1886.] 41 J [Gatschet. 



syllable. Very likely the accent could in that language shift, as in other 

 languages of America, from syllable to syllable, whenever rhetorical 

 reaeons required it. By some of the collectors the signs for length and 

 brevity were used to designate the emphasized syllable, placed above or 

 underneath the vowels. * 



Alternation of sounds, or spontaneous permutation of the guttural, labial, 

 etc., sounds without any apparent cause, is traceable here as well as in all 

 other illiterate languages. Thus the consonantic sounds produced in the 

 same position of the vocal organs are observed to alternate between : 

 g and k : buggishaman, bukashaman man, etc. 

 g and y : bogomot, boghmoot breast. 

 g and h : buggishamesh, buhashamesh boy; bogathoowytch to kill, buha- 



shauwite to beat. 

 tch and sh : mootchiman, mooshaman ear. 

 dsh and s, sh : wadshoodet, washoodiet to slioot. 

 r and d : merobeesh, madabeesh thread, twine. 

 t and d : tapathook, dapathook canoe. 



t and th : meotick, mae-adthike house; mattic, mathick stinking. 

 d and th : ebanthoo, ebadoe water. 

 th and z : nunj'etheek, ninezeek five. 



th and s, sh : mamud-thuk, memasook tongue; thamook, shamook capelan. 

 s and z : osenyet, ozegeen scissors. 



s and sh : mamset, mamishet alive; bobboosoret, baubooshrat codfish. 

 p and b : shapoth, shaboth candle. 



In regard to vowels, the inaccurate transmission of the words does not 

 give us any firm hold ; still we find alternation between : 

 a and o : bogomat, bogomot breast; dattomeish, dottomeish trout. 

 a and e : baasick, bethec beads. 

 oi and ei : boyish, by-yeech birch. 



Morphology. 



The points to be gained for the morphology of Beothuk are more scanty 

 still than what can be obtained for reconstructing its phonology, and for 

 the inflection of its verb we are entirely in the dark. 



Substantive. The most frequent endings of substantives are -k and -t, 

 and a few only, like drona hair, end in a vowel. Whether the substan- 

 tive had any inflection for case or not, is not easy to determine ; we find 

 however, that maemed hand is given for the subjective, meeman (in m. 

 monasthus to shake hands) for the objective case ; in the same manner 

 nechwa and neechon tobacco, mameshook and mamudthun mouth. Other 

 terms in -n are probably worded in the objective or some other of the 

 oblique cases : ewinon feather, magorun deer's horns, mooshaman ear, 

 ozegeen scissors, shedothun sugar. Cf. the two forms for head. 



A plural is traceable in the substantives deyn-yad bird, deyn-yadrook 

 birds; odizeet, pi. odensook goose, drona, pi. drone-ooch hair; and to judge 



