Bethlehem, 26th August, 1816.
Dear Sir.—Your letter of the 21st inst. has done me the greatest pleasure. I see that you enter the spirit of our Indian languages, and that your mind is struck with the beauty of their grammatical forms. I am not surprised to find that you admire so much wulamalessohalian, it is really a fine expressive word; but you must not think that it stands alone; there are many others equally beautiful and equally expressive, and which are at the same time so formed as to please the ear. Such is eluwiwulik, a name which the Indians apply to Almighty God, and signifies “the most blessed, the most holy, the most excellent, the most precious.” It is compounded of allowiwi, which signifies “more” and wulik, the meaning of which has been fully explained in former letters. It is, as it were allowiwi wulik; the vowel a, in the first word being changed into e. By thus compounding this word allowiwi with others the Delawares have formed a great number of denominations, by which they address or designate the Supreme Being, such are:
Eliwulek,[297] } Allowilen,[298]}He who is above every thing.[299]
I have no doubt you will admire these expressions; our Missionaries found them of great use, and considered them as adding much to the solemnity of divine service, and calculated to promote and keep alive a deep sense of devotion to the Supreme Being. I entirely agree with you in your opinion of the superior beauty of compound terms; the Indians understand very well how to make use of them, and a great part of the force and energy of their speeches is derived from that source: it is very difficult, I may even say impossible, to convey either in German or English, the whole impressiveness of their discourses; I have often attempted it without success.
The word “morituri” which you cite from the Latin, affords a very good argument in support of the position which you have taken. It is really very affecting, and I am not astonished at the effect which it produced upon the mind of the cruel emperor. We have a similar word in the Delaware language, “Elumiangellatschik,” “those who are on the point of dying, or who are about to die.” The first part of it, elumi, is derived from the verb n’dallemi, which means “I am going about” (something). N’dallemi mikemosi, “I am going to work,” or “about to work.” N’dallemi wickheen, “I am going to build.” N’dallemi angeln, “I am about dying,” or “going to die.” The second member of the word, that is to say angel, comes from angeln, “to die;” angloagan, “death,” angellopannik, “they are all dead.” The remainder is a grammatical form; atsch, indicates the future tense; the last syllable ik, conveys the idea of the personal pronoun “they.” Thus elumiangellatschik, like the Latin morituri, expresses in one word “they or those who are going or about to die,” and in German “Diejenigen welche am sterben sind.”
I am pleased to hear that you discover every day new beauties as you proceed with the study of the Indian languages, and the translation of Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar. You have, no doubt, taken notice of the reciprocal verb exemplified in the fifth conjugation, in the positive and negative forms by “ahoaltin,” “to love each other.” Permit me to point out to you the regularity of its structure, by merely conjugating one tense of it in the two forms.
INDICATIVE PRESENT.
| Positive Form. | Negative Form. |
|---|---|
| N’dahoaltineen, we love one another. | Mat n’dahoaltiwuneen, we do not love one another. |
| K’dahoaltihhimo, you love one another. | Matta kdahoaltiwihhimo, you do not love one another. |
| Ahoaltowak, they love one another. | Matta ahoaltiwiwak, they do not love one another. |
You will find the whole verb conjugated in Zeisberger, therefore I shall not exemplify further. You see there is no singular voice in this verb, nor is it susceptible of it, as it never implies the act of a single person. In the negative form, “matta” or “atta” is an adverb which signifies “no” or “not,” and is always prefixed; but it is not that alone which indicates the negative sense of the verb. It is also pointed out by wu or wi, which you find interwoven throughout the whole conjugation, the vowel immediately preceding being sometimes changed for the sake of sound, as from “aholtawak,” “they love each other,” is formed “ahoaltiwiwak,” “they do not love each other.”
I will point out further, if you have not already observed it, what I am sure you will think a grammatical curiosity; it is a concordance in tense of the adverb with the verb. Turn to the future of the same negative conjugation in Zeisberger, and you will find: