[Bloomfield has set up the Proto-Algonquian clusters *xk and *xp, using x to represent an undetermined phoneme preceding k and p. This paper proposes to show that *xk consists of two clusters in the parent language, namely *θk and *xk. In addition to establishing the validity of a new Proto-Algonquian cluster, it gives the reflexes for the principal Eastern Algonquian languages and postulates the stages of development.]

It is claimed that what and which, both as interrogatives and as relatives, are derived from the same underlying representations, wh + some and wh + that, respectively. It is assumed that, in the basic form of relativization, the two occurrences of the noun modified by a relative clause, in the matrix and the constituent sentences, may take different determiners. Indeed, all of the four possible ways of distributing the two basic determiners in the matrix and the constituent sentences are claimed to be realized in certain types of relativization. A transformation called Definitization which transforms indefinite determiners into definite ones is substantiated in the course of the argument. Some considerations of semantic character are also added.

[OHG eino (OE ana) ‘solus’ follows as predicate complement or apposition upon personal nouns and pronouns; only enclitics, including finite verbs, may intervene. With got and synonyms, however, it occurs attributively and as translation of ‘unus’: here the missionary had stretched the native idiom.]

The Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America will be held at Chicago, December 27–8, 1937, jointly with the Modern Language Association of America, which meets on December 28–30. Sessions will be held at The Drake, which will be the headquarters of both associations.

Vowel harmony in Sahaptian languages is an automatic assimilation of phonemes of a ‘recessive’ set to those of a ‘dominant’ one in the same sequence. It is describable with phonetic features of phonological segments, as opposed to class markings on whole morphemes. In fact, in the Sahaptin dialects, explaining palatalization of front velars requires setting up a preceding phonetic rule of vowel harmony, and different late rules of vowel merging. Historically, we can view the vowel harmony as a phonetic process arising in the dialects by parallel (but not identical) restructuring from a Proto-Sahaptian system of morphological ablaut.

[An earlier paper tried to prove on the basis of 390 Hittite examples that the relative kwis developed from the indefinite kwis. The present paper aims to show on the basis of the same 390 examples how the relative thus formed from the indefinite, at first used only in a restrictive or generalizing sense, eventually acquired also a non-restrictive or definite sense.]

In two of the language families of India, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan, there is a common pattern of onomatopoetics, in their formation and also in part in their syntactic use, with proliferation of items in most of the languages for which there is adequate information. Comparison, based on the etymological dictionaries of the two families, yields some forty areal etymologies, i.e. overlapping which provides what within a single family would be considered clusters of etyma. Since the Indo-Aryan family seems not to inherit the pattern from Indo-European, diffusion is postulated from Dravidian both for the pattern and for some etymological items.

Among the types of weak verbs occurring in Germanic, none has provoked more difference of opinion than that of Class III, and no other has so consistently eluded a believable analysis. As might be expected, most discussions of the subject lean heavily on the evidence provided by Gothic. In Gothic weak verbs of Class III, the most noticeable feature is the occurrence of a in some inflectional forms beside ai in others. Thus the present indicative active of the verb ‘have’ has sg. 1 hab-a but 2 hab-ais and 3 hab-aiþ, pl. 1 hab-am and 3 hab-and but 2 hab-aiþ. Similarly, the imperative has sg. 2 hab-ai and pl. 2 -aiþ but pl. 3 -andau. On the other hand, a always appears in the infinitive (haban), in the present participle (habands), and throughout the passive indicative (e.g. pl. 1–3 habanda). Conversely, ai occurs in all forms of the preterit (e.g. ind. sg. 1 habaida, p.p. habaiþs) and in nearly all optative forms, the sole exception being pres. act. 1 habau.