34 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. lY. 



" The fourth and last class is made up of verbal nouns which, as their 

 name indicates, are nothing else than verbs in the impersonal or personal 

 moods employed to qualify objects of secondary import with the help 

 sometimes of a radical noun, sometimes of a pronoun, and always of a 

 prepositive particle prefixed to, or incorporated in, the verbal substantive. 

 Of this description are the words /^-j)/^«-^/'^.?/ (lit. with-earth-one cleaves), 

 plough ; 7i-kzvdt-sdzta (lit. it-on-one sits), seat ; d ten-pa-yd^ (lit. wor.k- 

 for-house) work-shop."* 



Very few of the objects or implements designated by words of that 

 class can be regarded as of really ancient origin. 



As for the orthography followed in the present monograph for render- 

 ing aboriginal words, it is as follows : — 



The vowels have the continental sounds. When accentuated, they 

 undergo the same phonetic changes as French letters do when affected 

 by similar accents. Thus a, t, o, have the same sound as in French ; 

 e and u as in Italian ; c is sounded as the e of " mets ", ^ as that of the 

 English " ten ", while 9 corresponds to the so-called French e mtiet in 

 such words as j'e, te, le. W is always a consonant. 



Subject to the following remarks, the consonants have also the con- 

 tinental sounds. H is strongly aspirated; n represents a nasal n followed 

 by a common or sounding «; / is a lingualo-sibilant which is obtained by 

 the emission of a hissing sound on both sides of the tongue curved up- 

 wards previous to its striking the lingual letter ; r is the result of 

 uvular vibrations, and when immediately following a guttural {g, k, kh, 

 'k, or k) it is almost impreceptible to the ear ; K, and R, are respectively 

 k and r pronounced with a very guttural inflection ; q nearly resembles ty, 

 both letters being simultaneously sounded ; c represents the English double 

 consonant sh. The apostrophe (') prefixed to k, t, g, adds to the regular 

 pronunciation of those letters the exploding sound peculiar to most 

 Indian languages. J is intermediate between s and c. 



Th, kh, arc equivalent to t + h and k-fh and are produced by a 

 single emission of voice. T's and t'[ are " exploded " and their exact 

 value cannot be realized otherwise than by hearing them pronounced by 

 a competent person. 



The hiatus is represented by a period in the upper part of the line (■). 



* J bid. , ibid. 



