Indian Languages in J^'orth dmerica, 347 



apposed to have beeu the aucicnt, as it is the modern, sound of 



Greek 



theta. The correspondin- jfat sound (which is heard 

 in our words, this, that, &c.) should be expressed by dh, as I 

 ha've observed under the letter D. 



The second is ts ; which, being formed of two letters whose 

 powers may be called invariable, will never be arnbicuous 



This will be much preferable to the German Z, which has the 



power of ts or tx, but which most nations would proaounci 

 in their own languages as we do in ours, and would there 

 fore be misled in the pronunciation of Indian words, when 

 this letter occurs. Thus, for example, if a Frenchman and ar 

 Englishman should happen to meet with the expression in lh( 

 Delaware language, which a German would write n^mizi (I eat; 

 the former of them would pronounce it n^meezee, and the other. 



n^mizi, (sounding the i as in pine J both of which woulil be uniu- 

 telligible to an Indian of that tribe ; while the German alone 

 would pronounce it correctly, as we should write it in our 

 English manner, n^meetsee, 



I have here spoken only of ts as a substitute for the German 

 » / but tz may perhaps be required to express a slight modifica- 

 tion of this fundamental sound, which may probably be observed 

 in some particular dialects, or in different words of the same 

 dialect. The acquisition of this and numberless other delicate 

 distinctions of fundamental sounds, which may be perceived in 

 the various Indian dialects, and the establishing of distinct char- 

 acters for tliem, must, if practicable at all, be the result of 

 long and careful observation on the part of those, who may be 

 called to reside among the diflfereut tribes. 



The remaining combination, tsh, may be employed to denote 

 the sound of our ch (in chair, chain, &c.) which the French 



m 



1-^^ 



