The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-01-09
ENGLISH OF THE INDIAN
they, If Nobody Else, Havo Succeeded in
Simplifying Our Mother Tongue.

Simplifying Our Mother Tongue.
Lieut.. Grote Hutchinson, aid-de-camr
TO Gen. Coppinger, is in receipt of
highly interesting letter from one of
his brother officers now in camp at Fort
Hall agency, Idaho, the home of the In
dams who were mixed up in tn
recent Jackson's Hole trouble. Tho
letter is interesting because it has
nothing to say of Jackson's Hole,
which is a relief. Instead, it deals
largely with conditions at Fort Hall
from the standpoint of a student of
ethnology.
Il am TAKEN" says the writer, whose
name Lieut.. Hutchinson does not feel IT
liberty to mention, with the speech II
the Indians in their communications
with the whites. Having little to oc-
cupy time, have bothered to look into
the origin of the kind of language
which l hear used by Indians and
traders in their talk with one another.
1t suggests the slang of the Bowery,
being 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
persons TO taking them straight
instance, there is the word m (ebbeJ
At first 1 thought this to be sPrt of
corruption of may be, meaning per-
haps, or used in a doubling way. This
is not true. The Indian and the white
in conversation use 'mebbe' as am af-
ftrmative. 'Mebbe get wagon is the
strongest way of declaring that you
will get a wagon. You eat mebbe'
brings delight to the Indian, for that is
a promise of giving him food, a promise
which may by no means be evaded. A
white man, too, in conversing with an
Indian, when the Indian will converse,
and when he knows even this patois, in
jects '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 q
hundred words. Simplicity takes the
place of eXplicitness, am bound to say,
and sometimes you have to use a care
fully-trained ear to know whether it is
threat, a command or q promise, or a
request that is being flung at you.
Mood is unknown in the grammar of
the Bannock
Il discover that the English language
of Fennimore Cooper and OIL Coomes
are noneXistent. l have dug profoundly
into the Ugh and the three word SEN
fences of the novelist, and l 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 II. an exclamation point
Neither will he use the expression pale
face No self-respecting Indian says
lEfItosetfer tne Iangr,a o..
worth attention. Seriously, I imagine
text book could be compiled which
would really result in 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 Embellishments
ing persons. This does not fit the In.
han. His language is simplicity it.
self, and there are no twists of case.
tense or the like. AS to tense, one illus
tration will show. Take the word Go.
we have it go, went, gone, going, will
GO while the Indian puts in two cases,
go and was 60 If no wishes to make
1T future tense he simply puts in the
specific time, as He go tomorrow. meb-
be- which to my mind is quite express
I'VE of the idea. l seriously believe at
tention might be called to this situa-
ton among scholastic men and perhaps
we would be able to get along without
rascally and incompetent interpreters.
One hundred words would be a good
vocabulary" - Council Bluffs Nom
pareil.