Indian Lan^ms^es in Mrth America, 343 



the single letters, i and t^, among fbe vowels and diphtbongs. 

 Yet we'have ourselves been so much accustomed to tbe use of 

 1^, instead of i, before the other vowels, and particularly in the 

 beginning of words and before the letter i itself, (whore we could 

 not without doing great violence to our habits employ the i^J that 

 it seems advisable to retain i and y, and for the like reasons, the 

 li and li/. This will also be in conformity wifh the aclnal prac 

 tice of the German missionaries, who u^c both their i and their J 

 (which last is equivalent to our yj in writing Indian words.* 



M. 



The letter M will have its usual power, which is, practically 

 ipeaking, the same in the European languages in general.f 



■t 



Perhaps it will not be found necessary to adopt any character to express 

 the liquid I (or I mouillee;) for Mr. Du Ponceau inforras me, that he has not 

 yet met with this sound in any of the Indian languages examined bj him, I 

 once thought of using the Spanish // for this sound; but upon Mr. Du Ponceau's 

 suggestion, that there might in some Indian words be occasion to express a full 

 and distinct sound of two I 's following each other, as in the Italian words, bel-la^ 

 stel-ta, I abandoned it. In our own language we are not in general sensible of 

 any difference between two I 's and one j but if we take a word in which the 

 second I is under the accent, as in illegal^ illuslrate, &c. or if we pronounce two 

 words together, the first of which ends, and the second begins, with /, as in full 

 length, well lookins, &c, the difference becomes more perceptible. 



t The Portugueze final m and the French m and n, which are na^al (or the 



'o 



them) 



view, be considered as exceptions. 



46 



