268 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



tives depend upon one noun, they are apt to occur in an order exactly 

 the reverse of that observed in English : 



go'djai t!el XA'tdju the wolf, wet, small (the small wet wolf) 

 gl'na go'lgal SLA'pdju a thing, blue, slim (a slim blue thing) 



Subordinate clauses almost always precede those on which they 

 depend, though occasionally they may be inserted into the major 

 clause itself: 



r Ita'xui xu'adji V tia'gan la gAn gudafnagAn his friends (that) a 

 grizzly bear killed him thought about him (his friends 

 thought a grizzly bear had killed him) {Ita'xui friends or clans- 

 men; xu'adji grizzly bear; tia stem to kill; -agan past inex- 

 perienced; ^^71 for [here about]; ^w^a' /la stem to think ; -gAn 

 past inexperienced) 



In the Masset dialect the subordinate clause usually ends in -s 

 (§ 25.7) and is followed by gien, lu, or some other connective. This 

 is also found in the Skidegate dialect ; but more often the subordinate 

 clause ends in gai. Masset sentences are usually introduced by 

 WA'gien; and Skidegate sentences, by gie'nJiao, WA'gienJiao, Lu'Jiao, 

 etc. It is often more convenient, however, to regard the sentence 

 they introduce as a clause coordinate with that which precedes. 

 This uncertainty always renders it difficult to divide Haida discourse 

 into sentences. 



VOCABULARY (§§ 35-39) 



§ 35. General Remarks 



Haida stems may be most conveniently divided into two classes — 

 principal stems and modifying stems. The former class includes 

 those which we should call in English, verbs, adjectives, nouns, and 

 pronouns; the latter, post-positions, conjunctions, adverbs, and inter- 

 jections. 



§ 36. Verb-Stems 



The greater number of these consist of one syllable, and, in many 

 cases where more than one occur, it seems probable that they are 

 really compound. The following list includes all of those most com- 

 monly employed, along with a few rarely found. They are arranged 

 in the following order: (1) stems consisting of a single vowel; (2) 

 those of a single consonant; (3) a consonant and following vowel 

 or vowel-combination; (4) two consonants; (5) two consonants and 



§§35,36 



