Arkansas or Quapaws. Osages. Kanzas. Mahas. Poncas. Jowas. Ottoes. Missouries. These dialects are nearly similar, and the tribes, who use them, can understand one another without an interpreter. These dialects approach the standard language more nearly, than those in the preceding paragraph. But interpreters are necessary, both between themselves, and between them and the Sioux, for a distinct understanding of any subject. The root of the word which signifies fire, among all these tribes, is p'huajee. Winebagoes. No affinities are known to exist between the languages of this family, and those spoken by the Pawnees and Arickaras. The two latter are nearly the same, and constitute, in the present state of our knowledge, a class of primitive languages. Their word for fire is lacteetoo. To shew the idioms of three of these great parent stocks, we subjoin translations of four sentences into the Chippewa, Wyandot, and Sioux languages, and retranslations into English. They are rendered as literally, as their respective idioms will permit. Full confidence may be placed in the Chippewa specimens. The others are the result of much labor, but under less favorable circumstances. CHIPPEWA. 1. I wish to go with you and catch his horse. The Chippewa particles tshee and ka, when used before verbs, give pre cision to them. The noun throughout this sentence precedes the verb. VOL. XXII.-No. 50. 12 3. Give me some venison to put in his kettle. Meeshishin* addik weeos ka podaukwawug odaukeekoong. deer; (Addik is the name for Reindeer,) flesh to put in his kettle; (o, indicates possession.) 4. Mr. Heckewelder's book contains many errors. *In this sentence, the Indian, unlike No. 2, is constructed as an English sentence, the verb preceding the noun. + The Chippewas substitute descriptive terms for English proper names. The Wyandots always prefix this word to the names of domestic animals in a state of servitude. We subjoin two more Chippewa specimens. 1. Why do you not behave better and sit still? Auneeshween nuh? neebwaukausewun Why not, (includes pronoun,) possess sense, (noun, verb, & pro.) pisaun tshee nemudubeyun still to sit. (v. a. includes the pronoun, and in present tense.) The sense of the English is rendered into Indian with force and sufficient precision. But the analytical mode adopted gives the retranslation a stiff and faulty aspect. 2. I do not think there is any such thing as virtue. Kauween Not neen do I (negative mode of assertion, very common.) Our personal knowledge of the southern languages is confined to the Cherokee, and we shall not, therefore, hazard any conjectures respecting them. We are inclined to believe, however, that they have a general family resemblance; but whether any connexion exists between them, and the other great families, we are ignorant. We found in the Cherokee the same general principles of formation, which distinguish the others. Whoever makes the experiment will discover, that much stronger analogies exist between dialects of our Indians, as they have been written, than as they are spoken. Languages, which appear almost identical upon paper, are yet in conversation understood with great difficulty. The causes of this difference have been already stated, but their operation must be felt before they can be fully appreciated. It is easy to conceive, that roving bands of savages in the hunter state, may separate for very trivial causes, and that dialects may soon be formed, which will gradually recede from one another, until all etymological traces of their common origin can with difficulty be discerned. Languages, which are not fixed by letters, must be liable to perpetual fluctuations; and as the intercourse between different tribes is diminished by mutual hostilities, or by distance, their dialects will rapidly recede from one another. In this manner, many dialects, and possibly all, have been formed. *This is one of those verbal Indian forms, which admit some latitude in the translation. The Foxes have a traditionary legend upon this subject, which we are tempted to give, because it happily explains their opinion of the mode, in which these separations of natural and political connexion, and consequently of languages, have been brought about. Many years since, say they, two bands of our people were living near each other. The Chief of one of these bands wanted some Indian tobacco,* and sent one of his young men to the Chief of the other band, to procure some. The latter, being a little offended with his relation, told the young man, he would send no tobacco, and that he had long tusks, intimating he was disposed to quarrel. The young man replied, that the tobacco was wanted for a feast. The Chief then took up a pair of Apukwine, (large bone needles, made of the ribs of the elk, and used in the manufacture of rush mats,) and throwing his pipe upon the ground, put these like tusks upon each side of his mouth, and said, My teeth are long and strong, and will bite.' The young man returned and communicated the result to his Chief, who assembled his warriors and said, 'My warriors, let us prepare to pull out these long tusks, lest they should grow sharp and bite us.' He then directed them to accompany him in an attack upon the other party, and they proceeded to form an ambuscade near their camp. As the day dawned, the Chief said, 'It is now light enough, we can see to pull out his teeth.' The attack commenced, and many were destroyed. This is the way, says the tradition, in which the great Indian family became divided. Till then they were one people.t * Called by the Canadians Tabac du diable, or Feningue, and by the Chippewa, Inine Samau, or Man tobacco. It was formerly cultivated by the Indians, and used in all their feasts and religious ceremonies. + Much additional knowledge of the Indian languages may be expected to be gradually gained. Mr Duponceau and Mr Pickering, philologists of whom the country may be justly proud, have devoted much of their time to the subject, and are still pursuing it with ardor, to the extent of their opportunities. Mr Pickering has constructed with immense pains, a Grammar of the Cherokee, which is now in press. All attempts of this sort are of great importance in fixing grammatical forms, and establishing first principles. In the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is an essay by Mr Pickering, proposing a uniform alphabet for the Indian languages, an object of much importance in establishing such an orthography, as to ensure useful results from a comparison of different vocabularies. In the 9th vol. 2d Series of the Massachusetts Historical Collection, is published Eliot's Indian Grammar, accompanied with valuable notes and observations, by the above gentlemen. It is there stated, that this 'Grammar was presented |