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Show 12 DJTRODUOTION TO THE STUDY OP INDIAN LANGUAGES. The aspirations described in a previous paragraph seem to be intermediate between true H's and the exploded sounds as last described. In most Indian languages these peculiarities require careful study. SYNTHETIC SOUNDS. Much difficulty is sometimes occasioned by the indefinite character of some of the sounds of a language. In the Hidatsa there is a sound of such a character that the English student cannot decide to which of the sounds represented by b> w, or m, it is most nearly allied; and there is another which the student cannot distinguish from ly n, r, or d; such sounds are not differentiated as they are in English. They are synthetic; that is, they are made by the organs of speech in positions and with movements comprehending in part at least the positions and movements used in making the several sounds to which they seem to be allied. Such a synthetic sound will be heard by the student now as one, now as another sound, even from the same speaker. Such sounds are very common in Indian tongues and occasion no little difficulty to collectors, but much trouble can be avoided by a proper understanding of their nature. The student will at first note that the same speaker repeating the word in which such a sound occurs over and over again will be heard in such a manner that he, as hearer, will suppose him to be constantly changing the sound from that represented by one, two or more letters to another of the same group, and when he himself attempts to pronounce the word the Indian is equally satisfied whichever of the sounds is employed. It is found in studying a group of Indian languages of the same stock that these sounds which are synthetic in one branch are sometimes differentiated in another, so that if we have in the first branch a synthetic sound, in the second some words will employ one of the differentiated elements, some another, and Ihe same will be true of a third branch where the sounds are found to be differentiated. On comparing the second and third branches of the language it will be found sometimes that in corresponding words the same differentiated sound will appear; in other corresponding words different sounds will appear; and if the language in which the synthetic sounds are used were lost, the use of differentiated |