name, or by others (as at this time) I will leave him to God, and referre our vindication to the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath all power in heaven and earth committed to him, in whose eyes, I trust, we are precious, who undoubtedly will clear up our innocency, when these our proud enemies shall bee scattered before him. And to whom with the Father and the Spirit, God over all, blessed for ever, be glory and praise to all eternity. Amen.

[The original is a pamphlet of 29 8vo. pages. Ed.]

VOL. II. THIRD SERIES. 19

VOCABULARY

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS (OR NATICK) INDIAN LANGUAGE.

BY JOSIAH COTTON.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Vocabulary of the Indian Language, in the Natick or Massachusetts dialect, is faithfully copied from a manuscript compiled by the Hon. Josiah Cotton, a respectable inhabitant of Plymouth, who died in 1756, aged 77. He was the second son of the Rev. John Cotton, pastor of the first church in that ancient town twenty-eight years, from 1669 to 1697. Josiah Cotton was graduated at Harvard College in 1698. His early years, after his leaving College, were spent in Marblehead, where he was employed as a schoolmaster; his studies in the mean time were principally in theology. He was never

settled, however, in the ministry; but, returning to his native town early in the last century, after some years of occupation in that place as a schoolmaster, he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and to the discharge of several civil offices which he sustained. The offices which he held successively or in conjunction, were those of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Justice of the same Court, Register of Probate, and Register of Deeds. In the latter office he was succeeded by his son, John Cotton, who was succeeded by his son, Rossiter Cotton, the present worthy occupant of that office, to whose kindness this Society and the friends of ancient lore are indebted for a communication of this manuscript, and of other documents eminently useful and acceptable for the elucidation of our early history. This respectable family derives its origin from the celebrated John Cotton of Boston. Josiah Cotton as well as his father, in addition to their other employments, performed the duties of missionaries to the Indians at Plymouth and other places in that vicinity. The father was eminently skilled in the Indian language, of which there are many testimonials; the most conspicu

ous is Eliot's Indian Bible. In the accomplishment of that laborious work Mr. Eliot acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Cotton, especially in the preparation of the second edition. Josiah Cotton, besides the advantages of much personal intercourse with the Indians, had the benefit of his father's information; and his long continuance as a religious instructer to the natives, with the ready use of their language, of which he left numerous specimens in writing, may reasonably induce a reliance on the correctness of the present Vocabulary which he compiled. A copy of some of his other specimens will be found subjoined to the Vocabulary. J. D.

Notice of the Manuscript; with Remarks on the Author's Orthography and the Pronunciation of the Language.

1. Of the Manuscript.

The MS is of the small quarto size, and consists of sixty leaves composing the body of the work, with two other leaves containing a portion of an imperfect Index of English words, which occur in it. The volume is principally in the handwriting of the author himself; but there are numerous additions and corrections in the handwriting of his father. It bears the date of 1707 and 1708, in two or three different places.

In the present edition the paging of the MS is preserved in the margin; by which means, if at any time it should be wished, recourse may be readily had to the original.

2. Of the Orthography and Pronunciation.

The orthography adopted by the author is, doubtless, the same with that used by the venerable Eliot in his Indian Bible and Grammar. The editor has therefore thought, that it might be useful to collect, in this place, all the observations of Eliot upon that subject. They are extracted from his Indian Grammar, and are as follows:

"I therefore use the same Characters which are of most common use in our English Books; viz. the Roman and Italick Let

ters.

"Also our Alpha-bet is the same with the English, saving in these few things following:

"1. The difficulty of the Rule about the Letter c, by reason of the change of its sound in the five sounds, ca ce ci co cu, being sufficiently helped by the Letters k and s, we therefore

lay by the Letter c, saving in ch; of which there is [p. 2.] frequent use in the Language. Yet I do not put it out

of the Alpha-bet, for the use of it in other Languages, but the Character ch next to it, and call it chee.

"2. I put i Consonant into our Alpha-bet, and give it this Character j, and call it ji or gi, as this Syllable soundeth in the English word giant; and I place it next after i vocal. And I have done thus, because it is a regular sound in the third the third person singular in the Imperative Mode of Verbs, which cannot well be distinguished without it: though I have sometimes used gh instead of it, but it is harder and more inconvenient. The proper sound of it is, as the English word age soundeth. See it used Genes. i. 3, 6, 9, 11.

"3. We give v Consonant a distinct name by putting together uf or uph, and we never use it, save when it soundeth as it doth in the word save, have, and place it next after u vocal. Both these Letters (u Vocal, and v Consonant) are together in their proper sounds in the Latine word uva, a Vine.

"4. We call w, wee, because our name giveth no hint of the power of its sound.

"These Consonants l, n, r, have such a natural coincidence, that it is an eminent variation of their dialects.

"We Massachusetts pronounce the n. The Nipmuk Indians pronounce l. And the Northern Indians pronounce r.

instance :

As

"Our Vocals are five, a ei o u. Diphthongs, or double sounds, are many, and of much use.

"Especially we have more frequent use of o and co than other Languages have: and our co doth always sound as it doth in these English words, moody, book.

"We use onely two Accents, and but sometime. The [p. 3.] Acute (') to shew which Syllable is first produced in

pronouncing of the word; which if it be not attended, no Nation can understand their own Language: as appeareth by the witty Conceit of the Tityre tu's.