The figure 8 in the above represents the "whistled w," like the wh in "which," when strongly pronounced.
From this root, as I have already said, is derived also the word Walam, red paint, from the sense "to be fine in appearance, to dress," as the Indian accomplished that object by painting himself.
Grammatical Structure of the Lenape.
It would not be worth while for me to enter into the intricacies of Lenape grammar, particularly as I can add little to what is already known.
The Delaware Grammar of Zeisberger remains our only authority, and in spite of its manifest shortcomings and state of incompletion, the unprejudiced student must acknowledge, with Albert Gallatin[169], that it is "most honestly done," and showed the Delaware as it actually was spoken, though perhaps not as scientific linguists think it ought to have been spoken.
A few general observations will be sufficient.
As in other languages of the class, the theme is indifferently nominal, verbal or adjectival; that is, it performs the functions of either of these grammatical categories, according to its connection.
Nominal themes are either animate or inanimate. The characteristic of all animate plurals is k (ak, ik, ek). Inanimate plurals are in al, wall or a. As usual, the distinction between animate and inanimate nouns is partly logical, partly grammatical, various objects being conceived as animate which are in fact not so.
The possessive relation is generally indicated by placement alone, the possessor preceding the thing possessed, as lenno quisall, the man's son; but one could also say lenno w'quisall, the man his son.
Adjectives precede nouns, and when used attributively assume a verbal form by adding the termination wi, which indicates objective existence (like the Chip. -win). Thus, scattek, burning; scattewi w'dehin, a burning-heart—literally, it-is-a-burning-thing his-heart.