Note III'-45 — Chapter III · COLUMBIAN LANGUAGES.

'The language spoken by these people is guttural, very difficult for a foreigner to learn, and equally hard to pronounce.' Ross' Adven., p. 101. 'Decidedly the most unpronounceable compound of gutturals ever formed for the communication of human thoughts, or the expression of human wants.' Cox's Adven., vol. ii., p. 133. 'I would willingly give a specimen of the barbarous language of this people, were it possible to represent by any combination of our alphabet the horrible, harsh, spluttering sounds which proceed from their throats apparently unguided either by the tongue or lip.' Kane's Wand., p. 182. 'It is hard and difficult to pronounce, for strangers; being full of gutturals, like the Gaelic. The combinations thl, or tl, and lt, are as frequent in the Chinook as in the Mexican.' Franchère's Nar., p. 262. 'After the soft languages and rapid enunciation of the islanders, the Chinooks presented a singular contrast in the slow, deliberate manner in which they seemed to choke out their words; giving utterance to sounds, some of which could scarcely be represented by combinations of known letters.' Pickering's Races, in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. ix., p. 23. 'It abounds with gutturals and "clucking" sounds, almost as difficult to analyse as to utter.' Gibbs' Chinook Vocab., p. 5.