MICHELSON] ALGONQUIAN LINGUISTIC GROUPS 231 
The following table shows all the clusters of three consonants 
in the same texts: 
| | 
Initial | 2dconso- 3d conso- | 
consonant | nant nant | 
= —|— 
k 8 | k | 
k 
Pp | 8 t | 
| | Pp | 
| | 
| 
k 
| k | | 
8 | ) § | 
| ts k | 
ts ts k 
|. | 
hia ae | 
r q 8 
Pp | 
| t t 
| | 
The following cluster of four consonants occurs in the same texts: 
rkst. 
It will be seen by comparing the tables of such other Algonquian 
languages as have numerous clusters that such a condition as obtains 
in Blackfoot (Piegan) is unique. So far as the writer can judge, 
the clusters are genuine, not pseudo. The origin of most of them 
is obscure.1_ Some are due to the assibilation of t before 7.2 It is 
likely that the cluster sk is original, as can be demonstrated for st 
in certain cases. For the latter, note nestoa* 1 (chances not to occur 
in the writer’s texts); Cree nista 1 ALSO; and the instrumental st in 
niteitanistaw® I SAID TO HIM (ni—dw* I—HIM; stem Ani) is to be asso- 
ciated with a similar instrumental in Cree.‘ 
However, the formation of the verbal compounds is typically 
Algonquian and most of the personal terminations of the present 
independent mode are patently Algonquian. The terminations in 
-pinnan® (e. g., ni—pinnan* we [excl.]) are to be associated with 
Fox -pen*, Passamaquoddy -ban. Similarly, ki—puwaiwa rx, is to 
be connected with Fox and Shawnee -pw*, Passamaquoddy -ba. The 
form ki—a@waw* yk —nIM has an exact equivalent in Cree and Meno- 
minee. The forms ni—aw*, ki—aw* 1—uIM, THOU—HIM, respectively, 
agree with Cree, Fox, Menominee, and Delaware (one form) as 
opposed to Ojibwa, Algonkin, Shawnee, and Eastern Algonquian. 
Forms like ki—oxpinnan* wE—THEE, YOU (not in writer’s texts; 
based on Tims; cf. Uhlenbeck, op. cit., p. 8, bottom) certainly sug- 
1 For one or two probable sources besides those given here, see p. 232. 
* This change has been already noted by C. C. Uhlenbeck, Original Blackfoot Texts, p. 95, Amsterdam, 
1911. 
8J. W. Tims, Grammar and Dictionary of the Blackfoot Language, London, 1889. 
4J. Horden, Cree Grammar, p. 99, London, 1881. 
