BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 17 



e of HE corresponding in pitch to the unaccented e- vowels of the 

 Takelma, the i of did resembling in its rise above the normal pitch 

 the a' , and the o of go sinking like the i of the interrogative particle.* 

 If the normal level of speech be set at A, the two forms just considered 

 may be musically, naturally with very greatly exaggerated tonal 

 effect, represented as follows: 







he- le- la>t' he- le- la'- t'i- di 



The "rising" pitch (i==!) is found only on long vowels and short or 

 long diphthongs. The rising pitch is for a long vowel or diphthong 

 what the raised pitch is for a short vowel or shortened diphthong; 

 the essential difference between the two being that in the latter case 

 the accented vowel is sung on a single tone reached without an inter- 

 mediate slur from the lower level, whereas in the case of the rising 

 pitch the affected vowel or diphthong changes in pitch in the course 

 of pronunciation; the first part of the long vowel and the first vowel 

 of the diphthong are sung on a tone intermediate between the normal 

 level and the raised pitch, while the parasitic element of the long 

 vowel and the second vowel {i or u) of the diphthong are hit by the 

 raised tone itself. It is easy to understand that in rapid pronuncia- 

 tion the intermediate tone of the first part of the long vowel or diph- 

 thong would be hurried over and sometunes dropped altogether ; this 

 means that a long vowel or diphthong with rising pitch {a, al) becomes 

 a short vowel or shortened diphthong with raised pitch (a\ aH)."^ 

 Diphthongs consisting of a short vowel + Z, m, or n, and provided 

 with a rising pitch, ought, in strict analogy, to appear as an, al, am; 

 and so on for the other vowels. This is doubtless the correct repre- 

 sentation, and such forms as : 



nafiV he will say, do 



gwalf wind 



dasmayam he smiled 



wulx enemy, Shasta 

 were actually heard, the liquid or nasal being distinctly higher in 

 pitch than the preceding vowel. In the majority of cases, however, 



1 It is curious that the effect to our ears of the Takelma declarative helela'f is of an interrogative did you 

 SING? while conversely the effect of an interrogative helela't'idi is that of a declarative you did sing. 

 This is entirely accidental in so far as a rise in pitch has nothing to do in TaljeLma with an interrogation. 



'A vowel marked with the accent =^ is necessarily long, so that the mark of length and the parasitic 

 vowel can be conveniently omitted. 



3045°— Bull. 40, pt 2—12 2 § 5 



