ORTHOGRAPHY. 



may be oyuze contracted ; as, Makatooze, the Blue Earth river, lit. where the blue 

 earth is taken ; oze ^i6a, had to catch. 



Contraction. 



§ 11. 1. Contractions take place in some nouns when combined with a following 

 noun, and in some verbs when they occupy the position of the infinitive or parti- 

 ciple. The contraction consists in dropping the vowel of the final syllable and 

 changing the preceding consonant usually into its corresponding sonant or vice 

 versa, which then belongs to the syllable that precedes it ; as, yus from yuza, to 

 hold ; tom from topa, four. The following changes occur : 



z into s ; as, )aiza, to hold any thing ; yus nai;ir), to stand holding. 



i. into s ; as, kaki^a, to suffer ; kakis wauq, / am suffering. 



g into h ; as, maga, afield, and maga, a goose, are contracted into mah. 



k into g ; as, waqyaka, to see any thing, is contracted into waqyag. 



p into m ; as, topa, four, is contracted into tom ; watopa, to paddle or row a 



boat, is contracted into watom. 

 t into d ; as, odota the reduplicated form of ota, many, much. 

 t into g ; as, bozag^ata the reduplicated form of boiiata, to make forked by 



punching. 

 6, t, and y, into n ; as, wani6a, none, becomes wanin ; yuta, to eat any thing, 

 becomes yun ; kuya, below, becomes kun. 



2. The article 'kiq ' is sometimes contracted into 'g;' as, oyate kig, the people, 

 contracted into oyateg. 



3. Caqte, the heart, is contracted into 6an; as, ianwaste, glad (6aqte anrf wa^te, 

 heart-good). 



4. When a syllable ending in a nasal (r)) has added to it ' m ' or ' n,' the con- 

 tracted form of the syllable that succeeded, the nasal sound is lost in the ' m ' or ' n,' 

 and is consequently dropped ; as, 6ar)nuqpa, to smoke a pipe, 6aqnum mani, he 

 smokes as he walks ; kakig6a, to scrape, kakin iyeya. 



Contracted words may generally be known by their termination. When con- 

 traction has not taken place, the rule is that every syllable ends with either a pure 

 or nasalized vowel. See § 3. 



