500 GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LANGUAGE. 



litchlitchli powerful and power, strength. 

 nkfllitko powerful, strong and power, strength. 



It appears from what precedes that wherever abstract terms are ren- 

 dered in substantive form, as nomina actionis, they are formed by the ending 

 -sh, -s; when rendered in adjectival form, either by the terminals -li, -tko, 

 or by -ptchi and its abbreviations. 



2. Concrete substantives. 



GrENERic NOUNS, Or nomtna appellativa, is the name given to substantives 

 comprehending all the species or kinds of one class or family of animate 

 or inanimate objects. In regard to their origin, we can establish two sorts 

 of generic nouns: One class, generally traceable to a verbal origin, became 

 restricted from a more comprehensive to a more specific meaning, like 

 English bird, which originally meant brood, the young of any animal; the 

 second class includes terms which formerly stood for certain definite objects 

 or natural species, but afterward advanced to a wider signification, like 

 English butterfly. In Klamath, nouns of this second class are more frequent. 



hishuaksh, in Mod. hishuatch;(ash husband, then male, man; originally 



"one who associates, consorts with." 

 Iwam berrg, juice-berry ; originally "whortleberry." 

 htchiik marine Sind fresh-water shell ; originally "mother-of-pearl shell." 

 stina'sh lodge, house ; originally lodge made of bent willow-rods, which 



signification it retains in the northern dialect, 

 w^mgnaksh snake in Kl., really applies only to the black spotted snake, 



the most frequent snake-species in certain localities, 

 wel^kash female, woman in Mod.; originally "old woman." 

 wishink, often used in Kl. for snake; real signification "garter-snake." 



It is a consequence of the specifying tendency of the Klamath language 

 that many generic terms occurring in European languages find no equiva- 

 lents in it. There is, e. g., no generic term for fox, squirrel, butterfly, and 

 frog, but each species has its own name. For bird a distinction is made 

 between forest-birds, tchfkass, and aquatic birds, mil'makli, which are called 

 after their color mixed from blue and gray; but kia'm is a truly generic 



