326 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 40 



xplye'etc qalnuwdnl'ioe backwards she commenced to pull them 



(literally, in the manner of going home {pl'^^pl he goes home]) 



80.8, 9 

 in xd'yuwltc aftsa a small amount she gave her (literally, not in 



the manner of enough [a'yu sure enough]) 64.21 

 na'iotts liEx tl^d'tc I finished shoving (literally, I finished in the 



manner of . . .) 



This prefix is used frequently to express the idea of instrumen- 

 tality. The noun is then usually followed by the adverbial suffix 

 -Etc (see § 70). The idea of instrumentality is here so closely inter- 

 woven with that of modality, that the instrumental use of a modal 

 prefix is very natural. 



h.'viint xnd'laqEtc he shot at him with an arrow (literally, he shot 



at him in the manner of an arrow) 22.16 

 pad' hit JiE Lo'jyit xqa'lyeqEtc full (was) the basket with salmon 36.1 

 Iex t^na'hEtc L.'afts with the thunder language he spoke 18.9 

 xmlh'e'Etc towUinl'ye by means of a basket he was dropped down 



28.9,10 



Suffixes (§§ 25-80) 



§ 25. General Mernarks 



The number of suffixes in Coos is quite small when contrasted with 

 the numerous suffixes found in some of the neighboring languages. 

 This number appears even smaller when we take into consideration 

 the compound suffixes that consist of two, and in some cases of three, 

 independent suffixes. A still more sweeping reduction may be obtained 

 through an etymological comparison between the different suffixes. 

 There can be little doubt that if the language, in its present status, 

 would lend itself to an etymological analysis, many suffixes, appar- 

 ently different in character and even in form, could be shown to 

 be derived from one common base. Thus it is safe to say that the 

 suffix -t primarily had a general verbal character, and that all the 

 other suffixes ending in -t are derived from this original form. This 

 assertion is substantiated by the fact that the present transitive suffix 

 -ts is added to a number of stems that have already been verbalized by 

 the general verbal -t suffix, and that the causative passive suffix -et is 

 always preceded by the transitive -t or -ts (see § 26). 



In the same manner it may be said that -s was the general suffix 

 indicating nouns, and that all nominal suffixes ending in -s eventually 

 go back to this nominal suffix. 



§25 



