BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES S63 



tween the intransitive verl) and it.s subject, and between the tran- 

 sitive verb and its object. 



awa'lgE dzaH roan the deer is not dead vet {mva'lyE not yet; 

 dsak dead; ivan deer) 



a'lgE dl lie'tgEl walh asgE gwa' sgaga° there was no house there 

 {algE not; d% on its part; Jietg to stand; wdlh house; asgE 

 at [see § 28]; givcdsga that; -ga° [see § 2()]) 



a'lgEt dza'gul wan he did not kill the deer {dza'g to kill) 



a'lgE ami dE/ni wula'idEl g'at it is not good that the people 

 should know it {am good; dsm future, nominal particle; 

 wnla' Ito know; (/'ar/ people) 

 In interrogative sentences: 



du naPl dErn dEdu'HsEdEl tocaflpxadE vml h' !ij)k' !a' i>l sa 

 al riiEla-l'lE'rEldEl g'<iml' a t.ms-l\'d'HEtf who will live 

 (with) forty days each month throughout the 3^ear? {du 

 demonstrative; naP who; dEiii future; dEdu'Hs to live; 

 txdlpx io\xY\ vnd being; h'lap ten round ones, lc!%ph'!a'p 

 distributive; sa day; a at; rnEla- each; I'Ie'veI one round 

 one; g'atuk sun, moon; a at; /,m6- along, throughout; k.'dH^ 

 year) 



§ !i2. Sifjpoces of Numernls 



In the Nass river dialect, only three classes of numerals have dis- 

 tinctive suffixes. These are: 

 dl human beings 

 Ji'^s canoes 



aVou fathoms (derived from the stem on hand) 

 In the Tsimshian dialect the corresponding suffixes occur also, and, 

 besides, another one used to designate long objects. These are: 

 -dl human beings 

 -sh canoes 

 -eVo'u fathoms 

 -sxan long objects 

 The numerals will be treated more fully in § 57. 



§ 33. Contraction. 

 The Tsimshian dialects have a marked tendency to form compound 

 words by contraction which is apparently based partly on weakening 

 of vowels, partly on the omission of syllables. In some cases it can be 

 shown that omitted syllables do not belong to the stem of the word 

 that enters into composition; while in other cases this is doubtful. 

 Since my material in the Tsimshian dialect is better, I will give the 

 Tsimshian examples tirst. 



§§32,33 



