OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 169 



" We have seen that Mr. Ellis places different vowels in water and 

 quarter, yet he considers that in hoy and the one in quoit identical, ad- 

 mitting no vowel distinction in the diphthongs. In writing diphthongs 

 other than English, he uses a notation which makes thenn dissyllables, 

 whence it is evident that he does not understand the nature of these 

 compounds. The Nadako, an unwritten language, is very instructive 

 upon this point, as it contains true diphthongs, and their correspond- 

 ing quasi diphthongs, which Mr. Ellis's theory places in English and 

 German. In this paper it is impossible to represent an exact pronun- 

 ciation, so that the words must be taken as approximately correct, un- 

 less fully described ; and the notation is provisional. 



" In the Nadako word for cheek, tankadaus, the last syllable does 

 not rhyme with house, but the vowels are pure, as in the name of the 

 Persian poet Firdausi, both these words having four syllables. The 

 t and k are ' indifferent,' the n is pure, (not ng,) and all the vowels 

 short. But in behedawso, shoulder, the third syllable is accented, and 

 like the second of endow. 



" This language, besides the English diphthong in aisle, (ending with 

 a coalescent, as explained by me in 1847,) has a quasi diphthong simi- 

 lar to it, terminating with the vowel in feet, and another with that 

 in Jit. 



"The Hesperian* (North American) languages are remarkable for 

 the extent to which they reject the labials (except m and English to), 

 a circumstance which probably has some connection with the coldness 

 of expression of the aborigines ; emotions being less likely to affect 

 the countenance, if the lips remain unmoved in speech, t Several 

 Oriental languages, in which the four inner contacts are used, want 

 some of the labials; whilst most of the European ones employ the 

 four outer ones, excluding the glottal. 



" In the Lenape | or Delaware language, there is a sound which 



*" Hesperian, situated at the west." Did. — For scientific purposes, America 

 north of 50° might be called lludsonia ; from this line to the tropic, Hespcria (or 

 Vesperia) ; the tropical portion, Fa»owia; from the southern tropic to 50° south, 

 Zephyria ; and south of this, Magellania . 



t In representing a spirit, painters reject the body, preserving a winged head ; 

 probably because it is the seat of expression, thought, and the organs of sense. 



X The a as in far, accented ; the e as in pet. Messrs. Pitman and Ellis liave 

 maintained that the vowels in pity, net, not, cannot be pronounced except' before 

 a consonant. The proper name Konza ends with the vowel in not, that of Choc- 

 taw (the c is a literary corruption) has it twice. Mr. Ellis, whilst he denies the 



VOL. II. 22 



