64 
VOCABULARIES OF NORTH AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 
CHOCTAW.— Continued. 
III. Choctaw. 
III. Choctaw. 
Ten. 
po-ko-li 
Eat. 
im'-pa 
Eleven .. 
au-ah-chu-fa 
Drink. 
ish'-ko 
Twelve. 
au-ah-tuk-lo 
Run. 
ma-le-li 
Thirteen . 
au-ah-tu-chi-na 
Dance. 
hi'-hla 
Twenty. 
po-ko'-li tuk-lo 
Go. 
i'-a 
TAventy-nne. 
po-ko-li tuk-lo a-ku-cha a- 
Come. 
min-ti (to start off), u-la 
chu-fa 
(to arrive) 
Twenty-two. 
po-ko'-li tuk-lo a-ku-cha 
Sit. 
bi-ni-1 i 
tuk-lo 
Stand. 
hi-ki-a 
Thirty. 
po-ko'-li tu-chi-na 
I Sing. 
ta-li-a 
Forty. 
po-ko'-li ush-ta 
Sleep. 
nu-si 
Fifty. 
po-ko'-li ta-hla'-pi 
Speak . 
a num-pu'-li 
Sixty. 
po-ko'-li lia-na-li 
See. 
pi'-sa 
Hundred . 
ta-hle'-pa 
Love. 
ho li-tob-li 
Thousand. 
ta-hle'-pa si-pok-ni (hun- 
Kill. 
u'-bi 
dred old) 
Walk. 
no'-wa 
Remarks. 
Choctaw (Missionary spelling, Chdh-ta). —This vocabulary is drawn up by the Rev. Cyrus 
Byington, who has resided over forty years as a missionary among this people. He has written 
the only grammar that exists of the language ; and this, together with a dictionary, he is now 
engaged in preparing for publication. 
The vocabulary is essentially the same as that derived by Mr. Gallatin from the Rev. A. 
Wright’s Spelling-Book. The orthography, however, which is the excellent one of the late 
Mr. Pickering, is more correct and uniform, and the analysis of compound terms is both inter¬ 
esting and instructive. The terms “ sons of the hand” for fingers , “tree-hair” for leaves, 
“water-road” for river, “ night-travelling sun” for moon , by showing the manner in which 
these familiar objects are regarded, so different from our conceptions, and so poetically original, 
make us better acquainted with the native mind, by affording some glimpses of its operations. 
From the expressions “cane-bullet” for arrow , and “wooden gun” for boiv, it would appear 
that these primitive implements have been so long out of use in the tribe that their original 
names have been forgotten. These analyses show us, moreover, something of the grammatical 
structure of the language : they show us that the members of a compound term bear the same 
relative position to each other that they do in English, as iti-Mshi, tree-hair; that if two vowels 
concur, the first is elided, as iyushi, toes, from iyi, foot, and uslii, son; that possessive pronouns 
are placed, as in English, before the noun to which they belong, as i-kana, his friend; and that 
adjectives, on the contrary, are placed after their nouns, as kofi chito, partridge (lit. big quail). 
This analysis of compound terms is so absolutely necessary to an intelligent comparison of 
vocabularies, that when Ave are ignorant of the elementary terms which enter into the composi¬ 
tion of words, we feel that, in attempting such comparisons, we are constantly treading on 
uncertain ground. The reason is, that cognate tribes, whose languages are radically the same, 
Avil 1 not unfrequently invent totally different sets of expressions for the same objects, in conse¬ 
quence of regarding them from different points of vieAV, and thus greatly obscure the connexion 
of the languages to the observer who looks upon each word as an undivided Avhole. 
