Page:A Sketch of Mota Grammar.djvu/12

(8) to show a noun with the pronominal affix; thus—napanek, 'my hand;' napanema, 'your hand;' napanena, 'his hand;' napanenina, 'our hand,' inclusive; napanemam, 'our hand,' exclusive; napanera, 'their hand.'

Where the radical ends with a consonant the affix k, ma, na, &c., is assisted with a vowel, i or u, according to dialect: nāqatuk or naqatik, 'my head;' naqetegina, 'its beginning.'

A great number of words are indifferently used as verbs or substantives; but there is, as above mentioned, a common use of a termination marking a word as a noun. Besides this there is a form of verbal substantive, the verb with, generally, the termination va: mule 'to go;' muleva, 'a going;' tape, 'to love;' tapeva, 'love,' i. e. loving.

This verbal substantive is sometimes formed with ga: vano 'to go;' vanoga, 'a going.' Sometimes with ra: toga 'to stay;' togara 'staying,' way of life. Sometimes with ia : nonom, 'to think;' nonomia, 'thought, thinking.' Sometimes with a: mate, 'to die;' matea, 'death.'

Compound Nouns follow the last member as regards inflection: natano-panek, 'my handiwork;' tanoi, 'a place;' panei, 'a hand.' But nok o tano-pul 'my candlestick;' tanoi, 'a place;' pul, 'candle,' panei belonging to one class, pul to the other.

It may be observed that a noun only takes the pronominal affix when used in its primary sense; when it has a secondary use it cannot be so used. Thus panei is not only 'a hand' or 'arm,' but 'an armlet;' and it is not possible to say napanek, 'my armlet,' but nok o panei.

Number.—There is no mark of number in the noun; the addition of n̈an̈ makes a plural.