202 APPENDIX. 



The word nitta, on the contrary, prefixed to these expressions, renders 

 them complimentary. For instance, nitta naigumood, is a fine singer, 

 nitta kagidood, a ready speaker, &c. 



Flexible as the substantive has been shown to be, there are other 

 forms of combination that have not been adverted to — forms, by which 

 it is made to coalesce with the verb, the adjective, and the preposition, 

 producing a numerous class of compound expressions. But it is deem- 

 ed most proper to defer the discussion of these forms to their several 

 appropriate heads. 



Enough has been exhibited to demonstrate its prominent grammatical 

 rules. It is not only apparent that the substantive possesses number, 

 and gender, but it also undergoes peculiar modifications to express lo- 

 cality and diminution, to denote adjective qualities and to indicate tense. 

 It exhibits some curious traits connected with the mode of denoting the 

 masculine and feminine. It is modified to express person and to distin- 

 guish living from inanimate masses. It is rendered possessive by a pe- 

 culiar inflection, and provides particles, under the shape either of prefixes 

 or suffixes, separable or inseparable, by which the actor is distinguished 

 from the object — and all this, without changing its proper substantive 

 character, without putting on the aspect of a pseudo adjective, or a 

 pseudo verb. Its changes to produce compounds, are, however, its most 

 interesting, its most characteristic trait. Syllable is heaped upon sylla- 

 ble, word upon word, and derivative upon derivative, until its vocabulary 

 is crowded with long and pompous phrases, most formidable to the eye. 



So completely transpositive do the words appear, that like chessmen 

 on a board, their elementary syllables can be changed at the will of the 

 player, to form new combinations to meet new contingencies, so long as 

 they are changed in accordance with certain general principles and con- 

 ventional rules ; in the application of which, however, much depends 

 upon the will or the skill of the player. What is most surprising — all 

 these changes and combinations, all these qualifications of the object, 

 and distinctions of the person, the time, and the place, do not supersede 

 the use of adjectives, and pronouns, and verbs, and other parts of speech 

 woven into the texture of the noun, in their elementary and disjunctive 

 forms. 



