BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 5 VI 



§ 12. Dieresis and Contraction 



1. Dieresis is confined to the formation of a few verbal plurals, in 

 which the vowel is expanded by insertion of the syllable -yu. Pre- 

 sumably the expansion is related to the dieresis of accented i (see 

 § 5). It seems, however, quite possible that this is really a suffix 

 -yu indicating the distributive. (See § 38.6.) 



Singular Plural 



-x^ot -x^oyut to bathe 



-xslatck -XEldyutck to rise 



2. A short a, when preceding or following a and u, is contracted 

 with these vowels, which remain unchanged. In the same wa}^ i is 

 contracted with a following I or e. 



oc she is (instead of a-oc) e'lxam country (instead of 



atciungo'mit he causes him to i-e'lxam) 



run (instead of atciungo' -amit) 



§ 13. Weakening and Strengthening of Consonants 



A modification of significance is brought about by a modification of 

 consonants.^ This phenomenon was discovered by Dr. Edward Sapir 

 in Upper Chinook, but it occurred undoubtedly also in Lower 

 Chinook. The relation of consonants in Upper Chinook is as follows : 



h, p hardened become p! p, p! softened become h 



d, t hardened become t! t, t! softened become d 



g, k hardened become Jc! Tc, Jc! softened become g 



g, q hardened become Jc! q, q! softened become g 



Similar relations are found between the sibilants: 



tc! hardened becomes ts! s softened becomes c 



tc hardened becomes ts ts softened becomes tc 



c hardened becomes s, ts ts! softened becomes tc! ' 

 ts hardened becomes ts! 



The hardened x becomes x. (Cf. § 53.) 



§ 14. GRAMMATICAL PROCESSES 



According to their grammatical forms, Chinook words may be 

 grouped in two large classes — syntactic words and particles. While 

 the former, except in exclamations, always contain pronominal and 

 other elements that define their function in the sentence, the latter 

 occur as independent and isolated words. The elements of the syn- 



•See Edward Sapir, 1. c, 537. 



§§12-14 



