1889-90.] THE DENE LANGUAGES. 185 



The names of some mammals, however, change with the sex, and a few 

 have even a neuter gender, as is the case with the name of the caribou 

 which in Carrier is hwotsiJi for the neuter, oetceten for the mascuHne, and 

 cemuia for the feminine genders. 



The peculiar differentiating tendency which we have already noticed in 

 the verbs, extends also to the names of a few fur-bearing animals. 

 Among these we find the beaver whose name is tsa. His offspring, when 

 under two years of age is called tsa-tsel in Chifxohtin. But when the ani- 

 mal has seen two winters, it receives the name of kJioq, which after its 

 third winter is exchanged with cetqal'il, which alludes to its being of age 

 to be mated. 



The D^n^ dialects possess diminutive and amplificative forms which 

 are obtained conformably to the Japanese method with this difference 

 that, while the Japanese /r^fixes to the nouns the words ko, " child," and o, 

 " big," the D^n^ ^•/(/"fixes thereto the words j/«^ and ^/^t* which have exactly 

 the same sienification. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ADJECTIVES AND THE PRONOUNS. 



As heretofore stated, the quasi totality of the D^n^ adjectives are genu- 

 ine verbs. Indeed the only real adjectives that do not admit of the pos- 

 sibility of conjugation, are, in the Carrier dialect, ceyii, another, and tsiya, 

 all. CEstel, naked, yiiya, ashamed, iannrwcez, cylindrical, tsacheskJnvoin, 

 red hot, might pretend to the title, but their native form and use are more 

 that of adverbs than of real adjectives. 



This being the case, it follows that intrinsic forms of the comparative 

 and of the superlative are no more possible in that dialect than in 

 Hebrew. Their function is filled, as in the Semitic tongue, by some 

 circumlocution. To obtain the comparative the Carriers use the adverb 

 onnces, more, before the adjective, and say, for instance : onno&s nzu, 

 " more (he is) good " for better. The superlative, when suggestive of no 

 comparison, is rendered as in English by adverbs corresponding to our 

 " very, much." When it implies some comparison, its expression offers 

 in Ddne greater difficulty. In Carrier, we generally make use of some 

 comparative adverb as the above mentioned onnces, or more appropriately 

 the particle kces, both of which are coupled with the relative pronoun (e, 

 hi, ene or ne) in this wise : ka:,s nzu e, " the best" (thing). Sometimes a 



