Note footnote 4 — ALGONKIN LANGUAGES.

[4] It has not been thought advisable to attempt the reduction of words or names taken from different languages to a uniform orthography. When no authorities are named, it may be understood that the Massachusetts words are taken from Eliot's translation of the Bible, or from his Indian Grammar; the Narragansett, from Roger Williams's Indian Key, and his published letters; the Abnaki, from the Dictionary of Râle (Rasles), edited by Dr. Pickering; the Delaware, from Zeisberger's Vocabulary and his Grammar; the Chippewa, from Schoolcraft (Sch.), Baraga's Dictionary and Grammar (B.), and the Spelling Books published by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions; and the Cree, from Howse's Grammar of that language.

The character [oo] (oo in 'food;' w in 'Wabash,' 'Wisconsin'), used by Eliot, has been substituted in Abnaki words for the Greek ou of Râle and the Jesuit missionaries, and for the ω of Campanius. A small ⁿ placed above the line, shows that the vowel which it follows is nasal,—and replaces the ñ employed for the same purpose by Râle, and the short line or dash placed under a vowel, in Pickering's alphabet.

In Eliot's notation, oh usually represents the sound of o in order and in form,—that of broad a; but sometimes it stands for short o, as in not.