Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/295

 APP. NO. I.] GRAMMATICAL NOTICES. ARAUCANIAN. 259 is the only allusion, in the whole Grammar, to the distinction between animate and inanimate genders. The particle que, placed between the adjective and the sub- stantive, is also used, instead of pu, to designate the plural. So is also the termination egn. Chao, 'father'; chaoegu, 'two fathers'; puchao, 'the fa- thers.' Cume, 'good'; cumeque chao, ' good fathers.' Ni, abbreviated from the possessive pronoun, is used for the genitive termination ; and the particle meu supplies the ablative case. Chaoni, ' of the father'; chaomeu, ' for, with, by the fa- ther. ' Huenthu, which means ' man ' or ' male,' is used to designate the masculine sex of all animals, except birds, for which alca is used. Domo, ' a woman,' is used to designate the feminine of all animals, birds included. When thus used, those names are prefixed to that of the animal. There is not in the language any inflection indicative of the gender. Pronouns. personal absolute. possess ive. persotial abbr'd, united with verbs nominative nom. genit. united with nouns. indie, imperat. subj. I, inche, ineheni, inclieni, or ni, ", Chi, li, ive two, iiichiu, incliiu yu, yu, or tayu, y»i yu, liu, we, inchin, inchin in, lain, in, in, lin, thou, eymi, eymi mi, mi, or tami, ymi, g e > lmi, you two, eymu, eymu mu, tamu, ymu, mu, lmu, ye, eymn, eymn mn, tamn, ymn, mn, 1 did, he, teye, teyeni, y> pe, le, they two, teye egu, teye eguni yg°> g u > Igu, they, teye egn, leye egnni, ygn, g"> lg». The particles ta or ga are often prefixed for euphony's sake to those which denote the genitive, or the possessive pronoun. Tva, 'this,' and Tvy or vey, 'that,' are inflected, as teye, 'he'; adding chi, when connected with the substantive : Veychi yatiru, or patiru tva, ' that,' or ' this father.' Verbs. — The first person singular of the indicative of the verbs always ends in n. All the persons, tenses, and moods are formed by the conversion of the final n into the other abbrevia- ted personal pronouns, and by the insertion of particles before the said n or its substitutes. But that which precedes the n is invariable and the root of the verb. This final n is the characteristic of the pronoun of the first person of the indicative, as may be seen in the above table ;