392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



y!agal-in'°dESE)i g'' ap-l!a-ioi-naxn6' gem da kid' I however, he (i. e., 

 you) indeed, 3-011 are really more greatly supernatural than I 

 (y/<2^«i- however; nlPd\\Q. [here with the meaning youj; -sEn in- 

 deed; ^V/^>- really; ^'/tt- exceedingly, more; ?/v- greatly; naxno'g 

 supernatural; -n thou; da preposition [see § 28j; hl&l me) 



J%g'i-gd'° dsm I' ! una' yin da I'.'d' i^ dEin I" Und'mu da l'!wA7i what- 

 ever you will ask of me, (that) I shall give you {ligi- any [see 

 § 8, no. 20]; gd° something; dEiti future; K'.'uno to request; -n 

 thou; <Z« preposition; I" Ima'm to g\ve,\ --ul) 



da-ya'gEt 7iEgwd'°t gss m'°t thus said his father to him 



§ 55. Possession 



In the Tsimshian dialect three forms of possession ma}' be distin- 

 guished, while the Nass dialect has only two. In the former dialect, 

 separable possession is always introduced by tlie prefix ;?^-, which 

 is absent in the Nass dialect. Both dialects distinguish possession of 

 inanimate and of animate objects. 



1. Nass dialect: 



{a) All possession of inanimate objects is expressed by the suffix 

 expressing the possessive pronoun (see § 53, <^), or, when the possessive 

 is expressed by a noun, by the addition of the connective (see § 23). 



hwt'lheE my house hawV Is Log oh ola' ihaxivvow oi L6g(3bola' 20.3 

 a'k'seE ray water 18.7 ts'ele' tiiL md'lg'e food of the canoe 107.6 



(5) All possession of animate objects is expressed by the same 

 suffixes, but the noun is given the passive suffixes -l\ -tl\ -.s (discussed 

 in § 17). Exceptions to this rule are terms of relationship in the sin- 

 gular, which take simply the possessive suffixes, like nouns expressing 

 inanimate objects. The occurrence of the endings -Z- and -tk in the 

 plurals of terms of relationship (see § M) may be due to the treatment 

 of those like other nouns designating animate objects. 



g-iho'tkH his wolf {g'iho' wolf; -tk passive suffix; -t his) 

 huxdd'g'intkH his grandchildren 19.10 



2. Tsimshian dialect: 

 {a) All inseparable possession, including nouns designating parts 



of the body, locations referring to self, and terms of relationship, 

 are expressed by possessive suffixes, and, when the possessive is 

 expressed by a noun, by the connectives (see § 27). 



{oc) Inseparable possession relating to ])arts of the body: 

 l>An belly Ia'jiii my belly 



tslag nose tsIa'gEn thy nose 



§56 " 



