BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 447 



without any appreciable addition to its significance. Many of these 

 are of rare occurrence. Almost all of them, except -a and -la, are 

 denominative in character. We find for instance : 



The composition of these stems with various suffixes enables us to 

 isolate them from their completive endings. It is not improbable 

 that in some cases by analogy forms may have developed which are 

 not true stems, but fragmentary phonetic groups derived secondarily 

 from longer words. The stems are almost throughout monosyllabic, 

 as will be shown on page 550. Wlien, for instance, the word ge'was 

 DEER is treated as though it were a compound of the stem gex^- to 

 HANG and the suffix -as place, it is barely possible that this does not 

 represent its true origin. The treatment of a few English loan-words 

 makes it plausible that this process may have taken place. On the 

 other hand, a number of polysyllabic Kwakiutl words are never 

 reduced to monosyllabic elements in composition. As an example 

 may be given the word me'gwat seal, which never loses any of its 

 sounds. This process shows clearly that what has often been termed 

 "apocope," or, if occurring initially, " decapitation," is merely due to 

 a substitution of one affix for another one. 



Most suffixes in Kwakiutl add a new idea to the word to which they 

 are added, and these are generally attached to the theme. At the 

 same time, phonetic modifications occur, either in the theme alone, 

 or in the suffix alone, or in both. Examples of such compounds are 

 the following: 



&£^'"- man hd'lc.'um genuine man, Indian 



(see no. Ill) 

 Lap- to peg LobE'm pegging utensil, peg 



(see no. 173) 

 ^uls- to long xu'lydUsEm to die of longing 



382.27 (see no. 152) 

 niEl- sockeye salmon mElmd'no head of sockeye 



salmon 



§18 



