218 GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LAN(5UA(iE. 



intervals with ('(iiisoiKiiits pronounced with anotlier. Wo also expect that 

 consonants (Id not crowd upon each other in dense clusters, but that they 

 be supjxtrted, upheld, and separated by the true vocal element of the 

 human voice, the simple and compound vowels, and we deprecati' the 

 presence of croaking, clicking, or whining sounds or sound-clusters. 



Americans may be prejudiced in calling such vocalic languages as 

 Italian, Odshibwe, Tarasco, Arawak harmonious in preference to conso- 

 nantic ones. For if a tongue replete with consonantic clusters groups its 

 component sounds in such a manner as not to offend the ear by too abrupt 

 transitions and freaks, and subordinates them closely to the vowels or diph- 

 thongs as is done in Russian, Creek, Aztec, Kechhua, and in numei'ous 

 other languages, Ave have no palpable reason to deny to these the predi- 

 cate harmonious. A large portion of the Indian languages spoken within 

 the United States answers to this description, and one of their number is 

 the Klamath of Southwestern Oregon. 



Considering all the various elisions, diaereses, syncopes, and apocopes 

 subsequently occurring, the syllables of this language were originally built 

 up on the following fundamental types: 



1. Vocalic sound onl}" (vowel or diphthong). 



2. Vocalic sound preceded by one or several consonants. 



'i. Vocalic sound preceded or not preceded by one or several conso- 

 nants, but followed by one consonant only. 



These items typifj^ only the present state of the language, and refer 

 in no manner to the structure of its radical syllables. Phonetic processes 

 have altered the primitive aspect of this and all other tongues considerably, 

 and many sound-groups now make up one syllable which previously formed 

 two or three of them. In some words vowels largely preponderate, as in 

 lewe-uola, le-u-e-u-61a to cease to prohibit, yayaya-as bewitching power; 

 while in most others consonants exceed in luimber the vocalic elements, 

 excessive groups occurring in ldigl;ja to kneel down, shleshltcha to go visiting, 

 shtchushtch%apksh, d. obj. case of shtchu'katko one-cged. 



Gemination of simple vocalic or consonantic sounds frequently occurs, 

 and with vowels it is produced through a sort of emphasis or the distributive 

 reduplication (anku tree, d. d-anku), with consonants through the prece- 



