These expressions are put down promiscuously, embracing verbs and nouns as they presented themselves, and without any effort to support the opinion, which may or may not be correct, that the elementary forms of the adjectives are most commonly required before verbs and nouns in the first and second persons. The English expression is thrown into Indian in the most natural manner, and, of course, without always giving adjective for adjective or noun for noun. Thus, God is rendered, not monedo, but Geezha monedo, merciful spirit. Good luck is rendered by the compound phrase, shäwaindaugoozzegun, indicating in a very general sense, the influence of kindness or benevolence on success in life. Söngedää is, alone, a brave man, and the word kägät prefixed, is an adverb. In the expression "mild tobacco," the adjective is entirely dispensed with in the Indian, the sense being sufficiently rendered by the compound noun appaukoozzegun, which always means the Indian weed or smoking mixture. Ussämau, on the contrary, without the adjective, signifies pure tobacco. Bikwukön, signifies blunt or lumpy-headed arrows; assowaun, is the barbed arrow. Kwonaudj kweeweezains means, not simply "pretty boy," but pretty little boy; and there is no mode of using the word boy but in this diminutive form, the word itself being a derivative kewewe coryugal, with the regular diminutive in ains. Onauneegoozzin, embraces the pronoun, verb, and adjective, be thou cheerful. In the last phrase of the examples, "man" is rendered men (inineewuy) in the translation, as the term man cannot be employed in the general plural sense it conveys in this connection in the original. The word "whiskey" is rendered by the compound phrase, ishködawaubo, literally fire-liquor, a generic for all kinds of ardent spirits.
These aberrations from the literal terms will convey some conceptions of the difference of the two idioms, although, from the limited nature and object of the examples, they will not indicate the full extent of the difference. In giving anything like the spirit of the original, much greater deviations in the written forms must appear. And in fact, not only the structure of the language, but the mode and order of thought of the Indians is so essentially different, that any attempts to preserve the English idiom, to give letter for letter, and word for word, must go far to render the translation pure nonsense.
2. Varied as the adjective is in its changes, it has no comparative inflection. A Chippewa cannot say that one substance is hotter or colder than another, or of two or more substances unequally heated, that this or that is the hottest or coldest, without employing adverbs or accessory adjectives; and it is accordingly by adverbs and accessory adjectives that the degrees of comparison are expressed.
Pimmaudizziwin, is a very general substantive expression, indicating the tenor of being or life. Izzhewäbizziwin, is a term near akin to it, but more appropriately applied to the acts, conduct, manner, or personal deportment of life. Hence the expressions—
| Nem bimmaudizziwin, | My tenor of life. |
| Ke bimmaudizziwin, | Thy tenor of life. |
| O pimmaudizziwin, | His tenor of life, &c. |
| Nin dizhewäbizziwin, | My personal deportment. |
| Ke dizhewäbizziwin, | Thy personal deportment. |
| O Izzhewäbizziwin, | His personal deportment, &c. |
To form the positive degree of comparison from these terms, minno, good, and mudjee, bad, are introduced between the pronoun and verb, giving rise to some permutations of the vowels and consonants, which affect the sound only. Thus—
| Ne minno pimmaudizziwin, | My good tenor of life. |
| Ke minno pimmaudizziwin, | Thy good tenor of life. |
| Minno pimmaudizziwin, | His good tenor of life. |
| Ne mudjee pimmaudizziwin, | My bad tenor of life. |
| Ke mudjee pimmaudizziwin, | Thy bad tenor of life. |
| Mudjee pimmaudizziwin, | His bad tenor of life. |
To place these forms in the comparative degree, nahwudj, more, is prefixed to the adjective; and the superlative is denoted by mahmowee, an adverb or an adjective as it is variously applied, but the meaning of which is, in this connection, most. The degrees of comparison may be, therefore, set down as follows:—