23 
will then have chosen the first and third of these sounds, kh and 
kg, whereas English has chosen k and g. Many ji;o even further; 
they glottalize the kh i.e., close the glottis during its formation so 
as to produce a peculiar clicking sound, and they add a velar k, 
pronounced far back in the throat, that is very characteristic of 
vSemitic tongues, but unknown in western Europe. 
76024 
Interior of an Iro(inois Inng-lionse. Oveproduced through tJie courtesy of A. C, 
I’arker, iMunicii)al Mnseiiin, Ilochestcr, from a painting by R. J. I’ucker.) 
Another difficulty for Europeans lies in the grammatical struc- 
tures of Indian languages, which are based on unfamiliar principles. 
Often there are very few parts of speech, some languages possess- 
ing no adverbs, prepositions, or coniunctions. The verb and noun 
may be imperfectly distinguished, the pronoun subordinated to the 
verb, and the intransitive verb assume the function of an adjec- 
tive. Gender based on sex appears in the coast dialects of the 
Salishan tongue, but only in pronominal forms; and the Iroquoian 
dialects separate nouns into masculine and non-masculine. Else- 
where, the nearest approach to gender is the distinction between 
animate and inanimate objects in the Algonkian language and in 
one of the dialects of Siouan. Number is treated in a variety of 
86959—3 
