NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.



quin and the Huron has
ty of turns, a propriety
seldom prevails in some
of Europe.
  In the Huron all ik
which cannot be we
verbs, the nouns, the



e a richness of expression, a varne-
of terms, and a regularity which
of the more cultivated languages



s conjugated; a certain device,
,11 explained, distinguishes the
pronouns, the adverbs, &c. The



simple
the dth(
ders, fo
say, the
ber an
Greek
Asia;
selves 4
The v
which



verbs have a double conjugation, one absolute, and
er reciprocal: the third persons have the two gen-
r there are but two in these languages; that is to
e noble and the ignoble gender. As to the numa
d tenses, they have the same differences, as the
  It     Is-



an
fox
dif
'er
fal



ct some languages spoken
* instance, to relate travels,
rerently according as it wa
bs active multiply, as often
11 under action: as the verb i



varies as there are things to eat. The action is express-.
ed differently in respect to anything that has life, and an
inanimate thing; thus, to see a man, and to see a stone, are
two different verbs; to make use of a thing that belongs
to him who uses it, or to him to whom we speak, are also
.- v      I



in the north east of



they express them-
's by land or water.
as there are things
vhich signifies to eat



two culerent
  It may be
guages from
considerable



certain
hand, r
poverty
ludi ng
or pove
noranc
etn n n



verbs.
said, and it is certain
their richness and v
difficulty in learning



ly
Ar



tU



true, that these Ian-
iety are attended with
iem, and it is no less



that their poverty and barrenness on the other
render them equally so. When we speak of their
y and barrenness, we must not be understood as al-
to the sterility of the languages; for the richness
wrty of a language depends on the knowledge or ig-
e of th-people who speak it. The Indians, for in-
cq lr r-1VI Af-re nI-a.  - -Ai 1.  I* T * I  u2 *   -



LOt1t, LA oruui UL gaVe iUllt LO t1 uuncrs wnictn they did not
use, or which did not fall under their senses, so that when
Europeans conversed with them on subjects with which
they were unacquainted, they were naturally in want of
terms to express their ideas. Even the refined languages
of Greece and Rome, when we speak of modern inventions
                        9



93



a   a/'t



- V