APPENDIX. 443 



earnest of what may be hereafter doue iu this matter, than as 

 completely fulfilling inquiries which it would require Ilorne 

 Tooke himself, with the aid of the Bodleian library, to unravel. 

 With respect, &c., 



HENKY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, 

 nis Excellency Gov. Lewis Cass. 



EXAMINATION OF THE ODJIBWA. 



1, 2. SimjyJe Sounds.- — The language is one of easy enunciation. 

 It has sixteen simple consonental and five vowel sounds. Of 

 these, two are labials, h and 2? ; five dentals, d, t, s, z, j\ and g soft ; 

 two nasals, m and w; and four gutturals, /c, g, c, and g hard. 

 There is a peculiar nasal combination in w^, and a peculiar termi- 

 nal sound of g, which may be represented by gk. Of the mixed 

 dipthongal and consonental sounds, those most difficult to English 

 organs are the sounds in aiw and auiv. 



3. Letters not used. — The language is wholly wanting in the 

 sound of th. It drops the sound of v entirely, substituting h, in 

 attempts to pronounce foreign words. The sound of I is some- 

 times heard in their necromantic chants ; but, although it appears 

 to have been known to tlie old Algonquin, it is supplied, in the 

 Odjibwa of this day, exclusively by n. It also eschews the sounds 

 of/, ?•, and X, leaving its simple consonental powers of utterance, 

 as above denoted, at sixteen. In attempts to pronounce English 

 words having the sound of/, they substitute ^9, as in the case of v. 

 The sound of r is either dropped, or takes the sound of cm. Of 

 the letter x they make no use ; the nearest approach I have suc- 

 ceeded in getting from them is ek-is, showing that it is essentially 

 a foreign sound to them. The aspirate h begins very few words, 

 not exceeding five in fifteen hundred, but it is a very frequent 

 sound in terminals, always following the slender or Latin sound 

 of o, but never its broad sound in an, or its peculiarly English 

 sound as heard in the a of 7nay^ pay^ day. The terminal syllable 

 of the tribal name (Odjibwa), oft'ers a good evidence of this rule, 

 this syllable being never sounded by the natives either ivah or 

 wau, but always wa. These rules of utterance appear to be con- 

 stant and imperative, and the natives have evidently a nice ear 

 to discriminate sounds. 



