BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMEETCAK INDIAN LANGUAGES 151 



§ 87. Character of Sentence 



The Hupa sentence expresses place and direction with very great 

 minuteness and care. This is done both by the prefixes of the verb 

 and by independent adverbs and adverbial phrases. In actual use 

 these sentences are also accompanied by many gestures which might 

 in themselves indicate all that is needful. That the act is repeated, is 

 always stated, and frequently with redundancy, an adverb being 

 employed in addition to the iterative prefix which the verb contains. 

 Usually great care is taken, in making quotations, to state definitely 

 who said or thought the matter quoted. Sequence of time is amply 

 expressed, but other relations are often left to be inferred. 



One hesitates to say whether the sentences are all very short or 

 that there are none, but paragraphs instead. One short statement 

 follows another, usually co-ordinate with it but still closely connected 

 in the temporal sequence which carries with it purpose, cause, and 

 result. The synthetic, holophrastic verb is often complete in itself, 

 the other words in the sentence being employed to add distinctness or 

 emphasis. 



The greater burden in a Hupa discourse is on the speaker, who 

 expresses with great exactness most of the concepts and their rela- 

 tions, leaving little to be inferred by the listener. Some of the 

 younger generation, who are nearly or quite bilingual, employ Hupa 

 in giving directions about work to be done, or in relating events in 

 which they wish place-relations to be plain, but English for ordinary 

 social discourse. 



§ 88. Character of Vocabulary 



The vocabulary of Hupa, although it contains words of consider- 

 able length, is not far from monosyllabism. It contains many mono- 

 syllabic nouns and particles, but a much larger number of polysyllabic 

 verbs, and nouns and other parts of speech derived from verbs. 

 These long words, however, are made up of elements possessed for 

 the most part of great clearness of form and meaning. On the other 

 hand, some of the monosyllables other than nouns and pronouns lack 

 distinctness of meaning, and in some cases of form. In writing the 

 language there is difiiculty, therefore, to know just what should con- 

 stitute a word, and whether certain elements are to be taken with the 

 word before them or the one after them. In a language in which the 

 accent is strong, words are set oif from each other by it. In Hupa 



§§87,88 



