BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 169 



This suffix is used much with terms of relationship, sometimes 

 probably in an endearing- sense; as, 



cxAnk!^'- grandchild sik! " daughter 



ink!" grandparent helh!" nephew or niece 



Lak!" little mother, mother's 

 sister 



§ 9. Collective 



With animate or inanimate objects, but more often the latter, the 

 sense of a lot of or a heap of is expressed by suffixing q! or q!t; as, 



Lingt't man or men £ingi'tq! many men together 



ta stone teq! stones lying in a heap 



qlcit! island q.'d't.'q.'t islands 



hit house ht'tqit houses 



gux slave guxq! slaves 



That this is not a true plural is shown on the one hand by the 

 fact that its emploN'ment is not essential, and on the other by the 

 fact that it is occasiona,lly used where no idea of plurality, according 

 to the English understanding of that term, exists. Thus yuya! l 

 LAnq! THE BIG WHALE may be said of a single whale, the suffix indi- 

 cating that the whale was very large, and that it had many parts to l)e 

 cut out. Therefore it may best be called a collective suffix. 



With terms of relationship the plural is more often indicated by 

 placing JiAS after the noun : 



duhl'k his uncle, <h(ka'k Jias dna't his aunt, (hiR't /iai^ his 

 his uncles aunts 



Ha.'^ also fulfills the office of a personal pronominal prefix in the 

 third person plural, l)ut it is probable that the pronominal function is 

 secondary (see § 11). 



Instead of /;.4.s', some terms of relationship take ye/), often in con- 

 junction with the collective suffix </,'/ as, 



dukd'ni his brother-in-law dukd'niyen his brothers-in-law 



klkf younger brother wuchikHye'n brothers to each 



other {\Lm- § 1.5.1:; v- % 11) 

 ducA't his wife ducA'tqItyen his wives 



§ 10. JPossessioii 



Possession is expressed ])y the possessive pronoun, which precedes 

 the noun, and by a suffix which is attached to the term for the thing 

 possessed, except when it is a term of relationship or part of the body, 



U 9, 10 



