Part 2 — LETTER XVIII. FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.

Bethlehem 12th August, 1816.

Dear Sir.—I have duly received your two letters of the 31st of July and 3d of August last. I am much pleased with your metaphysical disquisitions, as you call them, and I beg you will indulge in them with perfect freedom, whenever you shall feel so disposed. I agree with you that a proper classification of human languages would be a very desirable object; but I fear the task is too hard ever to be accomplished with the limited knowledge of man. There are, no doubt, many varieties in language yet to be discovered.

As you wish to be acquainted with the manner in which our North American Indians compound their words, I shall endeavour to satisfy you as well as I am able. The process is much the same as that which Egede has described with respect to the Greenland language, and this strongly corroborates your opinion respecting the similarity of forms of at least of those of North America. In the Delaware and other languages that I am acquainted with, parts or parcels of different words, sometimes a single sound or letter, are compounded together, in an artificial manner, so as to avoid the meeting of harsh or disagreeable sounds, and make the whole word fall in a pleasant manner upon the ear. You will easily conceive that words may thus be compounded and multiplied without end, and hence the peculiar richness of the American languages. Of this I can give you numerous examples. In the first place, the word “nadholincen.” It is a simple short word, but means a great deal. The ideas that are conveyed by it are these: “Come with the canoe and take us across the river or stream.” Its component parts are as follows: The first syllable “nad” is derived from the verb “naten,” to fetch; the second, “hol,” from “amochol,” a canoe or boat; “ineen” is the verbal termination for “us,” as in milineen, “give us;”—the simple ideas, therefore, contained in this word, are “fetch canoe us,” but in its usual and common acceptation it means, “come and fetch us across the river with a canoe.” I need not say that this verb is conjugated through all its moods and tenses. Nadholawall is the form of the third person of the singular of the indicative present, and means “He is fetched over the river with a canoe,” or simply, “He is fetched over the river.”

From wunipach, a leaf, nach, a hand, and quim, a nut growing on a tree (for there is a peculiar word to express nuts of this description and distinguish them from other nuts) is formed wunachquim, an acorn, and the ideas which by this name are intended to be conveyed are these: “The nut of the tree the leaves of which resemble a hand, or have upon them the form of a hand.” If you will take the trouble to examine the leaves of an oak tree, you will find on them the form of a hand with outspread fingers. On the same principle are formed

M’sim, hickory nut. Ptucquim, walnut. Wapim, chestnut. Schauwemin, beech nut, and many others.

The tree which we call “Spanish oak,” remarkable for the largeness of its leaves, they call “Amanganaschquiminschi,” “the tree which has the largest leaves shaped like a hand.” If I were to imitate the composition of this word in English and apply it to our language, I would say Largehandleafnuttree, and softening the sounds after the Indian manner, it would perhaps make Larjandliffentree, or Larjandlennuttree, or something like it. Of course, in framing the word, an English ear should be consulted. The last syllable of that which I have last cited, is not taken from the proper name for tree, which is hittuck; but from “achpansi,”288 which means the “stock, trunk or body of a tree” (in German “der stamm”). The last syllable of this word, “si,” is in its compound converted into schi, probably for the sake of euphony, of which an Indian ear in this case is the best judge.

Again, “nanayunges,” in Delaware means “a horse.” It is formed from awesis, a beast, from which the last syllable es is taken, and nayundam, to carry a burden on the back or shoulders; for when something is carried in the hands or arms, the proper verb is “gelenummen.” The word which signifies “horse,” therefore, literally means, “the beast which carries on its back,” or in other words, “a beast of burden.” Were asses or camels known to the Indians, distinctive appellations for them would soon and easily be formed.

Thus much for the names of natural substances, and words which relate to visible objects. Let us now turn to the expression of ideas which affect the moral sense.

You will remember that I have told you before that “wulik” or “wulit” signifies “good,” and in the various derivations which flow from it means almost every thing that is good, just, proper, decent, pleasing or agreeable. When an Indian wishes to express that he is pleased with something that you have told him, he will say in his metaphorical language: “You have spoken good words.” Now let us see how this compound idea is expressed. “Kolamoe” is one of the forms of the past tense of a verb which means “to speak the truth,” and properly translated signifies “thou hast spoken the truth,” or “thou hast spoken good words.” K, from ki, expresses the second person, “ola” is derived from wulit and conveys the idea of good; the rest of the word implies the action of speaking.

In the third person, “wulamoe” means “he has spoken the truth;” from which is formed the noun substantive wulamoewagan, “the truth:” wagan or woagan (as our German Missionaries sometimes write it to express the sound of the English w) being a termination which answers to that of “ness” in English, and “heit” or “keit” in German. Pursuing further the same chain of ideas, wulistamoewagan or wulamhittamoewagan, means “faith” or “belief,” the belief of what a man has seen or heard; for glistam is a verb which signifies “to hear, hearken, listen;” hence “wulista,” believe it, wulistam, he believes; wulisto, believe ye, &c. The Indians say klistawi! hear me! nolsittammen, I believe it; ammen or tammen abridged from hittammen, where they are employed as terminations, mean “to do, perform, adopt.” See what a number of ideas are connected together in single words, and with what regularity they are compounded, with proper terminations indicating the part of speech, form, mood, tense, number and person, that they respectively belong to! The various shades of thought that those different modes of speech discriminate are almost innumerable; for instance, wulistammen means simply to believe; wulamsittammen to believe with full conviction. I would never have done, if I were to point out to you all the derivatives from this source, or connected with the idea of belief, which word I bring forward merely by way of example, there being many others equally fruitful. There is wulamoinaquot, credible, worthy of belief (sometimes used as an impersonal verb, “it is credible, it deserves to be believed”); welsittawot, a believer; welsittank, a believer in the religious sense, &c.

The syllable pal or pel prefixed to some words, implies denial, and also frequently denotes wrong and is taken in a bad sense. Hence palsittamoewagan, unbelief; palsittammen, to disbelieve; pelsittank, an unbeliever; pelsittangik, unbelievers. Again, palliwi, otherwise; palliton, to spoil, to do something wrong; palhiken, to make a bad shot, to miss the mark in shooting; palhitechen, to aim a stroke and miss it; pallahammen, to miss in shooting at game; pallilissin, to do something amiss or wrong.

M. de Volney has very justly observed on the Miami language, which is a dialect of the Lenape, that m at the beginning of a word implies in general something bad or ugly. It is certainly so in the Delaware, though not without exceptions, for mannitto, a spirit, by which name God himself, the great and good Spirit is called, begins with that ill-omened letter. Nevertheless the words “machit,” bad, and “medhick,” evil, have produced many derivatives, or words beginning with the syllables med, mach, mat, mui, me, mas, &c., all of which imply something bad, and are taken in a bad sense. For instance, mekih and melih, corruption; machtando, the devil; machtageen, to fight, kill; machtapan, a bad, unpleasant morning; machtapeek, bad time, time of war; machtonquam, to have a bad dream, &c. I mention this merely to do justice to the sagacity of M. Volney, whose few observations upon the Indians induce us to regret that he was not in a situation to make more.

I begin to feel fatigued, and therefore shall take leave of you for the present and reserve the remainder of my answer for my next letter.

I am, &c.