The degrees of comparison are formed by prefixing allowiwi, more, and eluwi, most. Both of these are from the same radical ala which may perhaps come from the admirationis particula, ala' (Abnaki, ara') found in the northern dialects as expressive of astonishment[170].
There being no relative pronoun in Delaware, dependent clauses are either included in the verbal of the major clause, or include it as a secondary.
The scheme of the simple sentence is usually subject-verb-object; but emphasis allows departures from this, as in the following sentence from Bishop Ettwein's MSS.:—
Jesus wemi amemensall w'taholawak.
Jesus all children he-loved-them.
Of the formal affixes, the inseparable pronouns are the most prominent. They are the same for nouns and verbs, and are—
1st. n, I, my, we, our.
2d. k, thou, thy, you, your.
3d. w or o, he, she, it, his, their.
Past time is indicated by the terminal p, with a connective vowel, and future time by tsch, which may be either a prefix or suffix, as—
N'dellsin, I am thus.
N'dellsineep, I was thus.
N'dellsintschi, }
or } I shall be thus.
Nantsch n'dellsin, }
The change or "flattening" of the vowel of the root in suppositive propositions, was recognized as a fact of speech, but not grammatically analyzed by Zeisberger.
Its effect on verbal forms may be seen from the following examples from his Grammar:—