156 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



t as in English and emphatic ; z as in English and 

 aspirate. 



All syllables are enunciated plainly and fully, but 

 accentuation often determines the meaning of a word. 

 There are three numbers : singular, dual, and plural ; 

 the dual including the person speaking and the person 

 spoken to. The proper names of the Dakotahs are 

 words, simple and compounded, which are in common 

 use in the language. The son of a chief when he suc- 

 ceeds his father usually takes the name of his father or 

 grandfather. As with the Ojibways and Swampy s, their 

 proper names consist of a single noun or a noun and 

 adjective. The Ojibways have, however, distinct family or 

 "totem " names which they employ when speaking of their 

 ancestors ; as I am of the family of the Bear, the Eagle, 

 the Thunder-cloud, &c. The Dakotahs have no surnames, 

 the children of a family have particular names which be- 

 long to them in the order of their birth up to the fifth 

 child. In counting they use their fingers, bending them 

 as they enumerate until they reach ten. They then bend 

 down a little finger to record one ten and begin again ; 

 when the second ten is counted they put down a second 

 finger, and so on. 



Dakotah verbs have only two forms of tense, the inde- 

 finite and the future ; the other tenses are expressed by 

 the help of adverbs, and the context. Words in a sen- 

 tence are thus placed, first the noun, second the adjective, 

 third the verb, thus: — 



Ateunyanpi mahpiya ekta nanke chin 

 Father- we-have heaven in thou-art the ; 

 Nichaze kin wakandapi kte ; 

 Thy-name the holy-regarded shall ; 

 Nitokichonze kin u kte ; 

 Thy -kingdom the come shall.* 



* See a Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakotah Language, published by 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



