1889-90.] THE D^NE LANGUAGES. 205 



The signification of the objective verbs is determined by the particles 

 prefixed to their personal or pronominal elements, and the nature of their 

 complement, expressed or implied, by their desinential root. This applies 

 also to the verbs of station. 



The radical of the instrumentative verbs denotes the instrument or 

 medium employed to perform the action expressed by the verb, while the 

 prefix points to the manner in which said action has been accomplished. 



As for the verbs of locomotion, their final determines the nature of the 

 subject, while the particle preceding the pronominal crement indicates 

 the direction or extent of the locomotion. Materially speaking, verbs 

 belonging to the same group and having the same signification are apt to 

 become, through their desinential modifications, almost unrecognizable. 

 Niya, for instance, means " he (human being] walks," and when referring^ 

 let us say, to the human mind, it will be altered into 7ioedcel-ts(jet, with 

 exactly the same signification. 



A verb modified by any of these last terminological inflections may 

 furthermore be affected by any of the several forms which I have described 

 above. 



Lastly, considered grammatically and without any reference to their 

 etymology, the Dene verbs may be divided into transitive, intransitive, 

 passive, unipersonal and defective. With the exception of the defective 

 and a few passive verbs, none of these voices have, as such, any fixed 

 characteristic embodied in the conjugation. The passive exists in Dene, 

 but for a limited number of verbs only. It changes a verb of the 

 second into one of the third conjugation. Ex.: cesa, "I order"; ces'a, 

 " I am ordered."* Quite as commonly, however, verbs that are passive 

 in English are of the first conjugation in Dene, as taiikmn, " it is burnt"; 

 ko:uth<:ek, " it is broken," etc. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



There is hardly any difficulty worth recording in connection with the 

 syntax of the Dene dialects, which is as simple as the machinery of their 

 verbs is complicated. And no wonder : cases and substantival genders, 

 which are ordinarily the occasion of syntactic irregularities, being 

 unknown, it is but natural that the difficulties that spring therefrom be 

 equally wanting. 



*Comparethe pronominal mutation of this verb with that ot its Latin synonym : jub-eo, ces-'a j 

 jiib-eor , cez-'a. 



15 



