AUSTRALIA. 



501 



KAMILARAI. 



From what has been said, it will be evi- 

 dent that the power of the Australian lan- 

 guages resides chiefly in their numerous 

 modifying particles. It is often difficult to 

 determine whether these should be written 

 as separate words, or united with the term 

 which they serve to modify. It is, likewise, 

 not always easy to trace the exact shade of 

 meaning which the particle is intended to 

 indicate, owing to the novel and peculiar 

 principles on which the grammatical system 

 of these languages is founded. 



Besides the particles already mentioned, 

 some others require to be noticed. 



Korien is the word for not; but when 

 appended to a noun or adjective it has the 

 force of -less or un- in English ; as, muro- 

 roy, good, worthy, murorog-korien, worth- 

 less, unworthy. 



Kiloa, like, is used as a suffix, precisely 

 as in English ; as, u-onai-kiloa, childlike. 



Kci answers to ish in English ; as, wo- 

 naikei, childish ; wonknlkei, foolish. 



Ymiti, ;is, is used in forming compari- 

 sons ; as, kekulkei v?ii yanti vnoa kiloa, 

 lit. sweet this as that like, i. e. this is sweet 

 as that. Yanti-bo-la is rendered " so in- 

 deed it is." 



Bo, joined with a pronoun, has an em- 

 phatic signification ; as, yatoa-ln, I myself, 

 I indeed, &c. It is also used with other 

 words. 



Ko ; this particle is of very frequent use 

 in this language. With some nouns it forms, 

 as has been seen, the active nominative case; 

 with all, it forms the dative case, having the 

 signification of to or for, implying purpose 

 or object ; with the same meaning it is ap- 

 pended to the infinitive of verbs ; as, bun- 

 kili-ko, in order to strike. In the latter 

 case it is frequently omitted in speaking. 



Koa is used with the infinitive instead of 

 ko, in order to express continuance of an 

 action. With the form of the verb which 



WIRADUREI. 



Mogu is affixed to nouns to signify desti- 

 tution or privation ; as, iray, teeth, ira- 

 mogu, toothless (the TJ being dropped before 

 m for euphony). Mubay has the same 

 meaning ; as, maruy-mubay, not good, 

 worthless. 



Gulia is suffixed with the sense of like ; 

 as, u-arjgai-gulia, childlike. But where 

 similitude is intended, gulain must be used; 

 as, gilnr-gulain, like a man. 



Hiyian is used in comparing ; as, yidyi 

 maruy, yila yiyian, this good that like, i. e. 

 this is as good as that. 



Bu signifies too, or also ; as, yadu-bu, 1 

 also. 



Gu; all the remarks made respecting 

 ko in the Kamilarai dialect will apply to this 

 particle, which is identical in use and nearly 

 in sound. 



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