COMPARATIVE VOCABULARIES. 
In a majority of the following vocabularies, the Smithsonian alphabet 
has been used; and where it has not, the fact has been noted. For con- 
venience of reference, the following is inserted from Smithsonian Publi- 
cations, No. 160, ‘‘ Instructions for Research relative to the Ethnology and 
Philology of America, by Geo. Gibbs”. 
ORTHOGRAPHY. 
It is, of course, essential to the proper understanding by others of the 
words collected, especially in view of general comparisons, that a precise 
and fixed system of spelling should be used, and this is more so where the 
usual language of the collector is English than where French or Spanish, 
as there is far less certainty in the pronunciation of the first than of these 
last. In English, for instance, four different sounds are given as belonging 
to the letter a, viz, those in far, fall, fat, fate. As regards the simple vow- 
els, the difficulty can be partly remedied by employing the Spanish or 
Italian sounds, as given below, and a further advantage will be found in 
separating the words into syllables, and marking the principal one with an 
accent, thus: Da-ko’-ta. There are, however, in every language, sounds 
peculiar to itself, and the different Indian tongues abound in them, many 
being almost beyond our capacity to imitate and certainly to write, without 
some addition to the ordinary alphabet. Various systems, contemplating a 
universal alphabet, or one applicable to all languages, have been devised, 
each having its peculiar merits; but the great difficulty, never fully over- 
come, has been to represent intelligibly such unfamiliar sounds without 
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