boas] 



HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 



1011 



4. 



5, 



6. 



7. 



8. 



-it is added to the vocalic stem of many words that end in k in the 

 absolutive case: 



Singular Plural 



unnuk unniiit night 



inuk innit or innuit man (human being) 



assak assaaH ( < assait) finger 



-it is added to man}^ words that end in wj in the absolutive, espe- 

 cially to all words ending in -innaq and -ttiaq: 



Singular Plural 



sorqaq sorqaaH 



utorqaq utorqaaH 



naa^jaahi ncKj naa^jaa^nnaaH 



< naa^ja + innaq 

 umidttiaq umidttaaH < umidt + 



. < umiaq + ttiaq ttaait < ttiaait 



-it is added to some words ending in -oq or -eq in the absolutive 

 case: 



whalebone 



old (man or woman) 



only a gull 



a medium-sized boat 



§ 19. CLASS II (a). PLURAL INFLECTION WITH SHIFT OF STRESS 



The following nouns all agree in having in the singular strong stress 

 on their final syllable, and weak stress on the preceding syllable; but 

 in the plural the latter becomes strongly stressed, and accordingly, as 

 a rule, lengthened (cf. § 3). The stress shifts, being thrown back 

 toward the beginning of the word; and this shifting is combined with 

 a change of the quantity of the sounds of the last two syllables, the 

 short consonant between them being either geminated or changed, or 

 displaced by a uvular, in the plural. 



— §19 



