Page:Lange-Noss - A text-book of colloquial Japanese.djvu/38

 3. In the case of animals the masculine and feminine genders may be expressed by means of the prefixes о (оn) and me {nen) ; or, more commonly, by osu and mesu with the genitive particle no:

Inu dog ; oinu (inu no osu) ; meinu {inu no mesu).

Tori fowl ; ondori cock ; mendori hen.

But it is to be observed that the Japanese usually leave the distinction unexpressed. For instance :

Tori ga nakimashita. The (or, a) cock crowed. Here it is not necessary to say specifically ondori. Vocabulary.

akindo trader, shopkeeper. hyakushô peasant. chichi father. haha mother. otoko man, male. onna woman, female. oya parent. ko, kodomo child. tomodachi friend. inu dog. kitsune fox. neko cat. nezumi rat, mouse. shika deer. uma (proncd. mma) horse. usagi hare, rabbit. ushi ox, cow. tori bird, fowl.

When nouns are joined by the conjunction "and" or enumerated in a series which is brought to a conclusion, to "and" or mo "too" is affixed to each (—mo—mo = both—and). When the series is not closed, that is, when only a few specimens of a possible list are given, ya or dano is affixed to each. Ya is always, and to, except in formal speech, usually, omitted after the last word. However the asyndetic construction is not uncommon in Japanese ; e.g., oya ko parent and child.

Exercises.

Inu to neko. Oya to kodomo. Sh'ka ya usagi ya kitsune. Оtoko mo onna mo. Ojika to mejika (from sh'ka). Chichi haha. Hyak'shó to akindo. Omma to memma (from uma). Onna mo kodomo mo. Uma dano, ushi dano, inu dano. Kitsune уa usagi ya nezumi. Ondori to mendori. Oushi mo meushi mo.

a. Regarded as a variety of rat. Mice may be distinguished as hatsuka-nezumi 20 days' rat). White mice are nankin-nezumi. Соmp. nankin-usagi white rabbit.