Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/237

 SECT. VI.] INDIAN LANGUAGES. 201 Independent of causative, reflected, and reciprocal verbal forms, the following are found : ' He is used, continues, intends, is about, is finishing, is at lib- erty to do a certain act.' c I see far off, near, one I know,' &tc. ' It rains hard, by showers, steadily.' ' The action is, has been, or may be done, ill, better, in a different manner, quickly, at- tentively, rarely, probably, jointly, repeatedly,' &c, with vari- ous other modifications expressive of doubt, likeness, denial, various degrees of assertion, &c* Words compounded by the union of two verbs, or of a verb and a noun, are in general use. The manner of com- pounding words, by uniting in a single one the abbreviations, sometimes a single syllable, or even letter, of five, six or more words, belongs equally to the Eskimau and to the Algonkin, and extends, if not universally, probably to many other langua- ges. Some examples will be found in the Grammatical Notices, and amongst these, one of seventeen syllables in the Chero- kee : wi-ni-taw-ti-ge-gi-na-li-skaw-lung-ta-naw-ne-li-ti-se-sti ; which means, " They will by that time have nearly finished granting (favors) from a distance to thee and me." But this and similar words are not in common use, and only show to what extent words may be compounded in conformity with the analogies of the language, so as to be perfectly intelligible to an Indian. That flexibility which has brought into common use the conversion of every part of speech into another, and which has produced that multiplicity of forms, of derivatives, and of compounded words, and that perpetual concentration of com- plex ideas in a single word, is not only the most striking com- mon characteristic of the Indian languages, but must, it is believed, have in some respects imparted to them greater pow- ers than seem to belong to those of Europe. Some most respectable philologists have indeed seen in those features the proof of an ancient civilization. Even the learned authors of only the specimen of two pages in Mr. Du Ponceau's collection, we find the following forms : bainaysnie, 1 1 have some recollection ' ; bain- asnie, 'I recollect'; subainasnie, 'I do remember.' When I asked Mr. Boudinot to give me, amongst other verbal forms, the Cherokee word for we two are tied, he immediately answered ; there are two forms. ' We two are tied together,' agehnahlung ; J we are both tied, but each separately,' dagenahlung. (Note, that Mr. Boudinot uses rf, where Mr. Worcester writes t.) vol.. ii. 26
 * Even in the Cheppeyan language (Athapasca), of which Ave have