10 DAKOTA GRAM MAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
yuha, to have, twhapi, we have; ytza, to hold, tuzapi, we hold. Yiiza also 
becomes oze, which may be oytize contracted; as, Makatooze, the Blue 
. b b] 
Earth River, lit. where the blue earth is taken; oze Siéa, bad to catch. 
CONTRACTION. 
§ 11. 1. Contractions take place in some nouns when combined with 
a following noun, and in some verbs when they occupy the position of the 
infinitive or participle. The contraction consists in dropping the vowel of 
the final syllable and changing the preceding consonant usually into its 
corresponding sonant, or vice versd, which then belongs to the syllable that 
precedes it; as yus from yuza, to hold; tom trom topa, four. The follow- 
ing changes occur: 
z into 8; as, yuza, to hold any thing; yus nazin, to stand holding. 
z into §; as kakiza, to suffer; kaki$ waun, I am suffering. 
& into h; as, maga, a field, and maga, a goose, are contracted into mah. 
k into g; as, wanyaka, to see any thing, is contracted into wanyag. 
p into m; as, topa, /ow", is contracted into tom; watopa, to paddle or 
row a boat, is contracted into watom. 
t into d; as, odota, the reduplicated form of ota, many, much. 
t into g; as, bozagzata, the reduplicated form of bozata, to make forked 
by punching. 
é, t, and y, into n; as, waniéa, none, becomes wanin; yuta, to eat any 
thing, becomes yun; kuya, below, becomes kun. 
2. The article ‘kin’ is sometimes contracted into ‘g;’ as, oyate kin, the 
people, contracted into oyateg. 
at Gay te, the heart, is contracted into Gan; as, Ganwaste, glad (Gante and 
waste, heart-good). 
4. When a syllable ending in a nasal (7) has added to it ‘m’ or ‘n, 
the contracted form of the syllable that sueceeded, the nasal sound is lost 
in the ‘m’ or ‘n,’ and is consequently dropped; as, Gaynunpa, to smoke a 
’ 
pipe, Gaynum mani, he smokes as he walks; kakinéa, to scrape, kakin iyeya. 
Contracted words may generally be known by their termination. 
When contraction has not taken place, the rule is that every syllable ends 
with either a pure or nasalized vowel. See § 3. 
