1 70 APPENDIX. 



dered questionable. This want of precision, which would seem to btf 

 fraught with so much confusion, appears to be obviated in practice, by 

 the employment of adjectives, by numerical inflections in the relative 

 words of the sentence, by the use of the indefinite article, paizhik, or by 

 demonstrative pronouns. Thus, paizhik mukwun ogi wabumdw, con- 

 veys with certainty the information — he saw a bear. But in this sen- 

 tence both the noun and the verb retain the objective inflections, as in 

 the former instances. These inflections are not uniformly un, but some- 

 times een, as in ogeen, his mother, and sometimes on, as in odakeek-6n, 

 his kettle, in all which instances, however, the number is left indetermi- 

 nate. It may hence be observed, and it is a remark which we shall 

 presently have occasion to corroborate, that the plural inflection to inan- 

 imate nouns, (which have no objective form,) forms the objective inflec- 

 tion to animate nouns, which have no number in the third person. 



3. This leads us to the consideration of the mode of forming posses- 

 sives, the existence of which, when it shall have been indicated by full 

 examples, will present to the mind of the inquirer, one of those tautolo- 

 gies in gramatical forms, which, without imparting additional precision, 

 serve to clothe the language with accumulated verbiage. The strong 

 tendency to combination and amalgamation, existing in the language, 

 renders it difficult, in fact to discuss the principles of it, in that elemen- 

 tary form which, could be wished. In the analysis of words and 

 forms we are constantly led from the central point of discussion. To 

 recur, however, from these collateral unravelings, to the main thread of 

 inquiry, at as short and frequent intervals as possible, and thus to pre- 

 serve the chain of conclusions and proofs, is so important that without 

 keeping the object distinctly in view, I should despair of conveying any 

 clear impressions of those grammatical features, which impart to the 

 language its peculiar character. 



It has been remarked that the distinctions of number, are founded up- 

 on a modification of the five vowel sounds. Possessives are likewise 

 founded upon the basis of the vowel sounds. There are five declensions 

 of the noun to mark the possessive, ending in the possessive in am, eem, 

 im, 6m, um, oom. Where the nominative ends with a vowel, the pos- 

 sessive is made by adding the letter m, as in maimai, a woodcock, ni 

 maimaim, my woodcock, &c. Where the nominative ends in a conso- 

 nant, as in ais, a shell, the full possessive inflection is required, making 

 nin dais-im, my shell. In the latter form the consonant d, is interposed 

 between the pronoun and noun, and sounded with the noun, in conformity 

 with a general rule. Where the nominative ends in the broad, in lieu 



