blanket" [with metathesis]). Suffix /e/ to /a/ (e.g. as in sqʼəqʼəxán "partner," which is composed of sqʼəqʼáʔ "accompanying" and the suffix /-xən/ ~ /-xén/ "foot"). Writing system In 1997, the Musqueam First Nation officially adopted the Americanist phonetic alphabet. This alphabet does not use upper case letters. Comparison Morphology Like the majority of Salishan languages, Halkomelem is polysynthetic. A word in Halkomelem may consist of a root standing alone and unaltered, or of a root altered by one or more processes of internal modification and/or accompanied by one or more affixes. Since all words (with the exception of a few adverbs) can function as predicate heads, there is no basis for distinguishing verbs, nouns, and adjectives. There are other bases, however, for distinguishing these classes. Verbs have progressive forms and do not take possessive affixes, while nouns do not have progressive forms and do take possessive affixes. Adjectives have neither progressive forms, nor do they take possessive affixes. Compounding is non-existent in the language, although some scholars believe to have found a few possible examples. The majority of verb roots have the shapes CAC, CəC, CəCC, while noun roots typically have the shape CVCVC (V is any vowel). The most common shapes of adjective roots are CəC and CAC. There is a prefix that nominalizes verbs and adjectives, and there are several prefixes that make verbs out of nouns. Additionally, there are several ways to make adjective-like words from nouns. Processes of internal modification of the root include reduplication (of initial CV and CVC), shift in stress and vowel grade, and glottalization of resonants (which also affects suffixes). Roots of different shapes often undergo different processes to produce forms that are grammatically identical. Verbs Verbs roots are identified as perfective, as opposed to progressive, aspect. Perfective "split, tear" Progressive "be splitting, be tearing" Several verbs also have a durative aspect, which can occur in both forms. Perfective "bite it" Progressive "be biting it" A number also have an iterative-dispositional aspect. For a few of these verb roots, this aspect can appear in both a progressive and in a perfective form. "easy to split" The majority of verbs have a resultative form which is adjective-like and does not carry a progressive-perfective distinction. "split, torn" "spilled, capsized" The plural can be optionally marked in all of these forms. The diminutive is also marked, optionally, in only the progressive and resultative aspects. Nouns