Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/56

 Xlvi INTEODUCTIOy.

the numeral 'ten' is ga-fulu which I take to mean 'the whole' (sc. fingers). In Teutonic, it seems to have sometimes a collective force, as in ge-birge, ' mountains,' and sometimes an intensive, as in Gothic, ga-bigs, from Sanskrit bliaga, the 'sun.' In Latin the suffix c in sic is supposed to be the remains of a demonstrative.

Gratoa, then, is to me made up of ga + ad + do, the -do being the same suffix particle of emphasis which is elsewhei'e in Australia written -du, and the -do is extended into -to a, also for emphasis, as in tlie Wiradhari yama, yamoa, and other Australian words. It is quite possible that this -do also is only the demonstrative ta — so often used in composition in Awabakal — changed into -to, Ttlo, according to the rules on pages 10 and 11 of this volume.

From the lists of pronouns given above, it will be seen that Fijian also prefixes a demonstrative ko, ko-i to its first and second pronouns. This same particle, ko, o is also prefixed to nouns, and especially to proper names. In Samoan, 'o, that is, ko, is placed before nouns and pronouns when they are used as the sub- ject of a proposition — this, also, for enq^hasis, to direct attention to the agent, like the agent-nominative case in Awabakal.

In the Ebudan and Papuan pronouns, a similar prothetic demon- sti-ative is found ; there it has the forms of na, ain, en, a, ka, ha, ya, ye; in many of the Ebudan dialects, — the Aneityumese, for instance — the demonstrative in, ni, elsewhere na, is prefixed to almost every word that is used as a noun. In other parts of Melanesia, the na is a suffix.

Finally, I placed the Dravidian pronouns in my list in order to compare them with the Australian. And the comparison is in- structive. They are, chiefly, nan, yan, for the first person, and nin, ni for the second. Dr. Caldwell himself considers the initial n in each case to be not radical, and the base forms to be iin and in. This is a close approximation to our Australian bases ; for we have the three forms, gud-du, nad-du, yad-du, in which the n and the y proceed from the original nasal -guttural g, and that g, as I have shown, is only a demonstrative prefix. The d of nad and yad may easily pass into its liquid n, thereby giving the Dravidian nan and yiin ; and the Australian forms are older, for Avhile d will give n, oi, when established in a word, will not i-evert to d. So also, the Dravidian nin will come from the earlier gin, which we find in the Australian ginda.

IX. The Formatiox of Words.

Any one who examines the Vocabularies of the Awabakal and the Wiratlhari dialects will see how readily the Australian language can form derivative words from simjjle roots, and how expressive those words may become, The language is specially

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