922 COMPARATIVE PHONOLOGY OF FOUR SIOUAN LANGUAGES. 



The initially modified or exploded (?) vowels are indispensable. Im- 

 portant distinctions are made by means of them. Thus, in Ponka, we 

 find e, that (aforesaid); but 'e, to dig; i, to be coming hither for the first 

 time; but 'i, to give; i n , to wear, as a robe; but *i n , to carry on the bach; 

 gaaxe, to uncover an object by blowing off a robe, etc. (said of the wind); 

 but ga'axe, to strike and glance off, to make the sound heard ichen metal 

 or a bone is hit. Rev. A. L. Riggs admits that these explosive vowels 

 are found in Dakota; but his father, the late Dr. S. R. Riggs, gave them 

 as simple vowels in his dictionary and grammar, describing the initial 

 modification of the vowel as "a hiatus." A few of the words contain- 

 ing these modified vowels may be seen by turning to Table III, Nos. 

 170 to 180. 



Sonant- stir ds. — These sounds have been found by the writer in (pegiha, 

 j^oiwere, and Hotcangara, as well as in some of the languages of the 

 Indians now on the Siletz reservation, Oregon. Dr. S. R. Riggs was 

 inclined to the view that such sounds are possible, but his son, Rev. A. 

 L. Riggs, holds the contrary opinion. The writer uses the term, "so- 

 nant-surd" tentatively. He is ready to accept any other term which 

 may be suggested by scholars, if it be sufficiently descriptive of the- 

 nature of this class of sounds. By "sonant surd" is meant a sound 

 between a sonant and its corresponding surd. A few Ponka examples 

 are given, showing the difference between three sonant-surds and the 

 corresponding sonants, surds, and explosives. 



P-mutes. — ba (sonant), a verbal modal prefix; da (sonant-surd), head, 

 nose; p'a (surd), bitter ; bi, verbal prefix; di, liver; pi, good; p'i u xe, 

 puckered, corrugated. K-mutes. — ga, verbal modal prefix; ^axa, a crow ; 

 kage, third son, male friend; k'axe, verbal root. T-mutes. — de, while, 

 during ; %o>, buffalo ; te, a future sign; t'e, dead; di, adverbial terminal 

 particle; %\, lodge; ti, to have come hither for the first time; t'i n xe, verbal 

 root, drawn up, as the mouth of a bag. 



The Dakota "hn" is heard in such words as hnaka and hi-hnaku. It 

 differs from the (fegiha "hn." The "h" in the former is expelled from 

 the mouth, but in the latter it comes through the nostrils, with a very 

 slight effort, often escaping the notice of a white man. It is generally 

 used in the 2d. sing, of verbs in fa (ya) and fi (yii). 



EXAMPLES. 



Except in contractions, all syllables end in a vowel, pure or nasalized. 

 In Dakota there are a few words that seem exceptions to this rule, of 



