fcOAs] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 551 



§ 70. VOCABULARY 



Most of the Kwakiutl stems are monosyllabic, and consist either of 

 a consonant, vowel, and consonant; or of a vowel preceded or fol- 

 lowed by a consonant. Only a few stems consist of a short vowel 

 followed by two consonants. Apparently there are some bisyllabic 

 stems; for instance — 



ale'x^- to hunt sea-mammals d'ld to search 



TnsdE'lq- to boil g-%ld' l- to steal 



k'lelak- to strike 



Owing to the great number of nominal suffixes, most nouns are 

 derived from verbs, so that the number of primarily denominative 

 stems is small. Examples of nominal stems derived from verbs 

 or neutral stems have been given in § 36. A few others may be 

 given here. . 



Ld^s tree (= standing on W£7ia'/«.^" drum ( = striking re- 

 ground) ceptacle) 



LatE'ml hsbt ( = hanging face- ^m^^w'Za moon ( = round thing 



cover) being) 



qo^s pond (= water in it on ^wd'la'sx- e lynx { = h[g toothed) 



ground) Lu'wayti salmon weir ( = means 



xu'lgwis shark ( = rough body) of standing) 



Furthermore, many local suffixes form nouns by being attached to 

 the nominal stem o- something, and a few related stems. We find, 

 for instance, d'hde' chest, o'x'^sldze^ foot of mountain, o'negwil 

 CORNER. Before vowels, the stem o- becomes a^w-; for instance, in 



d'^WEXSde MOUTH of a VESSEL. 



A number of nouns are found, however, which are neither descrip- 

 tive nor immediately reducible to the series of local suffixes. Among 

 parts of the body we find some that do not occur as suffixes. 



eMz- flesh yom- thumb 



eIIc'^- blood Jc-!ed- third finger 



hap- hair of body S-bZ^.'- fourth finger 



SE^y- hair of head aEn- eyebrows 



xaq bone xawe'q skull 



L.'es- skin na^x^ vulva 



Ic-Hl- tongue ts.'E^y- intestines 

 gEl- rib 



§70 



