We have remarked above, that the Indian verb has various modifications in different dialects. Those of the Delaware language have been sufficiently explained for the purposes of a general view; and we shall now further develope this curious subject, by exhibiting some of the peculiarities of the verb, in the Cherokee, or, more properly, Tsullakee language, which belongs to an entirely different stock, and appears not to have the least etymological affinity with the Delaware, though its grammatical forms, generally speaking, are similar. In the course of our remarks, we shall occasionally advert to some of these points of resemblance, as well as to the difference between the two.-(a) Numbers. One of the peculiarities which first strikes us, is, that, besides the singular and two plurals, which are found in the Delaware, the Cherokee has also a proper dual number, both in its verbs and its nouns and pronouns. This dual is again subdivided, in its first person, into two distinct forms; the first of which is used when one of two persons speaks to the other, and says, for example, We two (i. e. thou and I), will do such a thing; the second form is used when one of two persons speaks of the other to a third person, and says, We two (i. e. he and I) will do such a thing for example, inaluiha (we two [i. e. thou and I are tying it); awstaluiha (we two [i. e. he and I] are tying it). So in the dual of the nouns and pronouns-kinitaw * In writing the Cherokee words, in these examples, we are obliged to express the sounds by the best approximations that our English alphabet affords. The true sounds cannot, in every instance, be perfectly expressed by any other than the national syllabic alphabet, if we may so call it, which was invented by a native Cherokee, Guest, who was unacquainted with any other language than his own, but has analyzed that like a philosopher, and has devised an ingenious set of characters to denote all its elementary sounds, which he has reduced to 85, and has denoted by that number of syllabic characters. We cannot employ this native alphabet here, as it would be wholly unintelligible without a good deal of study. To express the nasal, which is so common in the language, we have used the character ; but the reader should be apprized, that the true sound is more like the French nasal un; like in in the first syllable of our words uncle, hunger, as heard the instant before the tongue touches the roof of the mouth. The short u is to be sounded, as in but, nut, &c. The aw is to be sounded as in English. The other vowels are to have the foreign or Italian sound, as in far, there, machine, note, rule; and the consonants as in English and its kindred languages. In writing this language with our alphabet, the g and k are often used promiscuously; as are also the d and t. The double consonant kl is also often employed where the sound is more correctly represented by tl. tu, our father (i. e. of thee and me); awkinitawtu, our father (i. e. of him and me.)(b) Pluralized or Multiplicative Form. We mean by this denomination a form which indicates, that the action expressed by the verb is predicated of more than one object, or that the object of the verb is understood in the plural number. This modification is effected through all the tenses and numbers of the verb, by means of the common plural prefixes, t, te, ti; for example, katitaw'ti (I use a spoon); tekatitaw'ti (I use spoons); tsigawwali (I see [a thing]); telsigawwati (I see [things]); tristigi (I eat [thing]); tetsistigi (I eat [things]), &c. c) Habitual or Periodical Form. This is a form or conjugation, which expresses the being in the habit or custom of doing an act, or the doing of it regularly, periodically, &c.; for example, the common form of the verb tsikeyu means I love him; but, in the habitual form or mode, it is tsikeyusaw (I love him habitually, or, am in the habit of loving him); again, galuiha, in the common form, means I tie, or am tying (it); but galungi hawi means I tie habitually, &c. This form appears to correspond to what Mr. Zeisberger, in the Delaware, calls the continuous form.-(d) Conjugations. These have not yet been sufficiently investigated to furnish us with a satisfactory classification. Some have made them six in number.-(e) Moods. These have been described as five in number, corresponding to our indicative, imperative, subjunctive, potential (relating simply to power or ability) and infinitive; to which, in the opinion of the same writers, may be added this classification is not yet sufficiently esa sixth, denoting liberty to do an act; but tablished.-(f) Tenses. An exact arrangement of the tenses, as well as the moods, is still wanting. Besides the three general divisions of present, past and future, the Cherokee has several subdivisions of time; but these subdivisions have not yet been settled with much exactness, so as to enable us to compare them with the European verb. The perfect or past tense, however, has a very remarkable subdivision into two forms, which may, properly enough, be called two perfects. They are used not to mark a difference in time, but one of them indicates, that the person speaking was present, or an eye-witness, or conscious of the fact which he relates to have taken place; and the other, that he learned it since by information, discovery, was absent, or not conscious, but has &c. They might be denominated the absential and presential perfect, or, to avoid the double signification of the word present, we might call them simply the perfect and the absent perfect. The former ends in the nasal u, and the latter in é or e. Examples: perfect, u-hlu (he killed him) -speaking of a killing when the speaker was present, or conscious of the fact; ab sent perfect, u-hlei (he killed him)—speaking of a killing when the speaker was absent. In the following conjugation of the present tense of a Cherokee verb, we are obliged to confine ourselves, as in the case of the Delaware example, to the animate form: Conjugation of the Present Indicative of a Cherokee Verb. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. NEUTER GENDER; THE OBJECT OF THE VERB BEING IN THE SINGULAR NUMBER. * We use the term present to denote the expectation and intention, on the part of the speaker, that the present person should hear. The form styled absent is used when the speaker has no such intention, or is indifferent respecting it. +1 and 2 persons; 1 and 3 persons. This is, perhaps, a proper distinction between those two forms in the dual and plural, either of which would be expressed by the first person in English. The dual and plural of the third person are always the same. Where the dual and plural numbers are given separately, in the other persons, we have omitted the dual of the third person, because it always accords with the plural. Where a person is wanting, it will be seen plainly to result from the nature of the case, as the first person in this instance. Collective; Distributive. Collective, tikinaluiha (he ties us two together). Distributive, tetikinaluiha (he ties us two separately). This distinction relates to the object of the action, and runs throughout the dual and plural numbers of all the persons. The two forms, however, are not both in common use with every verb; but the one or the other, according as the nature of the action relates o objects, collectively or separately considered. In the same analogy, there are distinct forms for the English expressions," he is tying you and me," "they are tying you and me," "thou art tying them and me," "he is tying them and me," "ye are tying them and me," "they are," &c.; "I am tying thee," "he is," &c., "he and I, they and I, they are," " &c.; "I am tying you two," "he is," &c., "they are," &c.; "I am tying you (all, in the plural), he is, we are, they are," &c. 66 Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections. These parts of speech require no particular remarks. According to some writers, all of them are to be found, as distinct parts of speech, in the Indian languages. But others, on the contrary, affirm that some of them are wanting in particular dialects; as, for example, it is said that the Cherokee has no prepositions; though they are to be found in the Delaware. We conclude this article, which the novelty of the subject has led us to extend beyond our original plan, with a few miscellaneous remarks on the Cherokee language. The name of this nation, we would observe, is Tsalaki (pronounced nearly like Tsullakee), the last syllable of which is often written gi; the sound of this final syllable being neither exactly our k nor g, but an intermediate sound between those two. The English name Cherokee, it is supposed, was originally taken from one of the diaJects in which the sound of r occurs, Tsaraki or Tsurrakee. This name is believed not to be significant; but, if originally so, the signification of it is now lost. Some names of places among them have been much more changed than this national name, by our English orthography; as Chattahoochie from Tsatahutsi (which may have been a Creek name), Coosewaytee from Kusuwetiyi; Tellico from Taliqua; Hightower from Itawa, pronounced Eetawah, &c. Among the words of relationship, brother, sister, &c., we find some terms that have a different signification,according as they are used by a man or woman. Example: the word ungkitaw, used by women, signifies my brother; Thou art tying him and me Ye two are tying him and me. but used by men, it means my sister; and the women exclusively use ungkilung for my sister. It is said that this language has no relative pronoun. Like the Indian languages in general, it is highly compounded, or, as Mr. Du Ponceau first very happily denominated this class, polysynthetic. There are, as we should naturally expect, therefore, but few monosyllables; some say, only fifteen in the whole, which are all interjections and adverbs, with the exception of one, the monosyllable na, which is sometimes a pronoun and sometimes an adverb. Of its polysynthetic character we are able to give one very remarkable example, in a single word, which, for perspicuity's sake, we have separated into its syllables; viz. Wi-ni-taw-ti-gé-gina-li-skaw-lung -ta-naw-ne-li'-ti-se-sti; which may be thus rendered-" Theywill-by-that-time-have-nearly-done-granting- [favors] from-a-distance-to-thee-andto-me." It is said that the expression "I ought to tie thee or him" cannot be translated into Cherokee; and that the nearest approach they can make to it is, by a circumlocution, which means, "it would be right for me to tie, or it would be wrong for me not to tie," &c. It is also a feature of this language, that all its words end with a vowel sound; and this has enabled the 'philosopher' Guest to reduce its elementary syllables to so small a number as eighty-five, and to adopt a syllabic alphabet. Their neighbors, the Choctaws (more properly Chah'tahs), having a language which is wholly different in this particular, have not been able to adopt a similar alphabet.-But we are admonished that our limits forbid any further details; and we only add, that this very general survey of these curiously constructed languages "will convince every reader," as is justly remarked by our American philologist, Mr. Du Ponceau, "that a considerable degree of art and method has presided over their formation. Whether this astonishing fact (he adds) is to be considered as a proof-as many are inclined to believe-that this continent was formerly inhabited by a civilized race of men, or whether it is not more natural to suppose, that the Almighty Creator has endowed mankind with a natural logic, which leads them, as it were, by instinct, to such methods in the formation of their idioms as are best calculated to facilitate their use, I shall not at present inquire. I do not, however, hesitate to say, that the bias of my mind is in favor of the latter supposition, because no language has yet been discovered, either among savage or polished nations, which was not governed by rules and principles which nature alone could dictate, and human science never could have imagined."--For further information on this novel and curious subject, we refer our readers to the following as the most important works: Historical and Literary Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (vol. i, 8vo., Philadelphia, 1819;) in which the reader will find the correspondence of Mr.Du Ponceau and Mr. Heckewelder, and also a copious list of manuscript grammars, dictionaries and other works on the Indian languages); Eliot's Grammar of the Massachusetts Indian Language, first printed in 1666, Cambridge, New England, and reprinted in 1822, by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in their Collections; Edwards's Observations on the Language of the Mahh kanneew [Mohegan] Indians, first published in 1788, and reprinted by the same society in their Collections for 1823; Zeisberger's Grammar of the Delaware or Lenape Language, translated by Mr. Du Ponceau, and published by the Da s ga, ka American Philosophical Society, in their Transactions, vol. iii-the most important of all the recent publications, to the student; and the Cherokee Phænix, a newspaper now edited and printed by natives of that nation, in their own and the English languages. We subjoin, from that paper, the curious syllabic alphabet, invented by Guest, the native Cherokee to whom we have before alluded. For the use of the types, which have been obligingly furnished by the founders, Messrs. Greele & Willis, of Boston, we acknowledge our obligations to the American Missionary Society, under whose directions they were made. The letters of the English syllables, affixed to each Cherokee character, are to be pronounced according to the following rules:-The vowels have the following sounds: a, as a in father, or short, as a in rival ; e as a in hate, or short, as e in net; i, as i in pique, or short, as i in pit; o, as aw in law, or short, as o in not; u, as oo in fool, or short, as u in full. To these add u, as u in but made nasal, nearly as if followed by the French nasal n. The consonants are used as follows: d represents nearly the same sound as in English, but approximating to that of t; g nearly the same as its hard sound in English, but approximating to k; h, k, l, m, n, g, s, t, w, as in English. The letter q, as in English, is invariably followed by u, with the same power, equivalent to kw. The sounds of the other English consonants never occur. ті of ha w la & ma ena, thna, & nah ne I qua Ꮝ s, Ꮜ sa ɩ da, w ta & dla, c tla G tsa & wa Re У ти a nu nu ૬ q! R ya The circumstance of the alphabet being syllabic, and the number of syllables so small, is the greatest reason why the task of learning to read the Cherokee language is so vastly easier than that of learning to read English. An active Cherokee boy o wi s yi e wo h yo Gyu R S tu Ptụ C= tsu 6 wy В уч may learn to read his own language in a day; and not more than two or three days are ordinarily requisite. To read is only to repeat successively the names of the several letters; when a boy has learned his alphabet, he can read his language. |