Page:A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages.djvu/10

 is sometimes employed by Dorsey instead of the acute accent, and in almost all cases it is over an oral particle and indicates a falling tone.

In the Biloxi-English section it has been impossible to reduce all forms under stems which are constant and always consistent, and in some cases it has been found necessary to enter words or portions of words as principal headings, though they are evidently compounds. The classification must be understood as representing an analysis carried a considerable distance toward completion but not actually completed. The final analysis can take place only when all of the Siouan dialects have been recorded, analyzed, and mutually compared, a work still far in the future. Where stems have several different classes of derivatives an attempt has been made to separate these by dashes, but, as in the analysis, consistency throughout has not been possible. Figures refer to the number of the myth and the line in the text. Biloxi words in parentheses without an English translation or explanation are inflections of the verb or noun next preceding, and are given in the following order: Second person singular, first person singular, third person plural, second person plural, first person plural. Dorsey has inverted the usual English order for the reason that in most Siouan dialects the form for the third person singular is identical with the stem and therefore makes a better starting point than the first person. An English explanation in quotation marks is to be understood as a literal translation of the preceding Indian word, and where two or more forms of the same Indian word are given in succession, some accompanied and some unaccompanied by figures, the figures are to be understood as applying only to the form immediately preceding.

The material on Ofo was collected by the writer in November and December, 1908, from the last survivor of that tribe. In general the phonetics appear to be like those in Biloxi, but it has been impossible to make the same fine discriminations. On the other hand, the fol- lowing additional signs are used: ô like o in stop; ä like ai in hair; ˈ denotes a pause. Probably the consonants followed by h, which is here very distinct, correspond to the aspirated consonants of other Siouan dialects. John R. Swanton.