710 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



parison with this northeastern dialect, the forms in the other dia- 

 lects are interesting: 



Northwestern Southern 



First person singular ni ni 



Second person singular mi mi 



Third person singular moTn mom 



First person dual nisdm. nds 



Second person dual m,im.d7n mam 



Third person dual mosdm. mosdm 



First person plural nisem nes 



Second person plural mimem mem 



Third person plural mopdm mosem 



It will be seen that in the northwestern dialect greater regu- 

 larity prevails, the dual forms for the first and third persons being 

 alike, and that of the second keeping the same vowel. In the 

 plural, however, while the characteristic vowel-change in the first 

 and second persons is preserved, the third takes a wholly new plu- 

 ral sufRx. In the southern dialect this irregularity disappears, in 

 spite of the considerable coalescence and contraction which the 

 pronoun in its subjective form has suffered. It seems not improb- 

 able that this greater regularity of the dual and plural pronominal 

 forms in the northwestern dialect may be connected with the still 

 greater regularity which prevails in this particular among the Win- 

 tun stock, on which the northwestern Maidu border. In Wintun, 

 the pronominal forms are perfectly regular throughout dual and 

 plural. On the other hand, the northeastern dialect, with its 

 smaller degree of regularity, is in contact with the Achoma'wi and 

 Atsuge'wi, dialects of the Shasta, which, on the whole, have a still 

 less regular development of dual and plural, and form a transition 

 to the Shasta proper, which has no dual at all. Variations of tliis 

 sort are found also in other Calif ornian languages. 



As stated above, the suffixed forms of the pronoun are much 

 less clear in their expression of number, dual and plural forms exist- 

 ing for the first person only, as may be seen from the following: 



First person singular -s 



First person dual -as 



First person plural -es 



Second person singular, dual, and plural . . -no 



Third person singular, dual, and plural . . -n 



§28 



