We find in a language like the Cinook that modifying elements are expressed by single sounds which phonetically enter into clusters which are pronounced without any break. To give an example: The word anialot, I GIVE HIM TO HER, may be analyzed into the following elements: a (tense), n I, i HIM, a HER, l TO, o (direction away), t TO GIVE. . . . The weakness of the component elements and their close phonetic association forbid us to consider them independent words; while the whole expression appears to us as a firm unit.1

1Boas, F.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 1: 29 (Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Bull. 40).