2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



Such an elaborate system proves too complicated for students who are 

 less thoroughly trained in phonetics and therefore less discriminating 

 in their perception of sounds. For the recording and printing of 

 large bodies of texts, a too elaborate and detailed system is expensive 

 and often impracticable. The main objects to be secured in a large 

 series of texts are a full vocabulary and ample illustrations from 

 which the range in the meanings of words and phrases can be deduced. 

 It is not necessary that words recurring many times in such texts 

 be transcribed each time by symbols indicating all their phonetic 

 features. It is, however, necessary that each phonetic unit be un- 

 mistakably distinguished from all others. 



The committee has been led, therefore, to submit a comparatively 

 simple system of transcription adapted to the ordinary purposes of 

 recording and printing texts. To provide for the recording and 

 discussing of the complex and varied phonetic phenomena encoun- 

 tered in American linguistics, a fairly detailed and comprehensive 

 system has been provided. It is necessarily of such character that it 

 can be employed only by a specialist in phonetics. By its aid it is 

 to be hoped that the phonetic features of all of the extant North 

 American languages may be discussed and compared. 



A. RULES FOR THE SIMPLER SYSTEM 

 I. VOWELS 



I. Quality. — It is important that each vowel having a distinct 

 quality or timbre be represented by a definite character. Since the 

 Latin alphabet has only five vowel characters, it will usually be 

 necessary to supply others. For a full system of vowels the use of 

 Greek characters is recommended. Since these are not always avail- 

 able and present other difficulties in their use, Roman characters with 

 a diacritical mark above the letter, particularly macron (a), may also 

 be utilized. The following symbols are recommended : 



a, as in English father. a, as in English but. 



a, as in English hat. 



e, as in English fate. £, as in English met. 



i, as in English pique. i, as in English pin. 



o, as in English note. o, approximately as in English not (better as o 



in German voll). 



u, as in English rule. v, as in English put. 



These values correspond exactly to the recommendations of B (see 

 p. 9). If it is desired to avoid Greek characters, o, and a, the 

 following alternate system is recommended : 



