Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/229

 SECT. VI.] INDIAN LANGUAGES. 193 But those forms are generally conjugated in all their moods as the primitive verb. This appears to be the case with the causative form, generally designated by the conversion of the infinitive termination into owen, or sheen ; and also in verbs compounded with prepositions. Thus the verb witeen, from ami ' to go,' and witschi, ' with/ (Zeisberger, page 246) is con- jugated as its primitive. N'da, K'da, eu, N'daneen, &c. JN'witt, K'witt, | witt eu, N'witteneen, &c. The Muskhogee pronouns in the singular and in the first person plural of the objective case have a great affinity with those of the Choctaw. In the specimens of its transitions, it will be seen that a common termination isi occurs throughout, the meaning of which is not understood. The objective case of the pronoun precedes, and the nominative case follows, the root of the verb. In other respects they would not materially differ from the Choctaw system, were it not that the Muskhogee appears to want distinctive signs for the dual and plural of the second person. They substitute for those, with some varied terminations, the words holcoJijn, from hokJco, which means 1 two,' and homulgyon from omulga, ' a multitude.' When those two substitutes occur together, and are united with the verb and its two pronouns, they appear rather as three distinct words, than as a concentrated transition. The Cherokee transitions are less complex than those of the Delaware, though not so simple as in the Choctaw. The two pronouns in the nominative and objective case always precede the root of the verb, leaving no doubt that the inflec- tions of person, number, and case are those of the pronoun, and not at all of the verb. The usual sign of the plural, tc, pre- fixed, uniformly indicates that the objective pronoun is in the plural. The pronouns themselves are principally the same as those used as possessive, either entire or in an abbreviated form. St is the sign of the dual, and ts of the plural for both, particularly in the second person. Augin designates ' him' and ' me,' and gin, ' thee ' and ' me,' both in the transitions, and as possessive when united to the noun. The signs shi, slcii/a, sJcina, distinguish the second person in the nominative case, according to certain fixed rules. But that, by which the pronouns, in the nominative and in the objective case, are distinguished from each other, is not apparent in every instance. vol. ii. 25