BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 39 



the preceding final combinations may furthermore be complicated by 

 the addition of ^, which is inserted before the first tenuis or voiceless 

 spirant- of the group, i. e., after a possible liquid or nasal: 



vf^^S'V he laughed 

 Vo'^px dust, ashes. 

 ts'.'u'n^s (deerskin) cap 



As compared to the initial combinations, the table of final clusters 

 seems to present a larger number of possibilities. It is significant, 

 however, that only those that consist of I, m, or n + single consonant 

 can ever be looked upon as integral portions of the stem (such as 

 xa^mV and t'gwe^W'^)] while those that end in -s can always be sus- 

 pected of containing either the verbal sufiix -s { = t-{-x), or the noun 

 and adjective forming element -s. All other combinations are the 

 result of the addition of one or more grammatical elements to the 

 stem (e. g., s' u'^alp'V = s'u^al- + p' + ¥) . Further investigation shows 

 that only two of the combinations, -fp' (second personal plural sub- 

 ject aorist) and -fV (first personal singular possessive) are suffixal 

 units; though -fp' might be ultimately analyzed into -t' (second per- 

 sonal singular subject aorist) + -p\ It is interesting to note that 

 these clusters are at the same time the only ones, except t'gw-, allowed 

 initially, fh- and fg-. The constitution of the Takelma word-stem 

 may thus be formulated as 



tenuis (or voiceless spirant) + media (or voiced continuant) + 

 vowel (or diphthong) + liquid or nasal + stop (fortis or 

 media — tenuis) , 



any or all of the members of which skeleton may be absent except 

 the vowel; Ji m.Siy also be found before the vowel. 



§ 17. MEDIAL COMBINATIONS 



A medial combination consists simpl}^ of a syllabically final com- 

 bination or single consonant + an initial combination or single con- 

 sonant, so that theoretically a very large number of such medial 

 combinations may occur. Quite a large number do indeed occur, 

 yet there is no morphologic opportimity for many of them, such as 

 V-l, np'-TTi, and numerous others. Examples of medial combinations 

 are: 



t!omoma'n-ma^ when he was killed 



MlV-na^ when he sang 



dak'-fgu'^ha^nl ^uthoWowed object (like hat) on top (as on head) 



§ 17 



