212 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



§ 3. Grouping of Sounds 



Syllables may consist of a single vowel ; a consonant with following 

 vowel, or with vowel-combination like the above ; two consonants with 

 following vowel; two consonants, a vowel, and a terminal consonant; 

 or of two consonants by themselves. 



While all classes of consonants may stand at the beginning of 

 words, Ti sounds are not admitted as terminal sounds. 



Two groups of consonantic clusters may be distinguished — those 

 with initial s and I, and those with other initial consonants. I, l, l, 

 and l! belong in part to the former group. 



Only s and I, and to a certain extent I, l, l, and l! may form 

 initial clusters, and the first two are found with considerable fre- 

 quency in monosyllabic stem. In these clusters s and I are followed 

 by other consonants ; but s is not followed by another s or an affric- 

 ative. Following are examples, taken from the Masset dialect: 



stAh two 280.10 Ita'nu to eat (collective) 278.7 



st.'e sick 300.28 Igul to move about 



sgat to chop 275,10 Ikwld disturbed, in haste 719.5 



sMt- to club Ik lymal needle of coniferous tree 



shHan hut 29G. 32 303.11 



s^oan (s^wdn) one 275.7 Ineid to begin to split 711.23 



s^.'ao salmon-berry bush 319.23 iHanqlAle' pit 703.25 



SLAqA'm butterfly 296.26 IqaTn kelp 



SLia hand 



Initial clusters with initial l, l, l! or I are not rare, but are formed 

 probably in all cases by composition. 



Inagai' town 704.9 (from na to live) 



LnA'nda a whole one 707.11; 419.15 



V Lfi^alanan she cooked it 731.41 {^al to cook 295.7) 



£110^710.26 



Ll'lgadAnidan to split quickly 711.26 



Ltdjugia' ga-i standing 725.26 



Lsku'naganan they dress up 717.34 



All other consonantic clusters do not admit surd stops in second 

 position, and no Tc sound occurs in first position. The only cluster 

 beginning with an afiricative that I have found is djx. Presumably 

 all these clusters are due to composition of stems which terminate 

 and begin with consonants respectively. This would account for the 



§3 



