LANGUAGES. 
287 
who live at no great distance asunder, vary, so 
much, that they cannot make themselves at all 
understood to each other. I was informed 
that the Chippeway language was by far the 
most general, and that a person intimately ac¬ 
quainted with it would soon be able to acquire 
a tolerable knowledge of any other language 
spoken between the Ohio and Lake Superior. 
Some persons, who have made the Indian lan¬ 
guages their study, assert, that all the different 
languages spoken by those tribes, with which 
we have any connection, are but dialects of 
three primitive tongues, viz. the Huron, the 
Algonquin, and the Sious; the two former of 
which, being well understood, will enable a 
person to converse, at least slightly, with the 
Indians of any tribe in Canada or the United 
States. All the nations that speak a language 
derived from the Sious, have, it is said, a bus¬ 
ing pronunciation ; those who speak one de¬ 
rived from the Huron, have a guttural pro¬ 
nunciation ; and such as speak any one derived 
from the Algonquin, pronounce their words 
with greater softness and ease than any of the 
others. Whether this be a just distinction or 
not I cannot pretend to determine ; 1 shall 
only observe, that all the Indian men I ever 
met with, as well those whose language is said 
to be derived from the Huron, as those whose 
language is derived from the Algonquin, ap¬ 
pear to me to have very few labial sounds in 
