566 BTJKEAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [edll. 40 



The alveolar s, c, and the affricative ts, tc, are pronounced with 

 open teeth. The two m's are not distinguished, since the former 

 occurs only before vowels. It is doubtful if they represent two really 

 distinct sounds. 



The glottal stop and the velar surd are closely related, the former 

 often taking the place of the latter. An omission of a 5 after a stop 

 transforms the latter into a fortis. I have placed Z and n in the same 

 line, on account of their frequent alternation. Since the glottal stop, 

 velars, palatals, and anterior palatals have certain peculiarities in 

 common, we will designate them as Jc sounds. The consonants of the 

 anterior palatal series have a decided affricative character, which is 

 least prominent in the fortis. The medial palatal 7l and the velar g 

 appear also as affricatives. In these cases the continued sound 

 appears so long, that I have written them as lex and gx. 



The language admits of extensive consonantic clusters, and I have 

 not been able to discover any sequence of consonants that is inad- 

 missible except that clusters consisting of a stop followed by m and n 

 seem to be avoided. 



§ 4. Phonetic Laws 



Nevertheless we find complex phonetic laws. These may be classed 

 in nine groups : 



(1) Effects of accent. (5) Vowel changes. 



(2) Laws of vocalic harmony. (6) Metathesis. 



(3) Laws of consonantic as- (7) Dieresis, 



similation. (8) Contraction. 



(4) Vocalization of consonants. (9) Weakening and strength- 



ening of consonants. 



Only the first two of these laws are purely phonetic, while the others 

 are restricted to certain grammatical forms. Groups 2-5 are changes 

 due to contact phenomena. 



Effects of Accent (§§ 5, 6) 



The accent affects the character of the vowel upon which it falls 

 and modifies consonants in so far as certain consonants or consonantic 

 clusters are not tolerated when they precede the accent. On the 

 whole, these changes are confined to the Lower Chinook, but they 

 occur also in part in the western dialects of the Upper Chinook. 



§4 



