404 CLASSIFICATION OF THE VOCABULAEIES. 



and rigid comparison of the terms with others throughout all the dialects of 

 the same linguistic stock, which convey to our mind related ideas, or 

 even with terms taken from other stocks; and to reap all the information 

 that can be derived from this source, the etymologic dissection of the terms, 

 according to approved rules of Indian phonetics, is a point which cannot 

 be neglected. 



The manual which served as a guide to the collectors of the forty 

 vocabularies was George Gibbs' "Instructions for Besearch relative to the 

 Ethnology and Philology of America," Washington, 1863. (Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections, No. 160.) Some of the collectors, especially 

 those of European birth, have also availed themselves conscientiously of 

 Gibbs' scientific alphabet given below (pp. 22-24), while others have used 

 English orthography, being more familiar with it. To render linguistic 

 comparisons easy it certainly would have been preferable, had all used one 

 and the same scientific method of notation; for any subsequent translitera- 

 tion cannot always be made by others with a perfectly satisfactory result. 

 Persons born on the continent of Europe have some advantage over 

 English-speaking people in initiating themselves into the use of Gibbs' 

 system, or into any other scientific alphabet; for all of these are based 

 upon the value of the letters, as sounded on the continent of Europe, or 

 large portions of it. From this the historical English alphabet deviates 

 much, especially in its vocalic elements. 



Where accuracy is sought for, scientific alphabets must be used in 

 writing down foreign unwritten languages, and each sound in them must 

 be represented by one and the same letter only. We may safely say that 

 in this collection the vocabularies of Dr. Oscar Loew form the nearest 

 approach to a scientific notation of the Indian dialects, the strange utter- 

 ances and the nasalized vocalization of which often seem uncouth or even 

 barbaric, and are repugnant to the ear trained to European speech only. 

 Study and experience can teach the correct use of any scientific alphabet ; 

 but there is another quality required of the successful Indian word-col- 

 lector, viz. "« good Indian ear"; this necessary adjunct is certainly more the 

 gift of nature than of studious concentration of the mind, for it is, in fact, 



