CHAPTER III. 



Of Adjfxtives and their Degrees of Comparison ; of 

 istumbers. 



adjectives. 

 Adjectives may receive the same particle as the noun, to which 

 they belong ; the particle is generally omitted in one of the 

 words, the substantive as a rule, for only the last word is de- 

 clined, as, 



ta katjia tera marana mana ntema, 

 '' I child two good to bread give." 

 i.e., " I give bread to the two good children." 



Besides these primitive adjectives, others are formed — 

 a. From substantives, by annexing the particle karinga, as, 

 kivatja, "water;" kwatjakaringa, "watery;" or, arila, "sand;" 

 cm'ilakaringa, "sandy;" or the particle i?^to, as, inita, "stone;" 

 jmtahuta, "stony;" or the particle wm^ct, as, kankinja, "love;" 

 kankinjamata, "loving;" n/ir/;w«, " hate ;" njirknamata, "spite- 

 ful ;" kata, "father;" katamata, "fatherly." 



h. From the roots of verbs by adding the particle ntjaJkua, as, 

 tiiima, "weep;" tnintjcdkua, "disposed to cry;" ankama, 

 " speak ;" ankantjalkua, " talkative." 



Of the degrees of comparison— 



a. Comparative of equality : 



nana tera mala knira naramanga, 

 " these two equal large are." 



b. Comparative of superiority is formed by adding the particle 

 alk-ara, as, 



liana ivora maralkura nama, nana ngefjina, 

 " this boy good more is, that than." 



i.e., " this boy is better than that." 



c. The superlative can only be expressed either by repetition of 

 the word, as, kunakiina, "very bad;" or by adding the word, 

 indora, "very," to an adjective, as, tjenja, "high ;" tjenjindora, 

 " very high." 



d. Diminutives are formed by adding the particle kotjirka to 

 tlie word, ^^'s,, 'putakotjirka, "a very small stone;" kurkakotjirka, 

 "a very small one." 



NUMBERS. 



There are primitively only numbers up to four, viz. : — ninta, 

 "one;" tera, "two;" teramininta, "two by one," i.e., "three;" 

 terainatera, " two by two," i.e., " four." 



These numbers are declined in the same way as nouns when 

 standing in place of one. 



All higher numbers are expressed by: — nrbntja, "some;" 



