but if he touches the hand of the Indian^ and in either case he will infer ;

my hand

that he has received the

there

is

no such word

in

Indian word for hand, simply, when the language." Schoolcraft, in his

explains this principle

more fully and defines the idioms

and structure of the language.

From this treatise the annexed

treatise,

synopsis is made, presuming that those having occasion to do so,

" An

Essay on the Grammatical Structure of the Algonquin Language"

History

of Indian Tribes, part n, 353, etc.

HUDSON RIVER INDIANS.

or whose curiosity prompts

them to the study, will consult the

original.

Grammar of the Algonquin Language. I. Alphabet. The Algonquin possesses all the vowel sounds as heard in far, fate, fall ; met, meet ; shine, pin ; not, note,

move

;

put, nut.

It

has two labials, b and/); five dentals, d, two nasals, m and n ; and two primary

z, and j or

,

soft ;

gutturals, k and

,

hard.

/, j,

The letters/, r, v, are wanting.

The

sound of x is also believed to be wanting in all the Algonquin dialects but the Delaware and Mahican of the Hudson valley, in which it is fully heard in Coxsackie, and in a few of the ear

geographical terms of New Jersey, the sound of r is repre Thus an alphabet of five vowels and thirteen sented in ah. lier

consonants is capable of expressing, either simply or in com In this bination, every full sound of the Algonquin language. estimate of primary sounds, the letters <:, and ^, and y as re The soft of presenting a vowel sound, are entirely rejected.