Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/294

 258 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Almost all the adjectives may be converted into verbs, hav- ing the meaning which in English is expressed by the verb, to be. They may likewise be converted into substantive nouns by an inflection. Mr. Compere says, " almost, every word in this language is capable of being used in these different forms, may be varied in a similar way. Nahoolky, 'wicked'; chonnahool- Jxi/st, k i am wicked ' ; nahoolkdya, ' wickedness.' The dual and plural forms of the first person are distinguished by a varied inflection in the verb, the pronoun pony being used for both. But in some cases, even the verb has but one form for both the dual and the plural. There does not seem to be any special plural, but only a dual proper. The past tense takes its form from the word poxunggy, ' yesterday,' ung or ungut. Mr. Compere observes, that " words in the future have so great an affinity in sound to those in the perfect tense, that he finds it difficult to distinguish one from the other." The obligatory and causative forms are derived respectively from the verbs tydiist, ' it ought, ' ' it is right '; and pajy to ' com- pel.' The reciprocal form, 'we tie each other,' is expressed by uniting the two forms, 'you tie me,' and ' I tie you.' The affixes, adid and hok, mean on, in, by, and are varied according to the subject. To say that a man came by land, the affix adid is used ; and hole if he came by water ; both being respectively added to the words meaning land or water. Mr. Compere adds that there is in the language almost an infinity of affixes, which render the acquisition of it very diffi- cult. ARAUCANIAN. [Extracted from Father And. Febres's Grammar of the Language of Chili. Lima, 1765.] Nouns have three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. The dual is designated by the termination egu, and the plural by prefixing pu. This prefix pu is properly applicable to ani- mate or living beings, though sometimes used for inanimate things. But the termination ica, substituted for pu prefixed, is the proper designation of the plural for inanimate things. This