Page:IJAL vol 1.djvu/306

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298

��INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS

��VOL. I

��absent, each word must be preceded by the prefix tcx-. It is rather interesting to note that, in this case, the man is not afraid of giving offense to the addressed person by calling at- tention to her " abnormality ", from which it will be seen that the Quileute Indians were not afraid of their women. In the same manner the particles tea and da are used in addressing a man and a woman respectively ; the first being usually translated by my informant by means' of the English term SIR, and the latter being rendered by MADAM or LADY.

The most important problem suggesting itself in connection with the abnormal types of speech in Quileute, to which I wish here to call attention briefly, is their probable relation to a similar phenomenon observed by Dr. Sa- pir in the Nootka language. This problem becomes more interesting when it is considered that there exist close cultural and linguistic af- tiliations between these two groups. Very close correspondences have been observed in this res- pect between these two languages. Thus both havedistinct devices indicating the speech of chil- dren, small persons, cross-eyed and one-eyed people, hunchbacks, and lame persons. Turning to mythological beings and animals, we find that both single out the speech ot the Culture- Hero, of Raven, and of Deer. Furthermore, some of this distinctiveness in speech is accom- plished in both tongues by means of certain consonantic changes ; a particularly close resem- blance being furnished by the change of s and c sounds into i sounds, which is found in both languages to apply to the speech of Deer. These correspondences are certainly close. On the other hand, divergences have been observed which are just as striking. Aside from the fact that the Nootka speech-peculiarities attributed to large persons, left-handed persons, circum- sized people, greedy persons, cowards, and to small birds, to bear, and to elk, are missing in Quileute, the Quileute grammatical and pho-

��netic devices are different from those employed in the Nootka language. Suffixation is replaced in Quileute by prefixation, where the phone- tic composition of the elements is also different and shows a greater variety of sounds.

The question which confronts us now is this ; Are these abnormal types of speech, as observed in Quileute and Nootka, the result ot an independent origin and development, or are they due to contact ? A categorical an- swer to this question at the present writing is impossible. However, when we consider that the Quileute language, in using abnormal types of speech, resorts to the borrowing of foreign phonetic elements, we ought to feel justified in the assumption that this phenomenon goes back to a time when these two languages were one, but that in addition it was developed in- dependently and modified through a later close contact between these two tribes . It is safer to hold to this assumption until such time as comparative data shall be made available from the Salish tribes adjoining the Quileute, which may furnish the sole and ultimate proof for the exact origin and distribution of this interesting linguistic peculiarity.

��TABULAR PRESENTATION OF ABNORMAL TYPES OF SPEECH USED IN QUILEUTE

TYPE OF PERSON LINGUISTIC PECULIARITY

Child Add-r/,'/

Cross-eyed ore one- Prefix t- ; change s and c

eyedperson;Snail sounds to i sounds

Funny person Prefix tck-

Small person Prefix s-

Hunchback Prefix />/-

Lame person Prefix tcy-

? Prefixes tc-, tcq-

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