The Washington bee. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1884-1922, 1895-11-16
The English of the Indians.

Lieut., Grote Hutchinson, aide-de-camI
to Gen. Coppinger, is in receipt of q
highly interesting letter from one of his
brother officers now in camp at For,
Hall agency In Idaho, the home of the
Indians who were mixed up in the re-
cent Jackson's Hole trouble. The let
ter is interesting because it has moth
ing to say of Jackson's Hole, which is
relief. Instead, it deals largely with
conditions at Fort Hall from the stand
point of student of ethnology.
Il am TAKEN" says the writer, whose
name Lieut.. Hutchinson does not feel
at liberty to mention, with the speech
of the Indians in their communication
with the whites. Having little to oc-
cupy time. have bothered to look in
to the origin of the kind of language
which 1 hear used by Indians and trad
ers in their talk with one another. 1t
suggests the slang Of the Bowery, be-
ing a purely artificial adjunct to both
the Indian and the English language.
1t suggests, too, the baby talk Of young
mothers, who insist on placing verbs
where nouns should be, and who prefer
mixing up their first, second, and third
persons to taking them straight. For
instance, there is the word 'mebbe.'
At first / thought this to be a sort of
corruption Of may be, meaning perhaps.
or used in a doubling way. This is not
true. The Indian and the white in con-
versation use 'mebbe' as an affirma-
tive. 'Mebbe get wagon is the strong
est way of declaring that you will get
a wagon. You eat mebbe' brings de-
light to the Indian. for that is a prom
Use of giving him food, promise which
may by no means be evaded. A white
man, too, in conversing with an Indian
when an Indian will converse. and
when he knows even this patois, inject=
mebbe' into his talk at every fourth
word, or if he gets excited he puts it in
at the third.
There is no pronoun in the mixed
vocabulary of the reservation. The
words white man and Injun' will fill
in for all the persons and all the cases,
too, by the way. Somebody will write
an Indian-English grammar some day,
and it will be comprised in less than a
hundred words. Simplicity takes the
place of explicitness, 1 am bound to
say, and sometimes you have to use a
carefully trained ear to know whether
or a request that is being flung at you.
Mood is unknown in the grammar OF
the Bannack.
Il discover that the English language
Of Fenimore Cooper and OIL Coomes are
non-existent. 1 have dug profoundly
into the Ugh and the three word SEN
fences Of the novelist. and I find they
are out Of fashion. If you succeed in
getting an Indian to talk to you at all
he will not shut off with three words
ending in an exclamation point. Meth
er will he use the expression pale
face No self respecting Indian says
pale face now.
"Althol N the language Is a study
worth attention. Seriously, / imagine
text book could be compiled which |
would really result in a great good for
the Government in bringing the Indians
TO something like civilized habits. AS
1t is, the instruction Is based on the
same conditions as prevail in the Eng
lish language and with English-speak- |
ing persons This does not fit the In |
dian. His language Is simplicity itself, |
~. ere are two twists Of case. tense, |
>, ike. AS to tense. one illustra- |
ito Ill show. Take the word Go.
We have it go, went, gone, going, will |
co. while the Indian puts in two cases. |
go and was CO. If he wishes to
make it a future tense he simply puts
in the specific time, as He go to-mor- !
row, mebbe.' which to my mind Is quite !
expressive of the idea. seriously be- |
lieve attention might be called to this |
situation among scholastic men and |
perhaps we would be able to get along |
without rascally and incompetent in |
terpreters. One hundred words would |
be a good ulary."-Council Bluffs |
Daily Nonpareil.