LETTER XXIV.

FROM MR. HECKEWELDER.

BETHLEHEM, 5th September, 1816.

DEAR SIR.--I have received your favour of the 30th ult. I answer it first at the end, and begin with your etymology of the word _Canada_. In looking over some of Mr. Zeisberger’s papers, who was well acquainted with the language of the Onondagoes, the principal dialect of the Iroquois, to which nation the Mohawks belong, I find he translates the German word _stadt_ (town) into the Onondago by “_ganatage_.” Now, as you well know that the Germans sometimes employ the G instead of the K, and the T instead of the D, it is very possible that the word _Kanada_ may mean the same thing in some grammatical form of the Mohawk dialect. As you have seen it so employed in Captain Brandt’s translation, there cannot be the least doubt about it. This being taken for granted, it is not improbable that you have hit upon the true etymology of the name _Canada_. For nothing is more certain than what Dr. Wistar once told you on my authority, that the Indians make more use of _particular_ than of _generic_ words. I found myself under very great embarrassment in consequence of it when I first began to learn the Delaware language. I would point to a tree and ask the Indians how they called it; they would answer an _oak_, an _ash_, a _maple_, as the case might be, so that at last I found in my vocabulary more than a dozen words for the word _tree_. It was a good while before I found out, that when you asked of an Indian the name of a thing, he would always give you the specific and never the generic denomination. So that it is highly probable that the Frenchman who first asked of the Indians in Canada the name of their country, pointing to the spot and to the objects which surrounded him, received for answer _Kanada_, (town or village), and committing the same mistake that I did, believed it to be the name of the whole region, and reported it so to his countrymen, who consequently gave to their newly acquired dominions the name of _Canada_.

I had never heard before I received your letter that there existed a country where the men and the women spoke a different language from each other. It is not the case with the Delawares or any Indian nation that I am acquainted with. The two sexes with them speak exactly the same idiom. The women, indeed, have a kind of lisping or drawling accent, which comes from their being so constantly with children; but the language which they speak does not differ in the least from that which is spoken by their husbands and brothers.

The question you ask about _n’petageep_ and _n’petagunewoakup_, both of which Zeisberger translates by _sie haben mir gebracht_, is easily answered. The translation is correct in both cases, according to the idiom of the German language, from which alone the ambiguity proceeds. _N’petageep_ means “they have brought to me,” but in a general sense, and without specifying by whom the thing has been brought. _Es ist mir gebracht worden_, or “it has been brought to me,” would have explained this word better, while _n’petagunewoakup_ is literally rendered by “_they_,” (alluding to particular persons,) “have brought to me,” or _sie haben mir gebracht_. You have here another example of the nicely discriminating character of the Indian languages.

I believe I have never told you that the Indians distinguish the genders, animate and inanimate, even in their verbs. _Nolhatton_ and _nolhalla_, both mean “_I possess_,” but the former can only be used in speaking of the possession of things inanimate, and the latter of living creatures. NOLHATTON _achquiwanissall_, “I have or possess blankets;” _cheeli kœcu n’nolhattowi_, “many things I am possessed of,” or “I possess many things;” _woak nechenaunges nolhallau_, “and I possess a horse,” (and a horse I possess.) The _u_ which you see at the end of the verb _nolhalla_, conveys the idea of the pronoun _him_, so that it is the same as if you said, “and a horse I possess _him_.” It is the accusative form on which you observed in one of your former letters and is annexed to the _verb_ instead of the _noun_.

In the verb “_to see_,” the same distinction is made between things animate and inanimate. _Newau_, “I see,” applies only to the former, and _nemen_ to the latter. Thus the Delawares say: _lenno newau_, “I see a man;” _tscholens newau_, “I see a bird;” _achgook newau_, “I see a snake.” On the contrary they say, _wiquam nemen_, “I see a house;” _amochol nemen_, “I see a canoe,” &c.

It is the same with other verbs; even when they speak of things lying upon the ground, they distinguish between what has life and what is inanimate; thus they say, _icka_ schingiesch_in_[305] _n’dallemans_ “there lies my beast,” (the verb _schingieschin_[305] being only used when speaking of animate things;) otherwise they will say: _icka_ schingiesch_en n’tamahican_, “yonder lies my ax.” The _i_ or the _e_ in the last syllable of the verb, as here used in the third person, constitutes the difference, which indicates that the thing spoken of has or has not life.

It would be too tedious to go through these differences in the various forms which the verb can assume; what I have said will be sufficient to shew the principle and the manner in which this distinction is made.

I inclose a translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Delaware, with the English interlined according to your wishes. I am, &c.

THE LORD’S PRAYER IN THE DELAWARE LANGUAGE.

Ki _Thou_ Wetóchemelenk _our Father_ talli _there_ épian _dwelling_ Awosságame, _beyond the clouds,_ Machelendásutsch _magnified or praised be_ Ktellewunsowágan _thy name_ Ksakimowagan _thy kingdom_ peyewiketsch _come on_ Ktelitehewágan _thy thoughts, will, intention, mind,_ léketsch _come to pass_ yun _here_ Achquidhackamike _upon or all over the earth,_ elgiqui _the same_ leek _as it is_ talli _there_ Awosságame _in heaven or beyond the clouds_, Milineen _give to us_ eligischquik _on or through this day_ gunagischuk _the usual_, _daily_ Achpoan _bread_, woak _and_ miwelendammauwineen _forgive to us_ n’tschannauchsowagannéna _our transgressions_ (faults), elgiqui _the same as_ niluna _we_ (particular plural) _we who are here_ miwelendammáuwenk _we mutually forgive them_, nik _who or those_ tschetschanilawequéngik _who have transgressed or injured us_ (past participle) woak _and_ kátschi _let not_ n’páwuneen _us come to that_ li _that_ achquetschiechtowáganink _we fall into temptation_; (ink, _into_), shuckund _but_ (rather) ktennineen _keep us free_ untschi _from_ medhicking _all evil_ Alod _for_ Knihillátamen _thou claimest_ ksakimowágan[306] _thy kingdom_ woak _and_ ktallewussoágan _the superior power_ woak _and_ ktallowilissowágan _all magnificence_ ne _from_ wuntschi _heretofore_ hallemiwi, _ever_ (always) Nanne leketsch. _Amen._ (so be it; so may it come to pass.)