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BUKEAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bdll. 40 



long continued and sonant, even in terminal positions; m ! and n! 

 have great tension of oral closure with accompanying tension of 

 glottis and epiglottis. The sound r has been described before. It 

 is entirely absent in the Nass dialect. Bishop Ridley, who prepared 

 the translation of the gospel on which Count von der Schulenburg's 

 grammar is based, has rendered this sound, which often follows a 

 very obscure t or e, by u; but I hear distinctly /'. Thus, in place 

 of Bishop Ridley's nuyu (I), I hear nlE'ryu; instead of guel^ gE'vEl; 

 instead of shgu^ sgEV. In the Nass dialect, e or I takes the place of 

 this sound: 



The sound has, however, a close affinit}' to it^ before which it 

 tends to disappear. 



plid'r to tell; jMd'u I tell. 



It is suggestive that many ?^-sounds of Tsimshian are lore in Nass. 

 This may indicate that the u and r in Tsimshian are either a later 

 ditferentiationof one sound or that a loss of r has occurred in many 

 forms. On the whole, the latter theory appears more plausible. 



Examples of this substitution are the following: 



§4 



