756 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



[It should be observed that d appears as a under certain conditions. 

 I can not determine at present whether this is a phonetic process or 

 whether there is a morphological significance. As an example I give 

 py'Aw^ HE comes; compare with this apyiitc^ when he came; 

 apifdwdtc' when they came; pyanu' come thou! pydgo''^ come 

 ye!— T. M.] 



§ 12, Elision 



Elision plays an important part in sound-change. It occurs at 

 final and initial places and at points inside a word-group. The places 

 where the process happens, and the influences bringing it about, are 

 shown in the examples to follow. 



In some cases a vowel drops out and a vocalic consonant as a glide 

 takes its place, the change giving rise to a cluster made up of a con- 

 sonant and a semi-vowel : 



i drops out: d'wdipwdgesVtc^ then she began to wail (from 

 dwdpi-wdgesitc^) ; d''kydwd^tc^ and he grew jealous (from d'ki- 

 ydwdtc^) 

 drops out : dwd'wlswd^tc^ he singed his hair (for dwdwiso-'wdtc*) 

 u drops out : d'slswdHc^ she fried them (from dsisu- wdtd-) 



Words sometimes suffer loss of initial vowel: 



skotd^g^ in the fire (for A.'skotd'^g^) 

 tdc]co'tdr}twd\f at their fire (for utbcko'tdTnwd''g*) 

 Tiwi'gdgo^^ nothing (for a.'gwigdgo''^) 

 nd'gwdtd then he started away (for d'ndgwdHc^) 



The loss often includes both initial consonant and vowel: 

 cwd'cig"' eight (for ne'cwdcVg"^) 

 akA'niglce'gw^ all day long (for ne'^lcAnigice^gw^) 



The second member of a consonant-cluster frequently drops out : 

 d'pd'windwdHc^ when he did not see him (for d'^pwd'windwdHc^) 

 pe'm.utA^mw"' he shot at it (for pe'm.wutA^mw'^) 



The elision of n takes place before some formative elements : 

 d'pA'gicVg'^ when it (a bird) alighted (a subordinate form of 



pA'gici'nw"' it [a bird] alighted) 

 nAnd'Jdcimd^w"- he laid him away carefully; nAnd'hicVnw'^ he 

 fixed a place to lie down 



To slur over a syllable frequently brings about the loss of the 

 syllable. In the instance below, the stressed, preserved syllable 

 moves into the place made vacant, and becomes like the vowel that 

 dropped out: 



§ 12 



