Brinton.] ^^^ [Dec. 6, 



The words from Noguera are in the phonetic system devised by 

 Dr. Berendt, which, as far as practicable, follows the Spanish 

 values. 



Concept of Number. 



As in most American languages, the idea of plurality is not ex- 

 pressed unless the content would be insufficient to convey it. 

 Noguera gives : Libra buyo, two pounds. When expressed, it is by 

 the suffix gudlkara, as guapuegudlkara, hats. This apparently 

 means, "hats, many." The same construction is in the Mus- 

 quito. 



This suffix appears as an infix in pluralizing the pronouns ; as 



Sing., caraji, he. Plur., cara-gualcara-ji, they. 



In an abbreviated form in the second person, e. g. : 



Sing., maniji, thon. Plur., mani-gual-ji, you. 



And probably still further incorporated in the first person : 



Sing., yamiji, I. Plur,, yam-ta-ca-ji, we. 



As will be shown later, the plural of verbs is based on these pro- 

 nominal forms. 



The notion of exclusive and inclusive plural, or of the dual num- 

 ber, does not appear. 



Concept of Gender. 



There seem to exist but few independent words denoting sex. 

 Even for "father" and "mother," the same term, amis, is em- 

 ployed (hence =" parent"). 



Where it is necessary to define the gender, the words, apu, male, 

 and /nayrro, female, are added, e. g., piyu-apu, cock ; piyu-mayrro, 

 hen. The latter is almost certainly the Musquito, niairin, which 

 has precisely the same grammatical use and significance,* and is 

 a compound of the feminine jF^rra, with a prefix denoting " human." 



Pronouns. 



The personal pronouns are : 



I, yami or yamiji. "We, yamtacaji. 



Thou, maniji. You, manigualgi. 



He, caraji. They, caragual-caraji. 



*Lucieii Adivm, Langtie Mosquito, p. 12 (Paris, 1891). 



