Now, it will be seen that of these(147) examples of affinity the greater number consist of terms which belong exclusively to the province of Grammar!
English. Mandan. Welsh. Other Asiatic And European Languages. I. Me. Me. Me (_Latin_ and _Eng._), Eme (_Greek._) You. Ne. Chwe. Nee, (_Chinese._) He. E. E. E.ee.a, E.ou.e, or E.v.e, “He, She, It,” (_Heb._) She. Ea. E, Hee. Ea, “She,” (_Latin._) It. Ount. Hooyant, “They” Onuh, “It, Him, (Plural.)(148) Her,” (_Turkish._) They. Eonah, (Onúh Nhou, “They,” E.n.e, “They,” ha, Honúh ha, Hyny, “Those.” (_Hebrew_), “They,” Oona, “They,” _Iroquois also “He, She, Dialects._ It,” (_Mixed Indian Dialects of Asia_.) Ainah, Ont, Ent, (_Endings of the third person plural of Indo-European Verbs._)(149) We. Noo. Nee. Nōi (_Greek_), Nou, Nc’hnou (_Hebrew._) No, or, There Megosh.(150) Nagoes, Nage. is not. Head. Pan. Pen. The Great Maho peneta. Mawr(151) Spirit. Penaether Yysprid Mawr.
By some of our countrymen it has been sanguinely maintained that the descendants of a body of Welsh, who left their country under Prince Madoc in the twelfth century, may be still traced by affinities of language among the North American Indian Tribes. Struck by the resemblances he has detected, Mr. Catlin has been led to favour the same conclusion, and to suggest that the Mandans may probably be shown to be the descendants of the lost Cambrian Colony!
But the examples selected by this writer, however creditable to his accuracy and research, do not tend, as he suggests, to prove the existence of a specific connexion between the Welsh and the Mandans! This will be evident from the words contained in the right-hand column (which have been added by the author of this work). An examination of the whole comparison will serve to show clearly, that though in most of the instances he has noticed the resemblance displayed by the Mandan to the Welsh is a close one, in many of them it displays an equally close affinity to the Latin and Greek, &c., while in some—this North American Indian dialect totally differs from the Welsh tongue, and at the same time agrees with—other languages of the Old World. Many of those examples which precede the Comparison are also illustrations of the principle that the Mandan, like other North American Indian dialects, exhibits a general resemblance to all, and not a specific relation to any one of the Asiatic and European tongues. Thus Khe cush, “Bad,” which is identical with the Greek, but is totally unlike the Welsh, is a Mandan word!