Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/74

 62 On the dcfcent of the American Indians from the Jews.

After what hath been faid of their language, it may be proper here to fhew how they accent the confonants : I fhall range them in the order of our alphabet, except thofe they pronounce after our manner. When CH begins a word, or is prefixed to a vowel, it conveys a foft found, as Chda, ing the tip of the tongue between the teeth, as Dawi y for David. G is always guttural, as we accent Go. They cannot pronounce Gn -, and they have not the Hh, neither can it be exprefled in their dialects, as their lead ing vowels bear the force of guttural confonants. They have not the JOD, as I can any way recoiled, or get information of j nor can they repeat it, any nearer than Cbot. They pronounce 7C, as in Ko ; L and TV, as D , by fixing the tongue to the lower teeth ; 1" like D, as in the old Hibernian, or Celtic affirmative, Ta. They cannot pronounce F, or X\ they call the governor of Moveel, (Mobille) Goweno-Moweeleb : and they have not a word which begins or ends with X. KS are always divided into two fyllables ; as Hak-fe^ " mad," &c. They have not the letter Z ; much lefs any fuch harfh found as c Tz, although they have 1*1. As they ufe the Hebrew confa- nants T and W^ in their mod folemn invocation YO HE WAH, inftead of the prefent Hebrew Jod and Vau \ fo they feem to exclude them intirely out of their various dialects : the pronunciation therefore of the Hebrew characters, which are fuppofed to convey the other founds, they are unacquainted with ; and thofe which feem to be tranfpofed, may be clearly afcertained by perfons of proper capacity and leifure, by comparing a fufficient number of Hebrew and Indian words together. The Indian accents, O<?, and 0, >u, and T/, may, prove a pretty good key to fpeculative enquirers.
 * high ;" but otherwife it is guttural : as is D, which is exprefled by fix

77 often occur in their words ; as Tlumba, " to bleed with a lancet, to bore, fcoop, or make any thing hollow ;" and Heettla, " to dance." And the South- Americans, we are told, had likewife the fame found, as in that national name, llajkala : it feems to have been univerfal over the extenfive continent. And, from a fimilarity of the Hebrew manners, religious rites, civil and martial cuftoms, we have a ftrong preemptive proof, that they ufed the aforefaid double vowels, and likewife a fingle vowel, as a termination, to give their words a foft accent : and it is plain to me, that the Hebrew language did not found fo harfh, as it is now commonly exprefled, but like the American dialects it was interfperfed with vowels,

and

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