B0A3] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES CHUKOHEE 647 



vowels. A polysyllabic stem which contains a single strong vowe 

 must have all its vowels strong. 

 Examples of such compositions are — 



Weak vowels or weak vowel and neutral vowel: 



piJn-rkioi he takes o^a^Va-^'y^'r/^7^^ the weather grows 



ttn-teM! thin good meat warm 



mei' ni-ti' mkitim great pj^^'pj snowstorm 



hummock 145.1 nu'nun blade of knife 



iul-u'ttuut long wood 

 Ablaut of weak vowel and strong vowel: 



2>^r^yQ {ivoni pi7%-yg) taken 



p^na'ipu (from jt>J7le-|j9M) from a snowstorm 



nmoipu (from nu'nu-ipu) from the blade of knife 



aqain^nma (from aqdinit-mg) while the weather is growing 



warm 

 aivkwa' tingle (from ewkwet-ng) at the beginning of leaving 

 eu'lu-wa'lg,t (from iul-vgla) long knives 15.2 

 tan-inaini-m'e' mil good, big seal 

 giL^-aqa'n-qgr greedy^ right-hand driving-reindeer 



There are a number of words with neutral, probably auxiliary 

 vowels (see § 8), which produce the ablaut, as tim to kill; and 

 quite a number of suffixes of the same phonetic character that have 

 the same effect. In these cases it is therefore conceivable either that 

 a strong vowel has been lost or that the phonetic effect is primarily 

 due to other reasons. I give here a list of strong stems of this 

 character: ^ 



im rising of water wu7'g dwarf birch 



ifi glue wukw stone 68.36 



iprifi first dawn pitv doubled 



yip to put on 37.8 pM {-infill) news 78.4 



yit {-gti) to get pilil ripples, to bubble 41.1 



yin fire pilvint iron, metal 



yinf steep bank pihn darkness produced by a 



yikirg mouth 18.12 storm 



yiggi bountiful pilhirr flat, flattened 84.25 



wixi leaf pug float of sealskin 



wulh thin, with short hair J>ugl large, round, wooden 



102.12 bowl 



vmlhip to fling ming hand 



wur branching mil nimble 



' Greedy for urine given in a small vessel. See W. Bogoras, The Chukchee (The Jesup North 

 Pacific Expedition, vii, 85). 

 « Forms preceded by a hyphen are those in which stems appear when in medial position (see § 12) 



§3 



