If the ancestors of the American Indians emigrated at a remote period from the opposite Asiatic Coasts, we have no right to anticipate in their dialects a complete conformity to any one language of the old world, but general and varying features of resemblance to several. The kindred dialects of the same Continent after the lapse of a considerable time do not exhibit any other kind of resemblance! Now this is the species of relation which the North American Indian dialects actually display when compared to the Languages of the Old World!
The chief examples which I have selected as illustrations of this proposition have been taken from the Algonquyn dialects, the very class examined by Du Ponceau himself, to which I have added a few corroborative instances from those of the tribes of the regions to the west of the Mississippi which have been lately described by Mr. Catlin. The dialects termed Algonquyn by Du Ponceau were formerly spoken by numerous tribes who, though not the sole inhabitants, were originally spread through the whole of the present territory of the United States, including the “Lenni Lenapé,” the “Chippeways,” and other powerful septs.
With regard to this class of Indian Dialects I propose to show: 1. That as regards Words they bear a close resemblance to a great variety of Asiatic and European languages. 2. That their grammatical peculiarities, in like manner, combine those of various languages of the Old World, as in the instance of their Verbs and Pronouns, in which the inflections of the Greek and other Indo-European Tongues are found united with separate Pronouns identical with those common to the Welsh on the one hand and the Hebrew and its kindred Semetic dialects on the other.
_Words from the North American Indian Dialects of the Algonquyn Class compared with analogous Terms in Asiatic and European Languages._
Man ittou, “The Deity, a Spirit,” (_Ind._,(138)) Mouno he ka, “Ghosts,” (_Mandan_,(139)) Manes, “The Spirits of the Dead,” (_Latin_,) Manus, “The Mind,” (_Sanscrit_,) Mēn, “The Mind,” (_Greek_,) Mens, Ment-is (_Latin_), Pata-maw-os, “The Deity,” from Pata-maw-an, “To adore,” (_Ind._,) Poth-ēmenai, “To seek, or pray to,” (_Doric_,) for Poth-ein (_Greek_), Peton, “To worship,” Peta, “A Prayer,” (_Old High German_,) Bet-en, Bitte (_German_); see, as to N’iou and Nioueskou, two remarkable words for “The Deity,” (_Ind._,) pages 22, 23, 24. For names of the Heavenly Bodies, see Appendix A.