As we are not dealing with languages so much as a class of names, this may suffice for Algonquin names, though very briefly stated. In considering Iroquois words of the same class, a few words may be quoted from Sir William Johnson, written in 1771:

The article is contained in the noun by varying the termination. and the adjective is combined into one word Caghyunghaw is a creek; Caghyungha, a river; Caghyunghaowana, a great river; Caghyungheeo, a fine river; Haga, the inhabitants of any place and tierhan, the morning; so if they speak of eastern people, they say Tierhans-aga, or people of the morning.

Mr L. H. Morgan gave a comparative list of 24 local names in the six dialects of the New York Iroquois, and a few of his remarks may be quoted. He reckoned 19 letters common to these, but two or three of them are not needed. "The Mohawks and Oneidas use the liquid L, and the Tuscaroras occasionally employ the sound of F, but these letters are not common to all the dialects. It has been customary to exclude the liquid R from the Iroquois alphabet, as not common to the several nations, but this is clearly erroneous."

These sounds are now rare among the Onondagas, if used at all. He says further: "In connecting the adjective with the noun, the two words usually enter into combination, and lose one or more syllables. This principle or species of contraction is carried throughout the language, and to some extent prevents prolixity." He gives as an example: "O-ya, fruit; O-ga-uh', sweet; O-ya'ga-uh, sweet fruit. In other instances the adjective is divided, and one part prefixed and the other suffixed to the noun thus: Ga-nun'da-yeh, a village; Ne-wa'-ah, small; Ne-ga-nun-da'-ah, a small village."

Among the few prepositions applicable to place names but modified in composition, he mentioned: “Da-ga'-o, across; No'ga, after; Na'-ho, at; O'-an-do, before; Dose-ga'-o, near, etc." He added a remark which should be modified, as towns often changed their sites and yet retained their names: "Names of places as well as of persons, form an integral part of their language, and hence are all significant. It furnishes a singular test of their migrations, for accurate descriptions of localities become in this manner incorporated into their dialects. The Tuscaroras still adduce proof from this source to establish a common origin with the Iroquois." In

this he may have referred to a few early names of towns preserved in one of the condoling songs, but of which no further tradition remains. Some reservation is necessary in this statement.

AUTHORITIES ON LANGUAGE

A number of accessible works treat the general subject of Iroquois words, their composition and modifications, these having many interesting features, some of which will be mentioned incidentally. The leading ones to be remembered here are the lack of labials, the use of prefixes and suffixes, and the position of the adjective.

About 1675 Father Jacques Bruyas wrote a treatise on the radical words of the Mohawk language, including a valuable lexicon, much used in defining names. It dealt mostly with verbs and their derivatives, and a synopsis of his grammatical scheme follows.

There are four simple tenses, from which the others are formed: infinitive, present indicative, the future of affirmation and the negative. From the present the imperfect is formed by an addition at the end. The preterit, terminating like the infinitive, the pluperfect, the future compounded with the preterit, are the cognate tenses from the same paradigm. The pluperfect adds nen to the preterit. The future of affirmation and the aorist present of the potential mood terminate alike. The double future of negation is like the indicative present. With one exception the tenses of the optative do not differ from the potential mood and those of the subjunctive are similar.

Verbs whose infinitives end in a usually terminate the present with ou, imperfect akoue, future en, negative with anne. Gaienna. to take, is an exception. Verbs in e have commonly the present in e, imperfect ekoue, future eg, negative sere, seg or the. They add tenses from several verbs and have some exceptions.

Verbs in i, signifying plentitude, have the present in i, imperfect innen, future ig or isere. Relatives ending in i have the present isk, imperfect skoue, future nien, negative nire. Ori and onni and their compounds are exceptions.

Verbs in aon have the present in as, imperfect askoue, future anne, with some exceptions. Some have the imperfect kaouas, future kao, negative ouasere. W may take the place of ou in many cases. Verbs in enon have the present in ens, imperfect enskoue, future

enne, negative ensere, with three exceptions. Those in ion have ris, riskwe, rinne, risere; and ending in gon have the present in ks, imperfect kskoue, future ag, negative ache, with slight exceptions. Some verbs in ron have the present in rhe, future r, future negative anne. Others have in the present onsk, future on, negative ronne. Still others have present ons, future re, negative resegs.

Verbs in se have the same in the present and future, and sere in the negative. Those in ouan have ouas in the imperfect, future so or o, negative wasere. Those in en are irregular, but if they end in gen they make the present in cha, future g, future negative ganne. If the ending is gannen or gennen the present is gennha, future genn, and negative gennande, while those in ien are irregular. Verbs in at have the present at, imperfect atakoue. In et they have tha, ten, tanne and in out the same. Those in at, et, it, out and ont have a double present: one for the act and another when it is customary. Te and ta have present ta, imperfect takoue, future ten, negative tanne. Ti has the present tisk, future ts or tars, negative tire.

Verbs ending in tion have the present ties, future ti, negative tiesere. With ston the present is tha, future t, negative tanne. Those in thon have thosk in the present, imperfect tho, negative thosere. Those in ton vary from this, and those in o are mostly irregular. No general rule applied to many ending in on, but there were common rules for all.

Those ending in a, e, o, k, s, t, have the imperfect in koue. From active verbs the passive is formed by prefixing at to the first person of the present indicative, g being taken away, but this has exceptions. Kon, ston, or ton may be added to verbs to express causality and this was quite common, as onnehon, to live on anything, from onhhe, to live. Some verbs are naturally relative; others are made so by additions and this involves many changes.

Nouns are not inflicted by cases, and thus are unchanged except in compounds. National nouns may be formed from the simple name of the nation by adding ronnon or haga to express people. There are many verbal nouns and those derived from adjectives. All substantives do not undergo composition. He noted also that while broadly generic names could be compounded, individual or specific ones could not. The name of a tree could be compounded

but not that of an oak. This brief sketch will give some idea of scope of this early lexicon and of the language treated.

Zeisberger wrote an essay on an Onondaga grammar nearly 100 years later, in which he divided words into simple and compound, the participle being usually lacking. Nouns had three genders, but no cases, and he mentioned but two numbers where others recognize three. The plural adds a syllable, as that of schoh. In words ending in a, e, o, relating to rivers, roads, hills, springs, etc. nnie is added, and hogu or ogu to others. Nouns compounded with ios, meaning long, change this into es in the singular, and eso in the plural. Thus we have garonta, a tree, garontes, long tree, garonteso, long trees. In compounding with numerals age is sometimes added. at the end, but tekeni, two, is often prefixed and shortened to ť. The initial G may signify the first person, S the second, H the third, and G may also indicate the feminine in the third persons, but these are not all.

There are many rules for compounding words. The comparative degree adds haga or tschihha, and the superlative tschik to the positive. Prepositions he placed at the end of nouns, but they sometimes occur at the beginning. An instance of the former is ochnecanos, water, ochenecage, in the water. According to him gachera is added to signify on, ocu for under, acta for at, on or by, ati for over on the other side, ge or chne for to, etc. There were many conjunctions and adverbs, and interjections were much used.

He mentioned but three moods and three tenses. The infinitive is the root and the present indicative formed from it by substituting a pronoun for the first syllable. The perfect adds a syllable, of various forms, and the future is like the present with en or in prefixed.

In writing on the Iroquois language Horatio Hale referred to M. Cuoq's excellent lexicon, published a few years since. According to the latter writer 12 letters sufficed for all words, but the Rev. Asher Wright used 17 with proper marks. The English missionaries used 16, and Mr Hale thought the Mohawk had seven consonants and four vowels. Three nasal sounds made his number 14. K and G, D and T were interchangeable. Numbers were singular, dual and plural. The dual prefixes te and suffixes ke to the noun. With a numeral adjective the plural prefixes ni to the noun and

adds ke.

Sometimes the plural has okon, okonha, son or sonha, following the noun; in other cases the number appears from the

context.

Local relations of nouns appear from affixed particles, like ke, ne, kon, akon, akta, etc., as kanonsa, house, kanonskon, in the house. There are many perplexing affixes. The adjective follows the noun, but they often coalesce. Pronouns are more numerous than in European languages, and he gave five conjugations to nouns and verbs. Verbs have three moods, with seven tenses in the indicative, and they take a passive form by inserting the syllable at after the pronoun. M. Cuoq thought there were 12 forms of the verb, but Mr Hale reckoned more. Particles were many and freely used. There are other early vocabularies by unknown authors, but Mr Hale regarded M. Cuoq's as the best. The work of the Rev. Asher Wright among the Senecas of New York he also esteemed highly.

The dictionary of German, English, Onondaga and Delaware words, compiled by David Zeisberger, useful as it is, is not as satisfactory in one way as could be wished. He commenced with the study of Mohawk, following this with the Onondaga more thoroughly, but adding something from the Seneca and Cayuga. As a consequence his words should be classed as Iroquois rather than Onondaga. His Delaware vocabulary is one of the best we have, and preferable to others in analyzing or defining Algonquin place names in most of New York. On Long Island the New England dialects were influential in forming names and Williams and Eliot are often quoted on these. As all these writers are frequently referred to in considering names, it seemed proper to give some brief attention to them.

While the Dutch held New York, many Algonquin place names were in use and put on record, but their knowledge of Iroquois names was very small, the Jesuit Relations of that period having many of which they knew nothing. With the English in power this knowledge rapidly increased, Greenhalgh's journey in 1677 giving the names of most Iroquois towns and some lakes and rivers. Most of those near the Pennsylvania line were not known till the next century, and some were recorded only in Moravian journals. Sullivan's campaign added many, and later visitors and settlers greatly increased our knowledge of Seneca local names. Important work