boas] handbook of INDIAN LANGUAGES TAKELMA 247 



a'Fdsi dut'a, gl^-s-i^ %'lts!a¥'^ eit'e^ he id¥) (is) handsome {ctu) 



I-but ugly I-am 

 il's-i naxdeF al-ts!i'lt'si^ give-me my-pipe red-one (implying 



others of different color) 

 waga'Vsi^ di which one? 

 aga ^/os-o'"t'a %'daga yaxa maha'iVsi this (is) small, that but 



large (cf 128.7) 

 I'daga s-o^^ maha^iVa, that-one (is) altogether-big ( = that one 



is biggest) 



It seems that, wherever possible, -t'a keeps its t' intact. To prevent 

 its becoming -da (as in a'¥da above) an inorganic a seems to be 

 added in: 



TcIulsa'Vii^ soft 57.9 (cf. IduHs wovm; more probably directly from 

 Ic.'ulsaY 130.22) 



§ 99. PLURAL {-fan, -han, -k.'an) 



As a rule, it is not considered necessary in Takelma to specify the 

 singularity or plurality of an object, the context generally serving to 

 remove the resulting ambiguity. In this respect Takelma resembles 

 many other American languages. The element -{a)n, however, is 

 not infrequently employed to form a plural, but this plural is of 

 rather indefinite application when the noun is supplied with a third 

 personal possessive suffix (compare what was said above, § 91, in 

 regard to -gwan) . The fact that the plurality implied by the suffix 

 may have reference to either the object possessed or to the possessor 

 or to both (e. g., heya'nhan his daughters or their daughter, 

 THEIR daughters) makes it very probable that we are here dealing, 

 not with the simple idea of plurality, but rather with that of reci- 

 procity. It is probably not accidental that the plural -(a)n agrees 

 phonetically with the reciprocal element -an- found in the verb. In 

 no case is the plural suffix necessary in order to give a word its full 

 syntactic form; it is always appended to the absolute noun or to the 

 noun with its full complement of characteristic and pronominal affix. 



The simple form -{a)n of the suffix appears only in the third per- 

 sonal reflexive possessive -gwa-n (see § 91) and, apparently, the third 

 personal possessive -fan of pre-positive local phrases (see p. 238). 

 Many absolute nouns ending in a vowel, or in I, m, or n, also nouns 

 with personal affixes (including pre-positives with possessive suffixes) 

 other than that of the third person, take the form -lian of the plural 



§ 99 



