I. LECTURES o\ Tin: CHIPPEWA SUBSTANTIVE, 



LECTURE I. 



libit- : ic Ojibtrni Substantive. 1. The provision of the language for indica- 



Httg ftndt T ftl i^'nrral and comprehensive character — The division of words into an- 

 imate and inanimate classes. '2. .Yumber — its recondite forms, arising from the ter- 

 minal vmc el in the icon/. 3. Tlve grammatical forms tchich indicate possession, and 

 enable the speaker to distinpiish the objective person. 



Most of the researches which have been directed to the Indian lan- 

 guages, have resulted in elucidating the principles governing the use of 

 th<' verhj which has been proved to be full and varied in its inflections. 

 Either, teas attention has been paid to the other parts of speech, or re- 

 suits less suited to create high expectations of their flexibility and power*) 

 have bean attained. The Indian verb has thus been made to standout, 



as it were in bold relief as a shield to defects in the substantive and its 

 a, and as. in fact, compensating] by its multiform appendant-, 

 of prefix and suffix — by its ^onsaJ, its pronominal, its substantive, its ad- 

 jective, ;uid its adverbial terminations j for barrenness and rigidity in all 

 other parts of speech* Influenced by this reflection, I shall defer, in the 

 nt inquiry, the remarks I intend offering on the verb, until I have 

 considered the substantive, and its more important adjuncts. 



Palpable objects, to which the idea of sense strongly attaches, and the 

 actions or condition, which determine the relation of one object to ano- 

 ther, are perhaps, the first jxjints to demand attention in the invention of 

 languagi s. And they have certainly imprinted themselves very strongly, 

 with all their materiality, and with all their local, and exclusive, and 

 personal peculiarities Upon the Indian. The OOUn and the verb not only 



thus constitute the principal elements of speech, as iii all languages; but 



they pontioue to perform their first Offices, with less direct aid from the 



auxiliary parti u than would ap|>e;ir to be leecncileable with a 



clear expression of th»- eircnmstanoi i of time and place, number and 



ion, quality and quantity, action and repose, and the other aee.dents, 



on which their definite employment depends. But to enable the sub- 



