Note 73 — Chapter IV

The final t in many of these words would, to many, appear more closely to resemble our consonant sound d; but so unsteady is the practice of the Indians themselves in this particular, that the ear must be far nicer than ordinary, that can distinguish, in the language of the best speakers, any steady and invariable usage in pronouncing the same word. It is allowable, in attempting to give a written form to any language, to decide a little arbitrarily in such cases. We may, perhaps, have been influenced to give preference, in some instances, to the sound of t, as the termination for this mood, by the example of Mr. Elliot, who steadily gives it in the infinitive forms of the Massachusetts dialect; and we are convinced that no Chippeway will ever mistake any word, on account of its having the final sound t, instead of d. They are, in the main, perfectly interchangeable.