BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 689 



the human body, as hand, foot, head, etc. In other cases, the pre- 

 fixes point out tlie shape of the object. 



Suffixes express a much wider variety of ideas, and are very much 

 more numerous tlian prefixes. They indicate direction of motion, 

 modal and temporal ideas, negation, etc., and, like the true prefixes, 

 are (with one possible exception) always strictly subordinate to the 

 stem, and can under no circumstances stand alone. 



One feature of composition in Maidu wliich is very clear is the 

 slight degree of coalescence between the component parts of the com- 

 pound ; prefix, stem, and suffix each keeping its separate individual- 

 ity. With few exceptions there are no phonetic changes resulting 

 from composition; no contractions, elisions, or assimilations between 

 affix and stem taking place. The most important exceptions are the 

 case of an in coming before a Ic or w (in which case the m changes to 

 n), and the retention of the euphonic terminal i before the subjective 

 suffix m in nouns whose stem ends in m. A few other exceptions are 

 noted in § 4. 



§ 6. Reduplication 



Maidu makes use of duplication and reduplication to only a slight 

 extent in expressing grammatic concepts. 



Simple duplication is restricted largely to the noun, where it is 

 used, in connection with a suffix, to indicate the distributive. Very 

 few nouns, however, appear to form such distributives. With verbs, 

 it gives an iterative meaning, and the duplication may include both 

 stem and prefix; as, 



witoswitosonoitsoia he went about picking here and there 



Reduplication is quite frequent in verbs, both reduplication of 

 stem and of prefix or suffix. In all cases the vowel of the redupli- 

 cated stem, prefix or suffix, is the same as that of the original, and 

 the reduplication conveys the idea of iteration, or, in the instance of 

 some suffixes, apparently gives the idea of a little, slightly. 



The reduplication or duplication is, in the majority of cases, initial, 

 but there seem to be a number of instances of inner or terminal 

 reduplication or duplication; as, for example, 



paka'nkanto springs (distributive), from paka'ni spring 

 yaha'Jiam mai'dum good men {yaha'm good), the reduplication 



here expressing the plurality of the noun 

 oH'Jcitdom getting home one after another (oTci'tdom getting home) 



44877— Bull. 40, pt 1—10 44 § 6 



