PHONOLOGY. 209 



The series of diphthongs is as follows: 

 ui, oi, ai, ei ; in writing they often appear as uy, oy, ay, ey. 

 iu, io, ia, ie ; appear more frequently as yu, yo, ya, ye. 

 au or aw, eu or ew; ou coincides with au, aw. 

 uo, ui, ua, ue; appear more fi'equently as wo, wi, wa, we. 

 ai (in stai'la, sta'-ila to collect). 

 iii (in tchiiitchuili sorrel). 



Triphthongs are not frequent, since Klamath has a greater tendency to 

 accumulate consonants than vowels. Ex.: shuiu;^a to drive out of, shuc ush 

 angling line, weweshaltko having offspring, g^wa, t;f^waga, tchuyunk, aggaya, 

 tchuaish, waita, etc. Some of these terms contain adulterine groups which 

 cr.nnot properly be called triphthongs. 



CONSONANTS. 



Consonants are divided in two classes: checks, or mute, explosive 

 consonants ; and breaths, semivowels or fricative consonants. 



MUTE CONSONANTS. 



Their full list is as follows: 



Gutturals: k, g, % Dentals: t, d 



Palatals: tch, dsh Labials: p, b 



Linguals: k, g 



Here the surd sounds are placed first; follow tlie sonant checks or 

 ^^medice" mutes, then the aspirate class, represented by one sound only (/). 

 The surd checks or ''tenues" are equal in number, though more used than 

 the sonant checks. As for the series of the aspirates, the two dental aspi- 

 rates of English (Anglo-Saxon |j and d) and the labial aspirate f are want- 

 ing here, and are rather scarce also in the other American languages.* 



The two lingual sounds are k and g. The former is produced by 

 resting the tip of the tongue against the middle or fore palate, by bending 

 it either back or forward when in that position and then trying to pronounce 

 k; g is brought forth in the same maimer, though the tongue has to be placed 

 less firmly against the palate in order to let pass more breath. Both sounds 



" Tit surd occurs in Shawano, in some western dialects of Yuma (Mohave, etc.), and iu Tehna 

 dialects, New Mexico. 

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