The language spoken around me is the Chippewa tongue, which, with little
variation, is spoken also by the Ottawas, Pottowottomies and
Missasaguas, and diffused all over the country of the lakes, and through
a population of about seventy thousand. It is in these countries what
the French is in Europe, the language of trade and diplomacy, understood
and spoken by those tribes, with whom it is not vernacular. In this
language Mrs. Schoolcraft generally speaks to her children and Indian
domestics. It is not only very sweet and musical to the ear, with its
soft inflections and lengthened vowels, but very complex and artificial
in its construction, and subject to strict grammatical rules; this, for
an unwritten language--for they have no alphabet--appears to me very
curious. The particulars which follow I have from Mr. Schoolcraft, who
has deeply studied the Chippewa language, and what he terms, not without
reason, the philosophy of its syntax.
The great division of all words, and the pervading principle of the
language, is the distinction into animate and inanimate objects: not
only nouns, but adjectives, verbs, pronouns, are inflected in accordance
with this principle. The distinction, however, seems as arbitrary as
that between masculine and feminine nouns in some European languages.
Trees, for instance, are of the animate gender. The sun, moon, thunder
and lightning, a canoe, a pipe, a water-fall, are all animate. The verb
is not only modified to agree with the subject, it must be farther
modified to agree with the object spoken of, whether animate or
inanimate: an Indian cannot say simply, I love, I eat; the word must
express by its inflection what he loves or eats, whether it belong to
the animate or inanimate gender.
What is curious enough is, that the noun or name can be conjugated like
a verb: the word _man_, for instance, can be inflected to express, I
_am_ a man, thou _art_ a man, he _is_ a man, I _was_ a man, I _will be_
a man, and so forth; and the word husband can be so inflected as to
signify by a change of syllables, _I have a_ husband, and _I have not_ a
husband.
They have three numbers, like the Greek, but of different signification:
they have the singular, and two plurals, one indefinite and general like
ours, and one including the persons or things present, and excluding
those which are absent; and distinct inflections are required for these
two plurals.
There are distinct words to express certain distinctions of sex, as with
us; for instance, man, woman, father, mother, sister, brother, are
distinct words, but more commonly sex is distinguished by a masculine or
feminine syllable or termination. The word _equay_, a woman, is thus
used as a feminine termination where persons are concerned. Ogima, is a
chief, and Ogimquay, a female chief.
There are certain words and expressions which are in a manner masculine
and feminine by some prescriptive right, and cannot be used
indifferently by the two sexes. Thus, one man addressing another says
"nichi," or "neejee," my friend. One woman addressing another woman
says, "Nin,dong,quay" (as nearly as I can imitate the sound), my friend,
or rather, I believe, female relation; and it would be indelicacy in one
sex, and arrogance in the other, to exchange these terms between man and
woman. When a woman is surprised at anything she sees or hears, she
exclaims, "N'ya!" When a man is surprised he exclaims, "T'ya!" and it
would be contrary to all Indian notions of propriety and decorum, if a
man condescended to say "N'ya!" or if a woman presumed to use the
masculine interjection "T'ya!" I could give you other curious instances
of the same kind. They have different words for eldest brother, eldest
sister, and for brother and sister in general. _Brother_ is a common
expression of kindness, _father_, of respect, and grandfather is a title
of very great respect.
They have no form of imprecation or swearing. Closing the hand, then
throwing it forth and opening it suddenly with a jerk, is the strongest
gesture of contempt, and the words "bad dog," the strongest expression
of abuse and vituperation: both are unpardonable insults, and used
sparingly.
A mother's term of endearment to her child is "My bird--my young one,"
and sometimes playfully "My old man." When I asked what words were used
of reproach or menace, I was told that Indian children were _never_
scolded--_never_ menaced.
The form of salutation in common use between the Indians and the whites
is the _bo-jou_, borrowed from the early French settlers, the first
Europeans with whom the North-west Indians were brought in contact.
Among themselves there is no set form of salutation; when two friends
meet after a long absence, they take hands, and exclaim, "We see each
other!"
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