Page:Rocky Mountain life.djvu/175

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LATIN

SIOUX

Invictum animi robur ostensit.

Invincible of mind strength he displayed.

Tepe nea tour toocta?

Lodge your own where is it?

Omnia delicarum instrumenta e

All of delicacies the intruments from

Mea warchee muzarka nea tour.

I want gun your own.

castris ejecit.

camp he cast.

Kokepa warneche wecharcha ha,

Afraid nothing the man is.

Non amo nimium diligentes.

Not I love overmuch the careful.

Minewarka appello warktashne ha

Medicine water I say not good is.

A mere glance at the foregoing will at once show the constructional similarity between the two; and, to illustrate the proposition still farther, I here subjoin yet other proofs of a more important relationship:

LATIN

SIOUX

Appello, (pres. ind., 1st per. sing.; inf. appellare,) I declare, I proclaim.

Appello, I declare, I proclaim, I tell, I make known

Bestia, a wild beast.

Beta, a buffalo.

Coca, uncertain, ambiguous, confused, rash.

Ceicha, bad, disorderly, unsound.

Cogor, one who collects, brings together, compels, forces, or heaps up.

Cogor, a maker of anything, a manufacturer, one who produces a thing by an ingenious arrangement of materials.

Mea, (meus, a, urn,) of or belonging to me.

Mea, I, myself, me.

Mena, a narrow sharp fish.

Mena, a knife.

Ne, (this when affixed to a word or a sentence gives it a negative signification,) no, not.

Ne, (this word is used precisely the same as in Latin, and has a similar meaning,) not.

Papa, rare, excellent, wonderful.

Papa, meat, flesh used for food.

Pater, father.

Pater, fire.

Pes, the foot.

Pea, the foot.

Taurus, a bull.

Tau, (or tah,) a bull.

Tepor, warmth.

Tepe, a lodge.

Tuor, (tui, tutus sum,) to look, to see.

Tula, (astonishment,) look! see there!

I might pursue this comparison to a yet greater extent, were my knowledge of Sioux sufficiently full and critical for the task, (for I have a firm confidence that many other similarities might be pointed out, quite as glaring in their character as any of the above;) but, enough, I trust, has already been said to fortify the position so largely warranted by the premises, to wit: that in former ages the Romans maintained a foothold upon the American continent, and had intercourse with this nation, either by arms or by commerce.

The argument drawn from the foregoing is still further strengthened, when we take into consideration the fact, that language is constantly varying in its form, and changing the meaning and pronunciation of its words, as time progresses. To exemplify this more clearly and forcibly, let the reader compare the works of standard English authors of the present day with those of the like not more than five hundred years since, and he will readily acknowledge the palpable indications of progressive c