K 



m 



Indian Languages in J\*orth America 



331 



because these signs have been 



ployed to denote the 



usual, though vague distinctions of grave, acute 



d 



long and 



they 



re u JTiJlei 

 perpelu 



il 



ord 



ally mislead readers of every nation ; besides, it may I 

 useful to reserve them, to be placed over those syllables 



English we call accented, in order to denote that part of 

 upon which the greatest force, or stress of the voice falls in pro- 

 nunciation.* 



The elegant scholar^ witU whose remarks I have iniroduced 

 this subject^ and from whose well 



considered 



op 



no man 



great hesitation^ after observing 



English alphabet and orthography are disgracefully and almost 

 ridiculously imperfect^^^ recommends^ for the purpose of denoting 

 modifications of this kind, the adoption of ^^some of the marks 

 used in our treatises on fluxions f^ and accordingly, in his notation 

 of Asiatick words, he makes use of either one, two, or three points 

 placed over the letters, thus, z, z, ^.f This notation has the 



* Eliot employed two of the accents in the following manner : " We use," 

 says he, " onely two Accents, and but sometime. The acute Q to sliew which 

 syllable is first produced in pronouncing of the word ; which, if it he not attended 

 to, no nation can understand their own language ; as appcareth by the witty con- 

 ceit of the Tityre tics: 6 produced with the accent is a regular distinction be- 

 twixt the first and second persons plural of the Suppositive Mode ; as 



J^aumog^ if we see (as in LogJ ^ 



•Al/umo^, if ye see (as in Vogue, J 

 The other accent is (' ) which I cail nasal ; and it is used only upon (0) when 

 it is sounded in the nose, as oft it is j or upon (a) for tlie like cause/' Indian 

 Grammar^ p, 3. These nasal sounds may be more convenieotly designated iu 

 tlie manner adopted in the Polish language, which will be mentioned in a subse- 

 quent part of this paper, "^ * . 



t Dissertation, in Jones' Works, vol. i. p. 186 



^ 



x„ 



1^ 



■If 



*m 



« 



c 



r 

 t- 



.0, 





#• 



m 



V- 



