An Interchange Of Names With Any One Is Also
A Symbol Of Friendship.
Each person has several names; one of which,
there is reason to believe, is always derived from the first fish
or animal which the child, in accompanying its father to the chase or a
fishing, may chance to kill.
Not only their combinations, but some of their simple sounds, were
difficult of pronunciation to mouths purely English. Diphthongs often
occur. One of the most common is that of 'ae', or perhaps, 'ai',
pronounced not unlike those letters in the French verb 'hair', to hate.
The letter 'y' frequently follows 'd' in the same syllable. Thus the word
which signifies a woman is 'dyin'; although the structure of our language
requires us to spell it 'deein'.
But if they sometimes put us to difficulty, many of our words were to them
unutterable. The letters 's' and 'v' they never could pronounce. The
latter became invariably 'w', and the former mocked all their efforts,
which in the instance of Baneelon has been noticed; and a more unfortunate
defect in learning our language could not easily be pointed out.
They use the ellipsis in speaking very freely; always omitting as many
words as they possibly can, consistent with being understood. They
inflect both their nouns and verbs regularly; and denote the cases of the
former and the tenses of the latter, not like the English by auxiliary
words, but like the Latins by change of termination. Their nouns, whether
substantive or adjective, seem to admit of no plural.
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