Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/349

 In the declension of nouns the affixes used as case-endings may be regarded as post-positions. There is no distinction of gender in nouns and adjectives, but, for some words, there is a change of termination to indicate the feminine; as, yuga, ' brother,' yugti- ta, 'sister.' This dialect likes to end its words with a vowel, es- pecially the short i, which is here represented by i/.

3. Nouns.

Their Dscleusioii.^There are two declensions of nouns, the one used for words denoting human relationships, and the other for all nouns else.

(a.) Common Nouns.

Their cases. — For common nouns, the case-endings of the singu- lar number are: —

The Genitive takes the affix -aid meaning 'of,' but, with place- names, 'at,' 'in,' 'upon.' This affix is also used as a separate word, with the sense of 'belonging to.'

The Dative 1. takes -amby, which may be translated 'for/ 'for the purpose of,' ' for the use of.'

The Dative 2. takes -agk, ' to,' ' by,' and -ugai, ' on,' ' by '; but these two terminations seem to be interchangeable. The English for this case is, ' to,' ' with,' ' by,' ' on,' ' at ' — either locative or instrumental.

The Ablative 1. has the affix -il; as, kornil mempir napagk, ' the man struck his wife '; from korni, ' man,' mempin, ' strik- ing,' napy, ' wife '. This case means ' by,' * through,' ' because of — either instrumental or causative.

The Ablative 2., if used to signify 'place from,' takes -anmant; as, guk perk-anmant, ' water from the well '; but, when it i elates to persons or things, it takes -inend; as, gum-anyir-inend pil-i- nend, ' from your eye.' The English for this case is ' from.'

Another case-ending in the singular is -anyir; this I shall call Ablative 6. It denotes ' from,' expressing a cause and a result; but with pronominal adjectives, it stands for the Genitive form.

These are the prmcipal cases, but the number of them may be multiplied indefinitely by the use of any of the following: —

4. Post-Positions.

Amby, 'for.' Moru, 'down.'

Gugkura, 'before.' Tara^k, 'between.'

Giirn-kwar, ' oiitside.' Tepagk, 'close to.'

Loru, 'up.' Tuntagk, 'between two.'

Mare-muntunt, 'beneath.' Tunti, ' in the middle.'

Ugul, ugunel, ugunai, ' in front of.'

Some of these, Avhen used as post-positions to nouns, are con- stant; others vary their form when affixed to the dual or the plural.

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