370 RfepoET— 1902. 



the malformation of some voice organ, is sometimes very great. Mofeover, the spread 

 and use of English among the Indians is very seriously affecting the ptirity of 

 the native speech. Frequently they are in doubt about the correctness of some form 

 or phrase, and have to appeal one to the other to know which is right. 



A ready the order of their words in the sentence is undergoing modification and 

 apprOximating^to the English order; while the analytical tendency of our language 

 is slowly, but surely,|Jundermining their inflectional pronominal forms. In the 

 mouths of the younger members of the tribe, who have learnt English, the indepen- 

 dent pronouns|are now not infrequently employed with the verb where only the 

 inflectional forms would be used by the older people. In the course of collecting 

 my notes one of my informants referred repeatedly to the (to him) undesirable par- 

 ticularisingjcharacter of the native speech, the simpler forms of the English appealing 

 strongly to his mind. Certainly this man was, as his reflections from time to time 

 showed, morejthan usually thoughtful and observant. 



Wherever in my native texts the order of the words follows closely that of the 

 English, it may be suspected that the native purity of the language has suffered. 

 I^was not^^Eufficientlyfalive to this tendency at the first to guard wholly against it. 



As my studies of the Kwa'ntlEn gave me a good opportunity for an examination 

 of the niceties of the Halkome'lEm verb, 1 paid greater attention to this feature in 

 that dialect. In Tcil'Qe'uk on the other hand, I have given more attention to the 

 pronouns and demonstratives ; thus making one study complementary to the other. 

 My studies of these two dialects have made clear to me many points that were ob- 

 scure in the Sk-qG'mic. I was not clear on the function of the important particle 

 hva (or Jmc as it is in that dialect). There is no doubt that Jtwa is an indefinite 

 article, which seems at times to have also a restricted partitive function. This will 

 be illustrated in my notes. Other pronominal, demonstrative, and verbal particles, 

 common to the Salish. dialects of this region, which will be treated of in their proper 

 place, have also been better understood and their respective functions grasped by 

 myjstudies of the River speech. 



The Indians most useful to me in my studies of the Tcil'Qe'uk were — ' Captain' 

 John, chief of the Suwii'le sept ; his son-in-law, ' Commodore,' and David SElii'kEtBn 

 of J'^Cultus ' Lake. I also desire to express my thanks to the Rev. W. Barraclough 

 for the use of his private Tcil'Qe'uk vocabulary ; for although his system of phonetics 

 made it necessaryffor mejto get all the words from the Indians over again, his list of 

 words was useful to me in many ways, and was the means of revealing in several 

 instances the presence of synonymous terms, some of which are certainly foreign to 

 the Halkome'lEm tongue, and are probably survivals of the older Tcil'Qe'uk speech. 

 My best thanks are also due to Mr. Suart of ' Cultus ' Lake for many courtesies 

 extended to me3during|my|sojourn among the Tcil'Qe'uk. 



ai, as in aisle ; au, as in cnw : oi, as in boil ; eu, as in iew. 



I found the vowel sounds in Tcil'Qe'uk quite as indeterminate in character as in 

 Sk-qo'mic. The long vowels are more troublesome in this way than the short ones. 

 In the mouth of David SElii'kEtEn I, ai and e, as also and an, were constantly 

 interchanging in the most bewildering fashion. At first I was led to think the 

 changes must be due to some law of vowel sequence I had overlooked ; but further 

 study of the subject and a comparison of his pronunciation with that of other 

 Indians made it quite clear that these changes were due to no such law, but simply 

 to imperfect and slovenly enunciation. The Indian uses his lips but little in 

 spaeking, and this habit affects the clarity of his utterance and causes his vowels 

 to lack precision and definiteness. The short vowels could almost anywhere be 



