BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES — TAKELMA 41 



ga-iwa'fha^ ye shall eat it; gayawaYp' ye ate it 

 di'n^xga^ I (as long object) was stretching out ; di'n^xk' long object 

 was stretching 



Consonant Processes (§§ 18-24) 



§ 18. DROPPING OF FINAL CONSONANTS 



There is a good deal to indicate that the comparatively limited 

 number of possible final consonant-clusters is not a primary condi- 

 tion, but has been brought about by the dropping of a number of 

 consonants that originally stood at the end. 



1. The most important case is the loss of every final -f that stood 

 after a voiceless spirant or aspirated surd. Its former presence in 

 such words can be safely inferred, either from morphologically par- 

 allel forms, or from other forms of the same stem where the phonetic 

 conditions were such as to preserve the dental. Thus gwidW"^ he 

 THREW IT represents an older reduplicated ^gwidi^V'^f ( = gwid-i-gwd-) , 

 as proven by the corresponding form for the first person, gwidi'F'^da^n 

 I THREW IT and gwidi'¥dagwa he threw him (122.13). Similarly 

 all participles showing the bare verb stem are found to be phonet- 

 ically such as not to permit of a final -f, and are therefore historic- 

 ally identical with the other participial forms that show the -f : 



sdV shooting ( = ^^sak'f) 

 dox gathering ( = *ddxf) 

 ha-t!ul¥ following in path {^HluWt'^) 

 sana'p' fighting ( = *sana^p'^') 

 Compare : 



yanaY going 

 lohoY dead 

 sebe'i roasting 

 domf having killed 

 se'nsanf whooping 

 yi'lf copulating with 



The combinations -k^H^V {-Y^Vg-) and -V^fx-, however, seem to 

 lose, not the -f-, but the -V"'-, whereupon -fV (-fg-) remains, while 

 -fx- regularly becomes -s- (see § 20, 2) : 



Tie^^gwidaYV ( =*gwida'^V^f-¥ , inferential of ^mt^t^'"'^-) he lostit 

 he^^gwida't'ga^ {=*gwida'¥n"-ga') I lost it 

 xamgwidi' sgwide^ (=*gvndi'Tc'H'-x-gvn- or possibly *gwidi'Y^V- 

 gwi-) I drown myself 



§ 18 



