OF THE EENNI LENAPE INDIANS. 89 



which that part of speech is constructed. The personal verbs 

 or transitions are fully and dearly explained. Indeed, it 

 may he said that lie has the merit of clearness throughout; 

 a merit so very rare, that it deserves to he noticed. Those 

 who before him have treated of Indian languages have either 

 not always understood themselves, or not been very anxious 

 to lie understood by others. I do not even except the vene- 

 rable Eliot, whose Grammar of the Language of the Massa- 

 chusetts Indians is not free from obscurities ? some of which 

 the present one of its kindred dialect, the Delaware, will 

 help to clear up. 



The Indian words in this Grammar are to he pronounced 

 according to the powers of the German alphabet, which Mr 

 Zeisbergef thought proper to adopt*. !t has long been a 

 desideratum in the philological science, that there should be 

 a uniform mode of writing exotic words, in order to convey, 

 as much as possible, the same idea of their sounds, at least 

 to the learned, through the civilized world. Rut, independ- 

 ent of the numerous difficulties which naturally attend such 

 a design, from the almost entire impossibility of conveying to 

 the mind through the eye the idea of sounds which the ear 

 never heard, an ill understood national pride makes every 

 nation desire that their own alphabet should be chosen as die 

 medium of communication. The least prejudiced on this 

 subject insist at least on the Roman character being univer- 

 sally used. The celebrated Volney wished all the Oriental 



* The translator has preserved the orthography of the original, except 

 that he has substituted the letter y for the German j, because y ha^ the 

 same Bound according to tin English and German pronunciation. \l*o 

 where the author \>.i- introduced the vowel " after to, in order t" Bhew 

 that the latter is to have the English and nol the German sound, and so 

 writ' - iDoagam t>> be pronounced wagan, the translator has auppn ssed 

 the o. thinking it sufficient to give notice thai w consonant is always to 

 be pronounced as in English, whether it l><- followed l>\ another conso- 

 nant or bj a vowel. In the former case a sheva <>r mute rowel is interposed 

 between th> two sounds: thus, adonis (daughter) is pronounced w'danis 

 and nut oo-danis. r'ollou in<; the same principle, when the author »i 

 wiquoam (a house) th< translator writes u-ikwam, which 11 precisely toe 

 sound which Zeisbergei meant i" represent. 



VOL. III. — / 



