CpR]NEnS uMVERsinr UBRMY THE LANGUAGE r A THE DAKOTA OS SIOUX INDIANS Cornell University Library PM 1021.R71 Lanquage of the Dakota or Sioux Indians 3 1924 027 108 137 By E. L! 0. ECEHHIG. FROM THE EEPOET OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FOR 1871. WASHi:ffGTOI«r: " ■--■ • V GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFnCE. V; 1872. ■< O ^'' '"^ismh /riinil'" •^^5" ©7-2* CORNLLL\> UNIVERSITY ^V LIBRARY ON THE IVNKUAGE OF THE DAKOIA OR SIOUX INDIANS. By F. L. 0. EcEHKiG. lu the year 18G6 the writer of this article speut the interval from the ■ith of July to the 2Cth of November in constant intercourse with the Dakota or Sioux Indians, near Fort Wadsworth, Northern Dakota Territory. Previously to his going to that out-of-the-way region he had happened to make himself in some measure acquainted with the languages of several of the Indian tribes, particularly with the Chippewa tongue ; and he then at once directed his attention to the language of those Indians in whose immediate neighborhood he was going to reside for a while, namely, the Sioux Nation, or Dalcotas. It would take a whole volume to record his varicid experience with those interesting tribes and the result of his ethnological and linguistic researches during the time he lived among them. On this occasion, however, he will content himself with presenting to the reader only a very few faint and cursory glimpses of merely such matters as may arise in his recollection, and as pertain to the language of these people. It is hoped that his elucidation of desultory topics of this nature will not prove altogether uninteresting to the ethnologist or philological inquirer. Whenever any new truth is presented for our comprehension, or any^ new subject for our study and investigation, almost invariably the first thing for the human mind to do, and that, too, from an inherent craving for logical classification, is to inquire as to what other known truth the less known can possibly be linked; to what chain or series of analogous phenomena it necessarily belongs ; in what accredited system it has to take its place ; with what whole or totality it is connected as a part; and we seem never to be fairly at ease before we have arrived at the point of grouping or classifying the matter in some way or other. This applies also and particularlj- to languages. As soon as a new lan- guage begins to attract our attention, we feel at once an eager desire to classifj' it, so much so that we often cannot patiently wait even during the time necessary to collect the indispensable material from which alone we could possibly draw anj- legitimate conclusions in this respect. We at once ask , what other tongue such langiiage is like; with what ■'her it maybe compared; where among the languages of the world . has to take its place, &c., and hence the often over-hasty classifica- ' tions based upon mere casual and apparent resemblances. It is first of all necessary, in such cases, to be able fairly to survey a language in ail 4 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. its relations ; iu its manifold diversities, its dialects, and, if possible, also in its various and successive phases of development, in its primary forms or its original condition. So far as we know, the Dakota language, with several cognate tongues, constitutes a separate class or ftunily among American Indian languages, of which we may speak on some other occasion. But the question at present is, whence does the Dakota, with its related American tongues, come? Prom what trunk or parent stock is it derived ? Ethnologists are wont to point us to Asia as the most probable source of the pre- historical immigration from the Old World to this continent. Hence, they say, many if not all of our Indians must have come from East- ern or Middle Asia, and in considering their respective tongues, one must still find somewhere in that region some cognate, though perhaps very remotely related set of languages, however much the affinity exist- ing between the Indian tongues and these may have gradually become obscured, and in how many instances soever, through a succession of ages, the old family features may have been impaired. But they further allow, of course, that these changes may have taken place to such an extent that this affinity cannot be easily recognized, and may be much, even altogether, obliterated. When Ave consider the languages of the great Asiatic continent, of its upper and eastern portions more particularly, with a view of dis- covering any remaining trace, however faint, of analogy with or simi- larity to the Dakota tongue, what do we find ? Very little ; and the only group of Asiatic languages in which we could possibly faiacy we perceived any kind of dim and vague resemblance, an occasional analogy or other perhaps merely casual coincidence with the Sioux or Dakota tongue, would probably be the so-called "Ural-Altaic" family. This grou^p embraces a a ery wide range, and is found scattered in manifold ramifications through parts of Eastern, Northern, and Middle Asia, extending in some of its more remote branches even to the heart of Euroi)e, where the Hungarian and the numerous tongues of the far- spread Finnish tribes offer still the same characteristics, and an unmis- takable impress of the old Ural-Altaic relationship. In the following pages we shall present some isolated glimpses of such resemblances, analo.^ies, &c.?, with the Sioux language as strike us, though we lieed not repeat that no conclusions whatever can be drawn from them regarding any affinity, ever so remote, between the Ural- Altaic languages and the Dakota tongue. This much, however, may perhaps be admitted from what we have to say, that at least an Asiatic origin of the Sioux or Dakota Nation and their language may not be altogether an impossibility. , In the first place, we find that as in those Ural-Altaic languages, so in a like manner in the Sioux or Dakota tongue, there exists that remarkable syntactical structure of sentences which we might call a constant inversion of the mode and order in which we are accustomed to ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 5 tbiuk. Tbus, more or less, the people who speak those languages would begin senteuces or periods where we end ours, so that our thoughts would really appear in their mind as inverted. Those Asiatic languages have, moreover, no prepositions, but only jjostpositions. So likewise has the Dajkota tongue. The polysynthetic arrangement which prevails throughout the majority of the American Indian languages is less prominent, and decidedly less intricate in the Dakota tongue than in those of the other tribes of this continent. But it may be safely asserted that the above-mentioned lan- guages of Asia also contain at least a similar polysyuthetic tendency, though merely in an incipient state, a rudimental or i>artially devel- oped form. Thus, for instance, all the various modifications whiffli the fundamental meaning of a verb has to undergo, such as passive condi- tion, causation, reflexive action, mutuality, and the like, are embodied in the verb itself by means of interposition, or a sort of intercalation of certain characteristic syllables between the root and the grammatical endings of such verb, whereby a long-continued and united series, or catenation, is often obtained, forming apparently one huge word. How- ever, to elucidate this any further here would evidently lead us too far away from our present subject and purpose. We only add that post- positions, pronouns, as well as the interrogative particle, &c., are also commonly blended into one with the nouns, by being inserted one after the other, where several such expressions occur, in the manner al- luded to, the whole being closed by the grammatical terminations, so as often to form words of considerable length.' May we not feel au- thori2ed to infer from this some sort of approach, in however feeble a degree, of those Asiatic languages — ^through this principle of catena- tion — to the general polysyuthetic system of the American tongues °? We now proceed to a singular phenomenon, which we should like to describe technically as a sort of " reduplicatio intensitivaP It exists in the Mongoliau and Turco-Tartar branches of the Ural-Altaic group, and some vestiges of it we found, to our great surprise, also in the language of our SioTJS Indians. This reduplication is in the above-mentioned Asiatic languages applied i)artieularly to adjectives denoting color and external qualities, and it is just the same in the Dakota language. It consists in prefix- ing to any given word its first syllable in the shape of a reduplication, this syllable thus occurring twice — often adding to it (as the case may be) a "2J," &c. The objects — at least in the Asiatic languages alluded to — is to express thereby, in many cases, a higher degree or increase of the quality. An example or two will make it clear. Thus we have, for instance, in Mon- golian, Mara, which means Mack, and KHAp-fcAara with the meaning of very hlack, entirely Mack ; tsagan, tchite, TSA]}-tsa,gan, entirely white, &e., and in the Turkish and the so-called Tartar (Tatar) dialects of Asiatic 6 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. Eussia, Aftm, Uack, and iCAp-Awfl, ve)-y Made; sary, yellow, and SAp- sary, entirely yellow, &c. Now, in Dakota, we find sapa. Muck, and with tlie reduplication, SAp- sap«. The reduplication here is, indeed, a reduplication of the syllable sa, and not of sap, the word being sa-pa, and not sap-a. The " j> " in SAp- sajjflisinserted after the reduplication of the first syllable, just as we have seen in the above Mt-a and KAp-A'ar«, &c. In the Ural-Altaic languages " m " also is sometimes inserted after the iarst sj liable ; for instance, in the Turkish beyaz, u-hite, and BEm-beyaz, very white, &c. If we find, however, similar instances in the Dakoi'A language, such as iepa,^ which means fleshy, (one of the external qual- ities tt) which this rule applies,) and cEm-cepa, &c., we must consider that the letter "m" is in such cases merely a contraction, and replaces, moreover, another labial letter ("j; ") followed by a vowel, particularly " fl." Thus, for instance, 6om is a contraction for 6opa, gam for ga^a, liawi for Ha^a, skewi for skejja, om for o^ja, to»i for topa, &c. So is cem, ia our example, only an abridged form of depa; hence "im" stands here for "j;'" or "jj«," and belongs essentially to the word itself , while in those Asiatic languages the ''w" is added to the redujjlication of the first syl- lable, like the "p" in KA-p-lcura, &c. We have, therefore, to be very care- ful in our conclusions. The simple doubling of the first syllable is also of frequent occurrence in Dakota; for instance, gi, brown, and gigi, (same meaning;) sni, cold, and snisni ; Ico, quicli, and Icolco, &c. There are also some very interesting examples to be found in the Dakota language, which strikingly remind us of a remarkable peculiar- ity frequently met with in the Asiatic languages above adverted to. It consists in the antagonism in form , as well as in mcauin(j, of certain words, according to the nature of their voiccls ; so that when such words contain v,'hat we may call the strong, full, or hard vowels, viz : «, o, ii, (in the con- tinental proiuiuciation,) they generally denote strength, the male sex, affirmation, distance, &c., while the same words with the weak or soft vowels e, i, — the consonantal skeleton, frame, or grotind-work of the word remaining the same, — express weakness, the female sex, negation, proximity, and a whole seiies of corresponding' ideas. A few examples will demonstrate this. Thus, for instance, the idea of '■'■father'' is expressed in Mantchoo (one of the Ural-Altaic languages) by ama, while ^^ mother'''' is erne? This gives, no doubt, but a very in- complete idea of that peculiarity, but it will, perhaps, be siifflcient to explain in a measure what we found analogous in the Dakota language. Instances of the kind are certainly of rare occurrence in the latter, and we will content ourselves with giving here only a very few examples, in which the above difference of signification is seen to exist, though the significance of tlie respective vowels seems to be just the reverse ; whicli would in no wise invalidate the truth of the preceding statement, since ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DOKATA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 7 the same inconsistent alteration or anomaly frequently takes place also in the family of Ural-Altaic languages. [For further developments, see the Notes at the eod of this article.] Thus we iind in the Dakota or Sioux language, hEpai}, (second .sow of afamily,)and hApar), (second daughter of a, fumilj ;) cii), elder 6ro^/t, as Bago and Pflgo, two forms of one aud the same verb, mean- Also, the labials^ and mi are seen to interchange with 12 ON THE LANGUAGE (.)P THE DAKOTA OE SIOUX INDIANS. each other; thus,naplcaiDir) aud naMhaioi-Q, {to beckon toith the hand.) &c. There are also instances of a permatation between p and t, such aspeitisve aud petusTe, {a fire-brand,) &c. Also* and s sometimes interchange with one another, as in fcTaij and Ida^, which mean curved, whence the com- ])ounds yuTcT^a^ and yulcsai], meaning literally to malce curved or to bend, &c. It now aud then hapi)ens that such consonantal interchanges take place, and are, moreover, accidentally complicated by a transposition of the consonants in question; for instance, opTaye and oivaye, &c. It is important to take all these various changes into careful consideration when we wish to identify words in their different appearances, their in- numerable protean transformations, and often surprising modes of dis- guise, and to trace their origin, deri\ation, and various afiinities. In regard to the derivation and composition of words, the Dakota or Sioux language is particularly clear and transparent. Derivations can be traced with great facility, aud in'the matter of the formation of com- l)ound words, this language is remarkably apt and flexible. We will take this opportunity to present but a few instances of Dakota etymol- ogies, which will, however, be sufficient to enable the reader to form some idea of this particular subject. Ti means to dwell, to live in, and as a noun the same word means a dicelling-place, a house. With the addition of the substantive ending jp?, [tipi,) it means a tent, such as the Sionx ludiaus iuhabit; while when combined with the verb opa, wliich signifies to go in, to enter, to go to, it forms tiyopa, (for tiopa,) which is a substantive and designates a door, a gate, an entrance. Da is a verb which means to form an opinion, to thinlc ; its longer form is dalca, with the same meaning. This word added to the adjective icaste, good, forms the compounds iraitfida and tea stedalca, which mean to deem good, to think tcell of; hence, to love. On the contrary, when combined with sice, bad, it forms the compounds siceda and kioedaka, which mean to consider bad, and, by a natural transition, to hate. The word hoksi gives rise to a number of derivatives, of which we will here mention but a few. Tlie word itself does not appear to be used independently ; but Ave may, perhaps, infer its fundamental mean- ing, when we consider a compound expression like hoksi-cekpa, which not only means twins, but, in its probably more original signification, applies to a flower, and denotes a bhie >wUd flower which appears first in the spring, the earliest sp ring-flow er, tlius alluding to the first beginning of floral vegetation. In a similar acceptation, it seems to enter as the Ijrincipal constituent part into all words expressive of the idea of infancy and childhood, as liokiiyopa, a child =/tofcsfqp«, the verb opa, most prob- ably, with its meaning offollmving, going along with; hokiidai), a boy, daj] being a very common diminutive termination, alluding here, it seems, simply to the youth and small stature of a male during childhood, &c. ; hbkUwii] and hokiiu-iijna, a virgin. In the latter expression we distin- guish in the ending the word icii), that by itself means female, icoman, and ivijjna, which is its diminutive, and stands to it somewhat in the ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 13 same relation as the German frmdeln, a young unmarried woman, to frau^ a woman. The word gu means to burn ; guya is a causative form of gu, and means to cause to burn, to malce burn. This word a])j)ears also, and, it seems, in a more definite sense, under the form agw, (with prefixed a,) to buDi, and aguya, to cause to burn. With the usual substantive-ending of ^'er- bal nouns, viz: pi, aguyapi, means bread, as it were, something burned or balced. With a similar imijort the radical letters br in our English word bread, German 6rodI, seem to refer totlie same idea, as they appear also in 'SRennen, BRand, Buaten, TiUiihen, BUaiien, BRiiten, Buwist, &c., in all of which expressions the idea of heat, if not of fire, is evidently implied.'" Interrogatives, which also in this language coincide in their form with relative and indefinite pronouns, present here the peculiarity of commencing, in the greatest number of instances, with t or d, while the demonstratives hegm with Ic. For example: Tuice, icho ; TaJcu, what; ToJmn, when ; 'I'ohai), where ; Tona, how many, &c. And of the demon- stratives we may mention Ka, that ; liaki, there ; Kana, these. Sometimes we find also the guttural softened down to a simple h; as, for instance, B.ena, the equivalent of Kana, these ; He/iai], which means there, and an- swers to the above-mentioned tohai), ivhere ; and He/um, which means theti, and responds to tohan, ivhen. We may observe here, by the way, that in most of the other languages which come under our ordinary observation precisely the contrary takes place, viz : guttural letters (which are also sometimes found replaced by their equivalent Za&iafe) serving to express the interrogative ; while t, d, th, commonly occur in the demonstratives. Thus, we have in Latin ialis, iantus, tot, iam, tnm, tanc, &c. ; in Greek, rd, ruaoq, tots, SSc ; in English, i/iis, that, thus, theve, then, &c. ; and with the gutturals, in Latin, quis, quid, quahs, gifantus, qiiot,quam,qunm,&c.; in Greek dial., ■/.w(; = -ui<;- yMze^Tzu-e; zo-£/?o?=-«- -epo^, &c.^' The same phenomenon is remarked also, in a measure, in a great many other languages widely different from those last mentioned. We may state here, as a curious fact, that the DaJwta mode of express- ing the more essential part in interrogatives by t or d, and what cor- responds thereto in demonstratives by fc, obtains also in the language of Japan, where it constitutes indeed an eminently striking feature. It is true, Ic and t are interchangeable, aad, in many instances, convertible elements in languages generally, but their functions are kept distinct and apart in the particular matter under consideration. We pass on to the Dalcota word alcan, which means above. It is the same as aTcau, and if not identical with, is at least related to alcai) ; just as we see, for instance, the double forms Icahai^ and Icahaii, which mean then, there, so far, and one of which has n where the other has r) ; that is, n, with only a nasal pronunciation. Now, the alcaii, as an adjective, means also old, implying, no doubt, the idea of above, of superior to, (in stature or in years,) just as the Latin alias reappears in the German alt, English eld; old. This alcai), or, per aphceresin, simply Imx), appears also 14 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. in tlie form of icaMii)Jca,^^ an old woman. Alcai) reappears also under tbe forms {w)aJcan and imi)lcan, meaning likewise ahorc, np, high, superior, and being undoubtedly closely connected with the form {w)a'kaT), since n and I) are interchangeable terms, (as shown in the above /ca/iaN and Mhai^); and since certain derivates, moreover, are seen to confirm their intimate relationship, such as walcavjidida^n, pride, haughtiness, where loalcaz) evidently refers to real or fancied superiority, similarly to the Latin sztperbus, the French airier, &c. Perhaps loakapa also comes under this head, its meaning being to excel, to S!«rpas5, to be superior to, or to be above ; wal^apa standing, according to all appear- ance, for loaka^ilMpa, the latter part of which would be the verb Icapa, to pass by, to go beyond. Thus the primarj' and fnndamental meaning of icaiai) (=afcai), alcam, alcan) would te ivhat is superior or above, a supe- rior something or being ; hence it means a spirit, a ghost, and, as an ad- jective, spiritual, supernatural, divine. It gives rise to the following expressions: mini-tvalcai), which signifies alcohol, brandy^ as it were, sylrlt-icaier, ov spirituous liquor ;^^ ■walcaj) tanka, the Great Spirit, meaii- ing God; ^caliai) sioa, evil spirit, meaning demon, devil ; icoicapi walcai), literallj- spi^-it book, or spiritual, divine book, the Dakota name for the Bible; tipi-wakai), which means a diapelov church, literally spirit house, sacred house ; loiaaste-icakai), a clergyman, priest, literally a spiritual man ; &c. Thus, also, the lightning is called wakax)hdi, from icakai) (spirit) andhdi, (to come,) meaning, as it were, the coming down or arrival of a spirit. Also, the famous dance of the Sioux Indians, which is described as the Medicine-dance, viz : wakai) ivadipi, simply means spirit-dance or sacred dance, and, as Eev. S. R. liiggs expressly informs us in his Dic- tionary, is thus called especially from the fact that the high priests of the ceremonies spend the night pre-^ious in singular magic practices, and are holding communion loith the .spirit icorld. Then, again, we have the word wakaij in compound verbs, sucTi as icakaij Icago, which means liter- ally to make wakaij, as it were, to attend the acts of ivorship or divine ser- vice; and ic«/i«riecoijg means to perform supernatural acts, to do tricks of jugglery, of magic. A great error has been committed by travelers gen- erally, who, resorting, perhaps for information, to the stolid half-breed Sioux Indians, who are often still more ignorant, if possible, of English than the travelers are of tlie Dakota tongue, have identified the idea expressed by the word ^vakan and everything therewith connected with that of the healing art, or medicine. To be sure, healing a disease, restoring a sufferer from sickness to health, is in the opinion of the wild Indian always and ])reeminently a supernatural, wonderful act, in which beings of a higher order directly participate, and which is geneially brought about by means of magical performances, conjuring, necromancy, and sorcery, rather than by the administration of remedies or other medi- cal appliances. There is no such thing as a ^^ medicine man'^ among these Indians, and they have not even a word for it ; for n-idaate-waJmi), which has been erroneously taken for such, simply means a supernatural ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 15 man, SL spirit man, a magician, 'And the like, and has come subsequently to be applied to thQ priest, clergyman, or missionary. An Indian doctor is called wapiye among the Dakotas, which simply means a conjurer, and is derived from the verb wapiya, to conjure the side, which in its turn comes irompikiya, to conjure. A physician, or one who cures diseases by means of medicine, is always called yeHhuta-wi6as,te, from peii, which means grass, also dry grass, herb, and huta, which denotes the root of trees or plants, so that the compound peiihuta, ^vhich properly means medicine,'* would signify literally herbs and roots, and peiihuta- wioaate a herb-and-root man; which epithet is almost exclusively applied to American doctors resident in the vicinity of those In- dians and to military surgeons at the forts in their territory. Among these people the gathering of herbs and root, and the administration of such medicines are, indeed, not in anywise ujicomnion; it is, however, not at all the occupatiou of men, but of women. The word foi^ mouth is (, whence is derived the verb ia, to speaJc, which in its turn gives rise (by the addition of the ending pi so common in the formation of verbal nouns) to the substantive iapi, speech, language. (Thus Balcota iapi, the Dakota language, properly the language of the companions, friends, or allies.) The verb lia means to curl. It is also used with the reduplication, viz: liah«, as an adjective especially,' to denote curling, curled. The same when combined with mini,''' loater, signifies curling water ; and thus mini- litflia is the usual word for a waterfall, a cascade generally. Often lialia alone is used to designate a waterfall; mini (water) being-understood, just as we are accustom^ed in English to employ simply the word"/aHs" in the same sense. Thus the word YMXiatiiriiie is used, meaning those icho dwell or live at the falls, the people around the waterfalls, an expression which has become among the Dakotas the ordinary name of the Chippewa Nation. ^° To translate the word miniYiaha (or erroneously written " minne- haha^y by laughing waters, seems to be a gross mistake, most probably the result of imperfect information derived from some half-breed Sioux who was perhaps asked, (the inquirer wrongly analyzing the word,) " Whatis meant by mimie f" To which theresponse was doubtless, •'Min? means water." " And what does ihahd signify?" The answer to which must have been : "Ilifflia means to laugh." (No doubt i signifying mouth, and \a, to curl; iha and «li«lia mean to curl the mouth or the lips, that is, to laugh.) When Eev. S. K. Eiggs, in his otherwise very excellent Da- kota Dictionary, explains iha^ia by " to laugh along as rapid' water, the noise of watetfalls,"'^ he is unconsciously led astray by that current popular error. In fact, such an interpretation is founded on nothing, and is prima facie quite contrary to all right etymology.'^ And to do justice to Mr. Eiggs, for whom we profess the highest esteem, and who is without any comparison the best grammarian and lexicographer who has ever yet appeared in the domain of American Indian philology, we 16 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. will state that he likewise exf)lains (in his dictiouary) haha by '■^water- falls, so called from the CUELING waters.'^ Our views on this subject, as on various other similar matters, were, moreover, fully approved by Eev. T. S. Williamson, another distin- guished missionary, andahighly respectable authority asregards the Da- kota language, with whom we had many a long conversation on such topics every time we happened to meet with him in the territory. Much might yet be done in investigating that most interesting Ian, guage, in a strictly philological mauuer, and also tracing particularly the many Dakota names of mountaius, hills, rivers, lakes, &c., to their true origin and meaning. They almost always contain some attractive allu- sion, something legendary or traditional, which might lead to most vai- nable results in regard to the history, religious ideas, ancient usages, &c., of this largest and most powerful of all the Indian tribes of North America. We now say, in conclusion, that on this continent, researches in phi- lology, ethnology, and history should have for their main object the lan- guages and nations of AMERICA. The iield is comparatively new and exceedingly interesting ; an immense deal has to be done in this domain, the real labors of thorough and exhaustive investigation having not even yet begun. If these unpretending pages, contributed by the author as his first mite to that kind of research which he wishes to see undertaken by the scholars of this country, serve as an incentive to others to inter- est themselves in these studies and^ devote some of their time and exer- tions to the same, his object will have been successfully attained. NOTES. ' Such intercalations are, in a meiisnre, almost analogous to the usual insertion of the many incidental clauses in long Latin or German sen- tences, if we are allowed that comparison. 2 d stands in the present transcription of the Dakota language for tch; s for sh ; t) for nasal n ; dotted letters indicate a peculiar emphasis in their utterance, for which we have no precise equivalent in English. ' Other examples in Mantchoo are k'«k'«, meaning male, code, while keke means hen, &c. These pheimmena are, in their last analysis, redu- cible to a fixed principle, which still prevails, to some extent, in the above-mentioned group of Asiatic langnages, and'which we have some reason to believe once formed an essential part of many other tongues. We might perhaps not inipropeily recognize in that antagonism some- thing of polar opposition, some law of polarity. There are distinct and polarly- opposite correlative vowel-classes, viz : a, o, u, in the continen- tal pronunciation, which are, as it ^yeve, positive, and e, i, which are neg- ative. Sometimes, however, the reverse takes place, so that e, i, have the power and significance of a, o, «, and vice versa, (a quasi " inversion of the poles.") This division is not an arbitrary one, but — we remark ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 17 this by the way — the classification results quite naturally from a cer- tain antagonistic relation of these vowels, respectively, to the guttural letters, their very test and touchstone. According to the nature of these vowels, the word receives often its charucteristic meaning in those Asiatic languages; hence, only vowels of the same class occur in one and the same word. It would lead us too far from our present subject if we should now elucidate more fully the phenomenon under consideration. We wish to make only a few remarksmore. This peculiarity extends to adjectives and to verbs — qualities, (positive or negative, as the case may be,) actions, and states of being ; even to postpositions, &c., (direction, tendency, &c.) We could, indeed, illustrate it by hundreds of examples, especially in the Central-Asiatic languages, even in the Celtic tongues, particularly the Irish. We might point out a very considerable nuju- ber of such instances finally depending on a certain principle of vowel- harmony. Even in our own ancient and modern languages we can now and then discover some slight and obscure vestiges of that pei'haps originally quite extensive phenomenon of significant vowel antagonism. For instance, in the Greek iia-/.p-oq and ixup-uq ; b-d and krU; the article and :^ ; tS and tJ ; rm and r-ijv, ''Ap-r/g and '"Ep-i<;, &c.; in Latin, in c«l-idus and gel-idus ; perhaps, also, in the fundamental form homin and femin, (implying hemin: f=h, as in Span, /tembra;) in Hebrew, Nf]n and n'H; Arabic y° and (^ ; \xu and hi, &c., and other expressions of contrast, negation, or opposite tendencies generally. We also find in German stMmm and stimm — referring to the voice or its absence ; in English, the verbs to step and to stop, &c. ^ Though it is almost evident that ^Mq has not a separate and inde- pendent existence in the language, but is always found combined with pronominal suffixes, such as cmij/cm, {her elder sister,) we nevertheless meet also compounds like the following: iuxjya, to have for an elder sister. We may, therefore, safely conclude that 6ui) in ouiilcu and the verb cuxjya is the word which designates an elder sister. Moreover, the form 6ui)lcu has a parallel expression in cii)6u, which means his elder brother ; and as ku is identical with cm in consequence of a very common con- sonantal permutation, it becomes obvious that 6uii, indeed, means elder sister, as ot'i) is known to signify elder brother. ^ In the Grusinian language, mama me'dvs father — an apparent anom- aly, owing, perhaps, to a mere interchange of the labials, passing here over into their extrenfes. Another shifting of the labials, though less in extent, we find in the Asiatic tongues, where we also meet with baba, for father, /a/a for mother, &c. " By means of such postpositions the declension of nouns is effected in the Ural-Altaic languages. The Dakota cases of declension, if we can use this term, amount likewise to a very rude sort of agglutination, or rather sin)i)le adding of the postpositions to the nouns. There can be here no question of any real inflection or declension, since there is throughout only a kind of loose adhesion, and nowhere what we might call a true cohesion. The postpositions are in the written language 18 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OE SIOUX INDIANS. added to the nouns witbout being conjoined to them in writing, (except theplnral ending^?',) as is also the casein the Mongolian language, the Turco-Tartar dialects, and other tongues of this class. "" We see in the historical development of our own modern languages an abundance of similar phenomena ; thus in i-espeet of the mere qiiasi- monumental, and, as it were, fossil existence of labials, such, for in- stance, as b, p ; and in regard to English words like debt, which in French long ago became dette. In English the b of debt {== debitum) has become only silent, while in Erf»i;ch, on the contrary, it has now no tolerance whatever, even as an historical landmark. There is, in fact, more conservatism in English. The Erench appears a more volatile, changeable element, even in the minor details of the language. Thus, again, we have in English the word doubt, with petrified silent 6, which they seem unwilling, as yet, to let go, while in French we have doute without that b. Many other examples might be adduced in sui^port of this very simple and common fact in all languages. In sept, (seven,) the French still neglect ridding their language of that now useless silent jj. They do, it seems, not affect such antiquities, and will, most likely, do with words like sept as they have done with clef, (clavis,) where the final labial/ became gradually silent but was left untouched. It is even now allowed to remain, but another form has already come into use at the same time with it, and a Iceij is now a-days clef and cle. ^ This interchange is seen in qlmost all languages of one and the same family, when compared with each other; thus, for instance, the use of Ic instead of t constitutes one of the characteristic differences between the Hawaiian tongue of the Sandwich Islands and the language of Ta- hiti, the Marquesas, Earotaugan, &c., both groups, however, belonging to the Malayo-Oceanic, or more particularly the Micronesian stock. " c stands here for a letter that does not strictly belong to the word, viz. y, which is merely inserted euphonioally betvreen liolcii and opa. 10 wg venture this deri%-ation so much tiie more boldly, inasmuch as the etymology of bread, brod, &c., is, in a degree, still an open question, Grimm connecting it — though not particularly insisting thereon — with brocken, brechen, to break, &c., while Anglo-Saxon scholars endeavor to trace the English word bread to breadan, (to nourish,) which, however, seems rather to be a denominative verb, such as lighten from light. Their etymological attempts being mere opinions, mere assertions with- out proof, we feel encouraged to maintain ours. " The T in the Greek nV is only an apparent exception to it, as is well understood by those conversant with the facts of comparative grammar. ^^ There is some room left tor an attempt to derive walm^Tca direct from wakai). The ideas possibly underlying such a derivation would appear to us rather far-fetched and fan(!iful. " Other Indian tribes call alcoholic liquor /re-water instead of spirit- water, as, for instance, the Chippewas, in whose language it is ishlcode icabu, &c. " The ^y or d peiihtita is also applied to various other vegetable esseu- ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 19 ces, beverages, &c. Thus, coffee is called peiihuta sapa, literally, black medicine ; just as the Ghippewas express it in their language by malcade mashlciki tcabu, (black medicine water.) ^^ The word mini (water) is the same which is contained also in the name of Minnesota^ (properly mini-sota,) meaning loliitisli water, and refer- ring to the Wakpa minisota, which is the Minnesota or St. Peter's River, and also to the 3Ide minisota, the so-called " Clear Lake." 1^ It is often the case that Indians give to other nations names simply derived from some entirely external, merely accidental, and altogether unessential circumstance or quality in these strangers, which at first principally struck their attention. Thus, for instance, the inhabitants of the Unitetl States are called by the Dakotas Isa^ianlia, meaning Big Knives; by the Ohippewas, Jciichimolcoman, which likewise signifies Big Knives, probably from the sicords of the United States soldiers in the Territories. ^^ Just in the same way, the erroneous orthography of " Minwesota" was introduced for the more correct Minisota ; and this is seen again — we mention it in passing — in that monstrous Dakota-Greek compound, " MiuMeapolis," meaning " Watertown." " Any such meanings of i\dka, as " to bubble " and making a noise like that of waterfalls must be considered simply as secondary, as a mere extension of the original signification of that word, \iz. laughing, i+Yidha, mouth-curling, as it were; nothing whatever being contained in the constituents of that word which could have even the remotest refer- ence to icater or a cascade. The word itself seems to follow this devia- tion from its proper import, being even differently accentuated in that sort of figurative acceptation, viz. iliaha instead of ih.dh.a. " Similar blunders frequently occiir. Thus, iu the erroneous and un- meaning English translation of Indian names generally — for instance, of " Hole-in-the-Das/ " — in which word it was intended to express simply one who (t^s a powerful archer) perforates the sky with his arrows, which we could easily place beyond any doubt, if it would not lead us too far from our present subject. So have travelers, too, themselves put the words " squaw,'" '^papus," &c., into the mouths of the Dakotas, though these words belong exclusively to widely different tribes, and are on other occasions again repeated by the Dakota Indians to strangers, as they simply suppose such words to be English, and, therefore, more in- telligible to tlie latter ! The same applies to the Chippewa word " nibo," (he died or is dead,) which travelers, probably deeming it the general and only Indian term for that idea, taught, as it were, to the Dakotas,- who constantly make use of it in their conversation with Americans, mistaking it in turn and in like manner for an English word, or some ■ thin^ more easily accessible to the mind of the strangers.