BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 565 



linguo-palatal constriction. In the short vowel the i character is 

 rather accentuated. In the long vowel the e character predomi- 

 nates, unless contact and contrast phenomena emphasize the i char- 

 acter. 6 seems to occur only with Jc sounds and is probably due to 

 an assimilation of short a. a is rare and seems to occur only in ono- 

 matopoetic words, e and a are also of peculiar character, a seems 

 to be always either a rhetorical broadening of e (as in d'ka for e'ka), 

 or an onomatopoetic element which is frequent as terminal sound in 

 interjections. The a series is related to the o and u series in so far 

 as a may be transformed into o or u, while e and i can never be thus 

 transformed. We will designate the o and u sounds as ^-series and 

 the e and i sounds as i-series. The only diphthongs that occur are 

 au and ai. Doubled vowels, unless separated by a consonantic 

 glottal stop, do not seem to occur. Short i and u when preceding 

 vowels have alwaj^s consonantic values. 



§ 3. Consonants 



The consonants consist of labials, dentals, and a very full series of 

 palatals. There are also a number of I sounds. I did not succeed, 

 however, in distinguishing these satisfactorily. There is also much 

 confusion regarding surds and sonants, not only because the sonant 

 has greater stress than our sonant, but also on account of the occur- 

 rence of a labial sound with semiclosure of the nose and weak lip- 

 closure, which is therefore intermediate between h, m, and w, with 

 prevalent m character. Between vowels the sound approaches a h. 

 The occurrence of d is also doubtful. Each stop occurs as fortis and 

 surd. 



The series of consonants may be represented as follows : 



Sonant Surd Fortis Spirant „!,?<![ Nasal Lateral 



nasal ^^^^^ Lateral vowels 



X' - - - 



s, c - n (I) (y) 



'f 



1,1 



mm- (w) 

 §3 



