2 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. 
plexity of the sounds of an unwritten language on the one hand, and the 
want of training to distinguish such sounds on the other, makes the study 
of its phonology difficult. The magnitude of this difficulty in the study of 
the Indian languages of North America will be better understood when it 
is known that there are several hundred languages, and that there are proba- 
bly sounds in each which do not appear in the English or any other civil- 
ized tongue; and perhaps sounds in each which do not appear in any of the 
others; and further, that there are perhaps sounds in each of such a charac- 
ter, or made with so much uncertainty that the ear primarily trained to 
distinguish English speech is unable to clearly determine what these sounds 
are, even after many years of effort. But the student of one Indian tongue 
has but a small part of these difficulties to master. Usually the most ele- 
mentary sounds into which any Indian language can be resolved will be of 
a smaller number than the English, and very many of the sounds will be 
the same or nearly the same as those with which he is familiar. A few only 
will be strange to him By frequently and carefully comparing the sounds 
of an Indian tongue with the known sounds of his own language the student 
will be able to very nearly reproduce and describe them. In his first attempt 
the obstacles will seem great, but as the work progresses they will largely 
disappear and he will soon be able to write the language with all the accuracy 
that linguistic science requires. In practice the student of the Indian 
tongue will commence by comparing its sounds with those of his own lan- 
guage, and thus the alphabet of his language will become the basis of the 
one to be used in writing the Indian language. 
To the English student, then, it becomes necessary to determine how 
his own alphabet, 7. ¢., the Roman letters, can be used for the new language 
with which he has to deal. There are other reasons than that of mere con- 
venience why the Roman alphabet should be used. First, it is the alphabet 
with which the greater part of the civilized people of the world are acquaint- 
ed, and if consistently used all such people can more easily. study a tongue 
recorded with it than if unfamiliar characters are employed Again, the 
Roman alphabet is used in all printing rooms where the English tongue is 
spoken, and in very many others; and if a new tongue is written in these 
characters it can be reproduced without difficulty in almost any printing 
