Maech 4, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



351 



duced to the " intermediate " stops p, t, velar q 

 and labialized q", the sibilant c (really a sound 

 intermediate between s and c), the nasals m, n 

 and ii and the voiced spirants w and y; in Un- 

 compahgre fi seems normally replaced by nasal- 

 ization of preceding vowel. These consonants 

 undergo various mechanical changes. Before 

 vowels which, for one reason or another, have 

 become voiceless, the stops become aspirated surds 

 (P*^) t°> 1'^ ^ii'i q*^")) while the nasals w and y 

 lose their voice, the voiceless n often, at least in 

 Uncompahgre, becoming merely nasalized breath 

 with the vocalic timbre of the reduced vowel. 

 Between vowels the stops become voiced continu- 

 ants (bilabial v, trilled tongue-tip r, velar spirant 

 7 and 7" ) . Lastly, if the stops are preceded by 

 a vowel and followed by a voiceless vowel, they 

 become voiceless continuants (voiceless bilabial v, 

 voiceless r, x and x'^). Thus, an etymologically 

 original intermediate p may appear in four pho- 

 netically distinct forms : p, p°, v and v; the voiced 

 stops (b, d, g, g") may also, though not normally, 

 be heard as modifications of original intermediate 

 Slops, particularly after nasal consonants. To be 

 carefully distinguished from the simple conso- 

 nants are the long consonants (pp, tt, qq, qq", ce, 

 mm and nn) and consonants with immediately 

 following or simultaneous glottal affection (such 

 as m*, w^, tt" ) . The vowels are perhaps more 

 difficult to classify satisfactorily. As etymolog- 

 ically distinct vowels are probably to be consid- 

 ered a, u, i, weakly rounded o, and perhaps u and 

 1 ( Sweet's high-mixed-unrounded ? ) . The influence 

 of preceding and following vowels and consonants, 

 however, gives these vowels various shades, so 

 that actually a rather considerable number of 

 distinct vowels are found (thus u may become 

 close or open o, i before v is a very difi'erent 

 vowel from i before 7, a is often palatilized to 

 open e, and so on). The various vowels, in turn, 

 exercise an important influence on neighboring 

 consonants (thus i palatalizes preceding q to k', 

 voiceless r has quite different timbres according 

 to the quality of the reduced vowel following it, 

 and so on). As often in English, it is possible 

 to distinguish between slowly pronounced normal 

 forms and allegro forms. Every syllable, in its 

 original form, ends in a vowel or glottal catch; 

 where it seems to end in a consonant, more careful 

 analysis shows that the aspiration following it 

 has a definite vocalic timbre. Words ending in a 

 voiced vowel are invariably followed by a glottal 

 catch or by a marked aspiration. 



Nouns are, morphologically speaking, of two 



types. The absolute form is either identical with 

 the stem, the final vowel of non-monosyllabic 

 nouns becoming unvoiced (thus pa", "water," 

 and pun q°", " pet horse," from stems pa and 

 puuqu-), or certain suffixes may be added to the 

 stem to make the absolute form. These sulfixes 

 are -ttc (from -ttci) and -n-tc, which are par- 

 ticularly common with nouns denoting animate 

 beings, though often found also with other nouns, 

 and -v' and -m-p"', which are often employed to 

 give body-part nouns a generalized significance. 

 In first members of compound nouns, which may 

 be freely formed, these suffixes are lost, but with 

 possessive pronouns -ttci is kept, while -vi and 

 -mpi are lost. Only animate nouns regularly have 

 plurals. Plurals are chiefly of three types: some 

 nouns, particularly person nouns, have redupli- 

 cated plurals; others add -w (objective wa) to 

 the stem; still others have a suffix -m". All 

 nouns with possessive suffixes may form a redupli- 

 cated distributive meaning " each one's — ." The 

 possessive relation, when predicative, is generally 

 expressed by the genitive-objective form of the 

 independent person pronoun preceding the noun 

 (thus nl° nai m6""=°, "it is my hand," absolute 

 mo" o' «')) when attributive, by suffixed pro- 

 nominal elements ( thus mb"'o-n'=, " my hand " ) . 

 Eight pronominal suffixes are found: first sin- 

 gular, second singular, third singular animate, 

 third singular or plural inanimate, first dual 

 inclusive, first plural inclusive, first dual or 

 plural exclusive and third plural animate. The 

 genitive-objective or non-subjective form of the 

 noun is made by suffixing -a, less commonly -i, 

 to the stem, the possessive pronoun suffixes always 

 following the objective element; as the objective 

 -a often appears as a voiceless vowel, or, owing 

 to sentence phonetics, may be elided altogether, 

 the deceptive appearance is often brought about 

 that the objective difi'ers from the subjective 

 merely in having the unreduced form of the stem 

 (subj. pfluq"" from pllfiqu, obj. punqu"" or pimqu 

 from puBqUa). A well-developed set of simple 

 and compound postpositions or local suffixes define 

 position and direction with considerable nicety. 



Verb stems differ for singular and plural sub- 

 jects, often also for singular and plural objects, 

 the dual always following the singular stem. In 

 some eases the singular and plural stems are 

 unrelated, in others they are related, but differ 

 in some more or less irregular respects, in still 

 others the plural has a reduplicated form of the 

 stem, and in many cases the plural is differen- 

 tiated from the singular by the use of a suffix 



