"I am favorably situated for making philological observations. I observe
that the Cree, although essentially the same language as the Chippewa,
yet drops, or never had, many of the suffix expletive particles of the
latter, though the prefix particles are pretty much the same in both.
The Cree has not, I believe, the double negative nor the adverbial and
plaintive forms of verbs, as I have termed them. This renders the
language less complex, and much more easy of acquisition than
the Chippewa.
"One thought was forcibly impressed on my mind while perusing the
publications of the American Antiquarian Society. In these publications
they introduce the names of things in order to show the affinity of
different tribes. From my knowledge of Indian, I am inclined to think
that the names of things change the soonest in any language, and that,
in order to ascertain the original stock of any tribe or nation by
comparing languages, we must descend to the groundwork of the languages
and search, not so much for similarity of sound as for the arrangement
and essential and peculiar principles of the languages.
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