Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/328

 8 AN AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE.

The Nyug dialect, instead of kully and mully, has mugga and kugga; thus: —

Sivf/i'Iar. Plural.

��Masculine. Feminine.

Mugga. Muggun. Maka.

Kugga. Kuggun. Kaka.

Kaka is thus a recent addition to the Minyug dialect. It is at }ii-esent almost exckisively used instead of cannaby. Maka is sometimes used for mully, but always as a singular. Kugga is used in the sense of ' he out there.' So it is evident that ka is the root form of all the demonstratives beginning with k, and ma of those beginning with in. Most of the plural demonstratives are formed from ka and ma; thus, k am a consists of ka + ma, maka of ma + ka, and kaka of ka + ka; yet there are many doubled forms that are singular. Ma, however, is used, but not as a demonstrative. Ka, ma, ly, ba, and nyo are all root-forms.

Indefinite pronouns.

There are four indefinite pronouns: — Kurralbo, 'all'; kaiby, ' another'; undiiru, unduru-gun, unduru-na, 'some'; and ger- rig, 'both'; to these maybe added the adjective kumai, which is sometimes used in the sense of 'mvich' or 'many.'

Kurralbo has but one form, viz., kurral, but it is never used without the addition of the ornamental particles, -bo or -jug. The four forms of kaiby have been given already. Gerrig has but one form.

Kimierals.

Strictly speaking, the language has only two words, yaburu and bula, that can be called numerals. Yet, by doubling and repeat- ing these, counting can be carried on to a limited extent ; as, Yaburu, ' one.' Bula-bula, ' four.'

Bula, 'two.' Bula-bulai-yaburu, 'five.'

Bulai-yaburu, ' three.' Bula-bula-bula, ' six '; (to.

Yaburugin, and yaburu-gin-gun are sometimes used for the singular personal pronouns, and bulaily and bulaili-gun for the dual. Other uses of these numerals maybe seen in — yaburugin yiinbully, 'go alone' (said to a male) ; yaburugingun yun- bully, ' go alone ' (said to a female) ; yaburu-min-ba, 'at once,' or 'with one blow,' 'with one act'; bula-nden. 'halves'; bula-n- d a i, b u 1 a-n d a i-g u n, ' twins. '

Intcrrogatives.

In Minyug, the diflerence between an interrogative sentence and an assertive one consists, not in any diflferent arrangement of the words, but simply in the tone of the voice. Therefore the

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