Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/42



PHONETIC ALTERATIONS

16. It is to be recollected, that the Brasilian language is the speech of savage tribes, destitute of every notion of letters and of their representative value in pronunciation; and, therefore, it is unnecessary to premise, that we are not able to state all the rules, which govern the phonetic developments of their language. Yet, by making a patient analysis of its vocabularies, grammars and other literary informations we could obtain; we have come to ascertain in this language some of the general principles, which are of frequent application in its phonetics.