Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/219

 SECT. VI.] INDIAN LANGUAGES. 183 and other similar terminations, in their present shape, appear and are considered as inflections of the verb. It is quite otherwise in the Indian languages. In all of them, whether in the combination of the possessive pronoun with the noun, or in both the simple and compound conjugations, the separable pronoun and its inflections, though generally in an abbreviated form, are still visible ; and the possessive pronoun in one case, and the personal pronoun in the other, are almost always nearly identical. There are undoubtedly some exceptions, such as the first personal singular in the Choctaw, and the plural termina- tion of the second person in the Delaware ; and the division of the pronoun into two parts, in the Algonkin-Lenape lan- guages, has rendered the affinity less immediately obvious. But there is no language, or dialect, in which there are not still evident traces of the original pronouns, and of which it may not be asserted, that in all the combinations alluded to, the inflections of number and person are those of the pronoun, and neither of the noun or verb. There is accordingly but little difficulty in the declensions, if they may be so called, of the noun and possessive pronoun combined, or in the simple conju- gations which involve with the verb only the subject of the action, or nominative case of the pronoun, provided the varia- tions of which the pronoun is susceptible be previously under- stood. It has been already mentioned that, in the Sioux language, the plural sign pee is applicable to every part of speech ; and that, in the Cherokee, the corresponding sign te is used for the purpose of designating the plural of the objective case of the personal pronouns. In several of the languages, such as the Algonkin-Lenape, the plural is formed by adding a ter- mination to the singular of the pronoun. There are some in which that plural, especially in the first and second person, is not an inflection, but a distinct word having no affinity with the singular. We find the same feature in many European lan- guages : ego, nos ; tu, vos ; I, we; thou, you; &c. Transitions. The complex compound conjugations consist in the amalga- mation of the verb with the pronoun, both in its nominative case, or as agent, and in its objective case, or as the object of