S8 



BtrREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY 



§ 16. FINAL COMBINATIONS 



[BOLL. 40 



Final consonant combinations are limited in possibility of occur-" 

 rence by the fact that only aspirated tenues and voiceless spirants 

 ip\ f, Y, ¥^, s, and x) can stand as absolute finals after other con- 

 sonants. The following table will give examples of all final combi- 

 nations of two or three consonants that have been discovered in the 

 available material. 



No examples of -raV'^ and -wpx have been found, but the analogy 

 of -Ijpx makes the existence of the latter of these almost certain (Z and 

 n are tliroughout parallel in treatment) ; the former (because of the 

 double labial; cf. the absence of -mp') is much less probable, despite 

 the analogy of -ZA;'"' and -n¥'^. It is possible also that -IsV, -msY, 

 and -nsY exist, though their occurrence can hardly be frequent. Of 

 final clusters of four consonants -nfp'Y has been found in s'a^s'anfp^Y 

 HE STOOD, but there can be small doubt that the -t- is merely a dental 

 tenuis glide inserted in passmg from the dental nasal to the labial 

 tenuis; compare the morphologically analogous form se'nsanpV he 

 WHOOPED. However, the combinations -IpxV and -npxY (if -wpx 

 exists), though not found in the available material, very probably 

 ought to be listed, as they would naturally be the terminations of 

 morphologically necessary forms (cf. des'lpxY). Most, if not all, of 



§ 16 



