_The nominal inflection_ shows but three cases: The first in -i (or
-a, -o, -u), which may be called absolute;[132] the subjective case in
-t, -it (-at, -ut), and the objective in -n, -in (-an, -un). The
absolute case, when used as a vocative, often lengthens or strongly
accentuates the last syllable. The suffix -n indicates the direct and
indirect object, and also sometimes the locative case. Diminutives are
formed by means of the suffix -odshi, -udshi.
[Footnote 132: Absolute case has to be regarded as a provisional
term only. I call it absolute, because the natives, when giving
vocables of the language not forming part of a sentence, mention
them in that case in Creek, in Hitchiti, in Koassáti, etc. In
the sentence this case often corresponds, however, to the
_status constructus_ of the Hebrew.]
_Substantive._ The substantive noun does not inflect for number except
in a few terms designating persons which form a plural in -agi, -aki:
míko _chief_, míkagi _chiefs_, to be distinguished from míkalgi _class
from which chiefs are chosen_; húnanwa _man_, hókti _woman_;
hunantági, hóktagi. It is the archaic form of -akīs, the verbal
ending of third person plural of certain verbal inflections. Cf. -a`li
in Hitchiti.
The suffix -algi, though sometimes used as a plural suffix, designates
collectivity: u-ikaíwa _spring of water_, u-ikaiwálki _place with
water-springs_, and u-ikaiⁿálki _people living at the springs_;
alíktcha _conjurer_, alíktchalgi _conjurers as one body, taken in a
body_.
The parts of speech being but imperfectly differentiated, tenses can
be expressed in nouns by adding suffixes: míko _chief_, mikotáti,
míko-ō′mā _one who was, has been chief_; míko-ta`láni _a future
chief_; adsulagitáti _the defunct forefathers_.
_Adjectives_ form a real plural by appending the suffix -agi, -aki to
the base. This applies, however, only to a limited number of
adjectives, like:
atchúla _old_, pl. atchúlagi
hí`li _good_, hí`lagi
tcháti _red_, tchátaki
yíktchi _strong_, yíktchaki
The majority of the adjectives and of the attributive verbs derived
from them form derivatives, which in some instances may be called
distributive, in others frequentative and iterative forms. They are
formed by a partial reduplication of the radix, when the basis is
monosyllabic, or often of the last syllable of the basis, when the
word is polysyllabic. Examples:
lásti _black_, láslati _black here and black there_; verbified:
lánis, laslánis _it is black_.
hállui _high_, hálhawi _each of them high_.
súfki _deep_, súfsuki _deep each_, or _deep in spots_.
súlgi _many_, súlsugi _many of each_.
hólwaki _bad_, holwahóki _each bad_.
líkwi _rotten_; lík'howi (animals), líkliwi (vegetables).
kotchúkni _short_, kotchúntchoki _short in spots_.
sílkosi _narrow_, sílsikosi _narrow in places_, from sílki
_strip_.
Adjectives are made negative by appending the privative particle -go,
-gu, -ko, -ku: ítskisusi _having a mother_, itskisusiko _motherless_;
hí`li _good_, hí`ligo _not good, bad_.
Gradation of adjectives and of attributive verbs formed from these can
be effected in different ways, which are more perfect and expressive
here than in those Indian languages which can express gradation only
by syntactic means.
A comparative is formed by prefixing isim-, isin-, isi-, apheretically
sim-, sin-, si- to the adjective or the attributive verb, the two
objects compared standing usually _before_ the adjective or verb. This
prefix is composed of the particle isi-, is- and the possessive
pronoun im-, in-, i- of the third person (s. and pl.), and corresponds
somewhat to our _than, as_. The object compared stands in the
absolute case.
kát'tcha yahá isin`lákit ómis _the panther_ (kát'tcha) _is
larger_ (`lako _large_) _than the wolf_ (yahá; ómis _is so_).
tchátu tchátu-χunáp-hatki (i-)síntchalatuit ómis _iron_
(tchátu) _is harder than silver_.
ma tchī′panat ma hóktudshi (i-)simmáhis _this boy is
taller than that girl_.
A superlative is formed by placing i`li-, apheretically `li-, before
the comparative: máhi _tall_, isímmahi _taller than_, i'lisímmahi,
`lisímmahi, `lisímahi _tallest of_, lit. "still taller than the taller
ones."
ma tsúku halháwat i`lisihálluit ómis _this house is the
highest_; lit. "higher than the high ones."
A superlative may be expressed also by using the comparative instead:
ma tchípanat anhopuitáki omálgan isímmahis "that boy is the tallest of
all my children"; lit. "that boy is taller than all my children." Or
the superlative is expressed by the augmentative adverb máhi: _very,
quite, greatly, largely_ yíktchi máhi, _the strongest_, which at the
same time means: _very strong, quite strong_; `láko máhi _largest_ and
_very large_; máhimahi _tallest_ and _very tall_; the latter also
being expressed by a lengthening of the vowel: mā′hi _very tall_.
Minuitive gradation is effected by inversion of the sense in the
sentence and the use of the comparative; they say: "silver is costlier
than iron," instead of saying: "iron is less costly than silver."
What we call prepositions are generally nominal forms in Creek,
inflected like nouns and placed _after_ their complements as
_postpositions_, governing the absolute case:
únapa, subj. únapat, obj. únapan _above, on the top of_;
`láni únapa (or: `láni yúksa) _on the top of the mountain_.
tchuku-ófan läíkäs _I stay within, in the house_; -ófan,
-ofa, -úfa, -of is also temporal suffix: _when, while,
during_: yá o`lolopí-ófan _in this year_.
inúkua atígin ak'húi`l _he stands in the water up to_ (atígin)
_his neck_.
tsá`lki a`láχkan _on account of my father_.
tchukú ilídshan, _under the house_.
ítu ilídshan, ítu tchískan _under the tree_.
_Numerals._ The cardinal numeral has a full form ending in -in, and
another abbreviated from it used in counting objects, and not
extending beyond _ten_; an ordinal, with prefix -ísa-, is-, apheret.
sa-, s-; a distributive substituting -ákin to -in of the cardinal, and
an adverbial form in -a.
_Cardinals._ _Ordinals._
1 hámgin hámmai ihatitchíska _first_
2 hokólin hŏ′ko sahokólat _second_
3 tut'tchínin tút'tchi satut'tchínat
4 ō′stin, ū′stin ō′sti sō′stat
5 tcha'hgípin tchá'hgi satcha'hgíbat
6 ipákin ípa (i)sipákat
7 kolapákin kólapa iskolapákat
8 tchinapákin tchínapa istchinapákat
9 ōstapákin óstapa isūstapákat
10 pálin pá ispálat
20 páli-hokólin páli-hokólin ispali-hokólat
100 tchúkpi hámgin tchúkpi hámgin istchúkpi hámgat
_Distributives._ _Adverbials._
1 hamgákin and hamgahákin ahámkutcha _once_
_one to each_
2 hokolákin and hokolahákin ahokóla _twice_
_two to each_
3 tut'tchinákin atút'tchina
4 ūstákin ō'sta
5 tcha'hgipákin tcha'hgíba
6 ipakákin and ipahákin ípaka
7 kolapakákin kolapáka
8 tchinapahákin and tchinapakákin tchinapáka
9 ōstapahákin and ōstapakákin ūstapáχa
10 palákin and palahákin pála
20 pali-hokolákin páli-hokóla
100 tchúkpi hamgákin tchúkpi hámgat
tipaχótchki "folded once"
tipaχó'hli ō′stin "folded four times"
tipaχó'hli tchinapákin "folded eight times"
hamháχosi "one here and one there, scattered."
The _personal pronoun_ is as follows:
_I_ áni, subj. ánit, obj. ánin, abbr. am-, an-, a-
_thou_ tchími, tchímit, tchímin tchim-, tchin-
_he, she, it_ ími, ímit, ímin im-, in-, i-, m-
_we_ pómi, púmi; pómit, pomin pom-, pum-, pon-
_ye_ tchimitáki, etc. tchintági
_they_ imitáki, etc. íntaki
Cha'hta distinguishes between the inclusive and exclusive pronouns
_we, our_, but Creek and Hitchiti do not.
The _possessive pronoun_ is as follows:
_my_ tcha-; am-, an-, a- tcháka _my head_
_thy_ tchi- tchíka _thy head_
_his, her, its_ im-, in-, i- íka, _his, her, its head_
_our_ punági, pu-tági, pu-, po- pukatáki, póka _our heads_
_your_ tchinakitáki, tchimitaki, tchi-tagi tchikatági _your heads_
_their_ inakitáki, imitági, i-tagi ikatáki _their heads_
_The possessive relation_ is usually expressed:
(1) by the possessive pronoun prefixed to the object possessed:
tcháka _my head_, anhopuitáki _my children_.
(2) when two nouns, especially substantives, stand in the
relation of possession, the possessor stands in the absolute
case before the object possessed, the pronoun im-, in-, i-
being prefixed to the latter.
isti Mashkóki imíkana _the land of the Creek men_.
ádshi intálapi _ear of maize_; lit. "maize its ear."
ádsh' imápi _stalk of maize_.
íngi ítchki _his thumb_; lit. "his hand its mother."
_Other pronouns_:
isti _person_ is used as indefinite pron.: _somebody_; istíka
_somebody's head, a person's head_; stillipaíχa _boot_,
from isti, íli, paíχa; isti hápu _somebody's camping place_.
istä′mat, pl. istämatáki? _who_?
istómat? abbr. ístat? (s. and pl.) _which? which one?_
hía, ya, í-a _this_ (close by); subj. híat, obj. hían (in
Cheroki: hía _this, this one_).
ma, mat, man _this_ (further off).
ása, ásat, ásan _that_ (far off).
_Verb._ The Creek verb is of the polysynthetic type, and inflects by
means of prefixes, infixes and (chiefly by) suffixes. It possesses an
affirmative, negative, interrogative and distributive form, which
latter is used as a form for the plural of the subject in the
intransitive verbs; it also has a large number of conversational forms
usually derived by contraction, ellipses, etc., from the regular or
standard forms; and in some of its inflections also a reverential
besides the common form. It is rich in modes, verbals and voices and
may be called _extremely_ rich in tense-forms, when we compare to it
the poverty of many other American languages.
The verb incorporates the direct and indirect _pronominal object_ and
inflects for person. In certain conjugational forms the personal affix
is a prefix, in others a suffix. The historic tense, a sort of aorist,
is formed by the _infix_ -h- and a change of the radical vowel occurs
at times, though not so often as in Cha'hta. Intransitive verbs show
special forms, according to the number of the subject (singular, dual,
plural). Very frequently these latter forms are made from different
roots, as will be seen from the instances given below. Many transitive
verbs have, when their object stands in the plural, a (distributive)
form differing entirely or partially from the one referring to an
object in the singular; a few others show this change, when their
subject passes from the singular to the plural number. Other
transitive verbs are combining the two inflections just described.
Adjectives can be verbified and then appear in the shape of
attributive verbs: haúki, pl. hauháki _hollow_; haúkäs _I am hollow_,
haúkis _it is hollow_, hauhákis _they are hollow_. No real
substantive verb being extant, its want is supplied by ómäs, mómäs,
tóyäs _I am so, I am such_; these are conjugated regularly, and when
connected with the verbals in -t (-at, -it, -ut) of any verb, compose
a periphrastic conjugation which displays itself in an almost infinite
number of forms.
From all this it becomes evident, that the Creek verb surpasses in its
large power of polysynthesis the Algonkin, Dakota and Kalapuya verb,
and in the richness of its forms approaches closely to the Iroquois
verb, which is poorer in tenses, but has an impersonal conjugation and
fourteen persons to each tense of the finite verb. Creek is likely to
surpass also the Basque verb, which has become proverbial for the
almost infinite number of its intricate verb forms.[133]
[Footnote 133: "L'invincible vencido" is the title of the first
conjugational system of Basque, as published by Larramendi.]
I propose to give below the inflection of the Creek verb in its
general outlines only, as far as necessary to give an idea of the
subject. The Creek conjugation is regular throughout in its standard
forms, though the conversational form has introduced modifications.
_Inflection of_ ísita _to take, carry, hold_ (one object) _and of_
tcháwita _to take_ (more than one object). Only three tenses were
given here as examples of tcháwita, although it has as many modes,
tenses and other forms as ísita.