BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 97 



The vowels in Hupa are formed with much less movement of the 

 lower jaw and lips than is employed in the corresponding sounds in 

 English speech. The Hupa seem to talk with their mouths nearly 

 closed. As a result, the sounds are not open and clear, but muffled. 

 These vowels may terminate in a sudden opening of the glottis, result- 

 ing in an aspiration of the vowel; or in a closure of the glottis,^ bringing 

 the vowel to an abrupt close. When aspirated, the whole vowel has 

 a breathy quality; and when closed by a glottal stop, it sounds hard 

 and compact. 



§ 3. Grouping of Sounds 



It is rarely the case that words or sjdlables begin with a vowel, and 

 most of such cases occur in verb forms. Semi-vowels and single con- 

 sonants are frequent initially. The only clusters which stand initially 

 are the affricatives dz^ fo, c?/, tc^ and tew, and the combinations hw^ 

 XIV, and ky. Of the affricatives, tcio seems to be a phonetic derivation 

 from a simple sound, probably a palatal with a n tinge. The combi- 

 nation hw corresponds to the simple sound c (sh) in the other Atha- 

 pascan dialects; xto is due to the change of o to the semi-vowel w; and 

 kf/ has for the second element a glide due to a back vowel following 

 an anterior palatal consonant. Probably none of these initial sounds 

 were therefore originally two distinct consonants in juxtaposition. 



Many syllables end in vowels. When final in the word, and bear- 

 ing the accent, some vowels, under certain conditions, seem to develop 

 semi-vowels after themselves, becoming diphthongs. This is especially 

 true of the vowel a in the roots of verbs. In the past tense, which is 

 more strongly accented on the ultima (the root syllable), a becomes «/, 

 or sometimes au. The au is due to a disappearing final g. That ai 

 is due to a sufiix is not unlikely. Syllables may end in simple conso- 

 nants or in affricatives. The only prominent sonant stop which occurs 

 in Hupa (d) is not frequent in the final position. When a dental stop 

 occurs in the interior of a word, it is usually surd if at the end of 

 a syllable, and sonant if at the beginning. In fact, it often happens 

 that the same sound begins as a surd and is completed as a sonant, 

 the occlusion belonging to the preceding syllable, and the explosion 



1 The opening of the glottis is of course brought about by a separation of the vocal processes. The 

 pitch at the end of the vowel is lowered. The closure of the glottis is more probably brought about 

 by the movement of the epiglottis so as to cover the glottis as in swallowing. A similar glottal 

 action no doubt produces the fortis series. 



§3 



44877— Bull. 40, pt 1—10 7 



