166 



There are several suffixes whicli invariably begin with a long 

 consonant: [-S'O-^j ^ [.^"a^j or [ç'a^i]'^ [-k-iqrcr]''^ [-nrers^rpdq]* 

 [-/I'erpdq]^ [-fl-ilaq]^ [-îl'dvpoq]'' [^-агрэ^]^ [-fshq]^ etc. 



When these suffixes are joined to vsords ending in -q, 

 this sound disappears without leaving any trace, as it seems. 

 I am, however, inclined to think that here too the long con- 

 sonant is originally geminated, the two elements being the final 

 consonant of the word and the initial consonant of the suffix. 

 The consonant of the suffix was originally short; no suffix is 

 created with a long initial consonant. By destructive analogy 

 or through far advanced assimilation, the uvular has been lost 

 in those words where the suffix would give us reason to expect 

 that it had once been present. 



Exactly the contrary is the case with a series of suffixes 

 which drag the uvularization with them even to vowel stems 

 and to the words ending in к and t. The formation \aserdr- 

 qajaqsi'Ta] ^^ seems natural, where -qajaqnTii joined to aseroq 

 occasions the sound combination rq. But what is the origin 

 of the same sound-combination in [fakorqajaqa.-ray^ where the 

 word-stem itself otherwise appears only in the form tako-? 

 Here the uvularization must have come from the ç-stem by 

 productive analogy. These suffixes are in Kleinschmidt's dic- 

 tionary (pp.442 — 445) given as invariably beginning with r: rq 

 (< qq), ГА, rn, rp, rr etc. 



Finally some general remarks. It must needs almost al- 

 ways remain problematical , what a words stem-form — the 

 explanatory intermediate form between two related words — 

 has looked like, as long as there are no historical documents 

 to be had, or at least evidence from other dialects. A long f 

 may in general just as well go back to pt or kf as to tt, a 



' verbal future suffix ^ nominal future suffix ' consider him or it to 

 be- * long (verbal) ^ is сгагу after - ^ not ^ becomes -, becomes a - 

 " verbal intensive suffix (with might and main etc.) ^ tolerably (little, big, 

 or much) "' I almost broke it to pieces " I almost saw it or him. 



