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Lorsque ie document est trop grend pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichi, II est film* A partir de I'angle supArleur geuche, de geuche A drolte, et de haut en bee, en prenent le nombre d'Images nAcesseire. lies diegrammes suivants iliustrent le mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 mm AN K-.'-^f^) ESSAY OM X UNIFORM ORTHOGRAPHY INDIAN LANGUAGES 01 NORTH AMERICA. AS PUULISIIED IN THE MEMOIK# OF THE AMERICAN' ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. BY JOIIN PICKERING, A. A. S. CAMIUIIDGK J (JXIV. I'RESS-HJLI.IAHD AND METCALF. W -.J . - ■ :'! 1 . . ■■ ' > r: -■•^MBfe. •"^t^^ /• w. !l ■H 4 4 ESSAY .^c. J.T is remarked by Sir William Jones, in his elegant DisseV' tation on the Orthography of Jlsiatick Words, that " every man, who has occasion to compose tracts on Asiatick literature, or to translate from the Asiatick languages, must always find it conve- nient and sometimes necessary, to express Arabian, Indian, and Persian words or sentences, in the characters generally nsgd among Europeans ; and almost every writer in those circumstan* ces has a method of notation peculiar to himself : But none has yet appeared in the form of a complete system, so that each ori- ginal sound may be rendered invariably by one appropriate sym- bol, conformably to the natural order of articulation, and with a due regard to the primitive power of the Uoman alphabet, which modern Europe has in general adopted." This accomplished scholar then adds — that " a want of attention to this object has occasiioned great confusion in History and Geography ;" and <■' that the ancient Greeks, who made a voluntary sacrifice of truth to the delicacy of their ears, appear to have altered by design al- most all the oriental names, which they introduced into their ele- gant, but romantick histories : and even their more modern Geo- graphers, who were too vain, perhaps, of their own language to 1 \y -^ 3 Mr. Pickering on the Orthography of the I, learn any other, have so strangely disguised the proper appella- tions of countries, cities, anvould have been as troublesome to follow Alexander through the Punjab on the Ptolcmaick map of Jlgnthodifmonf as actually to travel over the same country in its present state of rudeness and disorder."* The inconveniences and confusion, which are here so strik- ingly described in the case of the Aaiatick languages, arc now beginning to be experienced by writers upon the Languages and History of the Indian nations of America. In this latter case, however, we are relieved from one embarrassment, which is felt in (he case of the Asiatick tongues ; for in those, as there is already a written character, and an established alpha- betic arrangement of the elementary sounds, which does not in eVtry instance correspond with the order of our Roman alpha- bet, we experience a constant struggle. in the mind, when we attempt to write Asiaticle words in our letters, arising from that natural desire which we feel to represei.t each Asiatick character by one of our own, which occupies the same place in the alphabtt- ic list. But in the languages of the American Indians, we have only to ascertain, in the first place, every elementary sound, and then arrange tlie letters, by which we may choose to represent those sounds, in the order of our own alphabet. Until within a few years past, indeed, these neglected dia- lects, like the devoted race of men, who iiave spoken them for so many ages, abd who have bceu stripped of almost every fragment of • Oissertation on t'lr Ortliopraphy of Asiatick wnnk in Romun letters ; in Sir W. Jonei's Works, vol. i. p. I7i, -Ito edit. ; anil i;i llie Asiatic Kcsewclics, vjl. i. p. 1. Indian Languages in J\*orth America, 8 their paternal inheritanco except their language, have incurred only the contempt of the people of Europe and their descend- ants on this continent; all of whom, with less justice than is commonly suppo«".!vl, have proudly hoasted of the superiority of thair own more cultivated languages as well as more civilized manners. But, at length, in consequence of the impulse origin- ally given by the £:nprcfls Catlierine of Russia, and subsequent- ly by the illustrious Adelung, Vater, and other German liteiati, 'whose indefatigable diligence and zeal will not suffer the remot- est corner of the globe nor the most uninviting department of hu- man knowledge to remain unexplored, we are beginning to in- quire into the history and character of our degraded fellow-meu of this continent, and to investigate the wonderful structure of their various dialects ; which, indeed, to the philosophical inquir- er, will now perhaps be found to be the most curious and interest* iug of all the languages of man.* » My learned friend, Mr. Du Ponceau, first directed my attention to tliu fact here stated respecting the Empress Catlierine ; and I am indebted to him for the perusal of tiiat interesting account of the eminent services rendered to lite- rature by this extroardinary princess, entitled «* Catherinens der Grossen Ver- diciiste um die Vergleichcnde Sprachenkunde :" wliicli may be rendered, The Meriis of Catherine the Great in promoting the Comparative Science of Lan- guages. This work was published at St. Petersburg in the year 1815, by the Hon. Frederick Adelung, whom Mr. Du Ponceau, in his Report on the Indian Languages (p. six ) states to be " the nepiiew and worthy successor of the great Adcluug," and " not inferior to his predecessor." The volume contains a par- ticular account of the extensive plan of the Empress, and the measures taken by her to obtain vocabularies of all the languages in the world. She directed her Sec.etary of .State to write to the powers of Europe, Asia, and America; and application was accordingly made to President VVabhiugton for our Indian Ian- 4 M: Pickerins; onthe Orthngraphijofthe The first fruits of these inquiries in tlic United Statt-s have been the able and philosophical investigations of Mr. Du Ponceau^ « guagcs ; several specimens of wliicli were accorJingly niinislu'il. Hut wliat will most surprise the leaiier will be, to learn that the Kmpie«s licrsfll' actually l)ej|;aii the labour of this coiiipariiion of laiiguaa;es. In p letter to the telolirated Ziiu- meriiian, duteil May 9, I .'85, she says — " Your letter ilrew iiic IVom the retire- ment in which 1 had kept myself fur almost nine months, and which it wa^ dilfi- cult for me to reliii()uisli. You wilt hardly suspect what I was tinployeil about in my solitude. I made a list of between two and three hundred railical wordi of the Uussiian language, and had them translated into every tongue and Jargon that I could hear of; the number of which already exceeds two hunilred. Every day I took one of these words and wrote it down in all the languages I had been able to collect I grew tired of thi:^ hobby, as soon as the book upon Soli- tude was read through. But as I felt some regret at committing to the fl.imos my great mass of papers, and the long hull, which I occupied in my hernntage, was quite warm enough, 1 requested Professor Pallas to attend me, and after a full confession of this sin of mine, it was agreed between us that these transla- tions should be printed, and thus made of some use to those persons, who might be willing to occupy themselves with the idle labours of others. We arc now only waiting, witii that view, for some specimens of the dialects of Ea.«tcrn Siberia. Whether the reader shall or shall not find in the work, striking facts of various kinds, will depend upon the feelings with which he enters upon tlie subject, and is a matter of little concern to me."— p. 40. Professor Pallas accordingly in- formed the public of Her Majesty s intentions ; stating (among other things) that " she had herself made a selection of such "vords as were the most essential, and generally in use even among the best civilr/.ed nations In that selec- tion the preference was given to substantives and aojectives of the first necessity, and which are common to the most barbarous of languages, or which serve to trace the progress of agriculture or of any arts or elementary knowledge from one people to another. The pronouns, adverbs, and some verbs and numerals, whose great utility in the comparison of languages is acknowledged, were al^o admitted into the collection, in order to render this Glossary mure complete and more in> structivc." :;;■«: u Indian Languages in JVorth America. and the interesting woik of his experienced and worthy fellow-la- bourer, the Ri>v. Air. lleckewelder. Tliese publications alone, which are too well known to need a more particular notice in this place, abundantly show, what a vast field is now opening to those who wish to search into the philosophy of lani;iiai!;o, and to study man through the medium of his noblest and peculiar faculty of speech ; and, at the same time that they do honour to our country, they will be read by the scholars of Knrope, especially the learned (jermans, with all that avidity which the characters of tlieir authori^ will naturally excite. For my own part, I acknowledge, that they have occasioned my taking a deeper interest in this apparently dry and barren suliject, than I could have believed to be possible in any one, however devoted he might be to philological pursuits ; and I have, in conscipience, been for a time allured from old and favourite studies, to which I had intended to allot the whole of that little leisiiro whicli 1 rnnUl spare from the duties of my pro- fession. At the very commencement of my inquiries, however, T found my progress impeded by a capricious and ever varying orthogra- phy of the Indian languages, not only among the writers of dif- ferent nations, but even among those of the same country. I have, therefore, while examining words in one Indian dialect with a view to comparing them with those of another, been obliged to employ much time in first settling the spelling of a xcritten word, in order to ascertain the sound of the spoken word ; when I ought to have found nothing more to be necessary than to make the com- parison, which I happened to have in view, between words whose sounds hIioiiI.I have presented themselves upon the first inspection of their tcritten characters. But with the present irregular mode ot writing Indian words, unless a reader is conversant with the r mSm ii B Mr. ricli-cnugon the 0)'thn(;raphij of t lie several lungun^cs of the nutliors, wIiumc reinarkH upon the IiuUad tliulcclij nny I'lill within his oh.serviitioii (which rcinnriifl too arc often rendered still i'urllior unintclli^ihle hy bcih!; read in a trans- lation) he will be very liiiely to iin.ii^ine, that tlie wur cable expedient to render our progress easy and pleasant. Now nothing is more clearly necessary at the very beginning, than some common and sijstematic method of writing them; whether our object is, to enable the learned of other countries and our own to study and compare the numerous varieties of human speech with all that exactness, which is essential to accurate and useful results, or whether we confine ourselves to the more prac- tical purpose of possessing the means of communication with the various tribes on our borders, either with a view to the common concerns of life or the diffusion of the principles of our religion among them ; and any investigation, which is so intimately con. nected as this with results of such importance, will not be thought unworthy of the attention of our countrymen. Nor will they, 1 trust, need further incitement to prosecute any inquiries whatever, minute as they may at first view appear, to whieh men of so much distinction in the literary world, as Count Yolney among tiie French and the incomparable Sir William Jones among the English, have given importance and dignity by their laborious aud learned researches.* • Count Volney's elaborate work, entitled VAlfabet Eitropeen applijur anot Fjingups .Isiatiques, 8vo. pp. 223 (for the use of wliicli I have been indebteil to Mr. l)u I'oiiceau since this paper was first communicated to the Academy) was published at I'aris in 1819. The Dissertation of Sir >Viiliam Jones, which I iiave already quoted, is well known to every scholar. ^- .> '««•' ../ f iniy if I;. « (fi : «4^ iO .^/r. Pickering on the Orthography of the As various nations of Einope have already published and will continue to publish books respcctint; the American Indiana and their languages, either with a view to the information of the learned or to the propagation of the Christian religion, it is ex- tremely desirable, that such a common orthography as I have mentioned should be adopted. This would enable foreignrrs to use our books without difliculty, and, on the other hand, make theirs easy of access to us ; and it would also enable the mis- sionaries of our own and other countries (the benevolent Ger- mans, for example, who have been so long engaged in this duty) to cooperate with the more effect in the great ol>ject of tlieir common labours. So far too as the slud^' of philology alone is concerned, Ave should derive the important advantage of being ennbled to discover at once by the eye, etymologies and affinities in the Indian dialects, which with our present orthography are only discernible by the ear. Now what are called vowel sounds constitute an important part of the Indian, as well as other languages. In English each of the vowels, according to its place in a word, may repre- sent sounds, which are totally different from each other ; and, oo the other hand, we often represent one single sound by very dif. ferent vowels, either taken by themselves or in combination with other letters. Our first vowel a, for example, is commonly said to have no less than four distinct powers, which are exemplified in the words, fall, far, fat, fate ; and therefore, if we should meet with the like number of Indian words, in which this vowel was under the same combinations as in these English examples, we should naturally pronounce this single letter a (which ought to be the representative of only one sound) in four different ways. This change of power in the vowels; it is well known, does not ^■*- ^ \ 1 # *■ ^ ¥■ % Indian Languages in JSTorth America. 11 take place in the languages of the continental nations of Europe ; but all those nations (I speak in general termS; without noticing the common ilistinctious of acute, grave, and circumflex accents, and other slight modifications of the fundamental sounds) preserve "tvhat may he called, in a general view of the suhject, a uniform pronunciation of the vowels ; a pronunciation, which is generally supposed to have been handed down to our own times, in con- junction with the letters themselves, from the Romans. I have always thought, therefore, that it would be best to adopt as the basis of our Indian orthography, what we call the foreign sounds of all the vowels ; that is, the sounds which are usuiUy given to them by those European nations, with whom we have much inter- course by books or otherwise, and who, like ourselves, use the Moman alphabet in their own languages. I speak with these limitations, because my object is merely practical ; and, for all practical purposes, it will for some time to come be best to confine our views to the family of nations I have here mentioned, and to adopt an orthography, which, though it may not be philosoph- ically exact, shall bo attended with the least embarrassment to them and ourselves in the common use of it. We can hereafter either modify that orthography, or adopt a new one, as our ex- tended intercourse with other families of nations may be found to require. In conformity with this view of the subject, the general pro- nunciation of the vowels will be as follows : a as in father e as in the%'e i as in machine (or like eej as in note n as in rule ^ y as in you (or like ee.J «" •Mi -«K f lit' ■*r., smmiif IS Mr. Pickci'ins; on the Orthogvaphij of the ! ■ i .1 ,.' Otir letter ir may also be advaiitaseously employed, instead of the single xt, at the b('2;iuning of certain syllables Mhich we should othcruisc write with no ; for, if the combination oo should ha|)[)en (o precede or follow a single o, thus oo-o or n-oo (for wo or ate J it makes a very awkward and inconvenient orthography ; and if tlie oo should precede or follow another combination of the same kind, thus uo-oo (foe icnj the iuconveniencc is &till more palpable. Our veueral)le Elht, whose memory will ever be revered by scholars as well as by the friends of religion, both in his Indian Grammar and his Translation of the Bible, used a character composed of two o 's closely united thu'»( oo) reaenil)liug the figure 8 laid horizontally. This character answers extremely well ; but as the simple u or w would always supply its place, and as both of these are familiar to the diilcreiit nati(»ns of Europe, 1 have thought we might dispense with the character devised by Eliot. The Jesuit missionaries formerly taught their converts to denote this sound by the Grerk character « ; and this is accordingly used ihroughout Father Raters MS. Dictionary of the Noiridgwock, or rather Abiiaki, language, now preserved in the Library of our University in Cambridge. IJut, for the reasons before mentioned, 1 think that neither this nor Eliot's character will be found necessary.* Such, I have observed, should be the haais of our Indian orthography. Any modifications »»f these fundamental sounds, whicli may be discovered in the diiTerent Indian languages, may be indicated by some diacritical marks placed a!>ove or below the letter which is employed to denote the fundamental or principal sound. For this purpose I should choyse, if practicable, to s pt iRome other marks than the common signs of accent and quantity \ • See ati account oitliis valuable M!?. iu the Aiipiidix to the present [lapcr. - \X ■^. 0k ■H Indian Languages in jyorth America. 13 because these signs have been so long employed to denote the usual, though vague distinctions of grave, acute and circumflex accents, and long and short syllables^ that they would perpetu- ally mislead readers of evrry nation ; besides, it may be found useful to reserve them, to be placed over those syllables which in English we call accented, in order to denote that part of a word, upon which the greatest force, or stress of the voice falls in pro. uunciation.^ The elegant scholar, with whose remarks I l.avc introduced this subject, and from whose well-cousidcrcd opinions no man should dissent without great hesitation, after observing, that " our English alphabet and orthography are disgracefully and almost ridiculously imperfect," recommends, fur the purpose of denoting modiilcatiuns of tlii^ kind, the adoption of <^ some of the marks used in our treatises on iluxions ;" and accordingly in his notation of Asiatick words, he makos use of eitlicr one, two, or three pointe placed over the letters, thus, z, z, Z.f This notation has the • Eliot employed two of tlio accents in tlie fi)llowing manner : " We use," sav9 he, " onely two Accents, and but sometime. Tiie acute (') to shew which sellable is first produced in pronouncing of tiie word ; which, if it be not attended to, no nation can understand their own lanji;uage ; as appcareth by the witty con- ceit of tiie Titi/re tu's: 6 pioduced wilh tlie aci-ent is a reguhir distinction be- twixt the first and second prrsons plural of the Suppositivc Mode ; as JV*«amo^, if we sec (as in Log J JS'auniofi:, if ye see (as in Vogue. ) The othernccent is (") wliich I call nasal ; and it is used only upon (6) when it is sounded in the nose, as oft it is ; or upon (u) for the like cause." JndiaR (irammar, p. 3. These nusal sounds may be more conveniently designated in the Hiunner adopti'd in the I'oluh language, which will be mentioned in a subse- quent part of this paper. t Dissertation, in Jones' Works, vol. i. p. 186. m »» .fs %^ 9^ mm < I [\ ' !'i * »» » il*»<*l#>>!»»«'**- •;'"i.v'B'?t'" -^msi Tma 14 Mr. Pickering on the Orthography of the I. if f s!.- manifest advantage of great simplicity ; biu on tlic other hand it should be considered, that tliese points arc extremely subject *j being wholly overlooked or confounded with each other both in Avriting and printing ; and, in the science of mathematics, from M hich the learned author borrows them, it is a well known fact, that those treatises on fluxions, where this method is followed, abound in errors beyond all comparison more than those, in which the French notation by letter.^ instead of points is adopted."^ For this reason, therefore, marks of that kind should bo used as sparingly as possible. AVe might, perhaps, conveniently enough designate the modified vowel by placing a small letter over it, as is done in the German language, where, for example, the vowel a, (which commonly has a sound like ah in English) if it has a small e over it (a) takes a sound like a in fate; and the vowel a with a small e over it (g) loses its usual sound and takes one re- sembling the French eu. It is true, that the Germans also use two points (thus ii, o,) to denote these modifications ; but these have been so long and so generally employed in ancient and modern languages as a dmresis, that it docs not appear advisable now to apply them to a new use. If pointa are employed at all, it would be better to place them perpendicularly over the vowel (thus a) and not horizontally. But perhaps the most intelligible and least ambiguous notation would be found upon experiment to be, such as is adopted in the pronouncing dictionaries of our own language, that is, the common numerals ; instead, however, of placing them over the letter, as is there done, it will be better to place them under it; as the room above will be wanted for the • The learned De Sacy observes, «oo, tliat in Arabic (with three) are often confounded in the Manuscripts. See hib Arab, (iram. vol. i. p. 18— >19. « ii- ?*•■ I .. 'W, Indian Languages in JSTorth dmerica. 10 accents and marks of quantity. But, >vliaicver modo is adopted, an explanation should be given of it, by reference to one or moro of the European languages, in a 2''able or Key, which ought, for the present at least, to accompany all publications in the Indian languages.* There is, however, one class of sounds in seme, if not in all ^he Indian dialects, I mean the nasal sounds, for which it seems absolutely necessary to introduce a new character ; though it is always extremely desirable to avoid having recourse to this dan- gerous expedient in any alphabetic notation, which, like the present, is intended for a practical system. In those Europeaa languages with which we arc most familiar, such nasal modifica- tions arc commonly denoted by subjoining certain consonants to the vowels thus modified ; as n or m in the French language and some others ; ng in the German and our own language. But nothing would be gained by adopting this method for the Indian • In JPii/ce's Citrnisli Oiammar and Vocabulary, published in the year 1790, a diRereiit expedient from any above propoiied is resorted to ; that is, turning the letters upside down. Tiius, the vowel A in its natural position is sounded as in vian, but when inverted (y) it is to be sounded as in fall. This method, which does not seem to be a very eligible one, has been followed to a considerable ex- tent in the Tsvlvki SqoLo Clv, or Cherokee Spelling Book, published by the Rev. Mr. Butrick, (the respectable missionary among the Cherokees) and his young assistant, Mr. D. Urown, who is one of that nation, and with whom I have had opportunities of conversing upon the subjt ct of his language. I will here remark, by the way, as the name of this nation has been variously written, Che- rokee, Cheerakee, Clielokee, &c. that Mr. Brown stated the true name to be, (as we should write it in English) Tmh-luh-kee', sounding the u as in but and throwing the accent upon the last syllable ; and so it is to be pronounced accord- ing to the orthography used in the title of the Spelling Book above quoted. The corruption of ts into tsA (or our cA^ is very common in tlie attempts to write Indian words. mmmmm i I ■ V, ■if- 11 \ Mi 10 •l/r. Pickerius^nnthe Orthm^rnphiiofthr laiigungcs, in Avhicb we have it in our power to cstablisli a new notiitlou that shall l)c siistnnatic, «o far as may he consistent Mitii convenience in practice ; because, if wc apply those conso- nant!*, n, in, or any otiiers, whicli already have certain eslal)lisheil powers in the alphabet, to llii.t new use of inilicatiuj; nasal sounils, we shall then be obligetl to alVix to them a sign of some sort to point out when they do not indicate such sounds ; or, in other words, to show when they retain what wc now call their usual powers. In the I'olish language these nasal vowels are designated by the little mark, called in some of the foreign Ian- guagcs a cedilla, which is placed under them thus, n e { o uj and Mr. Du Ponceau, to whom I am indebted for this and many other valuable suggestions, observes in a letter to irje, that no other method has occurred to him, which would in practice be found 80 convenient as this for the proposed Ivdiun alphabet ; an opinion, in which every man, who has weighed the various difficulties in this case, will fully concur.* I will only add ua this part of the subject, that it will be found best in practice to • In printing-offices where types cannot at present be had for tliis purpose, the nasal vowel may be printed as it is iu Volney's work, p. .'JO, with an inverted comma subiuincd to it, thus, a e i <, u. Uut as this may occasion a division •' i ( ( « ( of the syllables of a word (which bhould be avoided) new types ought to be made lor the nasal vowels. In respect to tiic division ol syllables I will here add a re- mark from one of Mr. Du Ponceau's letters to me ; " The makers of Indian Vo- cabularies are in the habit of dividing their syUables, as in the Spelling Book. This is awkward and inconvenient, and will be useless on the principle of the new alphabet." Tiiis remark, occurrinjr thus early, may require a short explanation. The method of dividing the syllables will become unnecessary, because in the proposed alphabet every letter is to have a fixed and invariable snuud, however it may be combined with others j and in spelling, every syllable, except final ones, will end with a vowel. f ' (II WMi Tywrrnf- Indian Languagea in J\i*orth America. 17 place these, and any other distinctive marks of this sort, under the letters ; because the room above, as I have before observed; will bo wanted for the marks of accent and quantity.^ ♦ DIPHTHONGS. The mode, of writing the dipbthongs, which would naturally follow that of the vowels, will need but a few remarks ; for, as the diphthongs will be compounded of the several vowels whose powers have already been under consideration, -twd- those writers * Mr. Du Ponceau Ims suggested to me a mcthoil ot indicating accent and quantity, in a manner whicli is at once simple and ingenio' . Me proposes, that loni; accented syllables should be marked with the grave accent, and short ac- cented ones with the acute. " Unaccented syllables," he adds, " tieed no mark, being generally sliort." This method would be attended with no difficulty in the application, were it not for the diflerent ideas, which diflferent persons may affix to the terms long and short in this case. We say in English, for example, that i in the word pine is long, but that in pin it is short. This, to an Italian, French, or other foreign scholar, would be an absurdity ; because it would be equi- valent to saying, that the sound of our word aye and of our letter e (for so they would pronounce i in pine and t in pinj are the long and short of the same vocal sound ; when too, as our own grammarians begin to admit, the letter i in the for- mer case is a diphthong, and in the latter, a vouel. Yet, absurd as this appears, we see it carried into our methods of instruction in Latin and Greek, as well as in English. No person, however, who has given the least attention to those foreign languages, which are the most legitimate descendants from the Latin (that is, the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) or in short, to any of the Continental languages of Europe, will suppose for a moment, that the distinction of long and short in the ancient languages was like the distinction which we make in English, in in the case of the t and some other vowels. But this is not the place fur discuss- ing a subject, which will more properly belong to a communication on the Accents of the Greek language, which I hope to make to the Academy on a future oc- casion. 8 M l\ b . 18 Mr. Pickering or the Orthography of thi- «>f tlic Indian laiisnai^es, who may adopt tlic prupoHed orlliogra- pliy uf tliu vuwcIh; will liiid no ditliciilty in coiubiniuj; tlicHC in sucli a luaiiiu'r as (u tonstitute- the iTiiuiied diphthongs. It luay not^ however, hi: without use tu observe, that there are in some of the Indian dialects diphthongal bounds, which we are accnutoiued to denote in English by sin;:;lc Irttcrs. 1 liave found, for example, and much to my surprise, by conversation with the young Chero- kee mentioned in a preceding note, that in the language of that nation they have the diphthongal sound of tiic long i in our word pive, and of the long a in our word pure ; both of which are at length admitted to be diphthongs by some of our own gramma- rians, as they have always been treated by the Continental nnHoni of Europe, who generally denote the first of them by at and the other by i\i or iou. ; the sounds of which may be expressed in English by ah-ee and ee-oo, pronouncing the two parts of these ^ords as closely together as possible. To express these diphthongal sounds, therefore, which, like' the vowels, will probably in some dialects be found tu be more close, and in others more open, we cannot do better than to adopt the European at and iu ; to which wc may add yu, to be used at the beginning of words, for the reasons which will be mentioned in considering the combinations Li and Ly, under the letter It, We shall also want a character for the diphthong which we denote in English by ou in our, and ow in rtuw. Either of our modes of writing this diphthong would be ambiguous to the people of Europe ; for they would in general pronounce both of them like ou in English. Now those nations in their own lan- guages would express this diphthong by au (except that the French would write it aonj ; and as this orthography would naturally follow from the sounds to be denoted by the two llH Indian Languages in JVorth dmericoi lU component vowels a and u, there seems to be every reason, which practical convenience could suggest, for lelinquishing our own ojt and oir, and adopting au in common with those nations. It need hardly bo observed here, that if it should be found requisite in any Indian words, to mark very distinctly the separate powers of the two component letters in the ai, in and au, and (bus in effect dissolve the diphthong, it may be done by means of tlie common dimresia. CONSONANTS. B. The letter B may have the power which it genevally has iu the European languages and in our own. 0. The letter C may be entirely dispensed with, on account of its very changeable power in the European languages, and because its two most c':raraon sounds may be perfectly expressed by K and by 8. Our venerable Eliot says of it— « We lay by the letter C, saving in CH, of which there is frequent use in tha language."* Uut, for the CH, it will be lound advisable that we should substitute another notation, which will be mentioned in its place under the letter T. D ; DH ; DS or DZ ; and DJ, D8H or DZH. The letter D, when single, may have its usual power. l)h may be conveniently used to denote what Walker calls in English the /of sound of th; that is, the sound which th has in • Indian Gram. p. 2. f !l ■ ■' '♦? , If 10 »Wr. Pickering on the Orthography of the our words this, that, &c. uiid fur which our Snxon anceitor« had an appropriate chBractcr, bul lor want of which wo ihould be oblij^ed to write the Bamc wordi), dhiii, dhat itc* Ih or l)x will probably he wanted in some cases, to denote thi'/at sounds corresponding to *« ; which last in very con.roou in (he Indian lan;;uagc8 (though often corrupted into our chj and is expressed l)y the O'crman writers l»y a simple Z ; a letter whicii in their own language, as is well known, has the power of tti or tz in English. Dj, Ihh or lixh may be employed to express the sound of our J ; which, for the reasons that will be given under that let- ter, it seems necessary to reject from the proposed system of orthography. * Tlie^»/ Bound of f/i. Notliing can be more unsettled and imperfect (lian our tecliiiical laMi;un;;p in Oruinnmr and Itlietoiic ; and tliiA circuniNtance has uiuclt retardtul the progress of accurate irivcHtigatiun in (hose two branchcHot' uur studies. So far as respects sound*, we cannot do better than to burrow terini from ^Viisir, wliich is the Science (if Rounds ; and I have accordingly used the Xnuwi Jtat !\nA slinrp [w fcrnve ttwA ncule ) which I hi'lieve were first empluved S3*steniutically in Walker's I'ronounciu^ Dictionary, to (lesij;nnte the two ciasKCS of consoniints often called mules and Bemi-mutcs, as b, Pi ^c. (he remarks) is clearly and strongly to be perceived ; the iitsjn- ration in their correlatives, perhaps nut (jtiite so much. To me it seems, that when you say thtndei', you push the air out, when you say thatf you draw or keep the air in as much as is jiosisihle in uttering a consonant." Indian Languages in tPiTtrth tin'i'ica. M The letter F, wheuever it sliall be wanted, will have »t8 UHiial power. But pntlialily there will not bo much use for it in many of the Indian dialects ; for Mr. Heckcweldcr ^serves of tuc Delaware language, which is the basis of many others, that it has ** no such consouaots as the German ir, or Eagliijh u, F, or r."* G, GH, GS. The, letter G, whatever vowel may happen to follow it, should invariably h.avc the sound, which wo call in English its fiard sound ; and which it generally has before a, o and u, in the European languages as well as our own. This power of G is commonly traced back no farther than the times of our Saxon ancestors ; but scholars have supposed, and upon no slight grourds Miat this was also its common sound, or a very near approximation to its common sound among the Romans, when it was followed by either of the vowels. Gh may be used to denote the flat guttural of the Irisii, which is the corresponding sound to the sharp guttural, ur Ger- man ch ; which last I should prefer designating by kh, as Sir William Junes recommends in the Oriental languages, and as will presently be more particularly considered under the letter K. Gs will be wanted to denote the flat souud of x, in our word example and other words of that form, where the letter JT pre- cedes the accented syllable ; as ks will be wanted to express the shrirp sound which x has in our word exercise and in certain others which have the Xin the accented syllable. • Correspondence with Mr. Du Ponceau, p. 3'JC. letter ff lu the present communication. See also the *yole on the iiii«iiiiil« V|!f: i l' ' ' I I 33 .Vr. Pickering on the Orthography of the H, HW. //, eillier wlion single or in cmnbination with others, may perform its usual office of an aspirate, Ifir will be Avanted for the purpose of denoting the sound Avliich in Eni^lish we now express by «'A, as in what, when, &c., though our Saxon ancestors used to put the h before the tr, and wrote the same words hwwt, hwcvnne. The Swedes also (as 5Ir. Du Ponceau remarks in one of his letters to me) formerly used hw and hii ; but at the present day, they as well as Ihe Danes use hv, J. The use of the letter J is attended wiiii more difficulty than any of the preceding consonants, A (ipr:uan or an Italian would inevitably give it the sound of our y :* h Frenchman or a Portugueze, that of zh (or s in our word pleasure :J while a Spaniard would give it tha strong guttural sound well known in his language. Under these circumstances, therefore, although it is extremely desirable to have single lett, rs to represent single sounds (as we generally denominate them) yet it appears to me better on the whole to rejpct the letter ./, and instead of it to adopt a combination of letters, which shall be in analogy with the common sound of our c// ftshj, which is tlie corresponding ^Aarp sound to that of J. As, t!>.erefurc, I shall presently propose to de> note our ch by tsh, so in the present case I would supply the place of our./, by dsh or dxh ; or, if it should be thought best, in a practical alphabet, to sacrifice analogy to simplicity, we mighi • Mr. Heckewelder very jinliciously eiii]ilc>ys (!io y in>,tt'ail of j, which Mr. ZcishergiT anil the olhei (iermaii .Missionaries always make use of. Hee /iii Corr<>sjiondence with Mr. Du I'unceau, p. "Si. Indian Languages in tlSTorth America. 23 '•■'■a-. exprcfls this sound by (fj or dg, as the French commonly do in writing foreign worth. In the Malay Bible and Testament, printed by the Dutch in 1733 (the latter of which was reprinted by the English in 1818) the Dutch have adopted a character compounded of J) and J closely united thus, 1^, dj, which would be prel'erablR to dg; but in that case, again, if wc strictly re- garded analogy, we should express ch by (/, as the Jutch have done in that work. This would be a little awkward to us and not free from ambiguity ; as, fur example, in the name of the place whe-*. ihe Knglish edition of this Malay Testament was reprinlc-d, and which is expressed conformably to the above notation tliiis, Tjalsi, (to be sounded as if written TjelsiJ we should not immediately discover the plain English name, Chelsea. In the case of this, as well as other letters of the alphabet, it will not be overlooked, that one advantage of having characters, which i>hall be in analogy with each other, is, that they will im- mediately point out to the eye many affinities, which under an irregular orthography are discoverable only by the ear ; and, perhaps, in the present instance the character dj, which is less cumbrous than dsh or dzh, will sufficiently resemble tah to an- swer that purpose. K, KFI, KS. JK", when single, may preserve its usual power, which is fa- miliarly known to the European nations, though the letter itiielf is not used in all their alphabets. Wt may be used to denote tiie sharp guttural, which the Germans express by eft and the Greeks l»y;^^; while the corres- ponding ^ut guttural, as before observed; may be denoted by gh. f iii i/m I ■'1 i !;. ■, I :•• n m Mr. Pickering on the Orthography of the The comliination kh is (o be preferred to ch, because the latter would be ambiguous to Europeans in general, as well as to our- solves : for though the Germans would give ch the intended guttural sound, a Frenchman would prDnouncc it like our ah, and wc should ourselves be in doubt whether to pronounce it like tsh or like k : while a Spaniard would give it the sound of tsh, and an Italian, the common unaspirated sound of A*. Its will be necessary, to denote the sharp sound which x has in the word exercise and many others. L ; and LY or LI. The letter L, whether single or double, may retain its usual power. Ly or Li may be found useful, tc express the liquid sound of L, as it is called, which is heard in the foreign words seraglio, intaglio, &c. and is observable in our English word steelyard and some others ; which, if we divide thus, stee-lyard, the last syllable will give us this common foreign sound with the greatest exactness. The French express the same sound by II after i ; the Italians, by gl before i ; the Spaniards, by //, and the Por- tuL;ueze, by Ih. But either ly or li will, I think, be attended with fewer difficulties in practice, than any of the combinations above mentioned, in a system of orthography which is to be used in common by several European nations and ourselves ; and of these two, li and ly, we should ourselves in most cases, especially at the beginning of a word, give the preference to ly ; though to foreigners, it would be a matter of indifference which of them should be adopted. It may be thought indeed, that there is no necessity for both of them ; and, strictly speaking, perhaps, there is not any more than there is for retaining both of ■h- Indian Languages in JSTorth Jlmeriea, »5 the single letters, i anf* y, amoug the vowels and diphthongs. Yet wo have ourselves been so much accustomed to the use of y, instead of i, before the other vowels, and particularly in tlie beginning of words and before the letter i itself, (where we could nut without doing great violence to our habits employ the i,J that it seems advisable to retain i and ^, and fur the like reasons, the li and ly. Tliis will also be in conformity with the actual prac- tice of the German missionaries, who use both their i and their j (which last is equivalent to our yj in writing Indian words.* M. The letter M will have its usual power, whicli is, practically speaking, the same in the European languages in general. f * Perhaps it will not be found necessary to adopt any character to express the liijitid I (or I mouilUe ;) for Mr. Du Ponceau informs me, that he has not yet met with thia sound in any of the Indian languages examined by iiim. I once tliought of using the Spanish II for this sound ; but upon Mr. Du Ponceau's suggestion, tliat there might in some Indian words be occasion to express a full and distinct sound of two I 's following each other, as in the Italian words, bel-hj stel4a, I abandrned it. In our own language we are not in general sensible of any diRercnce between two I 's and one ; but if we take a word in which the second I is under the accent, as in illegal, illustrate, &c. or if we pronounce two words together, the first of which ends, and the second begins, with /, us in full length, well looking, &c ' difiercnce becomes more perceptible. t The Portugueze final m and the Frencli m and n, which arc nasal (or the signs of a nasal sound in the vowel annexed to theiii) need not, in this general view, be considered as bxceptions. 'fp* ( S6 |,;| |v|l [ \ I Mr. IHchering on the. Orthography of the N; flHrf NY or NI. «i\' may also retain its usual power, which (as was ohservcil in the case of MJ is the same in the European languages gcn< enilly.* »V// or ni may be wanted to express the sound of gn in the foreign words bagnio, seignior, and which we hear in our words convenient, minion, whintjard, the proper name Jtnuyan, &c. The Spaniards, as is well known, have an appropriate letter for it in their alphabet, being an n with a mark over it, thus, n ; the Portugaeze donotv, it by nh, aud the Italians by gn. But for i^imilar reasons to those mentioned * the case of the lij, 1 think we shall Cud ni/ more convenient in j^^ractice than either of these. f P. The letter P may have its usual power. This letter may be entirely dispensed with ; as its place may be perfectly supplied by A*. Home writers have used ({ aloue in Avriting Indian words to express the sound of (jii or qtc ; but kiP would, 1 think, be far preferable in every point of view. If the (I is preserved in any Indian alphabet, it may be applied to desi£!;aale some uncommon modiilcation of its usual sound ; and such modification should be indicated by some mark affixed to the letter. * Sec note t on (he preceding page. I -Mr. I)u I'onccau telis inc tliat this lijuid u [hi: wj) is found in the Carib- lee hnguago. m- A Iniian Languages in J\*orth America. R. 87 11 may preserve its common sound, wbicli is fundamentally the same in the European lani;ua5es, though uttered with very difforcat degrees of force, or roughness, by different nations. S, SH. iS» should always have its common sibilant power, and never be pronounced like Z. Sk will be wanted, and appears to me preferable to the com- binations of letters now used by feome European nations, to denote that sound which we always express by sh, and which is common to our own and many other languages in various parts of the globe. Tlie French express it by cli, which we liavc re- tained in tlie word chaise, and others borrowed from thorn. But the use of ch, in the Indian languages, would' mislead readers of different nations ; for a German would pronounce it as Vi guttural (like khj, an Italian like fc, a Spaniard like tsh, &c. The Germans denote tliis sound of our ah by sch ; which combination, besides being incumbered with one more letter than our shf would indubitably mislead an Italian, and aL> English- Bian, and perhaps readers of some other nations ; for an Italian and an Englishman would pronounce sch like sk instead of sh. It is, doubtless, in consequence of this ambiguity in the sch, that wc so often hear the name of that northern region, which is com- monly written Ii'anitschatka, corruptly pronouncf' Kam slcatka, instead of Itain-tchatka, (or Kams-tchntka, as we ought to call it, if we wisii to c une as near to the Russian pronunciation as our organs will permit, without an unnatural effort :) fi)r, as we bor- row the orthography of this name from the Germans, tlirough whose works we principally derive our information of that j-U. SB M>'. I'Ickerhg on the Orthograjthi/ of the country and wlio Mrilo it Kamlachaika, (with achj wc natnrally pronounce tlie letters sch like sk, accoriling to the general analogy of our own language.* Our s/j, then, being more simitle in itself than the German sch, yet sufficiently near to that as well as to the French ch, to indicate its power in most cases, and being also an unusual combination in the liuropeau languages, would be free from the ambigui'y altending the German sch, and not 80 likely to mislead readers of different nations. The corresponding flat sound to s/t, that is, our « in the word fhaanre (or j in French,) may be denoted by xh, as will be noticed under the letter Z.f T ; TH ; TS and TZ ; TSH. The letter T, wheu single, will have its common power. It will also be used in the three following combinations : Tiic flrst of them, ih^ is always called in foreign grnumars the Knglish TH, and is now well understood and used by the nations of Europe, when they wish to express that sharp lisping sound which it has in our word thin, thick, &c. and which is • This name in tlie Russian language (as Mr. nu Ponceau observes) is writ- ten KUMlljaiUKa, tlic fourtli letter of which is equivalent to li/i/n/i in Engiish. We ought, flicieforc, in strictness to write and pronounce it A'amshlshalkai which, if we f'uliow the Uussian letters, would in spelling; bo divided thus, h'am-shtshatka ; hut to make it more intelligible in Knglish, wc might write and divide thus, ICamsh-clialka. In our pronunciation, howovcr, this is generally <^rirtened either into ICams-tshatku, or A'um'tsliatka. t There would be a convenience in having these compounded characters, sh, xh and others, printed in one character, as our sh always used to be 5 and if new types are made, it may be well to attend to this point. In our own and other language!', however, no great inconvenience is felt from the use of separate letters. r-s' Indian Languages in J^Torth America, SO supposed to have been the ancient, as it is the modern, sound of the Greek theta. The corresponding flat sound (which is heard in our words, thiSf that, &c.) should be expressed by dh, as I have observed under the letter 1). The second is ts ; which, being formed of two letters whose powers may ho called invariable, will never be ambiguous. This will be much preferable to the ticrman Z, which has the pONcr of t8 or tz, but which most nations would pronounce in their own languages as we do in ours, and would there- fore be misled in the pronunciation of Indian words, where this letter occurs. Thus, for example, if a Frenchman and an Englishman should happen to meet with the expression in the Delaware language, which a German would write n'mizi (I cat) the former of them would pronounce it n'meezee, and the other, n'mizi, (sounding the i as in pine, J both of which would be unin- telligible to an Indian of that tribe ; while the German alone would pronounce it correctly, as we should write it in our English manner, n'meetaee. I have here spoken only of ts as a substitute for the German X ; but tz may perhaps be required to express a slight modifica> tion of this fundamental sound, which may probably be observed in some particular dialects, or in different words of the same dialect. The acquisition of this and numberless other delicate distinctions of fundamental sounds, wliich may be perceived in the various Indian dialects, and the establishing of distinct char- acters for them, must, if practicable at all, be the result of long and careful olvservation on the part of those, who may be called to reside among the diff'erent tribes. The remaining cumhiuation, tsh, may be employed to denote the sound of our ch (in chair, chain, &c.) which the French (^ ■*■-*. ^ ' ■ I a< * -^^r fc 0t '.'* , •v HV aO J/»'. Pich-crlnt; on the Orthogvaphtj of the would cxprcsss by tch and tlie Germnus by tnch. It would be dosiralilc, it is true, to have a cliaracter of greater simplicity than these tlireo letters make, and on tliat account our ch would bo preferable to tsh : but for the reasons before given (under khj it would not be expedient to adopt it. The Russians in their copious alphabet are fortunate in having a single character to denote this sound, as we have in our J, for the corresponding flat one ; they would express our ch by "^ , wiiich resembles our h inverted ; and if there was as much literary intercourse with tiic Russians, as with the Germans and other people of Europe, and the rest of the proposed alphabet was common to them and other nations, it might be found advisable to add to it this very usctul Russian character. V. The letter V, whenever it shall be wanted, will have the usual power. But probal'y there will not be much use for it in many of the Indian dialects, for the reasons given under the letter F. W. This letter has been already considered in the rcmn'rkfl upon the vowels, at page 330.* * In tlie Ikhiwarp language, (as tlic Hov. Mr, Hockcweldcr oliscives.) where tlie letter IF" is placed ucfore a vowel, it sound; tlie same as in English ; before a consonant it represents a whistled sound, of wliicli I cannot well give vou an idea on paper, &c. See his Correspondence with J/r. Du J'uncenu, p. S'JG. Mr. Du Ponceau, in a letter to me, sa^s upon (his point — " I have analysed the wliistling /f'of the Delawarcs. It is nothing more than our oh consonant, w or wh, in tcell, wliat. The Dclawares pronounce it inunediately helure a cnnsonatit without an intervening vowel; whicii habit enables tiiem to du, wltilc !lii ' »» ■^^-., ""IV Indian Languages in JSTorth ,imcrica, X. 81 A' is altogether unnecessary, as its two common powers may 1)C expressed by ks and gs ; and if tlic x itself should be adopted, it would be quite uncertain, both to ourselves and to readers of some other nations, which of the two sounds hero mentioned was intended by it ; besides which, a Spaniard would be in doubt whether to give it the flrst of the two sounds here mentioned, or the guttural one which the x has in his own language ; while a Portuguezc would pronounce it like our sh, which is its common power in his alphabet. Y. For the use of this letter, see the remarks upon tlie vowels, at page 3'2d. z, zu. The letter Z, when single, will have the power it has m French, Engliah and some other languages. In this case, how- ever, it will be necessary for the Germans and Italians to relin< quish their peculiar pronunciation of it, and to adopt the sub- stitutes proposed in the preceding remarks ; that is, ts, tz, da or dx, as the case may be found to require in the dilTcrent dialects. Zh will serve to designate the corresponding flat sound to sh ; that is, the sound of the French J, which is equivalent to our s in the word pleasure. we cannot, unless practice has madft it familiar to us ; as it has to inc. Take the word »(<, )oii pronounce it easily; transpose the vowel and write it uie, a Delaware will pronounce it with the same cbkc ; when we cannot. Try a Frenchman at pronouncing; this hemistich out of I'a'adise Lost— //e«y'/i's last heat ffift ; he will be as much embarrasseil with the vnst, the stb, and the nts, (which habit makes us pronounce with great rapidity a.id ease) as we are with the wt of the Delawares." *fi- I m /,.,li ••it uf :'ji' If i i •li ■: r "1 I 3S Jfi'. Pich-erinX'^nff'C Orthii^vaphtj nfthc The whole Ali>hahi't. llien, of the proposed systematic Or- thogiiiphy. that is, tlie baitiH or fundamental vharacterg of it, will I)c IIS roprescnU'd in tiic following Table ; in wliidi the several characters me airanged nccnnling to our tonimon tilplmbctical Older, without tiny attempt being made to class tlie t^ounds ac cording to their organic formation ; because, useful and necessary as this would bo in a philos«>phicftl investigation of the ailinitiea of those sounds, it would not be attended with any important advantage in an alphaliet, like the present, designed merely for practical use. When we arn searching for a word in a diction- ary, whether of llie Intlian or any other language, we naturally look for the written »u"n in the place where it ought to stand according to the nrrangt'ment of our own alpha bet. I may hero add, what I wish to be distinctly nndcnitood, that, as it never was my plan to give a universal alphabet on strict philosophical principles for the use of the learned, but merely a practical one, to be applied to the Indian languages of North America, so I have intentionally omitted many sounds, which occur in the languages of Europe and other parts of the world, and numerous modifications of greater or less delicacy in some of the fundamental simnda which have come under my notice. Among such omitted sounds might be mentioned the various slight differences (to an unpractised ear often imperceptible) in the French e and other vowels; depending upon the accent af- fived to them, and about which, indeed, their own writers have differed, as our own do in respect to the nicer distinctions of English pronunciation — the French u ((>erman «, Danish anil Swedish yj — the French eu or oeu (German and Swedish ^ or i), Danish ^A) &c. ; to which might be added the Polish / barree 1 or crossed Ij which, as Mr. Du Ponceau remarks, is found in ii'ii I Indian Lanj^uagea in %\*orth America. 38 or llic Carlhhpe lan^njigc, and to pronounce which wc must place the toiiv;iif as fur hack an possihlc on the roof of the month and articulate /. Hut to have ovcrchargfd the proposed aiphahct with a great many niceties of this kind, (if it lind Iteen in my power to represent tiiem all with exactness) would have had a tendency to frustrate the very ohject I had in view ; tliat is, a practical system of ortliography. In sucli a system, an approxi. mntion is all that wc can expect, and perhaps all that is at present necessary in our inquiries. If the alphabet here given shall prove to ho sufficiently well adapted to the purpose of denoting what may he called fundamental sounds of the principal Indian lan- guages, it will not be difficult hereafter, gradually to make pro- vision for such signs as experience may suggest, in order to de- signate all the delicate modiiications of speech, which the nicest car shall be aide to discover in the dift'erent dialects. But vew signs should he introduced with the greatest caution, lest we should have an alphabet, which will be too cumbrous for use iu writing, and will require a multitude of new types for printing, these languages. The great danger will be (as Mr. Uu Ponceau has observed to me) that every man, however little qualified, <' will think himself adc(|uate to the task of inventing new char- acters, and will delight to di8|ilay himself in that WJiy. These displays are used in order to conceal the want of ideas and re- sources." As in the use of our own language, it is much easier for every tasteless writer to invent new words according to his own caprice, in order to serve his immediate purposes, than patiently and carefully to select from our present abundant stock those appropriate terras, which have the sanction of the best usage; so, in constructing an alphabet for the Indian languages, it will be found a much shorter method, to devise new and gro- '4 ?!' 4 1 'f n n : , ;;|. .Ml'. I'ickeritig on the Orthography of the U'stiwc characU'is. tliaii to apply with ttkill and tliMcrimiiiation llioHC Utters wliidi nie nlictiily iu u»o cillicr in our uwu or the kiadroil al|»li.il>i'l!-. 1 (Hire tliuii^lit of nddtiii: to tlic proposicil itlplialict appropriate viiincs tor llie li'ttors ; luit as llii!« waM not Niriitly williiii my orij;iiial plnii, niiil would only he iicccHttary in tlir iiiNtrtu tioii of pii|iiU, I ruliii(]iii»li(Ml it. 'I'lic imiut;!* in coinmoii ihu ninong tlio Kiiropcaii initioiH and ournelvoH will answer ^iifllriiMitly well, willi the cxce|>tion, perhaps, of hhcIi as our 6\ //, IT, and F ,* which might he called liy names, that would more iuiuiedialely siii^i^est to the learner the respecti\e poweix of those lettern, than is (lone by (heir present denoniinatiouH ; thus thu letter (* instead of being called ^rr, might have the name of ^/irr, which Eliot uttud to give it ',* // might lake the (lermau appellation ha or hnii ; ]y might he culled uwe,] as Eliot also named it ; and V might he called I/O or i/a. Perhaps, t.io, some suitable appellations may bo wanted for the compound char.icters x//, tah, Ace. to give the learner some idea of their powers. But, for the reasons above mentioned, it is not necessary here to enter upon lh|> consideration of ihirf subject. 1 now 6ul>join in one view the proposed Indian ,ilphabpt, in the following Table ; in which, the first List contains the common letters of our alphabet, as fur us it seems practicable to adopt iheoi ; the next contains the class of nanul8 ; after these fuU low «!ic diphthongs i and lastly, a iiunil)er ai co':f> pound char- aciev;', which will be of more or less frequent UbC iu diflercut dialects. Indian (iram. p. 3. t " \Ne cill ;r (u-eej because our uanic givctli no Lint of the 'power of iti snutul." Indiuii Gram. p. 'J. 'i^;v \> I li fndinn Lans^unsfp^ in *VoHA America. M I I i 10 le ve oa in kUtl iipt ruU :cat sf tU TAHLli OF THK ALl'HAHET. A »» in tlif Ennlisli wiiuU,fin;J'ather, &c. (Hut scu the JS^ote oit the Voweln, p. fiT.) H im ill Kll^li!lll, Krciicii,&c. 1) (till' Sllllll'. ) K an in (lie Kiit;li))li word there f and also kliort «■, •» in mcf, &c. K UN in Kti^listli, jScc. U Kll^li«ll g liai'il, as in gamr. gone, Ike. li un Uitpiratiiin, hh in Hti(;liali. &.r. I UN in marine, inuchiiie, (or KiigliHli ee) ; and oIho short '' in him, K UH in Kngliiili. 1. Cthe Ha me. J Al ( Ihe name J N Clhi- same. ) U Eni^liitli long It, as in roft^ : mid aUo tlio o in mme^ timong^ above, &c. wliicii is r(|uivaiL'nt to the Engliith »hortu in ntfr| tun, &c. (Hut sue tiic remarks on thin letter, n. 30.) i' as ill Kiiglish, &.c. K ( the same. J S^ as ill Knglish at the beginning of a word. T as ill l';ii^li>.li, &,c. V Kn;;lisli uit, liotli long arid short ; French "U V Kn^lish r. Oennnn w, Uussiuii b, Modern ti >V as in Knftlish ; French ou. A » E » 5 » Ureck fi. y as in the Enijlish wurdn, yit, you, &c. X as in English, &.c. NAMAl.S. ■s in ang (sounding the n itself, as in father.) But for a hotter description of this and the other iiasuls, see the ^'ote un the JS'nsaU. p. fiO. iimg, ns in eijng (pronouncing; tiie eij as in they ,) and s//oi7, as in tiie word ginm-ng ; Portusjjuese em fiiiiil. (."^ee JShle on the JWsal'i, p. 39.) longyt>*\\\ eengi and short as in tn^ ; Portuguese ini tinal. {^tc ^''ote on the J\'asnl<, p. .SO.) /o>/;r. ii.-i m oivng (soundins the ow as in niim ;) Frencii on ; Piirtiiguese om fiiiiil. 'I'lii-^ chiiracter will ;ilso he used for o short nasalised, which is very neai'lv the snoic wilh ong in amnr.g, ns this latter is e(|uiviilent to u.ig in liing^ &.C Sec It'alker* Diet, I'rinciiiles, J\l'o. IC.>. See also the .Aok'.s on the vowel ft, and on the JVasals, p. 38, 39. as in 'long ; I'ortii^ue/.c /iin linul. 'l"o these shoulil he adilcil u character for the nasal ainig or ong which corres- ponds to our o in /"or, n«r, S(c. And, as I have proposed (in p. 38,) to denote this vocal sound, wlioii not niisnliseU,Uy air, ho it wouhl he most strictly ciinriirnm- ble to my plan, to denote tlie same vocal sound, when it is naialis»d, hy a'r or flic. But perliaps tlie letter a itself, witli the cedilla (n) may he used witliuut inconvenieiiro for tliis hroad nasal simnd, and we may still, in the coniiiioii vowels, reserve the simple « to lienofe the sound it has in the wend fnllier, and not the sound of an; For it nwiy he found, tli:it tlu' lii-l n.i^al goiiiid in tliis'l'uMe is not cominoii in the Indian lungiiaLies ; in whiili case it would be best to use the simple a for the bruad nasal here mentioned. If Mil ■ \" li I'; i'f I ig I ^6 Mi: Piclcering ou iho Orthop'aphy of the TABLE OF TMK AIJMlAHi:'!" CONTINUED. DIIMITHONG?;. \i Kiii;li>l) i in pine. Av Ktiglisli Off ill hott; now, &.c, and .•!; i:i uur. ID ^;Il^liBll « in /n/iv ; Fu-iirli ion, YU to be used at tlie btyMtiins. as in may lu- in the middle, of words. ADDiriON VI- CtlNSON ANTS. D/ii, Kn^lisli J and ilfs, \nj;,1)ii- ; ItimicIi '/r. as in tlie Knglisii w ords, this, Ihot ; tlie t of the Modern Greeki?, F ,s;li^li Is in tlie ptopi-r name /'.'fsv ; (Jertiiiui and Italian z .■ oeiinaii r ln'tciic tlif vowels i' itml i ; I'olish c Itrlore all tlie vowi'ls : Kus'Sian Vsi. 'I'lic-i' I'otii- (■.mi|)oiiMt>* Iteinnneaily alil.f (a< Mr. Dii I'onci'iiti jiistiv oliserves to nic) the var of the writer niii>t dirtct him wiiicli to use, as the rt-spectivo couso- narits [iredomiiiate. Sec k'h below. (.z, or c.s, Ktiglish .v in e.vamiili', exact, iiv, English irli in what, ii-heii. r-H, guttuial, like (he (iieok ;, ; Spanish .r. ^. .and / ; fierman r/i ; Dutcli fXti. I have in the jiiecedinj; paper i;ivpn (lie pn-ffrence to kit 'or the puipo«e of e\pr('s^lnu tliis ^utttiiHl sound : hut gli prop unied as the Irinh ^n in tiieir name lirit>j;heda, Stc. mav he better ii\ tertaiei cases where this i>Htt'iral p;»rtakes more of (lie flat sound, f, than of tli> !' words union, iipiniiiii, &c. in the Kiij^lish word thin ; Greek 3. See rfs above. Enjjiish rh. In chair : Spanish r/i in much ; Italian e before fan'.! i; German /■.c/i ; Hus Ian i|. an i'i the Delaware language. as s ii. plmsure ; Fiencli aud Portuguese j ,• PoIi»h *, with a cuiianu over 't(i; •I' "4! Indian Languages in J^Torth America, NOTE ON THE VOWELS. 37 In coiisidciing the several letters by whicli the vowel sounds are represented, both in our own atiil otlier laii}ju»g,es, it will he peiceivetl, that each otlhein way betaken as n^presentint;, not a sinj;le soiinil. hut a sevieti of siiu'.nis, vtfhicli series will '•e ninre or less extensive according to the genius of diileient laii^ua;>es ; and it will he further ol)- sctved, that each serie:) gradually runs into the adioiiiin;^ series (if \\k may so speak) by such slij^lit and delicate modifications, that it is u matter of no small ditT'culty, in many cases, to decide in what |)art of any one seiies we should drop the vovvel char- acter with wliirb ue hei;in,and take another to co?>tinue the sounds of the next series; in other wci (Is, it is nut asy to determine, at what point one series ends and another be^jins. For example ; if we take the letter n, we may assume the sound winch it has in the word/«//i('r, as the middle point of a series, the whole of which, ('le^inning with liic lirnad a m /"n// ami ending with the narrow or slender n inj'ate') we Jeuoto in Ei:;x- lish by this one character, thus: fall — v\h — kat — fatk— and these arc all the sounds in tliis series, which philologists designate in our own Ian> guage by this one letter. Uut if we extend our view to other languages, we shall liiid varifuis intermediate sounds between the two extremes of lliii, same scries; for exam- ple, between the sounds >.I our a in fall and in/nr, we find in the French language, the d ill ndle, mate, &c. which can only be described, on pa|><:r, as a sound between our two, and which is seldom attended to by foreigners in speaking French. Now. if we should minutely examine a number ol languages, and should eiide.ivour to arrange accurately in one projTfssion all the vowel sounds belonging to this series, we should doubtless di!>covei in those languages many other slight modifications intervening between 'lie dittere"t members ot our English series. As, however, wt cannot accustom our • irs familiarly to distinguish, nor our organs of speech to utter with precision, all tuese slighiiy (liH'eiing sounds, L.J we need no distinctive characters to reprexcnt them to the eye, but it will be suflicient in practice to have characters for the principal sounds (as we n.av call them) in each series ; just as in the prismatic series of colours, «e content oui selves with a few nam>^s to denote one principal shade of each colour, without fruitlessly attempting to devise terms of ibemetical nicety, to describe the innumera- Lie shailes on eitiicr side of the principal one from which we set out. If we now recur for a moment to the series above denoted by w2, we find on one side of it a serie* vhich we denote by the letter 0,and on the other side, a series which we denote by the letter E; in the former we begin with the sound of o in worn, which might be writte 1 with uu or aw (or with a alone, if we bad been i ccustoined to write this word with that letter, as we do the word war) and then we proceed to the sound whith it has in more, till we arrive at that which it has in move ; which point may be considered, praciically speaking, as forming the end of one series and the beginning of another, ■which is represented by the letter U ; and these twv contiguous extienies arc sometimes represented by o and sometimes by n, that is, our oo. If we now lake the other side of the gei ies, represtnteJ as above by Ji, and set out from the sour.d which that lette> has in the vvohI /lite, we eater upon a series, of which the letter E may be called the re|iiesenta- tivc, beginning wiili its sound in the word ; . ;, wliicli is the shm't sound of a \i\Jate ; and this series, proceeding impcrceptiblj through various gruitations, at length vanishes in tlie simple une(|uivocai sound ol >p, '.vhicii toroign nations denote by the third vow- el, (. The fulluwi.ig labl? will perhaps make these remarks more intelligible : Series of the letter A : fA" .A Series of O: ^^^'^ * "" fAtb Series of E: . ^ ^ mOrn thEue f I '^ ■ ■ ' — mOhe mOvB uU LK, &C. mOhn • iiEuf TIlEsE marIne, Jcc. •MiHMIi .)S Mr, Pickering on the Orthography of the \ i;i !- r In Nnw ill writing tli« Indian l.ii]mi;im's, 't will ol'teii he found extremely difRcuU to de- cide in eaci) scries of the vDMi'l Sduiids, to vvhitt extent iiii eiicli side of the piincipal or mid- dle point (as 1 liave called it) we siiall use the same vowel chiiractcr, or when we shall liave recmitse to the letter wliieli is the rei)reseiitative of the next adjacent series. Kroin these consiilerations in the case of the vowel .'}, thouj^li we have no diiViciilty in u^in:; it to denote the sound of a in/'fir, yvt when we proceed in the series to the full broad sound which it lias \ufiill, we icel a repu;;nance (nlisin^ from old liahits in our own laiiiiua'.;e) to deiiotinsi that sound hy the siii;;l(' vowel, and are rather inclined to expM'!»s it hy au orrtfc. If it slmulij he tliouf;ht that it niii«litl)e denoted hy o (as in /or) it will lie ohvious, tliat this would only i)e fhrowiiiji the same dirticulty into another f.e- rics, and we sliuuld then have to decide ajjain, how far the letter o shall he employed in that series, on earh side of its principal sound off* in r?i«rf. iNow this hroad souii'.I (air) tliougli found in the Kuropeai, lannua^es in not coniioonly repreuenfeil in them by the letter .i; and therefore foreifjners, who should attempt to read any Indian language, in ■w'-icli the simple n was employed to denote the sound aw, would inevitably he ll•I^led, and pronounce the a in fntner. It has therefore seemed to mc better, in an alphabet de- si;;iied for general use, to empli.y aw to denote this hroad sound, and to reser" e the single letter a to dent.le its common foreign sound, as in faHiiT. I should use aw and not au, l)ecause the latter has already the established power of a ilitihthiini; in the foreign langiiajje?, equivalent to our diphthong oir in tvw, how, H '-. but •( , being a coinhinatiun nut in common use, would attract the attention of the Tc iitn .^r as a new cliarac- tor, find .vould not l<'ad hiinintu error. Mr. I)u I'oiic ' t \ . •uh reflection, pre- fers Using n alone for the sound of nir, and then delisting tlie sound of a \u father by the diphthong »>. His opinion much diminishes the confidence I have had in my own ; but as my plan was founded upon the idea of taking the cummon Kurupean sounds of the vowels as the basis of tlie aljihabet, I lia\e tlioii;.',lit it would be too gi eat a departure from it. if I KJiuuld give to the vowel a uiiv other 'ban surli coinmon sound. It will be observed, iliat I have employed the Ivtter O as the representative of two sr.unds ; that is, the /on^ sound of o in robe, lone, diC. im\ the short !40und of u (as we term it in l-'.n;;lish) in ru6, tui), &c. ; which latte. sound, as appears in the I able, We often ileiiote in Knglish by oalso : asin the wonls nmoii";', afrinv. kc. In confor- mity with this Use of the simple character o, I have, in the Table of .Vasii/..v»= imve been used to consider as evscntially diHereiit from each other and to exprt. i. ' .I'-iril, by the two diRt-rent characters o and M. A carefti! comparison, hoi\ 'v . o. ti "bc two "owtd sounds, under variouN comi.iiiatiunsof the consonants, will sho'v '. .at /"if tlo not ditVer so mateiially .is our various modes of representing them might lea>' ' « •<» sup. pose; buto'i the contrary, tlia, their principal diiTereiice is in their length or (pi',..tity } while in respect toi^uu/i^i/, thedift'erence between them (to apply the language of another licience) inuv be almost said to be less than any assignanle one, and 'berelore they may wcli enough he denoted by the same letter. In addition to the proof we have of I'lis close resemlilance, from an exaininution (d' our own language, we see also very stroiii^ evidence of it in the case id foreign rs w hen attempting to speak our language ; for they constantly express our short u by ; as for example, in our word /»m^ which they would write W, and would pioiiouncc We. If, however, any person, who ni»y .iii Indian Languages in JSTorth ,S.meriea. 39 wish fo'mlopt the |)roposeil Indian alphabet, shnulil still fuel a rcluctanrfi in employing tlie li-lter «(even wilh a distinctive mark as mentioned in pp. lo— 1j) lor tlie puipo^e of ileni>tin{r this short Hoiind of it, I know of no method ofobviatinj^ the diliicnlty (con- sistently uilli the plan of the aljihiilivt) except by havinj; recourse to a new clinracter ; and in that case I have thon!;ht that it mi^bt be formed from the same letter o, by iiiakiiii; a 8m..ll opening; ill the upjjer part of it in this manner, (). This character would sulliciently resemble both o and u to he easily retained in the memory, and would, moreover-, occasion no embarrassment in printin; tbe indistinct sound which is formed the moment before the g is uttered, and do not allow tbe tongue to touch the roof of the mouth, we shall have the short nasal sound i in the Table ; and if we go through the sa.ne process again, only giving the vowel t its long foreign sound (like our ee) we shall have the Ions nasal sound of the same character t. And in a similar manner we may form the other nasal sounds in the Table. For further observations on the nasal sounds, iu>e lyalker^s Uictionanj, under the word £iicore, and also his Princi- ples, No. 381 and 408 In connexion with the subject of the nasals it -Aill not be uninteresting to refer to a curious remark of an ancient writer upon the subject of the letter ./V he- foie (i 01 C, in the /.a/iri language. 'Tiic remark is to be found in Aulas Gellius (lib. xix '. 14.) who cites it from JVigidius ; and itshows very clearly the Roman.pro- nuiiciai of the letters )ig together, while at tbe same time it indicates, that the letter c (neing pron(mnced like A) when pieccdeil by n coalesces with the « just as g does ; as is the case v\itli c hard in many Knglisb words :— • Inter literam A'et G est alia vis ; ut III nomine anguis et angaria ct ancurtp. i;t increimt. et incurrit ct ingenuus. In oinnihus enim his, non verum .^'*, sod adulteriuum ponitur; nam JSI" non esse lingua indicio est ; nam, si ea litera esset, lingua fialatum langeret.^'' CORRECTION. After the srth and sath pages were printed, Mr. Du Ponceau expressed acme doubts respecting the Russian orthograpliy of the word h'amtshatka, which he gave me from recollection only ; and 1 now find, upon inquiry of a Russian gentleman v.i Boston, that the name is written in that langua^je KUMl|UIIlk,U> which would be in English K'umchatka or h'amtslMtka. I I n',ii i 4 i ff * APPENDIX. Account of Father Rale's MS. Indian Dictionary. I I'-'-e thought it would not be uiiinterrhtin;;;, and might be of some use, to give inthixf • .'lort bibliographical account of the valuable Manuncnpt Oictionary of the wibnu iguage mentioned in p. 12 of the preceding paper. The author of it. Father Sebastian Hdle (m Hasles, for the name is written both ways) was one of the Jesuit Mi!iecond part of the volume consists of twenty five leaves, almost all written upon botii sides, and has tliis Latin title—" Parliculm." In this part the Indian words are placed first, and the author gives an account of the partidei*, making his explanations sometimes in Frencli and sometimes in Latin. From a comparison which I have made of several words of the language now spoken by the Penobscot Indians (as wo call them) who, at the present time, oacupy a small territory on the river Penobscot, it appears to be, as we should naturally expect, exactly .'he same with that of Hale's Dictionary. A few years ago one page nf this Dictionary, containing the Indian numerals, was published in our Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. x. p. 137; but a very natural mis- take, either of the printer or of the transcriber, runs through this extract, in con- stantly printing nit instead of aii. Tliis error probably arose from the uncommon use of the dieer-jsis, which is here put over a consonant (N) instead of a vowel as is the practice in other languages. Uile seems to have used the diaeresis thus, in order to point out when the letters an were not to have the nasal sound whicii they hail in the Frcncii language. So copious a dictionary, compiled a century ago by a man of acknowledged abilities and learning, and wiio had resided more than thirty years among tlie Indians, is one of the most important documents now existing, relative to the history of the North American languages; and measures ought to he taken with- out loss of time, either under the direction of the University or of the American Academy, to eH'cct the publication of it, before any accident happens to the manu- script. The Li'i^isiature of our own State would, without doubt, be fully sensii)le of the importance of publishing it, and would lend its aid in making provision for tlic expense of printing in a manner becoming the Government, a work which / I. /I / i:] J- : ■'! i \ U. ii ■' iJ ■i J!.. .^^.lijii^M 4» Mr. Ficli-erim; on the Indian Langnugen. the public has a i.eculiar li-ht to expect (ion, (I,,. State of MassachuHctts. Our hrethre.i iti I'o.uisylvania have rocenflv (listiiig.iishrd themselves hy their valua- hle publications relative to the Indians. «hich I have nuMitioncI in the preceding paper, and uhicl. nia.v be said to lorn^ an era in our .imevu-nn Ite^fnyche.,. It is to be hoped (bat our own State, winch may justly clai,n the .M.-r.t ol bavins already preserved many invaluable materials for American bistorv, will not be "ilbn;toletpa9san opportunity, like the present, ol addiM^ to'it* reputatiuu abroad by publi.hin^ ibe work in .|uestion : fur we n.av be assured, tbat nothino would reflect more .honour ipon the country, and no-Jiin^ relative to this conti- nent would be .vore acceptable to Kuropean., particularly the Uerman literati, (baa the publication of such an ori-iii,,l document. I'OSTCHII'T. I have unuHeiitl;ina!lv overlookrd the incIuI work of flm I.f.. H,. i, . more valuable by an entire revision ol it. ".n,, ri.iutreii stil >