1895.] '^J- [Boas. 



SalisJian Texts. 

 {Read before the American PMlosopJiical Society, March 1, 1895.) 



By Franz Boas. 



The following texts were collected in the winter of 1836-87 on the coast 

 of British Columbia. As the languages which they represent are very 

 little known, and as I do not see any prospect of adding in the near future 

 to the material which I now possess, I consider it best to present tlie 

 same as a slight contribution to our knowledge of the languages of 

 the North Pacific Coast. Heretofore only brief vocabularies of these 

 languages have been published. I have given grammatical notes on a 

 few of them ( Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, 1891), but no texts which give the best insight into the structure of 

 a language have been made known. 



After some hesitation, I have decided to make a few changes in the 

 alphabet applied for recording these languages. Unfortunately the lim- 

 ited facilities of the printing offices deny us the use of diacritical marks, 

 so that a systematic phonetic alphabet is out of the question. After 

 several years of use I have found the alphabet which I applied heretofore 

 not sufficient for the needs of the phonology of the languages of the North 

 Pacific Coast. I have, therefore, adopted the following scheme : 



a, e, i, o, u have their continental sounds. 



E, obscure e, as in flower. 



a, aw in law. 



6, o in voll (German). 



L, dorsal 1, similar to tl. 



q, velar k. 



k, English k. 



k', anterior k, similar to ky. 



X, velar, as ch in German Bach. 



X', as ch in German ich. 



c, English sh. 



y, as in year. 



! denotes increased stress of articulation. 



BlLXULA. 



This language is spoken on Bentinck Arm and Deans Inlet, on the 

 coast of British Columbia. It represents the farthest northwestern 

 offshoot of the Salishan stock. The texts are fragmentary and indifTer- 

 ent versions of myths. Nos. 1 to 7 were told by a number of young 

 women of the village of Satsq on Deans Inlet, the dialect of which difl'ers 

 slightly from that of Nuxa'lk*. The last tale was obtained from Nusk-e- 

 lu'sta, a young man from Nuxa'lk-. 



