The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages Part 2

p.r.o.nOUNS.

The Dak and Algonkin p.r.o.nouns are amazingly dissimilar; the Dak and I E are remarkably alike.

1st person sing. inflection, ma, mi, m, in I E and Dakota. The Dakotan forms are however oftener prefixed than suffixed eg; Dak root ha have (Teut aih own) yu formative prefix, 3 yuha he has; 2 duha thou hast; 1 mduha I have; t.i.ton 3 yuha, 2 luha, 1 bluha.

1st p stem. The ga of Lat ego A S, ic etc. appears in Iowa, ka, ke, etc.

The chief base of nearly all the Dak languages is however, ma, mi, corresponding to I E ma, mi; Lat me, mi; Eng me, etc.

1st dual and Plural stem. I E na, Lat no, Mandan nu; Teut dual onki, Goth ugki, A S unc, Dak unki and un. The base wa whence we, has become in Dak wa I, in Omaha wi me, in Iowa inflection plural wa, us, etc.

2d. I E twa has become in Dak ni (cf Swed ni thou). It is however in Omaha thi identical in sound with our thee, and da, di in most allied languages similar to German du. Dak ya pl yapi you, and our you are probably also of this base. The Iowa forms the possessive of personal p.r.o.nouns like the Icelandic by -i; Icel min my; Iowa min my.

3d person, I, he, she, it, extremely frequent in I E languages, is the base used in all the Dakotan languages as least partaking of a demonstrative nature. In Dak it is omitted except when emphatic.

I E sa reflexive and emphatic; Min she, the same. Contracted to s it forms I E nominative; in Dak, as sh nominatives of i (ish), mi, ni and unki, and occurs in composition; in Min it forms proper names.

I E sa, ta; Teut tha, this, that; Om the, this; Dak ta, to in many compounds.

I E sawa genitive of sa, ta reflexive possessive for all persons; Dak tawa the same, also ta. It is in the third person used alone in Dak, but suffixed to i in Minnetaree. All its forms in Min, and those of the first and second persons in Dak are double possessives a.n.a.logous to mine, thine.

Eu ki, kina, that, this, he, she, it; Dak ki, his, her, its, etc. In Nom kana those, etc.; sing ka that, the vowel is raised as in the Greek keinos. For abridgement of stem in singular compare our ox, pl. oxen, Nortumbrian oxena, and other relics of stems in na; Teut hina this; Crow hina this.

From kina, hina, originated the Icelandic and Swedish pastpositive def.

article the; likewise Dak kin postpositive def. article the; ke emphatic p.r.o.noun kuns, clf, etc. Of this base A S stem he, he, she, it; Dak he (pl hena) he, she, it, that.

Slav Teut da this; Dak de (pl dena) this.

I E antara other; Mandan ant that.

I E i demon, pref, this; Dak i.

I E a dem. pref; Min a, o; Dak o.

I E wa p.r.o.nominal base used in compounds; Dak wa p.r.o.nominal prefix some, something. Prefix wo (wa- -o) forms abstract nouns and nouns of agency.

I E ka int. and rel. p.r.o.noun; p.a.w.nee ka interrogative; Dak ka interrogative suffix and in compounds; Ger wer; Dak tu-we who int. and rel; Gk po; Min tape who, tapa or tako what. I E neuter base ku what; Dak ta-ku what rel. and int.

I E wika all the whole; Dak wicha them, incorporated objective. Iowa wi; Dak pi plural suffix seems to be a contraction of this base.

a.n.a.logous to A S, accusative mik of ma- -ga we have; Dak accusative michi, in which the k has become ch through the influence of i; also the accusatives unki-chi, ni-chi, i-chi.

NUMERALS.

I have compared the Dakotan numerals with all others accessible to me, including some of the forms of more than five hundred dialects. I can find less than half a dozen American or Turanian sets that resemble any Dakotan set as much as the English numerals resemble the Hebrew. The similarity of the Dak to the I E numerals can therefore be accounted for only as the result of special relationship or of accident. Except as noted below all changes are in accordance with well sustained laws.

1, A S an, Lith (w)ena; Dak (w)-an, ind. article wanzhi one, wancha one, once.

2, I E dwa; Min d(o)pa; Iowa n(o)wa; Dak n(o)m pa cf A S ta two; Dak ta a pair.

3, I E traya; Iowa tanye; Dak ya -mni [or ya (m) ni?]

4, I E k-atwar; Iowa towa; Dak S topa; Y tom; T tol.

5, I E kankan, kw.a.n.kwan; Mand kikhun; Dak zaptan?

6, I E kswakswa; Win hakwa; Iowa s.h.a.gwa; Dak shakpe.

7, A S seowon; Dak shakowin.

8, I E aktu, Gk hokto; Dak Y sh-akdo-ghan; Sant sh-ahdo-ghan.

9, I E nawan; Dak na (pchi) wan-ka.

10, I E dwakan; Lat decem; Dak wikchem-na.

5, I E k = Dak z otherwise sustained but not proved. Kw = kp = tp = pt, t and k being interchangeable before l.a.b.i.als in Dak.

7, Neither A S seowon nor Dak shakowin are legitimately deducible from saptan. Perhaps sakan, sakwan was the true base.

8, Either Gk h or Dak sh may equal I E s. Dak d for I E t is rare but S.

hd, Y. kd is a favorite combination.

9, I cannot explain inserted pchi.

10, In Dak m and n are interchangeable before l.a.b.i.als, but m for I E n is here unsupported.[I] D cannot stand before w in Dak.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote I: Whitney Skt Gr 487 appears to regard m, as in Latin decem, the original nasal.]

VOCABULARY.

The table of sound representation heretofore given serves to compare the materials of the main body of the Dak with Fick's I E bases. The results are, however, in many cases ambiguous. Besides the number of accidental resemblances of the Dakotan to the I E languages seems, to be much greater than the whole number of similarities between Dakotan and Algonkin languages. Dak anapta is identical with I E anapta in sound, closely similar in meaning. Dak a-na-pta is prep. a = Icel a on, na prefix converting root to verb, and pta separate; cf I E pat fall, also open (Lat pateo). I E an-apta is an negative prefix, and apta participle of ap attain. My father compared Dak chepa fat with Lat adeps. I have since found Min idip fat almost identical with Lat stem adipi. I E and Lat d and p are nearly always d and p in Min; but it is extremely doubtful whether the words are related. On the other hand there is little apparent similarity between Eu karpya shoe, and Dak hanpa shoe; but the Dak word represents the Eu as accurately as possible; similar forms are found in every Dakotan language, and it seems scarcely possible to me that the similarity can be accidental.

In giving a few additional examples of similar roots I select those that are the most obvious, rather than the most certain. I exclude those not in accordance with sound representation, and the a.n.a.logies of such allied Dakotan and I E forms as are known to me.

Where the Dakotan forms are not used as separate words it is indicated by a hyphen, before, if used alone as a verb stem, after if it requires suffixes. Where the root is found primarily combined with only one suffix or prefix the derivative form is given. In some cases the Dak root has one of the meanings given in one combination, another in another.

Eu i go; Dak i go.

Aryan u mangle; Min u wound; Dak o.

Eu ak tell, relate; Dak o(y)-aka.

Eu aka mother; Min ika mother.