Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/326

 6 AN AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE.

The adjective dukkai, 'dead,' takes numerous forms; thus: — 2. dukkai, dukkai-ljiuf; 3. touara-gun, dukkai-gunf, dukkai-bin- gunf, dukkai-gun-binf; 4. dukkai, dukkai-binf.

2. Number.

Nouns and adjectives do not change their form to denote number. The word paigal may mean one 'man,' or any number of ' men.' With regard to the pronouns, some of them are singular, some dual, some plural, and some of them indefinite so far as number is concerned. The number of a noun is generally known by the iise in the same sentence, or in the context, of a singulai', dual, or plural pronoun, or by the scope of the sentence or other surround- ing circumstances.

3. Gender,

There ai'e two ways by which the feminine is distinguished from the masculine — either by a difterent word or by adding the ter- mination -gun, of which the?f is always short; as: —

Masculine. Ftmiuinc

Mobi, 'a blind man.' Mobi-gun, ' a blind woman.'

Y^rubilgin, 'a male singer.' Yerubilgin-gun, 'a female singer.'

Kicom, 'old man.' Merrug, ' old woman.'

Cubbo, 'boy.' Yagari, 'girl.'

Koroman, male 'kangaroo.' Imarra, female 'kangaroo.'

riWNOUA'S.

These are: — (1) Personal pronouns, (2) Demonstrative.s, (3) Indefinite pronouns, (4) Numerals, and 5) Interrogatives.

Personal jn'onoicns.

Singular. Gai, 'I.' We, 'thou.' Nyuly, 'he'; nyan, '.she.'

Plural. Grully, ' we.' Buly, ' you.' (?annaby, 'they.'

The Minyug has no simple dual, although there are compound terms and phrases denoting the dual number; such as, gulliwe, gullibula, 'we two'; we gerrig, 'you two,' 'you and another.' The personal forms of bula are sometimes used as dual pro- nouns; as, bulaily, 'they two,'?»asc., and buiaili-gun, 'they two, /em.; and even such phrases as w6 gerrig bulaily and we gerrig bulaili-gun, ' you two,' are used.

Demonstratives.

Besides these, there is a peculiar class of words, which may be called demonstratives. When used as predicates, they have the general meaning of 'here,' ' there,' or 'yonder.' They are often used as demonstrative adjectives, and then mean this,' ' that

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