i9o6] 



MATHEWS-THE ARRAN^DA LANGUAGE. 327 



iwuna? In the declension of nguna, the forms of the genitive, 

 dative and ablative are inserted between the root and the termina- 

 tion of the word : 



Genitive. N^-^a-tera, of which (dual) ? 



Dative. Ngu-an-atera, to which (dual) ? 



Ablative. Ngu-w^a-tera, from which (dual) ? 



In the plural we would say, ngu-^a-irbera, or contracted to 

 ngukirbera, of which? And so on. 



Xguna unta nama, or ngununta nama, who thou art? Xgula 

 nana nilknalinaka, who this stolen has ? 



Xtakina, how (in what way) ? Xtakinya, how (many) ? X^tak- 

 ata, how (large) ? 



Indefinite pronouns. These are regularly declined. Arbuna, 

 another. Arbunatera, others (dual). Arbunirbera, others (plural). 

 X'intamininta, one by one or, each one. 



There are no relative pronouns in the Arranda tongue and in 

 this respect it resembles all other Australian languages w^ith which 

 I am acquainted. 



Verbs. 



The termination of the verb differs in each tense. For example, 

 in the Indicative mood, the word tuma means, beats now; tiikala, 

 means, did beat; tiityina, shall beat. Any required number and 

 person in any tense can be shown by using the proper pronoun. In 

 other words, each tense form remains constant through all its num- 

 bers and persons. There are, however, modifications of the termi- 

 nations of the verb in all the moods and tenses to express different 

 shades of meaning, of which I shall give a few examples later on. 



\'erbs have the usual numbers, singular, dual and plural, each 

 of which can be distinguished by the termination, if connected with 

 a pronoun. When the proper pronoun is used, the dual or plural 

 form of the verb may be omitted. There are three principal moods, 

 the indicative, imperative and conditional. The form of the in- 

 dicative has already been stated. The imperative is formed by add- 

 ing ai to the stem, as, tu-ai, beat ! The conditional mood is formed 

 by the addition of mara to the stem, as, tu-mara, should beat. All 

 the moods have a negative as well as a positive form, by infixing 

 or adding itya or gunia to the positive. 



