130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN' INSTITUTE. 



Rakienha, my father, comes from the verb wakien, (root, ien), "to 

 have," in what is styled the " diminutive form," which is indicated by 

 the suffix ha. Rakienha means, strictly, " he who has me little." 



Wakienha, my mother, is the feminine of the verb, and means " she 

 who has me little." The same verbal root supplies the word for son. 

 Rienha, my son, means " I have him little." 



In the Algonkin, Mr. Trumbull tells us, one of the words for man 

 has for its root aph, or (nasalized) onb^, which signifies an animal that 

 walks upright, or, more exactly, the one uplifted, from a root o;j or 

 07)12), which forms verbs signifying to raise, lift, rise, ascend, and the 

 like. Another is from the demonstrative in, this, which is cognate 

 with nin or 7ii, I; a man is "such as I," or " such as this one." Dr. 

 Brinton, in his recent work. " The Lenape and their Legend.*," has 

 shown how this demonstrative or pronominal root, m, or ni, is 

 developed into an e.Ktraordinavy number of derivatives, abundantly 

 confirming Mr. Trumbull's views. Another root gisch or kich (where 

 the ch is the German guttural), which embraces the general concept of 

 "successful action," — an idea as purely ahstract as can well be ima- 

 gined, — flowers, according to this author, into an amazing multitude of 

 derivative terms, including gischigan, to begin life, to be born, gischi- 

 han, to form, to make with the hands, gischelemen, to create with the 

 mind, to fancy, gischihmamen. to increase, to produce fruit, giken, to 

 grow better in health, kikey, long lived, old, gischileu, " it is proved 

 true," gischuch, the sun, gischapan, daybreak, gichten, clear, bright, 

 shining — and so on, almost without end. 



Another careful and philosophical investigator, Professor Horsford, 

 in seeking the origin of the Indian name of Boston, " Shawmut," has 

 had occasion to determine the primary sense of its root, the mono- 

 syllable sha. He finds it to be " parallel-sided," and that this abstract 

 term must have existed in the language earlier than the concrete nouns 

 which have been formed from it, such as misJlAoh^ the trunk of a tree, 

 miSRAonk, the trunk of the human body, misuAonh. the throat, SHA- 

 meek, eel. and the like. Uni is a noun-making particle, and ut is a 

 locative suflQx, signifiying "at" or "near." Thus SttAum was the 

 parallel-sided strip of land, the well-known " Neck," which connects the 

 peninsula of Boston with the mainland ; and SuAiorimt, " At (or near) 

 I he Neck," became the name of the peninsula itself 



