1010 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 40 



Examples of words that form no plural are: 

 07'ssoq blubber oquk mould 



nildk freshwater ice nuak, snot 



JVouns {§1 18-29) 



§ 18. CLASS I. PLURAL INFLECTION WITHOUT SHIFT OF STRESS 



The examples given in § 17 show that two principles are applied in 

 the formation of the plural, — single addition of the plural sign to the 

 singular form; and substitution of the plural sign for the final conso- 

 nant. We observe the first principle in ixLo^ pi. iLnd- the latter, in 

 uLLoq^ pi. uLLut. In the latter instance, t has been substituted for q. 

 These two principles may be observed in the whole inflectional treat- 

 ment of the noun. 



On the whole, the plural stems of the nouns are prototypes of their 

 inflection. Many nominal stems are affected by a shift of stress in 

 the plural, which has often been followed by phonetic shifting in the 

 stems of the words. We shall first treat words that show no shift of 

 stress. 



The plural ending is regularly t, but in some cases it. 



1, 



2, 



5. 



-it is added to the consonantal stem (i. e., the absolutive) of words 

 ending in t (which ?;, when following an ^, is regularly changed 

 into s [cf. § 8]) and to the absolutive of certain words that end 

 in -eq and -il- (the q and h being changed into r and y [cf. § 4]). 



§18 



