Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/203

 SECT. VI.] INDIAN LANGUAGES. 167 accept none." In our Seneca vocabulary, as well as in another printed in London, a word is given for the pronoun it, distinct from those for he or she. And Father Brebeuf, in the letter already alluded to, amongst the most remarkable features of the Huron verbs, says, " that they have some for animated beings, and others for things without life." * In the Cherokee language, Mr. Pickering has pointed out the prefixed particles, used to designate the plural, which are commonly assigned to inanimate nouns, and those belonging to the animate class : Tcutusi, ' a mountain ' ; tikutusi, ' mountains ' ; atsutsu, ? a boy ' ; cmitsutsu, ' boys ' ; a distinction which, in various cases, extends to adjectives. And it will be seen amongst Mr. Worcester's answers to grammatical queries, that the same dis- tinction prevails, both in the third person of intransitive verbs, and in the inflections of transitive verbs, according as they govern the noun of an animate, or of an inanimate object. But it is in the languages of the Algonkin-Lenape family, that the distinction is most remarkable, and may be considered as one of its specific characteristics. It was first pointed out by Father Le Jeune in the Algonkin,f and distinctly stated by John Eliot in the Massachusetts, is repeatedly alluded to in Father Rasle's Dictionary of the Abenaki, specially mentioned in Father Maynard's notes on the Micmac, and explained in Mr. Heckewelder's correspondence with Mr. Du Ponceau respecting the Delaware dialect. " The principle," Mr. Schoolcraft observes in his lectures on the Ojibway (Chippeway) language, " has been grafted upon most words and carries its distinction throughout the syntax. It is the gender of the language, and of so unbounded a scope, as to give a twofold character to the parts of speech." We find accordingly that the inflection, which designates the plural of nouns, varies according to the class to which the noun belongs. According to the dialect or different language, it is og, aig, or ok for the animate ; ain, ash, or all for the inanimate gender : but the vocal sound which precedes the characteristic consonant varies, according to euphony, or ing Indian languages from the writings of Brebeuf and other early his- torians, has inserted the observation in his journal. But he assigns erroneously to the Huron the exclusion of the distinction between masculine and feminine. It is the Algonkin, instead of the Iroquois languages, which do not make that distinction. f See above, Section II., under the head of Algonkins.
 * Charlevoix, a faithful compiler, who derived his information respect-