21() GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LANGUAGE. 



Shasti, Snake, and Modoc tunes printed in Texts, pp. 195. 196, are fair 

 specimens of" a thoroughly hu yngeal substratum to Indian song-music. 



2. Interchangeability or alternation of the sounds pronounced with the 

 same vocal organ is naturally favored by the pectoral-laryngeal pronunci- 

 ation, and is observed as well among vowels as among consonants. (Jf. 

 Alternation of Sounds. 



3. Diaeresis of vocalic sounds into two vowels forming or being parts 

 of different syllables; the frequent insertion of the laryngeal h, aud of the 

 "arrested sound," between these two vowels, and between a consonant 

 and a vowel;* the prothetic h- figuring as initial in certain terms; the 

 existence of the "explosive" mute consonants, as p', t'. A curious parallel 

 to this inserted h is found in Pit River and Northern California generally; 

 the natives often interrupt their speech by inserting, often in the midst of 

 words, a sigh or melancholic-sounding breathing, seemingly produced by 

 inspiration of air. In Tuscarora I heard the inserted h distinctly accom- 

 panied by the same noise. Examples from Klamath: j ain Aga and yaina- 

 Aga; Sa't «HfZ Sha-at; gua, gu-ua, guhua; sh^lam, sha'hlam; sko'sh, sko"hsh; 

 kl41a, khilha; l^yash, l^hiash; wdlta, huulta; lA-a, hla-a; ibena, hipdna. 



4. The arrested sound, or "sound-cat(;hing," consists in a sudden inter- 

 ruption of the voice while speaking, and leaves the impression of a mo- 

 mentaneous deficiency in breath. It is heard in the commencement, 

 midst, and end of words, and after mute consonants only. It is always 

 heard after the Unguals (which in the Modoc dialect sometimes disappear 

 before it), and frequently after t and p; it always follows the explosive 

 t' and p', well known through gi-ammars of Central American languages. 

 Dr. Wash. Matthews describes in his manuscript Modoc vocabulary his 

 "marked t" as being uttered like English t with an extra pressure of the 

 tip of the tongue against the gums or teeth, and mentions the following 

 terms in which he distinguished it after the initial t : tdpak, t61alui, tulish, 

 t'si'n, tsuleks. This t is therefore an alveolar sound. The Indians of many 

 western tribes often apply the arrested sound when vocabularies are taken, 

 and Aztec grammars describe it as the saltillo accent, marking the syllables, 

 where it is heard, with the gravis accent : ^. This curious peculiarity 



' This epenthetic use made of h shoiili) not be confounded with the aflSx 'h by hand. Cf. below. 



