w-" 



.-4 



■t- 



^=- 



H _ 



328 Mr. PlcJi^ring on the Ortliograj^hj of the 



As various nations of Europe have already published and will 

 continue to publish books respecting the American Indians and 

 tBeir languages, either with a view to the information of the 



d or to the propagation ot the Christian 



ex- 



sionaries of our own and other countries (the benevolent Ger- 

 mans, for example, who^have been so long engaged in this 

 duty) to cooperate with the more effect in the great object of their 

 common labours. So far too as the study of philolc 

 concerned, we "should derive the important advantage of being 

 enabled to discover at once by the eye, etymologies and affinities 

 the Indian dialects, which with our present orthography are 



-tf^" ** 



4 _1^ Ji»^ 



by 



>^ 



HF 



*^ 



■^< 



Now what are called vowel sounds constitute an important 

 part of the Indian, as well as other languages. In English 

 each of the vowels, according to its place in a word, may repre- 

 sent sounds, which are totally different from each other; and, on 

 the otlier hand, we often represent one single sound by very dif- 

 ferent vowels, eitherjaken by themselves or in combination with 

 other letters. Our^rst vowel a, for example, is commonly said to 

 have no less than four distiuct powers, which are exemplified 



in 



# 



ords, fall, far: fat, fate ; and therefore, if we should meet 

 like number of Indian words, in which this vowel was 



the 



same combinations as in these English examples, we 

 should naturally pronounce this single letter a (which ought to 

 be the representative of only one sound) in four different ways. 

 This change of power in the vowels, it is well known, does not 



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»** 



% 



.i:--'- 



'T 



K ..A-»^» A 



i IF 



f 



l#> 



^ 



[y desirable, that such a common orthography as I have 



should be adopted. This would enable foreigners to 

 ir buoks without difficulty, and, on the other hand, make *^ 



easy of access to us ; and it would also enable the mis- 









t 



..«dff'--> 



K 



-«s 



m 



1 



