History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River — Passage 197 (part 3)
[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] Earth, in Long Island, is keagb; in Massachusetts, abke; in Mahican, akek; in Minsi, acbgi; in Delaware, aki, akbki. But while the peculiar dialects of the valley have been lost, or have at best an imperfect preservation, the principles upon which they were based have been written. Gallatin says : u The fundamental characteristics of the Indian languages of America appear to be a universal tendency to express in the same word, not only all that modifies or relates to the same object, or action, but both the action and the object; thus con centrating in a single expression a complex idea, or several ideas among which there is a natural connection. All the other fea tures of the language seem to be subordinate to that general principle.