Page:A Sketch of Mota Grammar.djvu/8

(4) one, as English oo, and o a third, peculiar, approaching u.

The only true diphthongs are ai, ae, ao, au.

The proper vowel sounds are represented by the vowel letters, not the English sounds. w is commonly used to close a syllable; u at the end of a word often is very faintly pronounced. (For notes on the Dialects more appropriate here see page 31.)

II. ARTICLES.

The Mota Articles are three—o, na, i.

1. 2. O is the more common, na being used only when the noun has a pronominal affix: o ima, 'a or the house;' naimak, 'my house.'

There is no distinction of definite and indefinite, but both articles are, as regards the mind of the native, probably definite.

There is no distinction of number: o ima, 'a house;' o ima n̈an̈, 'houses.'

3. i is a Personal Article, used with Personal Nouns, as na and o with common nouns; o being used with names of places.

i is used with all names, native or foreign: i Sarawia, i Palmer. It is also used with the interrogative 'who?' isei? It has also the power, not only of showing a word to be the name of a person, not of a thing, but of personifying the notion conveyed by a noun or a verb.

This power of the personal article with a verb produces something resembling a participle: gale 'to deceive;' i gale, 'the deceiver;' but this is only used when something like a title or special appellation is in view. (Caution.—In the translation of St. John this is often wrong.)

This power of i with a noun is simple, conveying what