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AN ALGONQUIN SYLLABARY.

BY WILLIAM JONES.

A CURSIVE style of writing by means of syllabic symbols is employed by the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo for purposes of record and communication. Most of the Sauk are in eastern Oklahoma; nearly all the Fox are in central Iowa; and the Kickapoo are to be found in central Oklahoma, in eastern Kansas, and over the Texas border in Mexico. All three are Algonquin; and their dialects are so intimately akin, that it is little or no difficulty for them to understand one another; and back and forth with one another they correspond by means of letters written in the phonetic signs of the syllabary.

The general appearance of the symbols of the syllabary is not very unlike cursive, Roman characters. The symbols represent four vowels and eleven consonants. The value of each symbol is collective; that is to say, the sign of a vowel represents a group of related vowel-sounds, and it stands for either a short or a long quantity, and the sign of a consonant may include more than one variation of a certain place of articulation. These points will come out plainly in the description of the symbols. The first to come are the vowels, and they are given with approximate English correspondences

𝒶 or 𝒜 is like a in what, or like a in all, or like the vowel-sound in hut. The regular place for 𝒶 is within the word or at the end of it, and 𝒜 always occupies initial position.

𝑒 is like e in let, or a in late, or like a in alley.

𝒾 is like the short i in it, like the long vowel-sound in see.

𝑜 is like the short o in fellow, or like the short u in full, or like the long o in rose, or like the long vowel-sound in loon.

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