24 BTJBEAU OF AMERICAlsr ETHNOLOGY ' [bull. 40 



It goes without saying that the catch separates elements ending in 

 Z, m, or n from such as begin with a vowel : 



s'inHlatsIagi'^n I touch his nose 

 alHVhaga't'haY he struck them 



§ 7. DISSIMILATION OF u 



A diphthong in u tends, by an easily understood dissimilatory 

 process, to drop the u before a labial suffix {-gw-, -p\ -ba^). Thus 

 we have : 



wahawaxl^gwa'^n I rot with it, for *xiugwa'^n 

 Compare : 



hawaxi'^^ he rots 

 wahawaxiwigwa'n I shall rot with it 



Similarly : 



hillV^ he jumped having it, for ^hiliuV^ (stem hiliu-) 

 wiliV^ he proceeded with it, for *wiliu¥^ (stem wiliu-) 



Observe that, while the diphthong iu is monophthongized, the orig- 

 inal quantity is kept, i being compensatively lengthened to IK In the 

 various forms of the verb yeu- return, such dissimilation, wherever 

 possible, regularly takes place: 



yeV'' he returned with it, for ^ye'tiY'^{ = yeU- gw- V) 

 me^yep come back! (pi.), but sing. mehjeU 

 ye^ha'^ let us return! for *yeuba'^ 



It is interesting to note how this u- dissimilation is directly respon- 

 sible for a number of homonyms : 



yeJc''^ bite him! 

 (al)ye'p'^ show it to him! 



A similar dissimilation of an -u- after a long vowel has in all proba- 

 bility taken place in the reduplicating verb IdHiwi'^n i call him by 

 NAME (le^la'usi he calls me by name) from * lauliwi'^n (* Uula'usi) . 



§ 8. I- UMLAUT 



Probably the most far-reaching phonetic law touching the Takelma 

 vowels is an assimilatory process that can be appropriately termed 

 "i- umlaut." Briefly stated, the process is a regressive assimilation 

 of a non-radical -a- to an -i-, caused by an -i- (-1^-) in an immediately 

 following suffixed syllable, whether the -i- causing the umlaut is an 

 original -i-, or itself umlauted from an original -a-; the -i- of the 

 §§ 7-8 



