Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-28
INDIAN l LANGUAGES
Curiosities and Some of tho Excellencies
of the Aboriginal Tongues

Curiosities and So me of the Excellencfes
of the Aboriginal Tongues
Daniel W. Fowler's paper on Indian LAM
guages read before the Wisconsin Natur-
al History Society at its monthly meeting.
was the result of years of study on the
subject. A century ago the Algonquin
tribes were mighty in numbers and IN
huence. The writer quotes extensively
from the Rev. c. Nerwyst, from the trans
lators of the American Pathological So
ciety. and from articles written by Ham
mond Turnbull.
THE Ochipwe nation of Indians" he
said, commonly called the ChippewaS,
are now the most numerous tribe OF mod
ern Algonquins, belonging to a family of
cations which formerly occupied the coun-
try from the Mippssippi to the Atlantic
Ocean. and entirely surrounded the Five
Nations, known as the lroquois. several
different attempts have been made to pro-
duce dictionaries of the Algonquin tongue,
some OF which were made more than 100
years ago The latest is the dictionary
and grammar of the Chippewa language
made by the late Bishop Baraga, who
died about thirty years ago. after having
spent between thirty and forty years
among these people
According to the grammar OF Bishop
Baraga, which is a standard work on this
subject the Chippewa alphabet is com
posed OF thirteen consonants and TOUR
vowelS The vowels are d, q. /, o. There
is no letter la the Chippewa dialect. The
thirteen consonants the b, G. d, g, h, j, k,
m, n, p. :. t, W. The letters f. !, Z, r, V,
X, and do not occur, and the Indians
who speak it can badly pronounce them,
and Often not at all. They pronounce I
and as b and p are pronounced in Eng
lish: and like n; as, for instance, the
word farina is pronounced panU; David,
Dabid: Maria, Name, and margarine,
Magct; and the speakers name, Fowler,
would be Pownen. The vowel "a is pro-
nounced like "a" in father; 'e'' as in net;
i as ia pin: % as in note There is no
exception, and they are never silent There
are all the parts of speech except articles
THE Chippewa Indian. not having the
use of any gender in his language, has to
express the gender by the addition of some
word or words, as for example. the words
PHI XII is used as we would use the word
cattle" to express all kinds, but when he
speaks of one of the male kind of cattle
he says nabe PHI XII The other sex would
be ikwe PHI XII.
In transitive verbs, the object Of the
Verp determines its character whether
animate or inanimate. In intiansttive verbs
the subject determines it, Here are some
examples: Min saga anishuiawbe,' | owe
the Indian; min sagiton ishkotewabe, l
love frewater Abo or wabo iS. strictly
speaking liquid, and it may be applied to
Lii. lr.,, Ia l II n
any 49,, ni.'. " .t.t,i T., ~, ~ s,rnr,
Yea u,lnh' Vi "ae.N s,', 80 D' it
tea lin vi Nv" ~ .,.-.ia,,.at,o
min - .,iti
PIaye, "a'ei NJ e,,s
on the water: 1shkotc- nau- bi-qwon,' fire
boat or steamboat b and bic refers
to water, as 'ogedebic. he is on the water;
Observation-Disclosures '"e 'i"' - 'ui' "
water
hn 1nHi "a IL
Inc ihuiah 'ou'i may oeoo'',e an a. ,4
jew, VI "ioie 'u'Nti9 ~,
hnsish artlcIe Is at'ac'ieu u '"e i"'i"'
noun III 'hs MAMIE
Mltcnlkanahoo'uJi6W' ho'"s
ana hitchihanahooiuJiS" ""-l"'il
"issisooanehas ID 10 oe u""s'd'eu iiiS'
VINO perhaps ala not pui'u FENCES lneSe
words are al made IL Is SAD accofuNle
to nXed rules some attempts nave peet
made TO prove mat the root WORDS OIL tue
Algonquin have resemblance 10 Sahscrl'
ana some OIL the Iothc tongues pu' WIN
small success, ana where there Is resein'
blance 1t may nave oeen Dy chance'
The Dacotah language says De Smet
the missionary, has hve Voweis ana TWEEN
ty-fVe ccnSonants. Dacotah verbs are
usually placed after the nouns with whlct
theE are useu' ine paco'nas nave Nv
names for male children and 1--WE for fe
male children, thus denoting the order OF
their birth in either case Boys are nam
ed Caski, Hepan, Hepi Catan, ana Hakc
Girls are named Mlnona' Hapan, Hapiste
: ma. Wanski, and Wihake''
The Chippewa language abounds II
l long words. many of them containing
l eight, ten, and even more syllables. There
are two reasons to account for these Ions
words First the continual adding OF new
sylll bles to express the various moods