BAKER] PKINCIPLES EMPLOYED AND REFORMS ATTEMPTED. 17 



In this case the Board has adopted Kiktak. The form Ikogmut, 

 however, the name of an old and well-known mission on the lower 

 Yukon, is retained because it is old and well known; otherwise it 

 would be Ikok. How fur this attempted reform can be profitably 

 carried is a matter of judgment and discretion. While all ag-ree as to 

 the principle, differences arise in its application. Even with the 

 shortening of some long Eskimo names b}" such cutting off of their 

 generic termination the remainder is so long and unpronounceable 

 that it is certain it will not, and ought not, to survive as a geographic 

 name. 



In the interior are many rivers bearing native names ending in hakat 

 (also written cJmrgut and changut), meaning river, such as Melozikakat, 

 Batzakakat, etc. — i. e., Melozi river, Batzi river, etc. In the interest 

 of brevitv and simplicit}" this termination kakat has been omitted. 

 The same rule Avould reduce Mississippi river to Misis river, which is 

 obviously impracticable, since both the word and its spelling are well 

 established. Such does not, however, appear to be the case with many 

 of the Alaskan names. Among some Indian tribes the ffnal syllable 

 na, and among others liln /, means ri\'er. These also have been dropped 

 in a few cases. There are a number of cases like Tanana, Chitina, etc., 

 where usage seems too firmly rooted to warrant the omission, but 

 wherever in the judgment of the Board it was practicable the elision 

 has been made. 



Wherever and whenever it appeared practicable to use a simple 

 spelling this was done. When a native name had been reported by 

 different persons, with different spellings, as is the almost invariable 

 rule, the Board has not felt bound merely to select from among these, 

 but has from time to time adopted a form of its own derived from 

 study and comparison of these and the rules adopted for writing native 

 names. 



When features have been named after persons the spelling used by 

 those persons has been followed, always excepting corruptions and 

 changes too well established to make this practicable. Thus Thomson, 

 not Thompson; Ruhamah, not Ruhama, etc. In the case of Russian 

 proper names the application of this rule is impossible because the 

 names are to be expressed in Roman and not in Russian letters. Thus 

 we have Romanzof, a well-established name derived from Count 

 Rumiantsof. Most Russian proper names when transliterated into 

 Roman characters have peculiarities of form due to the views held and 

 knowledge possessed by the transliterator. The Board has not fol- 

 lowed a fixed system of rules in these cases. Practically the translit- 

 eration of all such names had been made, and in divers ways, before 

 the Board began its work. It therefore dealt with cases as it found 

 them and selected such form as, all things considered, gave promise 

 of being generall}" acceptable. 

 Bull. 187—01 2 



