N' “I” and “We.”

This is an abbreviated form used in conjunction with the verb as a prefix. The pronoun in full is Ni Nin “I,” Ninou “We.” Both the pronoun itself and the abbreviated form in which it is used as a prefix, occur in the Hebrew in which the latter is used as a suffix!

This Algonquyn pronoun is identical with an Algonquyn word for “A Man,” which, it will be observed, renders the proofs of affinity between the Semetic and Algonquyn dialects in this instance complete.

Algonquyn.Semetic.Welsh.
“Man.”“I,” or “Me.”“I,” or “Me.”
Anini.[157]A.nee, (Heb.) A.n.a, (Arabic.)Innai.
Ini.Innai.
N-nin.
“I,” or “Me.”
Nin.
Ni.[158]Nee, (Heb.)
N'.
“We.”“We.”“We.”
A.n.ou, A.n.c'h.n.ou.Ni.
Nin-ou.N.c'h.n.ou, (Heb.)Nyni.
Nin-owin.N.h.h.n, (Arabic.)Nyninnou.

K', “Thou” and “Ye.”[159]

This is also an abbreviation, the Pronoun in full is Ki, K-in, K-il, “Thou;” Kin-owa, and Kil-ou, “Ye.”

Algonquyn.Semetic.Welsh.
“Thou, Thine.”“Thee, Thy.”
K'.C'. (Heb.)
Kee.C'.ee. (Heb.)
“Ye, Yours.”“Ye.”
K'.
Ki.Chwi.
Ki-nowa.C-oun. C-n. (Chald.)C-m. (Heb.)
Kil-ou.

Du Ponceau notices another grammatical feature in which it is clear, though he was unconscious of that fact, that these North American Indian dialects form a connecting link between the Semetic and Indo-European languages. “We find,” he observes, “many Nouns substantive with M prefixed in such a way as to form an integral part of the words.”

This is a Semetic mode of forming a Noun from a Root! In Latin, Nouns are formed from Roots by the same Letter placed at the end of words, as in Regn-um, a mode of which we have also had an example in the Algonquyn dialects, in the words M'-huk, Mok-um!

Where long intervals of time have elapsed, it is in all cases difficult to discriminate between the proofs of a general and remote, and those of a near and specific relation. Still I conceive the previous examples tend, in some measure, to render it probable that there is a closer affinity between the North American Indians and the inhabitants of Northern Asia and of Europe, especially the Russians, Hungarians, and other nations located in its Northern and Western Regions, than exists between these American Septs and the inhabitants of Southern Asia. Should this proposition be confirmed by further investigation, it will be found to be in unison with Adelung's conclusion, that the route by which the first Colonists of Europe came from Central Asia lay through the Steppes which separate the Chinese and Russian Empires. The Nomade Hordes of these vast plains,—the great “Officina Gentium,”—were probably the parent Septs of all or most of the European nations on the one hand, and of the populations of the North-east of Asia and of the opposite American coasts on the other!