A History of the New York Iroquois Author:William Martin Beauchamp Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: western Europe one community is known to exist, speaking a language which in its general structure manifests a near likeness to the Indian tongue. Alone of all t... more »he races of the old continent the Basques or Euskarians of northern Spain and southwestern France have a speech of that highly complex and polysynthetic character which distinguishes the American languages. This was but a likeness, but it led Mr Hale to say of western Europe: " The derivation of the American population from this source presents no serious improbability whatever." He afterward showed how the many Indian dialects might have originated about the Columbia river. According to one writer 12 letters will answer for all Iroquois sounds, though this requires the hardening of some. In this scheme we have a, e, f, h, i, k, n, o, r, s, t, w. The English missionaries used 16 for the Mohawk tongue: a, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, n, o, r, s, t, u, w, y. L is much used by the Oneidas, and R by the Mohawks, D and T, G and K, are interchangeable. Dual and plural numbers have proper prefixes in most cases. Local relations are shown by affixed particles. Adjectives may follow substantives, but more commonly coalesce. Pronouns exceed those in European languages, and verbs have three modes. The frequent differences in personal nouns are often due to the dropping of a pronoun or particle, or its addition. Chapter 2 Surrounding nations. Food, houses, forts and weapons. Weaving and dress. Sepulture. Wampum. Stories and songs. Etiquette. Adoption. Orators and diplomats. Intoning and pantomime. Brief notices may here be given of some other nations with whom the Iroquois came in contact at various times, but some are sufficiently noticed elsewhere. Thus it may be enough to say of the Hurons, called Quatoghies and Agaritkas by...« less