Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/256

 •2'20 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. adding 011k. Every person of the verb that is susceptible of such a change may so be turned into a noun singular or plural. Adverbs are often turned into adnouns, specially when the verb is turned into a noun. There are in the language ornamental superlative syllables of no signification, as. Delaware. [Extracted from Zeisberger's Grammar, translated by Mr. Du Ponceau.] Indians have no declensions properly so called, there being no inflections for cases excepting the vocative expressed by the termination an, and by enk when coupled with the pronouns 'my,' 'our,' and the ablative or local, which designates locality, and is formed by the suffixes ink and link, corresponding with ' in,' ' on,' 'out of.' The genitive is expressed by placing the noun in that sense before the nominative, sometimes by prefixing the inseparable pronoun of the third person w, ' his.' The dative and accusative are expressed by inflections in the verbs. ' Get- anittowit n quitayala,' ' God I fear him.' (Mr. Du Ponceau discovered an article mo, as, m'hittuk, 'a tree,' or ' the trees.') Substantives are generally combined with inseparable posses- sive pronouns prefixed, which are in the singular, k for the first, n for the plural, w ox for the third person. That in the third is often omitted both in the singular and in the plural. The singular and the plural of the noun may each be combined with either the singular or the plural of the pronoun ; which variations are distinguished by distinct pronominal inflections. The plural inflection of the first person is the suffix na, of the second wa, of the third wall or wak. The duplication nana, wawa, wawall, distinguishes the double plural, or combination of both the noun and possessive pronoun in the plural (' our fathers.') The termination naninga is employed in the double plural when speaking of a deceased person. Substantives without the prefixed pronouns are generally inflected in the plural by suffix all for the inanimate, and ak for animate objects. Substantives derived from verbs take, in the plural, the termination ik. Substantives combine themselves with almost every part of speech, but principally with the verb. Some are derived