will close these remarks by mentioning, that Mr. Du Ponceau (in a late letter) is inclined to believe, that the Quichuan verb cani is the pure substantive verb; observing very justly, that "the general character of the Indian languages does not prevent varieties from existing in them; but the genus is still the same. Those varieties, time and study will discover."

P. 14.

NOTE 10.

Verbs formed out of Nouns.

"Thus they turn any substantive whatever into a verb neuter," &c.

*

So in the Massachusetts language, Eliot observes, that nouns may be turned into verbs and verbs into nouns. To the same effect Mr. Zeisberger says of the Delaware-that "substantives, and also adverbs, assume the character of verbs, as we have already said of adjectives." The same thing takes place in the South American languages. Gilij, in speaking of the Orinokese dialects, says " Every noun [in the Tamanacan] may be made into a verb.......as, Tamanacu, a Tamanacan; Tamanacutari, to become a Tamanacan." So in the Chilese (says Febrès)" verbs are made from nouns by adding n; and the same thing may be done with almost all the other parts of speech, as pronouns, participles, adverbs, &c. .....and, on the other hand, the verbs are changed into nouns, by taking away the final n, and sometimes without taking it away."||

NOTE 11.

The Tenses.

P. 15. "They have a past and future tense to their verbs, &c. The author here states a very curious fact respecting a mode of expressing the future tense; which is done by annexing the sign of the future to an adverb or other word in the sentence.

* Indian Gram. pp. 13 and 21.

+ MS. Gram. Mr. Du Ponceau's translation.

Saggio, &c. p. 172.

|| Arte, &c. P. 56.

"This (as Mr. Du Ponceau justly observes in a letter to the Editor) is in analogy with the Delaware; in which the sign of the future is affixed to the adverb, not (for example) as-attaтSCH pendawite for atta pendawiterSCH, if I shall not hear; or, to the adverb at, as in taтSCH elsiya for ta elsiyaтSCH, as I shall be situated." By a similar analogy the pronominal affixes of the nouns and verbs in the Massachusetts language may be joined to the adverb or adjective; and the following observation of Gilij may be intended to describe something of the kind in the Orinokese languages also: "I shall mention (says he) a most extraordinary thing, but, at the same time, what is a matter of fact; in the Tamanacan language even the adverbs and the other particles are declined, wherever they are united with possessive nouns."+

NOTE 12.

Abstract Terms.

P. 15. "I doubt not but that there is in this [the Mohegan] language the full proportion of abstract to concrete terms, which is commonly to be found in other languages.'

This was doubtless the case also in the Massachusetts dialect, as we do not find Eliot making any complaint of the want of those terms (as he does of the want of a verb substantive) though he had constant occasion for the use of them in translating the Bible. He also gives some examples of them in his Grammar.

In the Delaware language, both Mr. Zeisberger and Mr. Heckewelder give various examples of abstract terms; and from the latter writer we learn, that the Delawares have a general mode of forming those words, by means of the termination wagan (or woagan, as the German missionaries sometimes write it, to express the sound of the English w)" which answers to that of ness in English and heit or keit in German." Correspondence with Mr. Du Ponceau, p. 408. Letter xviii.

They are also found in some (and perhaps will be in all) of the languages of South America. Gilij, in speaking of the numerous dialects spread over that vast extent of country through which the Orinoco flows, observes, that it has been made a

* Eliot's Gram. p. 24.

+ Saggio, &c. p. 165.

question sometimes by the missionaries, "whether the Orinokese have abstract noun substantives, as whiteness, beauty, &c. The doubt in this case has arisen from the common practice with the Indians of uniting words with the pronouns; but I know, to a certainty, (whatever others may think) that some of the Orinokese have such nouns. Of this we have most manifest instances in the Tamanacan words cheçcite or cheictivate, bigness; aremutunde, whiteness, &c.....and the following are examples of them in composition: Veroro tenei achère càige ichecilli, I saw a dog, his bigness like a tiger, that is, of the bigness of a tiger; càreta càige itaremutunù, like paper his whiteness." The author adds, however, that the Maipuri, "so far as he recollects," do not make use of abstract terms.* In the languages on the western side of South America, there appears to be no want of abstract terms. Father Torres Rubio, it is true, in his valuable Grammar of the Quichuan language (fol. 31) first informs his reader that there are no abstract nouns in it; but this expression is evidently to be understood in a qualified sense, because he immediately "goes on to inform us, in the same sentence, how such terms are formed-"they are formed (says he) of the concrete term and the infinitive of sum, es, fui, and, being so formed, they are varied (or declined) by means of the possessive particles thus-yurac caniy, my whiteness," &c. the analysis of which expression (though not given by the author) seems to be as follows:

Proceeding farther south, on the same side of the continent, we find the wonderfully regular language of Chili abundantly supplied with abstract terms, or, at least, with an extraordinary capacity of forming them at pleasure. Father Febrès, in his Grammar of that language, says, that "abstract nouns, as goodness, whiteness, &c. are formed by subjoining the word gen (which is the verb sum, es, est,) to adjectives or sub

stantives; as cùmegen, goodness; lighgen, whiteness," &c.* And the Abbè Molina affirms, that the practice of forming abstract terms is even carried farther than in the European languages; for (says he) "instead of saying pu Huinca, the Spaniards, they commonly say, Huincagen, the Spaniolitytamén cuiagen, your trio, that is, you other three-èpu tamen cayugen layai, two of you other six will die; literally, two of your sixths." +

NOTE 13.

Analogy between the Mohegan and Hebrew Languages.

P. 16. "Besides what has been observed concerning prefixes and suffixes [p. 12.] there is a remarkable analogy between some words in the Mohegan language and the correspondent words in the Hebrew," &c.

The slight resemblances between the Hebrew and the Indian languages (of New England) could not pass unobserved by our ancestors, at a period when there were at least as many good Hebrew scholars, in proportion to our population, as we now have, and when the Indian languages were much more familiarly known than at present. Roger Williams says on this point

"Others and myselfe have conceived some of their words to hold affinitie with the Hebrew." But he afterwards adds"Yet againe I have found a greater affinity of their language with the Greek tongue." Other early writers also mention the subject. The comparison has been recently pursued at considerable length by the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, in the learned Notes to his Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America; in which the author concludes his remarks upon one of the dialects (the Cherokee) in these emphatic terms-"It will immediately be seen that a language so remarkably rich in grammatical forms as to surpass even the Greek, differs toto cœlo from the Hebrew, one of the simplest of all languages." ||

* Arte de la Lengua General del Reyno de Chile; compuesto por el P. Andres Febrès, Misionero de la Comp. de Jesus. Lima, 1765.

t Hist. of Chili. American translation.

Preface to his Key into the Language of America, Lond. 1643; repub. lished in vols. iii. and v. (First Series) of these Collections

New York Hist Collect. vol. iii. p. 245.

NOTE 14.

On making Indian Vocabularies.

P. 17. "It is to be wished, that every one who makes a vocabulary of any Indian language, would be careful to notice the prefixes and suffixes [of nouns.] The like attention to the moods and personal affixes of the verbs is necessary."

A similar caution is necessary throughout these languages; the Indians being more in the habit of employing specific terms than Europeans are. "It was a good while (says Mr. Heckewelder) before I found out, that when you asked of an Indian the name of a thing, he would always give you the specific, and never the generic denomination.......I found myself under very great embarrassment in consequence of it when I first began to learn the Delaware language. I would point to a tree, and ask the Indians how they called it; they would answer, an oak, an ash, a maple, as the case might be ; so that at last I found in my vocabulary more than a dozen words for the word tree."* The same thing is observable in the use of their verbs. In the Cherokee (says the Rev. Mr. Butbrick in his communication before cited) "thirteen different verbs are used, to express the action of washing, as follows:—

"This difference of words prevents the necessity of mentioning the object washed. So also with the verbs love, take, have, leave, die, weigh, &c.'

Correspondence with Mr. Du Ponceau, in Historical Transactions, vol. i. p. 437. (Letter 24.)