Note 77 — Chapter 4 WINSLOW’S SECOND JOURNEY TO PACKANOKICK, TO VISIT MASSASOIT IN HIS SICKNESS.

Wood says, ch. 18, “They pronounce l and r in our English tongue, with much difficulty, calling a lobster a nobstan.” Yet Roger Williams states, that “although some pronounce not l or r, yet it is the most proper dialect of other places, contrary to many reports;” and Eliot, in his Indian Grammar, says, “These consonants, l, n, r, have such a natural coincidence, that it is an eminent variation of their dialects. We Massachusetts pronounce the n; the Nipmuk Indians pronounce l; and the Northern Indians pronounce r. As instance:

We say Anum} Nipmuck, Alum} A Dog.” Northern, Arum}

See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 223, xix. 248.