174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



common in the American languages. They are p, t, k, formed by 

 the contact of a greater surface than usual. I supposed them to re- 

 quire a greater stress of breath until I tested the fact mechanically 

 with an appropriate dynamometer. I have never met with ' indiffer- 

 ent' t preceding s or sh, and there is a physical reason against their 

 ready occurrence. The indifferents should be rigorously marked in 

 all transcriptions of language. 



" Mr. Ellis indicates nasal vowels by n with a dot over it, which 

 seems more awkward than a horizontal comma point ('■) beneath the 

 nasal letter, somewhat as in Polish. This will appear when several 

 nasals occur in succession. Let us represent the dotted n by Italic «, 

 when (using German characters) the Wyandot word for a bear will 

 be danj?^o^y?^£?^>^ The first and second vowels of this word are of 

 medial length, the third short and accented. The character > indi- 

 cates the close of the glottis, and the spiriius asper the subsequent 

 passage of the breath, as in the word quick''. 



" This close of the glottis is also medial in Wyandot, as in hare- 

 da>aje/jaM, my name in this language. The a is that in far, the e in 

 weigh, j as in German, r smooth, and the final syllable like how, but 

 nasal. The first, second, and final syllables are each half a second long, 

 and the remaining three are only one sixth of a second. 



" The Weko language of Texas has a clack or smack formed by 

 the sudden separation of the cfosed fauces, independent of any action 

 of the lungs ; forming an exception to the maxim of Buquoy, ' Stim- 

 me nur da wo lungen vorhanden.' The word for eye is k7t7kj.% in 

 which the k is indifferent, and the vowels as in pit. This sound 

 occurs medial and final. The ordinary trilled r occurs in this lan- 

 guage. 



" The Nadako has an allied independent dental sound in a i strongly 

 held in place with a pressure of air behind it, (not from the lungs,) 

 which is allowed to escape in a sudden explosion, like spitting, as in 

 the word for tooth, t'auh, in which the vowels are short, (the last not 

 diphthongal, and as mfoot,) the final element being the ordinary aspi- 

 rated h* The dental effect is more dull and less loud than the cor- 

 responding Hottentot clack. 



"The indefatigable missionary, the Rev. P. J. de Smet, informed 

 me that he found a corresponding labial effect in one of the languages 

 of the Rocky Mountains, in which the repetition p'p" is used. 



* This final h is also found in Konza. 



