PHONETIC SYSTEM OF THE UTE LANGUAGE 20I 



are divided into many bands, each known by a special name, having 

 peculiar customs and dialect, and presided over by a chief. To 

 illustrate, an individual of the Moguache band is called mmqatj>', 

 plural mraqatJyM^. The chief (taVayvumti) of the Moguache is 

 at present jmqmwytj)', Coyote, whose EngKsh name is *' Buck-skin 

 Charley." 



The phonetic system of the Ute is more difficult than that of the 

 majority of Indian languages. The number of "individual sounds," 

 that is, of etymologically distinct phonetic elements, is unusually 

 small, there being perhaps only fourteen, but these sounds, chame- 

 leon-Hke, constantly change their quahty according to their setting, 

 in other words, according as they are influenced by contiguous or 

 surrounding sounds. 



Those who have studied European languages know that they vary 

 considerably as regards the differences of pronunciation permitted 

 in the case of a single phonetic element. Thus in EngHsh one may 

 vary the vowel of "ask" all the way from "esk" to "awsk," without 

 seriously offending the ear. Students of European languages have 

 also observed that the sounds of any one language vary according 

 to their position in a "word" or sentence. Thus in EngHsh, the 

 quahty of the "a" in "man," "part" and "water" is clearly in 

 each case the result of influence of surrounding sounds. The "th" 

 of EngHsh "hsith" is different from the "th" of EngHsh "ba^Ae"; 

 the "d" of German "BaJ" is quite another sound than the "d" 

 of German "ba<fen." In fact, one of the most important problems 

 in phonetics, one emphasized by all the modern European phoneti- 

 cians, is the determination of the extent and manner in which sound 

 acts upon sound, and it has been shown that Umlaut and vowel 

 and consonant harmony exist to some extent in all languages, that 

 one sound may modify, much or Httle, the quahty of every other 

 sound in a long "word," and that this phenomenon and that of 

 analogy go far toward explaining change of phonetic condition in 

 language. 



In Ute this process of modification of sound by sound has run 

 wild. The organs of speech utter, in more or less rapid succession, 



