THE OCEANIC FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 825 
THE INTERROGATION PRONOUN 
Who? Which? 
Arabic, a‘yy ; Ethiopic, a’y ; Oceanic, (7) sez, (7) za, ba, me, vai, 
hai, wat, ai, hei, ter, oi, thei; Efate, he, sei, fer. 
Which 2 What ? 
Arabic, a‘yyuma, contracted a‘ma ; Modern, ama. This is the 
preceding word joined with the Semitic interrogations ma 
(Himyaritic ma, or ba, what?) ; Oceanic zooy and (ovy), sapa and 
(apa), safu and (sa), naf, ava, aha, a, hava, sav, hav, thava, taha, 
neva. 
THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 
7, 
Arabic, a‘na ; Assyrian, a’naku (original form) ; Oceanic, hina, 
hanu, kena, kina (for kinaku), haku, aku (and daku), aho (and 
zaho), rehu, lau, laku. 
Thor. 
Arabic, m., a‘nta (and a‘nka, a‘ka, as in this pronoun in the 
Semitic mother-tongue ¢ and & were confused as they are often by 
little children) ; Oceanic, 7h, nik, hica, hanta, ang, daka, and see 
the first person plural inclusive below. 
You. 
Arabic, m., a‘ntum (Modern also a‘ntw), and a‘nkum, a‘kum ; 
Amharic, m. and f., s. and pl., atu ; Modern Syriac, m. and f., 
alton ; Oceanic, akam or akamu, kamu (used also for singular) 
dakau, angkau, kangkaw, hanao, &e. Owing to this practice of 
using the plural for the singular (you for thou), the Semitic 
demonstrative plural ala, these or those, was joined with this 
personal pronoun, and also that of the third person, to denote 
exclusively the plural, as hanare (hano, thou or you, ’re these), so 
in Amharic is used alané (ala these, anta thou.) 
In the pronoun of the third person the ancient Oceanic plural 
is used now for both singular and plural, and generally with this 
plural demonstration to denote the plural exclusively. 
They (and used for singular in Oceanic, and often in modern 
Syriac). 
Masculine, Arabic, hum ; Hebrew, hem, Assyrian, swn,; Himya- 
ritic, swm, eae Abeata hinum, vnum ; Modern Syriac, ‘m 
and '£., ant. In the Semitic mother-tongue the initial letter of 
this word was pronounced s and h, which finally became also 7’ ; 
and the final m, the plural ending as in the second person, and as 
in masculine nouns, was in like manner interchanged with n. 
This m or » was also apt to be, and sometimes was, elided. Thus 
