3 
When final and initial vowels come together in the sentence, the h- 
glide may remain j this is the slow and full form of speech; awa'h iskwdw : 
this woman. In faster and more natural speech, the ^-glide may disappear, 
or may be replaced by w (if one of the vowels is u or d) or by y (if one of 
the vowels is i, %, or d) ; awa' iskwdw, awa'y iskwdw : this woman ; Mh- 
v/tinam, Jd-u'tinam, Jnw-u'tinam : he has taken it. 
If, however, the first of the two vowels is short, a different type of 
combination is more common: both the glide sound and the short final 
vowel are lost, and the initial vowel, if short, is lengthened ; aw I'skwdw : 
this woman. The stress, it will be noticed, of an elided short vowel, stays 
on the vowel with which it has merged. Final u deviates; before an 
unlike vowel it is replaced by w, and the following vowel, if short, is length- 
ened; piku : only, and isi : thus, give pikw Vsi : in every way; piku and 
awiyak : someone, give pikw d'wiyak : anyone at all, everyone. 
In certain combinations a final long vowel merges with an initial 
vowel. Thus d and i give d ; kd'h-itwdt, k-d'twdt : what he said. Similarly, 
d and u give o ; kdh-u'tinahk, k-d'tinahk : what he took. In some common 
combinations final d merges with other vowels; dkdh a'wiyak, dk d'wiyak : 
lest anyone. 
Various modifications of these habits of vowel combination occur, 
but my knowledge of the dialect does not suflfice to formulate them. 
The unaccustomed ear has difficulty in distinguishing the vowel 
quantities, especially in certain positions, as: before h plus consonant; 
before w ; after consonant groups. Thus, a'htsdnis : ring (I take this to 
be the actual, or, at any rate, the normal form of the word), sounded to 
me like a'htsanis, d'htsanis, d'htsdnis : ayahtsi'yiniw : a Blackfoot, appears 
in my earlier texts as aydhtsi'yiniw. To the end, I had no certainty on 
this point. Before y the distinction of i and I seems entirely lacking; 
I have written iy uniformly, never ly. 
Between like consonants, especially between labials and between 
dentals, a short vowel is often lost; wdsaskutd' nikan : lamp, wds(s)kutd'- 
nikan; nd'niiaw : anywhere, nd'ntaw. When in such cases the group nt 
is formed after a short vowel, the n is long and probably always syllabic; 
ku'nitah : at random, variously, ku'ntah (with long, syllabic n). Similarly, 
when tn, pm so arise, the n, m is syllabic; u'tinam : he takes it, u'tnam 
(syllabic n) ; a'stviin : hat, a'stutn (syllabic n, as in English button ) ; 
pi'muhidw : he walks, pm'uhtdw (syllabic m). Occasionally two short 
vowels are thus lost; pimi'pahtdw : he runs, pm'pahtdw (syllabic m). 
The sounds h, w, y alternate in rapid speech according to the sur- 
rounding vowels; dh-nika' muyit : when the other sings, dh-nika'muwit ; 
omisi'h itwdw : he says so, omisi'y itwdw, beside the more common omis 
I'iwdw ; cf. above. 
The sound-group hy appears between a-vowels, e.g. wdhyaw : far, 
ahyapiy : net; but where it is historically to be expected before or after 
i, I, d, we have h ; ahdw : he places him (Menomini a' new, Fox a^dwa), 
pimihdw : he flies (Menomini pern e' new. Fox pemisdwa). In these cases 
I seem to have heard occasional pronunciations with hy, but this may be 
an error of mine. I seem to have heard hy also occasionally in pihdw 
(pihydw) : partridge, a word whose history I do not know. 
Sequences of vowels and semivowels are subject to great variation. 
I have not succeeded in fully analysing this ; the following are the clearest 
cases. 
