The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-15


takest, holdest), holisso paper, cloth), a Ito
or for), chauee ito cut). 10
If the object exhibited is gold spoon, he
will use the word Te,de, of which the print
tive meaning is stone, and the derivative one is
metal of any kinda curious illustration, by
the way, of the recent theories about the
stone age through which mankind is supposed
to have passed before making use of iron,
copper or bronze mplements)-whence we
have
| Teule-lakna yellow metal gold,
| and Teule alta white metal) -silver;
adding to the first compound the syllable
esM (thou takest or holdesD, and impa Ito
eat), he will make the single word Teuleelak-
neeshtimpa, signifying literally "gold thou
holdest for eating"
| If you meet some Chahtas OF their favorte
resort. between the two French markets, they
will tell you that the meat-market is nipa-
cha,aee, from nipi pronounced neepee, meat
and actaadee Ito cut), and the vegetable mar
ket they will call hashaucachampot (hashaul
herb. vegetable, achanpot, to buy) or hash
aukabanchee Ito SELF, to express the fact that
| they have come there either to buy or to sell.
| Another illustration taken from their for
mer pursuits is issishtoklee Ia deer-catcher, q
hunter), from issi pronounced esssee), a
deer, tolclee Ito catchy and the verb eeshet,
above quoted. The word issi in its turn
forms issinaIcmee "a buck, from issi and
naltmee, male); issi-teh; "a doe, from tek, fe-
male); issuchee, fawn (from ushee, smalD;
whence again we have issusheenakmee, male
fawn, and issusheetec, little doe.
Sta,oee Ia raccoon), makes Shaueeshtoltlee "a
raccoon hunter or taker); Naneeshtoklee (from
nance, fish, and the same combination as
above) a net to catch fish with. Again, from
Wax, an OK, we have ,caknaknaee bull;
1oattek, a COW; asakushee, a calf; ,0aleusheetek,
heifer.
From Oha (water), alta (white, foaming)
and chito Qarge, big) we have Okatachito, the
great white water the sea; Box (creek, bayou,
similarly gives US Bokchito, big bayou; Hatoah
river) makes with taIaya Qong), Hatchqfala
ya long river, and with houma (red), Hatcha-
houna, red river. From Hatak, man, and
apa eater, we have Hattakapa, man-eater; and
from Ope, leg, and loosa. black, Opeloosa.
black leg-appellations not over compliment
tary to the aboriginal dwellers in the Opelou-
sas and Attakapas regions of Louisiana.
Tangipaho comes from 1anchs (corn) apa,
to eat, and no, the; the corn eaters. The idea
of an ass is conveyed rather cirtuitously
through the compound misunderstanding
from issuba. horse, Mksobish, ears. and ta'aya,
long. A steamboat is called peni looah, from
peni, boat and looak, fire.
In writing the above Chahta words we have
been compelled to alter the spelling in order
to convey an idea of the sound of the novels to
English readers: their own spelling is far SIM
pier, being purely phonetic. They have adopted
our own alphabet, leaving out such letters
and sounds as do not exist in their language
(the consonant r, for instance, being one of
the most notable exceptions) and have added
one or two signs of their own invention.
But for the limited space at our disposal,
we could expatiate at great length upon the
Chahta conjugations, whose marvellous variety
and power Of expressing the incest shades of
thought and the most complicated relations
and notifications of action, surpass anything
that we ever heard or read of in relation to
any other language, either ancient or modern;
but the subject being entirely too vast and
complicated for the columns of daily news
paper, we prefer to close this necessarily very
brief and imperfect notice.of some of the m ost
striking peculiarities of the Chahta language,
with one or two specimens of Chahta hume or,
as displayed in their Apologies, and of their
eloquence, as illustrated by extracts from a
speech made by one of them to Chahta-Ina.
This We shall do in concluding article
We hope Father Rouquette, who, with the
exception of his brother, Mr.. Dominique
is perhaps the only man living
who can perform the task, will find sufficient |
leisure to give to the learned world the result
of his lifelong stady and thorough knowledge
Of that most difficult and curious language, |
result which may otherwise be forever lost to
the science of comparative philology. We
feel assured that the Smithsonian Institute, or |
one of the many learned bodies in both hemi-
spheres whose object is to promote philologi-
cal learning, would gladly furnish the means
Of publication and have no doubt that the |
good Fathers contribution to the science of
languages would prove of great and perma-
nent interest.