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Show 60 INTEODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. apparently unlimited. Their highest aim is to express in a single word " not only all that modifies or relates to the same object, or action, but both the action and the object: thus concentrating in a single expression a complex idea, or several ideas among which there is a natural connection."* There is hardly any modification of which the action of a verb is susceptible which may not be effected by means of inseparable particles having the character of adverbs: " thus the action may be intended, or be about to be done; it may be done well, better, ill, in a different manner, quickly, attentively, jointly, probably, rarely, repeatedly, habitually ": t it may be affirmed, doubted, questioned, denied, prohibited. A single example will illustrate this, and I select one which Mr. Bancroft ( History of the United States, vol. iii, p. 259) has used for a similar purpose, in his observations on " the synthetic character of the American languages." u The Indian never kneels; so, when Eliot translated kneeling [ Mark, i, 40] the word which he was compelled to form fills a line, and numbers eleven syllables." As an instance of extreme synthesis this word - wut- ap- pefsit- tuk- qutf- sun- ncD- toeht-unM- quoltX- is well taken, but its significance is by no means limited, as Mr. Bancroft supposed it to be, by that of the English participle " kneeling." In the verse cited it stands as the translation of the words u kneeling down to him" of the English text, or, more exactly, for " he kneeled down to him "- Eliot having substituted the indicative mood for the participle, as Indian syntax requires. We have thus five English words represented by the Indian synthesis. But the denotation of the latter is not yet exhausted. Eliot might have found, in the Massachusetts or any other Algonkin dialect, an equivalent for the verb " to kneel", in its literal and primary signification- u to rest on the bended knees" or ( active- intransitive) " to assume the position of kneeling." In 2 Chron., vi, 13: Daniel, vi, 10: Acts, xx, 36, he translated " he kneeled down " by ap- pef- sit-tuk qus' sin; but in the verse first cited, something more than the mere act of bending the knees or resting on them is implied. The verb here connotes supplication, submission, and worship, and all this is expressed in the eighth and ninth syllables (- nco- weht) of the Indian synthesis, th# whole of which may be translated, literally: " He, falling down upon his knees, worshiped [ or made supplication to] him." Thus the one Indian word of eleven syllables requires for its accurate interpretation eight or ten English words and at least eleven syllables. This tendency to synthesis is not manifested only in the grammatical structure. It may be traced far back to the roots of the language, and characterizes the primary verbs as truly as it does the many- syllabled cluster- words of later growth. Father Le Jeune, a Jesuit missionary in Canada in 1634, mentions as a peculiarity of the language of the Montagnars u the infinite number of words which signify many things together," and which yet had no etymological affinity with any of the words which signify those things severally; and he gave as an example the Montagnais verbpiouan, meaning " the wind drives the snow," but in which no trace appears of the words for * Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Antiquarian Society, vol. ii, p. 105. t Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Ethnological Society, vol. ii, p. cxlii. tDuponceau pointed out this word as the longest ho had met with in any Indian language except the Chippeway ( of Schoolcraft), in which " there were some verbal forms of thirteen and fourteen syllables. ( M6inoire sur le Systemo Grammatical etc., p. 143.) A more remarkable illustration of " the Indian way of compounding words " was given by the Rev. Experience May hew, preacher to the Indians on Martha's Vineyard, in a synthesis of twenty- two syllables, signifying " our well- skilled looking- glass makers"- Nup- pahk- nuh- t6- pe- p<> nau- wut- chut- chuh- qu6- ka- nch^ ha<- m ( MS. Letter, 1722.) |
