BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMEKICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 165 



duced from other stocks, such as the Tsimshian ; I, however, is usually 

 transliterated as n. To make up for this loss of phonetic elements, 

 the number of sibilants and related sounds is greatly increased. 

 Wliere Haida has only s, dj, tc, and tcl, we find here s, s!, c (pro- 

 nounced like English sJi), dj, tc, tc!, dz, ts, and ts!. The g is not 

 pronounced so far back as Haida g, but, on the other hand, there is 

 a sonant (y),^ which is pronounced by the younger people exactly 

 like English y. As indicated, three palatal fortes seem to be used; 

 but it is so difficult to distinguish ]c'! from Tc! that I have not been 

 able to carry out the distinction in my texts. After many palatals 

 a slightly sounded u (or o) occurs, represented by " or °, which 

 develops in certain situations into a full u (or o) sound. 



§ 3. Phonetic Processes 



Harmonic changes are very few and special. Thus the reflexive 

 prefix c appears as tc or dj occasionally, though I am unable to lay 

 down a rule for the alteration, especially since it occurs in words 

 otherwise identical, as wucJcik!iye'n or wudjhildiye'n brothers to 

 ONE ANOTHER. Another tendency is for a final surd to change to 

 the corresponding sonant when a vowel is suffixed, as — 



qawd'q eye duqawd'ge his eye 



yugo'qtc the trap yugo'qdjayu the trap it was 



yek spiritual helper duye'gi his spiritual helper 



LclA'tc gadu' Lidjd' ge nothing to kill with (instead of Le'lAtc 

 gadu' iMjaf qe) 



More important than either of the above is the employment of o or 

 u in place of i or € when preceded by certain sounds. This takes 

 place usually when x, q, or q! precedes and is itself preceded by o 

 or u. Thus we have wuqo'x to get to a certain place by canoe 

 and wuqdxo'n he had formerly come ashore there; hunu'lc did, 

 Jcunugu'n while doing. In duq!ua' his mouth (from 3. 'a mouth). 

 At uxua' HE ate something (from xa to eat), the u is inserted. 



Since y belongs to the same series of Tc sounds, it is treated in the 

 same maimer, and, on account of the weakness of the sound, changes 

 to w. Therefore, when yi is suffixed to a word ending in u, it changes 

 to wu; as, Xuts!nuwu' grizzly-bear fort, instead of Xuts!nuyi' ; 

 dutuwu' HIS mind, instead of dutuyi'; and we might add dugd'wu his 

 drum (from gao drum). Sometimes, though not invariably, wu is 



1 See Phonetics of Tsimshian. 



§3 



