400 GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LANGUAGE. 



peculiar laws governing this language and its idiomatic features. Connois- 

 seurs will readily acknowledge that for certain forms in American languages, 

 especially the verbals, it is exceedingly difficult to invent new terms satis- 

 factory in every respect. The best method would be to establish terms 

 taken from the language itself 



The noun-verb, which I call verb for the sake of brevity, has the most 

 varied inflection of all the parts of Klamatli speech, combining nominal 

 with verbal forms. A sketch of the verb will, therefore, most appropriately 

 stand at the head of the inflectional section of Klamath morphology. 



THE VERB. 



Structure of the verb. 



The verb is a word of the language which predicatively announces an 

 act performed or a state or condition undergone by its subject. It is com- 

 posed of a basis or stem, and of one or several affixes. The naked basis by 

 itself possesses no distinct nominal or verbal character; the affixes gener- 

 ally determine its quality as noun or verb in the sentence. Bases or stems 

 are composed of a radical syllable and of affixes, mainly of a pronominal 

 oriffin, which are intended to form derivatives from the radix. The final 

 syllable or syllables of the verb are made up of inflectional affixes. The 

 radix and its qualities and changes are described at length on page 247 sq. 

 Examples of the mode of connecting affixes with the radix are given under 

 each of the pi-efixes and suffixes, and also page 280 sq. 



Some verbs, formed without any suffix of derivation, will be found 

 under suffix -a; the larger part of them show thematic roots. 



In Klamath, no formal or phonetic distinction is made between the in- 

 flection of transitive and of intransitive verbs. Not only is the passive voice 

 like the active, but in the noun the direct object has the same suffix as the 

 indirect object, viz., -ash. 



The root, connected with its affixes of derivation, constitutes the simple 

 form of the verb; to this are appended the inflectional suffixes to form 

 tenses, modes, verbals, etc. The simple form of the verb terminates more 

 frequently in consonants than in vowels. The enormous majority of all 



