Mattatsch n’dahoaltiwuneen, we shall or will not love each other. Mattatsch k’dahoaltiwihhimo, you— Mattatsch ahoaltiwiwak, they—
I have said already that atsch or tsch is a termination which in the conjugation of verbs indicates the future tense. Sometimes it is attached to the verb, as in matta ktahoaliwitsch, “thou shalt or wilt not love me,” but it may also be affixed to the adverb as you have seen above, by which means a variety is produced which adds much to the beauty and expressiveness of the language.
You have asked me whether the Delaware language has inversions corresponding with those of the Latin? To this question, not being a Latin scholar, I am not competent to give an answer; I can only say that when the Indian is well or elegantly spoken, the words are so arranged that the prominent ideas stand in front of the discourse; but in familiar conversation a different order may sometimes be adopted. We say, in Delaware, Philadelphia epit, “Philadelphia at,” and not, as in English, “at Philadelphia.” We say “bread give me,” and not “give me bread,” because bread is the principal object with which the speaker means to strike the mind of his hearer.
In the personal forms, or as you call them, transitions of the active verbs, the form expressive of the pronoun governed is sometimes placed in the beginning, as in k’dahoatell, “I love thee,” which is the same as thee I love; for k (from ki), is the sign of the second person; sometimes, however, the governing pronoun is placed in front, as in n’dahoala, “I love him,” n’ being the sign of the first person, I. In these personal forms or transitions, one of the pronouns, governing or governed, is generally expressed by its proper sign, n’ for “I” or “me,” k’ for “thou” or “thee,” and w’ for “he or him;” the other pronoun is expressed by an inflexion, as in k’dahoalohhumo, I love you, k’dahoalineen, thou lovest us, k’dahoalowak, thou lovest them. You may easily perceive that the governing pronoun is not always in the same relative place with the governed.
That these and other forms of the verbs may be better understood, it will not be amiss to say something here of the personal pronouns. They are of two kinds: separable and inseparable. The separable pronouns are these:
Ni, I. Ki, thou. Neka, or nekama, he or she. Kiluna, we. Kiluwa, you. Nekamawa, they.
There are other personal pronouns, which I believe to be peculiar to the Indian languages; such are:
Nepe, I also. Kepe, thou also. Nepena, or kepena, we also. Kepewo, you also. Kepoak, they also.
The inseparable pronouns are n for the first person, k for the second, and w or o for the third, both in the singular and the plural. They are combined with substantives in the possessive forms, as in nooch, my father, kooch, thy father; the third person is sometimes expressed by the termination wall, as ochwall, his or her father, and at other times by w, as in wtamochol, his or her canoe. In the plural, nochena, our father, kochuwa, your father, ochuwawall, their father.
The verbal transitions are compounded of the verb itself, combined with the inseparable pronouns and other forms or inflexions, expressive of time, person, and number. To understand these properly requires attention and study.