KADICALS HELD IN COMMON. xlvii 



RADICALS WHICH KLAMATH HOLDS IN COMMON WITH OTHER 



FAMILIES. 



A number of radical syllables occur in the same or in cognate signi- 

 fications in several linguistic families of the Northwest, and some of. them 

 extend even to the stocks east of the Rock}- Mountains and of the Missis- 

 sippi River. This fact is of great significance, as it proves certain early 

 connections between these Indians, either loose or intimate. If the number 

 of such common radices should be increased considerably by further re- ' 

 search, the present attempt of classifying Pacific languages into stocks 

 would become subject to serious doubts. From the quotations below I have 

 carefully excluded all roots (and other terms) of onomatopoetic origin. 1 

 have made no distinction between pronominal and predicative roots, for a 

 radical syllable used i)redicatively in one stock may have a pronominal 

 function in another famil}- 



-illl, -f'lii, -<(i», -m frequently occurs as a suffix for the possessive case 

 in the Pacific coast languages. Thus in Klamath -am is the usual suftix of 

 that case, -lam being found after some vowels only; cf Grammar, pages 

 .■517 et se(i., and suffix -m, page 355; also pages 474-47fi. On page 475 I 

 have called attention to the fact that -am occurs as marking the possessive 

 case in the Pit River language; itoshexf^m yanim deer' s foot-prhds ; -am, -im 

 in Molale: pshkainshim, possessive of pshkainsh heard. The Sahaptin dia- 

 lects use -nmi, -mi, etc., to designate tins case. 



ka occurs in many languages as a demonstrative radix, though it often 

 assumes an interrogative and relative signification and changes its vocaliza- 

 tion. In Apache-Tinne dialects it is interrogative: yjiie ivhof in Navajo; 

 in the Creek ka is the relative particle, a substitute for our relative pronoun 

 who. In Yuki kau is this and tJiere; in Yokat (Califoi'nia) ka- occurs in 

 kahama fJiis, kawio here, 3?okau flicrr. East of Mississippi River we have it 

 in Iroquois dialects: ke'" in kf''"t'ho here (t'lio plare); in Tuskarora: kyii' 

 that or this one (pointing at it), kyii' nii" this one ; t'lio i-kiin that one is* In 

 the Klamath of Oregon this root composes kank so much, kani somebody, 



• My authoiity for quotations from Iroquois dialects is Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, of tie 

 Tuskarora tribe. 



