248 GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LANGUAGE. 



syllables; in Klamath monosyllabism is the only form in which radicals 

 exist, just as in the literary languages of Europe, although some Klamath 

 tern^s seemingly attest a dissyllabic origin. 



With a few onomatopoetic exceptions, the roots are no longer trace- 

 able to their origin ; hence we do not know why such or such sound-groups 

 have been conventionally assigned certain functions in the different lan- 

 guages of the world. Grammatic affixes are roots also, whether they be 

 still recognizable as such or be ground down from syllables to single sounds, 

 mostly consonantic, and mere fragments of what they had been once. 

 When used as signs of relation, they belong to the class of pronominal 

 roots and are recognized as such with less difficulty in agglutinative than 

 in inflectional languajjes. 



The roots are the microcosmic cells from which the macrocosmos of 

 language is built up; for it results from the above that all elements in lan- 

 guage are either radical syllables or fragments of such. Formation and 

 quality of sounds are no secrets to us, but how and why they came to be 

 selected for their present functions in each linguistic family is beyond our 

 conception. The cause why linguistic families differ among themselves in 

 grammar and dictionary is the disagreeing of their pronominal and notative 

 roots. 



Root-inflection or regular alteration of the root- vowel to indicate change 

 of relation is most prominent in the Semitic languages and also in the 

 Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. In America only traces 

 of this "Ablaut" are discovered in a few languages, and what could be 

 considered analogous to, or resembling it, will be discussed under "Phonetic 

 alteration of the root." See pp. 253 et sqq. 



1. PHONETIC STRUCTURE OF THE ROOT. 



Three fundamental forms are traceable in the elementary composition 

 of the Klamath radix; it consists — 



Of one vowel : 



a in dna to carry off. 



i in fka to extract, ita to put on, I'wa to he full. 



u in uya to give, w<i to he seated, we'k arm, limh, litish long-shaped fruit 

 (of. lutish round-shaped fruit). 



