BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 107 



mostly common to all the cognate languages, and clearly point to the 

 monosyllable as the probable form of the Athapascan noun. 



(2) Closely connected with these are the names of the parts of the 

 bod}^, terms of relationship and intimate possession, which have a 

 single syllable for their substantive part, but always occur with a 

 possessive prefix. 



(3) There are a considerable number of nouns, consisting of two or 

 more syllables, which are not easily analyzed and do not seem to 

 have a descriptive meaning at present. They seem originally to have 

 been derived from yerbs, or formed by composition. 



(4) A large and increasing number of nouns, formed by means of 

 suffixes and by compounding, have a descriptive force which is ever 

 present in the Hupa mind. 



(5) Verbs in the third person singular of the active or passive voice, 

 with or without an object or limit of motion, are employed as nouns. 



§21. Formative Elements 



As far as is known, the only prefixes employed in noun-formation 

 are the possessive prefixes, which are proclitic forms related to inde- 

 pendent pronouns. They may be employed with any noun to denote 

 possession, but must be employed with the names of the parts of the 

 body and terms of relationship. That words of this class require 

 such prefixes is not necessaril}^ due to a lack of mental abstraction, as 

 has been sometimes assumed, but to a habit of speech. The necessity 

 for their use without a possessive seldom occurs. 



The suffixes employed in noun-building are not numerous. For the 

 most part, they are used to distinguish one thing from another which 

 it resembles by mentioning its size, color, or other physical character, 

 or by indicating the place where the plant grows or which the animal 

 frequents. The principal suffixes are the following: 



1. -Jcoi inhabiting; added to the name of a place. 



Lbmitta xol glades among people (the New River people) 



2. -timi FREQUENTS. Used of plants or animals. 



xaslintau riffles he frequents (the crane) 



3. -liyo LARGE, an augmentative. 



hoskyo bulb large (Chlorogalum Domeridanum, the soap-root) 



§21 



