Page:An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language).djvu/652

94 Some adjectives, by taking after them, become adverbs; e.g.


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 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “new.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “newly.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “true.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “truly.”
 * }
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “truly.”
 * }

A few adjectives become adverbs by taking the word after them; e.g.


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 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “slow.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “slowly.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “gentle.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “gently.”
 * }
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “gently.”
 * }

When the letter is suffixed to some of the simple adjectives which end in, , , or , or to any of the adjectives compounded with  or , they become nouns, thus:—


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 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “neat.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “a neat thing.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “dirty.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “a dirty thing.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “delicious.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “a delicious thing.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “clean.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “a clean thing.”
 * }
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “clean.”
 * style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em;" |, “a clean thing.”
 * }
 * }

The letter, which is here compounded with the adjectives, is a contraction of “a thing.” This should be carefully borne in mind lest, in construing, mistakes should arise. The converts the adjective to which it is attached, into a concrete, not into an abstract, noun. Thus is not “thinness,” but “a thin thing;” and  is not “largeness,” but “a large thing;” nor is  “wisdom,” but “a wise person” or “thing.”

As the other adjectives, namely a few of the simple, and all of the remaining compound adjectives, are incapable of taking the contracted form after them, they are followed by the word in full, that is,  softened into, thus:—

, “an old person.” , “a mouldy thing.” , “an eloquent person.” , “a quarrelsome person.” , “a weak thing.”