Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/263

 APP. NO. I.] GRAMMATICAL NOTICES. — CHIPPEWAY. 227 Chimaning, ( in the canoe ' ; Monomonikaning, ' in the place of wild rice.' But the termination ing to an animate noun connected with an adjective, indicates resemblance. . The terminations ais, eas, os, are the diminutive form. Ex. : TZekwzzais, l a little woman ' ; ossinees, ' a small stone.' The termination ish implies bad quality, decay, or imperfec- tion. Ex. : lniniwish, 6 a bad man ' ; wakyiganish, ' a decayed house.' Ahmikoosh, ' a poor beaver/ (not valuable). The termination bun, suffixed to a noun, indicates the past tense, and is used when speaking of a person or thing which has ceased to exist. The prefix tah, together with the suffix iwi to an animate, and iwun to an inanimate noun, designates the future. The second person of the imperative, and the third person singular of the indicative present, are generally the simplest forms of the verb. Nouns are converted into verbs by a simple inflection : from chiman, l a canoe ' ; chimai, ' he paddles ' : Ojibwai, ' a Chip- peway ' ; ojibwamoo, ' he speaks Chippeway.' Another class of nouns is converted into verbs, in which the equivalent of the substantive verb does not appear, unless we suppose the terminations oiv, aw, iw, oow, to be derived from the verb iaw, ' to be.' No monidow, ' I (am) a spirit ' ; ni wakyigungiw, ' I (am) a house.' On the other hand the termination win, added to the indica- tive of the verb or of a (verbal) adjective, converts either into a substantive. Keegidoivin, ' a speech,' from kcegido, ' he speaks ' ; aukoosiivin, ' sickness,' from aukoossi. All the words of more than two syllables, and the greater part of these, appear in this language to be compound words. The principle of a rapid conveyance of ideas by consolidation has led to a coalescence of words, by which all the relations of object and action, time and person, are expressed in one word. The primitives have often thus become obscured and lost. The process of amalgamation was progressive, and has led the Indian, when he wanted to express new objects or ideas, to modify or to compound existing, rather than to invent new words. Hence the facility with which they bestow appropriate names on new objects. Thus they have called the horse pau baizhikogazhi, from paizhik, ' one,' (used also as an article,) 'united,' 'undivided'; which becomes plural by duplicating