Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/73

Rh what is indicated by a. The only diphthong is ai, which has the sound of English i in pine. One mark not employed in Webster's orthoepy is used in this book, viz., the inverted comma after a vowel to show that it is aspirated.

125. According to this arrangement, the casual reader will find the Indian words easily legible. If he takes the trouble to consult this and the preceding paragraph he may pronounce the words almost exactly as a Navaho would; if not he may, at least, pronounce them in a way that few Navahoes would fail to comprehend. At all events, to the majority of readers, a perfect pronunciation of the Indian words is immaterial. Many white men, living within the borders of the Navaho land, converse with these Indians in a jargon or debased language which might be spelled in English characters with their ordinary English values. For example, let us take the word for hut or house. This is properly pronounced hogán; but the whites in New Mexico generally call it hogan, and the Navahoes never fail to understand the word as thus pronounced. In this form it is an adopted English word in the Southwest. The following are the values of the consonants when printed in Italics:—

d has the sound of English th in this.

g has a sound unknown in English, gh imperfectly represents it. It is the ģ of the Dakota, or the Arabic ghain.

h has the sound of German ch in machen.

l is an aspirated l unknown in English, hi imperfectly represents it. It is formed with the side rather than with the tip of the tongue.

s has the sound of English sh in shot.

t has the sound of English th in thing.

z has the sound of English z in azure.

c, j, q, r, and x are not used. The sound of English ch in church is represented by ts; that of English j in jug, by dz.

126. In the many papers about the Navahoes which the author has previously written he has spelled the name of the tribe according to the Spanish system " Navajo," with the plural also in Spanish form, "Navajos." In the present work he spells it, according to English orthography, "Navaho," with an English plural, "Navahoes," and he thus intends to spell it in the future. This he does because the Spanish spelling is misleading to the majority of English readers. It may properly be asked why he should adopt an English orthography for Navaho, a name of Spanish origin, while he retains the misleading Spanish orthography of San Juan. It is not sufficient, in reply, to say that the territory of the Navaho has been in the possession of the United States since 1848, and that we have thus