New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-06
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

sRAaMAR OF THR CHoCTAw LANGVASE by ne Rev S @
BVNeroS Etcd from the original NSs' R p cSis1 p
S'&K s. Sc, ES FGGaSPSa 1870
The Rev Cyrus ByingtOn, native OF Stock'
bridge Mass was a missionary among the ChoctaWsIor
nearly half century. died at Belpre, Ohio in De
eember 1868 He made ChOctaw dictionary OF some
IsoDo words and also grammar OF the language The
,,anuscript OF the latter deposited ny his widow
with the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia
with the understanding that should be printed IL ap
pears under the editorial supervision of Dr. brht"n'
whose Notes on Florida myths Of the New World
and other writings have rendered his name familiar
10 American readers He has, very properly, adj
bered 10 the language and arrangement OF
the original, instead OF modifying II a'cofd-
ing 10 his own modern pathological views.
The principal advantage of The work he careful arrange
ent Of the mode Of speech OF the Choctaws of the pres
ent century II makes attempt 60 indicate the W"rds
thrust the language from other Indian families OF
from European forms of speech; many specimens oil
these occur al through the grammar. as wax OF
"waki." for COW, which is from the spanish 'ocd
Neither does 10 point ont OF the distinct features Tor
which this family Of speech Is remarkable, such as the
use Of hc abals p D., m, but hc evidence OF II is to be
found quite ahundautly in the grammar The arrange
ent Of ideas i'm speech or words in sentences, is gener
ally the reverse OF the Eassh The epthet or adjective
for Instance ia Chocaw follows instead Of preceding the
noun as "is is % day anc," "horse black Nj. Byng-
ton however, intmatcs that the adectives are really
verbs, ana ne might nave gone lullltt anu iih''''
that in an probability many OF them had been nouns
This work furnishes tie data for correcting some OF the
errors Of Gaatiu's paper iu the "ArchTooga Ameri-
cana" Vol. II. The bcsetng error of all our writers
has been TO represent the Indians OF the Mohian basin
rs one family. Father cckcwelder, following the usual
track but more honest than Of his fellows says he
supposcs them % Doe OF family, as hc does not ho"
anything about them The truth s thateyery variety OF
sncicut American spe .ch Ia, been found confused
broken blended I'm confusion, bat sin bearing the marks
Of these different outline, iu the countries bordering on
the MeH lean Gulf and the mouth of the Mississippi
Nation after nation drifted, M early times, from the
Northwest and North las, toward the mouth Of the
Mississippi and the Mexican Gulf Did they float down
the great river carried like the wrecks OF forests
from its upper tributaries 20 Lodge in the
silt or drift. of its lower waters, were they
drawn 90 regions ri her I'm natural productionsl One
thing true that at the date Of the discovery the Ia
tycs OF the south Atlantic scaboard, from Virginia 70
the great river. the agrcutursts, and the most
highly developed aboriginal men of America. II is true
That they differed widely in character and language, hut
equally true that some the wandering Tribes from the
Eorth that invaded them adopted some Of their habits OF
Industry What We call the Creek Nation, or Muslokee
has been the OF many Of the hdcrs Of historians
snd others. The CoucdoEacy it las existed in various
conditions Of alliance for or two centuries Is com
posed Of the wrecks of many nations. The word Musko
kee means swomplaudcr" The Confederacy includes
some Choctaw and Chckasaw towns.