Abenaki Indian Grammar

AB EN AK I IND IAN EGEN D S G R M M R A N D PL CE N M ES L , A A A A Copyright 1 932 . CONTEN TS — l l FOREWOR D A . I . Ha lo wel , — PR EFACE H . L . Masta . WOR KS CON SULTED — w h . oh 9 0 . Iu m zo i A wi k iga n buP P . Wz i lai n , 1 3 r New En glan d Ga z etteer by Jo hn Haywo d , 1 847 . — ' ’ r A n k a b A M ur u 1 . IIi sl o i c d cs bé a i s by l bc J . a a ll , 866 v l z r fB i h o r h m — Lo el s Ga ettee o ri t s N t A e ri ca , 1 873 . k i a i lo —b o Abe n a s n d En gli sh D a gues y J s. Lauren t , A ben ak i Chi ef, 1 882 . PART I ABEN AKI INDIAN LEGEND S AND STORIES, PART II ABENAKI INDIAN GRAMMAR . PART III THE MEANING OF IN DIAN NAMES OF RIVERS . LAKES Etc . ‘ TI' IE A BREVIATLED MANNER OF R EADING AN D W RITING IN ABENAKI . HENR Y LORNE MASTA Alb en aki Ex Past Head Chi ef ° a? (1 44 l fi e /m g m a r a n a f , %c e HENRY LORNE MASTA a Odan k , P . Q . Edi t o r - La V o i x des Ro is Fra nc s . v ll V i c to ri a i e, P . Q . This l ittl e book lay dorman t i n the author’s min d l ong before it was written . Other duties a n d i n terests kept thrustin g the actual writi ng of it asi de , so that pen was n ot set to paper until the win ter 1 9 29 ' of . This was i n the 7 7th y ear of the author s l ife . Once started . it was carri ed to completi on without advice or assistance from an yon e except for a few suggestions made by Prof . E . P . Kelly of th e . Darmouth an d un dersign ed when it was practical ly fin ished . In both form an d conten t it reflects the li fe lon g int erest of Mr . Masta i n his nati ve tongue , a li nguistic conciousn ess man ifestly un usual i n on e whose forebears of even two centuri es ago were still l ivin g the untutored l ife of othe r A merican aborigi n es of that peri od . The book thus embodi es the virtues of a k een an d active li n guistic heritage. It can hardly be ju dged by the rigi d can on s of academic criticism , si nce the author d oes n ot preten d that he has presented a complete philological treatise , i n the n arrow sen se . In m y opin ion , the intrin si c in terest of the book li es i n the virtues of i ts defects . The mi n d of th e a uthor is deeply immersed i n the idiom which h e sets forth , a relation impossibl e to the outsi der , n o matter how well train ed i n comparative lin gu istics . Hen ry Lorn e Masta was born On March 9th, 1 853. He recei ved his primary an d secon dary educati on on the R eserve, an d later - W recei Sab revo is St . atten ded Col lege, n ear Johns , P Q hile there he ved in struction i n Latin for two years an d in Greek , on e year . These are the only studies he pursued which may i n any amo eb a “a term ed phi lological . But in a d diti on to speaki ng his li ve with distincti on he has achi eved fluen cy i n o bdtvqn ch h Pro glish . For 31 years he occupie d the post of sc c i m ster in txhe g fl ‘ testan t school at Odan ak an d attempted to i ntr oduce th em dren whom he taught to th e grammatical rules go vefl mi n g th ei r lemme . 20 Mr . Masta was also chief o f his tribe for I may ad d , has always been sought up on matt “ ‘ _ 1 ‘D 1 ‘ FOREWORD At present the St-Fran cis Aben aki occupy a small tract of - 6 l an d on the eastern bank of the Si Fran ci s R iv er, about m il es - c Th from where it join s the St Lawren e . e lan guage which is native to them bel ongs to that family of Am erican In dian l an guages k n ow n as Algonkian . Di alecti caly it is very close to that form erly spoken by th e W awen oc k , the remn ants of which still resi de at Becan , cour, P . Q . , an d to Pen obscot , spoken by the In dians of Ol d Town Me . These dialects , together with those spoken by the more remotely M related Mal ecite , Passam aquoddy an d icmac an d , at an earli er Pi wack et Sak o ki , period , by such New En glan d peopl es as the g , A r o o sagun tac o o k , Norri dgewock an d Pen nacook , al l b el on g to a - sin gl e l in guistic sub group of th e Al gonkian stock . Coll ectiv ely , these peoples have long b een k n own as the W aban aki . Havin g allied themsel ves with the Fren ch rather than the En gli sh i n the Coloni al wars of the late 1 7th century , the rem n an ts of a n umb er of the l ast f w n am ed groups, in particular , led to Can ada here m ission s h ad been established by Fren ch pri ests . The descen dants of these In dians - d an ak are those w hich resi de at St Fran cis (O ) an d Becan cour , - to day . Fathe r Sebasti an Rale, whil e min i steri n g to th e Norri dge wock In dian s , began to compil e a dictionary o f their language i n ‘ - 1 6 91 . Sin ce a large conti n gent of this han d later mi grated to St Fran cis , it may be con si dered th e earl iest attempt to set down the l ex ical characteristics of a dialect practicall y i dentical with that spoken subsequently i n Cana da . This diction ary was edited by John Pi c kerin g an d published i n 1 833 i n a Memoir of the Am erican Aca dem y of . Science an d Art . F S . Dickson w as preparin g an other e dition of it at th e tim e of his death a few years ago . 1 8th Au century Father Joseph b ery, curé of the compil ed an exten sive di ctionary w hich has J ’ if ver ee uted n 1 830 R R Ws h ilai n g m , . b p gi , the un cl e of H L M asta , his n ative ton gue to set it down i n wri ti n made a tran slation of the Ten Comman d nwfiwm her al passages whi ch h e ha d prin ted the sam e ared hi s Abenaki ren d ering of the Gosp el FOR EW ORD 1 1 - 4 of St Mark . In 1 88 the late Chief Joseph Lauren t publ ished h is New Fam iliar Abenak is an d En glish Dialogues” which contain s a large amount of val uabl e l exical material . In ad dition to the lin guistic i nform ation recorded by the priests . m ention ed above , an d the two Aben aki men referred to , ' a discussion of certai n espects of this dial ect appears i n the work J . ec k . of such scholars as . D . Pri n ce , F. G Sp , F . S Dickson an d the writer . Finally , a few remarks upon th e orthography used by Mr. Masta seem desirable . While the phon etic symbols used are n ot refin ed to the extent deman ded i n academ ic circl es , a reason able “ ” degree of systematiz ation has been achi eved . The surd l is re pre “ ” “ a v sente d by the combin ation hl , the acri c ti e m edi al sur d by ch “ j ” an d th e correspon din g sona nt by (in cl in in g toward the positi on s “ ” " " ts an d d z respect ively ) ; w precedin g or foll owi ng a con “ " “ ” son an t i s equival ent to u pron oun ced as 0 0 i n Engl ish , moon , the dif eren c e bein g that i n Ab en aki this soun d is uttered with r even a more ma qed l ip prot rusti o n an d weak breath .

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