Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/190

 gatschet] • *REAL % " '• TR UE? OR 4 ' GENUINE " 1 6 1

Franz Boas, who has made a special study of the coast dia- lects. According to these, the Selish dialect of the Nlakyapamu^, in British Columbia, expresses the idea of real or genuine by the suffix -o n e, and the Kwakiutl of British Columbia by -kyas. These terms show no affinity, however, with the word for " man " or " Indian " in the dialects to which they belong,

Chimtnesyan. — Of this language, the Nis^a dialect has sim for " real," " true," and " really," ** truly." Examples of its use are sitngig at, " real men," i. e., the nobility ; shnhala-it, " real shaman or conjurer " ; sim htzuk, " early morning " ; stm-g y a'-a f 44 to look thoroughly." The prefix aid-, when followed by a word in the reduplicated form, means " alone," " by oneself," 44 by itself " ; thus, alogig'dt, " Indian," is literally 4< alone man."

Investigation of the languages of Mexico, Central America, and South America has yielded but few terms that can safely be regarded as parallels with the above.

Perhaps the most interesting result to be derived from what has been recorded is the close affinity between the terms for 44 genuine" and those for " man." There can be hardly any doubt that " man " or 4t male " is the primary word or concept, for concrete nouns always precede terms which express abstract ideas ; therefore, the idea of " man," 44 human being," individu- alized to 44 man of our own tribe," must have been the prototype of the terms for * 4 real " or 4t genuine."

The subject-matter of this paper gives rise to many similar problems to be solved by the comparison of terms of subtle meaning in various languages. Among these occur the questions why European languages are so fertile in augmentative forms, while native American dialects are so deficient in them ; why inseparable generic nouns are much more frequent in American than in Aryan compounds ; and why certain classifiers, figuring especially as suffixes to adjectives, occur so frequently, especially in the numerals, in the languages of the western continent.

AM. ANTH., N. S., 1 — XX

�� �