[Footnote 39:  Mrs. Thompson.]

22d.  One of the principal objections to be urged against the Indian languages, considered as media of communication, is their cumbrousness.  There is certainly a great deal of verbiage and tautology about them.  The paucity of terms leads not only to the use of figures and metaphors, but is the cause of circumlocution.  This day we had a snow storm.

The Chippewa is, in its structure, what is denominated by Mr. Du Ponceau “polysynthetic.”  It seems the farthest removed possible from the monosyllabic class of languages.  I have thought that, if some of its grammatical principles could be applied to monosyllables, a new language of great brevity, terseness, regularity, and poetic expressiveness, might be formed.  It would be necessary to restore to its alphabet the consonants f, l, and r, and v.  Its primitive pronouns might be retained, with simple inflections, instead of compound, for plural.  It would be necessary to invent a pronoun for she, as there is, apparently, nothing of this kind in the language.  The pronouns might take the following form:—­

Ni, I.  Nid, We.  Niwin, Myself.  Niwind, Ourselves.

Ki, Thou.  Kid, Ye or you.  Kiwin, Thyself.  Kiwind, Yourselves.

Wi, He.  Wid, They.  Masculine.  Wiwin, Yourselves. (Mas.) Wiwind.

Si, She.  Sid, They.  Feminine.  Siwin, Yourselves. (Fem.) Siwind.

DECLENSION OF PRONOUNS.

Ni, Nin, Nee—­I, Mine, Me.  Nid, Nida, Nidim—­We, Us, Ours.

Ki, Kin, Kee—­Thou, Thine, Thee.  Kid, Kida, Kidim—­Ye, You, Yours. Wi, Win, Wee—­Him, His, His.  Wid, Wida, Widim—­They, Their, Theirs. (Mas.)

Si, Sin, See—­Her, Hers, Hers.  Sid, Sida, Sidim—­They, Their, Theirs. 
(Fem.)

The full meaning of the present class of verbs and substantives of the language could be advantageously transferred to the first, or second, or third syllable of the words, converting them into monosyllables.  The plural might be uniformly made in d, following a vowel, and if a word terminate in a consonant, then in ad.  So the class of plural terminations would be ad, ed, id, od, ud.  Many generic nouns would require to be invented, and could easily be drawn from existing roots.  In the orthography of these, the initial consonant of the corresponding English word might serve as an index, Thus, from the word aindum, mind, might be derived,

Ain, Mind.  Sain, Sorrow.

Tain, Thought.  Jain, Joy, &c.

Main, Meditation.

So from taibwawin, truth, might be drawn taib, truth—­faib, faith—­raib, religion—­vaib, virtue.  A principle of euphony, or affinity of syllabication, might be applied in the abbreviation of a few of this class of generic words:  as Eo, God, from monedo.