

 marked; thus, no'"syoflm for the present of the indicative, and 

 no^syonnV for the perfect tense participle of the same mode. 



The forms rano'^syoTini and ralino^syofmi may be respectively 

 rendered, "he extends, is extending, the house," and "they 

 [masculine] extend, are extending, the house;" but rono^syoilnt 

 and rotino^syoTini, by "it or he extends, is extending, his house," 

 and "it extends, is extending, their [masculine] house." These 

 forms are in the present indicative, but the change of signification 

 wrought by the change of the forms of the prefixed pronouns 

 is noteworthy. The forms rano^syomil' and ratirio" syoflm may be 

 respectively rendered " he-house-extended- [is] " and " they [mas- 

 culine]-house-extended-[are]," and freely, "he is, they are, an 

 extended-house; " rono" syaflnl' smd rotino^syonni' , by "his-house- 

 extended-[is] " and " their [masculine] -house extended-[is]," i.e., 

 " his, their, house is extended." The last four sentential forms 

 are participial, the substantive verb being commonly understood 

 in the present tense of the discourse. 



The participial sentential forms are expressive of a state or 

 condition of being, and for this reason only can they convey the 

 " idea" of " a man of the extended-house." For this reason it is 

 imperative to distinguish carefully between these and the verbal 

 sentential forms of the present of the indicative. 



In addition to the foregoing corrections of Mr. Hale's errors as 

 to the first principles of the language, it is necessary to add that the 

 participial forms may be translated correctly only by the sentences 

 "He is an Iroquois" and "They [masculine] are Iroquois," and 

 not by the titular and cognominal words " an Iroquois "or " the 

 Iroquois." Sentences are translated with complete and formal 

 accuracy only by sentences. Each of the mooted verbal combi- 

 nations forms a sentence, — a combination of parts of speech 

 making together complete sense. 



Mr. Hale's assertion, as explained by himself, that ' ' the man- 

 ner in which Iroquois verbs are formed from nouns, and In turn 

 yield nouns expressive of agency or condition, will be apparent in 

 the inflections of the word kanonuonni," is therefore at variance 

 with the structural laws of the language. 



