BOAS] HANDBOOK OP AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 577 



Complex intransitive forms are, however, not rare. 

 tE-n-XE-l-a'-x-o they will be on me 

 t(^E)- they, subject (2a, see § 18) 

 n- me, indirect object (2c, see § 18) 

 -x{e)- indicates that they belong to me (3, see § 24) 

 -I- to (4, see § 25) 



-a- direction from speaker (5, see § 26) 

 -X stem TO DO, to be (6) 

 -0 future (7, see § 32) 

 Nouns are similar to simple intransitive verbs, but they have (or 

 had) nominal (modal) prefixes. They have no directive elements. 

 They may take possessive forms which do not appear in the verb. 

 The order of elements in the noun is the following: 

 (1*) Nominal (modal) element. 

 (2*) Pronominal elements, 

 (a*) Subjective. 

 (6*) Possessive. 

 (3*) Nominal stem, single or compound. 

 (4*) Suffixes: 

 W-d'-lEmlEm Rotten- wood (a place name) 

 w- nominal prefix (1*) 

 a- subjective feminine (2 a*) 

 -lEmlEm stem rotten wood (3*) 

 e'-me-qtq thy head 



e- subjective masculine (2 a*) 



-me- possessive second person (2 &*) 



-qtq- stem head (3*) 



In the following sections these component elements will be taken 

 up in order. 



§ 17. Modal ElementH 



1. a-. This prefix indicates a transitional stage, a change from one 

 state into another. Therefore it may be translated in intran- 

 sitive verbs by to become. In transitive verbs it is always 

 used when there is no other element affixed which expresses 

 ideas contradictory to the transitional, like the perfect, 

 future, or nominal ideas. In the transitive verb it appears, 

 therefore, on the whole as an aoristic tense. The action 

 passing from the subject to a definite object is in Chinook 

 always considered as transitional (transitive), since it implies 

 a change of condition of object and subject. In the Kathlamet 

 dialect of the Upper Chinook the corresponding prefix is i-. 



44877— Bull. 40, pt 1—10 37 § 17 



