6N THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OP CANADA. 



497 



syllable signifies ' hair,' but with the accent on the final syllable, sa sk-umai', it means 

 ' dog.' It seems impossible to lay down any general rule for the position of the 

 accent. In words of two syllables the accent is perhaps oftener placed upon the 

 former than upon the latter syllable ; but the exceptions to this usage are so many 

 tliat it hardly constitutes a rule. Speaking generally, the place of the accent may be 

 said to depend upon the composition of the word. If the word be composed of 

 different radicals having special or independent signification, then the accent will be 

 found on the most important element or radical in the synthesis ; as stlEntlanaio'tl = 

 girls, where the accented syllable signifies 'youth,' the idea to be brought out in the 

 compound. If we want to say ' women ' instead of ' girls ' this final syllable is 

 wanting, and the accent falls on the second syllable ; as stlEntla'nai. But there 

 are many exceptions to this rule also, for in the compounds sua-tci'ca = step-mother 

 and sua-ma'n = step-father we have the accent on 'mother' and 'father' respectively, 

 and not, as by the rule we should expect to find it, on the first syllable siia- = step, as 

 in English. An analysis of the 550 words, more or less, of my vocabulary of the 

 Sk-qo'mlc seems to show also that syllables containing a long vowel oftener take the 

 accent than syllables containing a short vowel ; but whether this is a mere coincidence 

 or due to the superior importance of the syllable in question I am unable to 

 determine. 



Tone. 



In monosyllabic terms a tonic accent is at times plainly discernible. It resembles 

 one of the rising tones in Chinese. Father Morice has pointed out the same 

 peculiaritj' in several of the dialects of the Dene. There, however, the function of 

 tone is the same as in Chinese and marks a difference of meaning in words of the 

 same form and sound ; but in Skqo'mic this is not so. What purpose this tonic 

 accent subserves in the Sk-qO'mic dialect is not at present clear to me. 



NUMBER. 



The Sk'q6mic contains no true plural : its place is supplied by a distributive formed 

 as in N'tlaka'pamuQ by amplification of the stem, either by reduplication, epenthesis, 

 or diaeresis. Reduplication in the Skqo'mic is not so strong a feature as in 

 N'tlaka'pamuQ, epenthesis and diseresis occurring oftener. The plurals of both nouns 

 and adjectives are formed in this way ; as — 



It is observable that the vowel in the reduplicated syllable is invariably shortened 

 if long in the singular form. This is a very constant rule in Sk-qo'mic, We find 

 the verb stem is also sometimes amplified by reduplication, though not in any 

 Instance with which I am familiar, for the purpose of expressing number, the re- 

 duplicated foi-rns being found in the singular as well as in the plural, thus sqai'aqai, 

 to laugh, tct'tcEm, to sv^im.; A-oA-o^, to strike ; tlEtlEm, to xsln; pipM'totl, to hunt; 

 tas-tas, to do, to make. Here the function of the reduplication is clearly to mark 

 repetition of the action expressed by the verbal stem, and in this respect it agrees 

 with the N'tlaka'pamuQ. 



But besides the above functions it has also an augmentative use ; thns, tsu'tlin7i = 



cold, but tsOtsu'tlvm = -veTj cold; std' Qais = a. cliS, but stdtd'qais^a very high cliff. 



I find that the numerals two and ten undergo modification in certain phrases. 



For example in the sentence ' I have ten horses,' ojjeh = ten is thus modified u'Dpsn ; 



1900. K K 



