BOAS] 



HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 



179 



before the personal endings, so that a loss of the final consonant 

 (-Z-, -m^, -n-, -W-) takes place in third personal objective forms before 

 a consonantal personal ending. Such verbs are: 



heme'ha^n I mocked him ( = 



-ham^n) 

 Imi'Tia^n I sent him ( = -am^n) 

 gel-hewe'ha^n ^ I think ( = -au^n) 

 gel-hewe'haf you think 

 fta-i-di^-sgimi' sga^n ^ I set them 



in ground ( = -am^n) 

 ha-^al-mo'lo^rrmfn I turned them 



over { = -al^n) 

 hd-^al-mo'Vman I shall turn 



them over ( = -aln) 

 saf^nsa'^n I fight him ( = -an^n) 



Tieme'Tiam he mocked him 



24.4, 5, 8; 182.6, 7 

 imi'hamsin I was sent (43.2) 

 gel-hewe'hau he thought 44.11 ; 



142.20 

 'p!a-i-di^-sgimi' sgam he set 



them in ground 

 hd-^al-mo'lo^mal he turned 



them over (170.16) 



( = -an^n) 



I count them 



sa/^nsa'n he fights him (28.10) 



(but also sans, see § 40, 10b) 



da-md''nmini'^n I count them 



up (156.14) (but also mdn = 



*mdnm he counted them 



78.8; 100.8) 



How explain the genesis of these two sets of contract verb forms, 



and how explain the existence of doublets Hke mo'lo^ma^n and mo'- 



lo^mala^n, mo'lo^mat' and mo'lo^malaf , oyo^n and oyona'^n, sd'^nsa^n 



and sdnsf The most plausible explanation that can be offered is 



that originally the personal endings were added directly to the stem 



and that later a connecting -a- developed whenever the preceding 



consonant or the personal ending was not of a character to form a 



diphthong. Hence the original paradigms may have been : 



First person 



Second person 



Third person 



which were then leveled out to : 



because of the analogy of a vast number of verbs with connecting 

 -a- in both first and second persons, e, g., tslayaga'^n, tsIayagaY. 

 Forms like mo'lo^maC, sd°^nsaH\ would arise from leveling to the first 



'This verb is transitive only in form, intransitive in meaning. The tnie transitive (think of) employs 

 the full stem hewehaw- with connective -i- for third personal object, and -s- for other oh]eets: gel-hewe'hiwi^n 

 I THINK OF him; gel-hewe'hausdam you think of me. 



2 The form sgimi'sga^n is interesting as a test ease of these contract verb forms. The stem must be 

 sgimisgam-: it can not be sgimisg-, as sg- could hardly l)e treated as a repeated initial consonant. No cases 

 are known of initial consonant clusters treated as phonetic tuoits. 



§ 65 



