PHONETIC SYSTEM OF THE UTE LANGUAGE 205 



is voiced. A sound like English *'ng" seems not to occur in the 

 dialect examined. 



The language does not seem to distinguish between orinasal and 

 purely oral soimds. Only in the instance of the vowels h and h 

 is nasaUty occasionally markedly audible, and this is probably due 

 to the tongue-position of the vowel. Nasality has been indicated 

 in this article by placing an exponent n (°) after the vowel-symbol. 



No procedure would at this time be more dangerous than an 

 attempt to lace the Ute sounds into the straight-jacket of a normal- 

 ized orthography. We present the Ute ''words" of this article 

 spelled in a purely empirical manner, just as they were heard, with- 

 out altering or systematizing their orthography in the sKghtest 

 degree. Only a few diacritical marks, originally added to indicate 

 delicate nuances of quahty caused by surrounding sounds, have been 

 omitted, and this largely for typographical reasons. 



The sounds of the Ute language are exemplified by the following 

 lists of words grouped according to sounds which they contain in 

 common. The alphabetic order is scientific, not traditional. 



I. Vowels 



The sound here symbohzed by "a" resembles that of English "a" 

 in "father." It varies to the continental sounds of e or o, or to the 

 sound of "u" in English "bwt." 



pa'avym, worms 



Liaf^;, salt 



atjbi, bow (the weapon) 



ta'wayvHrrbu, chief 



sapy, belly 



masHfy, fingers 



nuvafy, snow 



pawHtJy, beaver 



kwyjaqatbi, bear 



tiukmaiiy, meat 



