boas] 



HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 



685 



Palatal . . 

 Alveolar . 

 Dento-alveolar 

 Labial . 

 Lateral 

 Glottal catch 

 Ji, y and w. 



The vowels are quite variable. One of the most characteristic 

 features of the use of vowels is the fondness for the o, a, and ii sounds. 

 The vowels are as follows : 



ii 



u u 



i I 



e e 



a E o 



a 



add 



§ 3. Phonetic Character of Steins and Sound -Grouping 



Stems are with few exceptions monosyllabic and consonantal, and 

 consist as a rule either of (1) consonant, vowel; (2) consonant, 

 vowel, consonant; or (3) vowel, consonant. Words may begin with 

 a vowel, li, y, or w, or with any consonant except x or n. By far the 

 greater number, however, begin with a consonant, most commonly 

 t, li, h or p, with h and w also very common. The most frequent initial 

 vowels^ are a, o, and e. Whereas initial combinations of two con- 

 sonants are impossible, such clusters are common in the middle of 

 words. Groups of more than two are, however, unknown. In combi- 

 nations of two consonants, sonants, except I, are never found as the 

 first member of the group. Except for this restriction, the possible 

 combinations are comparatively unrestricted, the only ones which are 

 avoided being those of two spirants, a nasal and lateral, or those in 

 which X is the second or ts the initial member. The following com- 

 binations are most frequent: 



Id, lb, It, Ip, Ik, Its, Is 



led, Ich, Icl, let, Ms, kp, Ics, Icn, Icrn 



td, til, tp, tn, tm 



pd, ph, pic, pt, pts, ps, pn 



xh, xl, xlc, xts, xp 



sd, sh, si, sk, sts, sn, sm 



nd, nh, nJc, nt, nts, np, ns, nm 



md, mb, mt, mts, mp, ms, mn 



1 Verbal stems of the second class (§5,6), like the words themselves, tend very strongly to begin and end 

 tvith surds. The larger number also of this class have a, o, or u for their vowel. 



§3 



