BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKEL.MA 13 



On the other hand, vowels naturally short sometimes become long 

 when dwelt upon for rhetorical emphasis. Thus ga that sometimes 

 appears as ga/^: 



ga"' lolio'fe^ in tJiat case I shall die 



gd'^ ga^a'l for that reason 

 As regards the pronunciation of the vowels themselves, little need 

 be said. The a is of the same quality as the short a of German mann, 

 while the long d°' (barring the parasitic element) corresponds to the 



a of HAHN. 



A labial coloring of the a (i. e., 6 as in German voll) frequently 

 occurs before and after V"^: 

 gulioV'^ planted, sown 

 lVwaf°-Vw6V he woke him up 

 But there were also heard : 



sek'aV"' shot 

 maldVwa he told him 



The e is an open sound, as in the English let; it is so open, indeed, 

 as to verge, particularly after y, toward a.^ Also the long vowel e« 

 is very open in quality, being pronounced approximately like the ei 

 of English their (but of course without the r- vanish) or the ^ of 

 French fete; e^, though unprovided with the mark of length, will 

 be always understood as denoting the long vowel (pseudo-diphthong) 

 corresponding to the short e; while e will be employed, wherever 

 necessary, for the long vowel without the parasitic -^. The close e, 

 as in German reh, does not seem to occur in Takelma, although it 

 was sometimes heard for i; in the words IdHe^ he became, IdHet'am 

 YOU became, and other related forms, e was generally heard, and may 

 be justified, though there can be small doubt that it is morphologically 

 identical with the P' of certain other verbs. 



The -i is of about the same quality as in English hit, while the 

 long ^* is closer, corresponding to the ea of English beat. Several 

 monosyllables, however, in -i, such as gwi where, di interrogative 

 particle, should be pronounced with a close though short vowel (cf. 

 French fini) . This closer pronunciation of the short vowel may be 

 explained by supposing that gwi, di, and other such words are rapid 

 pronunciations of gw%\ dP, and the others; and indeed the texts 

 sometimes show such longer forms. 



iTheword yeive' i' hf, returned, e. g., was long heard as 2/awe'i£, but such forms as y^« return I show 

 this to have been an auditory error. 



§ 4 



