BOAS] 



HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 



11 



It is to be understood, of course, that, under proper syllabic con- 

 ditions, i and u may respectively appear in semivocalic form as y 

 and w; thus o" and W^ appear as ow and uw when followed by vowels ; 

 e. g., in Jcluwu^- throw away, uw and u^ are equivalent elements 

 forming a reduplicated complex entirely analogous to -elel- in helel- 

 siNG. Similarly ai, au, ai, and du may appear as ay, aw, d'^y, and 

 a"w; and correspondingly for the other vowels. Indeed, one of 

 the best criteria for the determination of the length of the first 

 element of a diphthong is to obtain it in such form as would cause 

 the second element (i or u) to become semi-vocalic, for then the first 

 vowel will adopt the form of a short vowel or pseudo-diphthong, 

 as the case may be. The follo^ving phonetic (not morphologic) pro- 

 portions will make this clearer: 



Mliufe^ I jump: hiliwat' you jump==^e^^m he went away from 



him : he^^fwi'^n I went away from him 

 ga,i¥ he ate it: gayawa'^n I a,te it = ga.ik' he grew: ^a'^ya'^r he will 



grow 

 gay Sill he ate it : gay&wa'^n I ate it = TianfgaM over land : Latg'a^wa'^ 



one from* Lat'gau [uplands] 

 Sometimes, though not commonly, a diphthong may appear in the 

 same word either with a semivowel or vowel as its second element, 

 according to whether it is or is not followed by a connecting inor- 

 ganic a. A good example of such a doublet is haye^wa'xdd'^da or 

 Jiayeuxdd°da in his returning (verb stem yeu-, ye^w- return). 

 It is acoustically difficult to distinguish sharply between the long 

 vowel or pseudo-diphthong o" and the u-diphthongs of o (both ou 

 and ou are often heard as o"), yet there is no doubt that there is 

 an organic difference between o", as long vowel to o, and o" = ou, ou. 

 Thus, in loTio^na'^n I cause him to die, and loTiona'n I shall cause 

 HIM TO DIE, o" and o are related as long and short vowel in parallel 



.§ 4 



