' * 



Indian Languages in JSTorth America, 



asii 



The perplexity I felt from this uncertainty in our Indian or- 

 thography, which so much increases the labour of studies that 

 are in themselves sufficiently dry and forbidding to most persons, 

 led me to consider more narticularlv than! bad ever before done. 



the expediency of adopting a unif 



ct 



vapluj for the 1 



as well as other languages, which have no establisheil written 

 characters ; and I now beg leave to submit to the Acaclemy the 

 few reflections which have occurred to me on this subject. Im- 

 perfect and little interesting as the remarks may be, they will 

 he received, I have no doubt, with all that 



candou 



hich 



they may be entitled.* They will have produced some good, if they 



H I— 



should stimulate any of my countrymen, who have more leisure 



r^ 



and more favourable opportunities than fall to my lot, to pursue the 

 inquiry ; an inquiry, which, while it promotes the common cause 



of learning, is peculiarly within the province of American sclioU 



ars, and will richly reward us in the honour we shall acquire with 



the learned of Europe ; who, it should be remembered, have a 



every 



of information respecting this continent. 



Nor will discussions relative to the languages of the American 

 Indians be among the least interesting which we can offer to Euro- 

 peans, or the least important in themselves. For, if the origin of 



of this Continent is. as all admit, a most interest- 



the population r 

 ing and importa 



of 



nations of men over 



- 1'' ? - 



stion ; and if we can more successfully ar- 

 it, by tracing the progress of the various 

 different regions of the globe, through the 



r 



* Those, who are acquainted with Mr. Du Ponceau's Essay on English Pho- 



(and 



our 



puhlicatioij) 



will perceive, that the present paper is only an application of the general printi 



pies which are there stated^ to the class of the Indian Languages. 



-> 



