Page:A dictionary of the language of Mota.djvu/24

xxii taken as Compound Prepositions; rather because they are translated by English Prepositions; vunai the upper side, avune above; lalanai the under side, alalane under. Thus also with other Prepositions, ivune, tavune, ilalane, talalane; and, with the Noun vatitnai, alovatitne, ilovatitne, talovatitne. In these instances the Noun is one which has a construct form; but it is the same with words like vawo and lele, the upper and inner parts, making avawo, ivawo, tavawo, alele, ilele, talele. Other words, though translated by an English Preposition, retain the form of Noun and Preposition; a pan pei beside the water, a tavala pei beyond the water, panei, tavalai. These Nouns also serve as Prepositions themselves; vuwe, vawo, lele, ima; pan pei, tavala pei.

XI. .

Copulative wa, pa. Adversative pa, nava. Connective nan. Disjunctive si. Conditional si. Illative si.

A mark of quotation is wa. The same sound wa is also 'lest.' 'Until' is gai. To express cause the noun manigiu is used.

Where the Conjunction 'and' is used in English, the Noun ta 4. is often employed, almost entirely where persons are in view.

XII. .

The numeral system is imperfectly decimal; all numbers above ten are expressed in tens, but the series of independent numerals reaches only to five, the digits of the first hand. For the second hand there is a prefix of lavea.

1. Cardinals. To rua, tol, vat, and sometimes to tuwale, the Verbal Particle ni is prefixed. All may appear in the form of Verbs, with the various Verbal Particles.

For the units above tens the Noun numei is used; twelve, sanavul tuwale o numei nirua.

A hundred is melnol; the sum above the hundred avaviu; thus a hundred and thirty-two, melnol vatuwale, o avaviu sanavul tol, o numei nirua. A thousand is tar.

2. Ordinals.

The Cardinals with substantival termination form Ordinals; the second, third and fourth taking the multiplicative vaga, or va, instead of ni, and a being dropped from lavea.