BOAS] HANDBOOK OF IlSTDIAlSr LANGUAGES TAKELMA 28S 



Of the more special grammatical characteristics, some of which are 

 nearly unparalleled in those languages of North America that have 

 been adequately studied, are: a system of pitch-accent of fairly con- 

 siderable, though probably etymologically secondary, formal sig- 

 nificance; a strong tendency in the verb, noun, adjective, and adverb 

 toward the formation of dissyllabic stems with repeated vowel (e. g., 

 aorist stem yowo- be; verb-stem lolio- die; noun moxo^ buzzard; 

 adjective hos-o^ [plural] getting big; adverb olo^m formerly); a 

 very considerable use of end reduplication, initial reduplication being 

 entirely absent ; the employment of consonant and vowel changes as a 

 grammatical process; the use in verbs, nouns, and adjectives of pre- 

 fixed elements, identical with body-part noun stems, that have refer- 

 ence now to parts of the body, now to purely local relations; the 

 complicated and often irregular modifications of a verbal base for 

 the formation of the most generalized tense, the aorist; the great 

 differentiation of pronominal schemes according to syntactic rela- 

 tion, class of verb or noun, and tense-mode, despite the comparatively 

 small number of persons (only five — two singular, two plural, and 

 one indifferent) ; the entire lack in the noun and pronoun of cases 

 (the subjective and objective are made unnecessary by the pronominal 

 and nominal incorporation characteristic of the verb; the possessive, 

 by the formal use of possessive pronoun affixes; and the local cases, 

 by the extended use of pre-positives and postpositions) ; the existence 

 in the noun of characteristic suffixes that appear only with pre- 

 positives and possessive affixes ; the fair amount of distinctness that 

 the adjective possesses as contrasted with both verb and noun; the 

 use of a decimal system of numeration, tertiary or quinary in origin ; 

 and a rather efficient though simple syntactic apparatus of subordi- 

 nating elements and well-modulated enclitic particles. Altogether 

 Takelma has a great deal that is distinct and apparently even isolated 

 about it. Though typical in its most fundamental features, it may, 

 when more is known of American languages as a whole, have to 

 be considered a very specialized type. 



§ 116 



