Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/95

 THE ailAMMAE.

��CHAPTER 11.

��THE PAETS OF SPEECH.

��Or THE Substitute for the Article.

The general meaning of a noun is expressed by using its simple form; as, m a k o r o, 'a fish ' or ' fishes' ; t i b b i n, a 'bird ' or ' birds,' in a general sense ; k u 1 ai, ' wood,' or ' a stick.' To make these plural, the plural pronoun would be attached ; as, unni makoro, tar a makoro, 'this fish,' 'these fishes,' meaning that they are here present ; to express ' the fish' as au active agent we must say gali m akoro, 'this fish,' sc, did some action. And so also with respect to all nouns, as will be explained under the head of pronouns.

Of Substantives.

Nouns are the 'names of persons, things, actions, and places.' They are Proper, when used as the name of any individual person or thing; Common and Collective, when denoting the names of things singly or together; as, kiiri, 'man' oi' 'mankind'; karai, ' kangaroo ' ; makoro,' fish.' A pronoun attached shows the number, whether singular or plural. Nouns which describe par- ticular applications of the meaning of the verb are formed from the roots of their verbs ; e.y., w i, the root of the verb 'speak,' gives wiyellikan, ' one who speaks,' ' a speaker'; w iy ai y e, ' one who always talks,' 'a talker,' 'chatterer.' When names of things are appropriated to a person so as to be the person's name, that name must be declined in the first declension of nouns, to show it is the name of a person and not of the thing ; e.ff., tintig ' a crab,' belongs to the third declension, and the genitive would be t i n t i g - k b a, ' belonging to a crab ' ; but when it is the name of a person, its genitive would be t i n t i g - li m b a, ' belong- ing to Crab,' — Mr. or Mrs., according to the context. There are a few terminations of gender in certain nouns, but not generally; as, pori-b a i, 'a husband'; porikiin-bai, 'a wife'; yinal, 'a son'; yinalkun, 'a daughter'; but piriwal, means a 'king' or 'queen,' according to the gender of the pro- noun attached. To animals, in most instances, there are different

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