USE OF THE DISTRIBUTIVE FORM. 465 



2. Substantives occurring in the distributive form alone are few in num- 

 ber and unite both functions — that of a real phiral and that of indicating 

 severalty. 



liilp, contr. for lulap eyes ; na'sh lulp one eye, though liilp is used for one 



eye also, 

 ma'makli, generic term for ivild ducks and geese. 

 mumuatch ears, both ears, the hearing apparatus; nd-ighstani or na'sh 



mumuatch one ear (Mod.). 

 tataksni, obj. case tatakiash children; w^ash one child. 

 w^wanuish, contr. wewansh women; snawedsh one looman. 



3. Substantives which occur in both forms and in the distributive may 

 be used as well as real plurals for all forms marking severalty. This class 

 is composed of such terms for persons as most frequently occur in conver- 

 sational language. 



hihashuaks inen, husbands, and each man or husband. 



lalaki chiefs of a tribe, and each chief. 



shasliamoks relatives and each relative. 



shishuaga girls and each girl. 



titsga-aga old parents and each old parent. 



w^wanuish ivomen and each woman. 



4. Substantives occurring in one form only, either the absolute, or the dis- 

 tributive form. Some lack the latter form for several causes, chief of which 

 is the difficulty or impossibility of pronouncing a reduplication of the initial 

 syllable, or the iteration of which would be repugnant to the native ear. 

 Many of these nouns are the products of iterative reduplication. Thus we 

 iiave: aha-asli species of crows, l;^el;{atanash harness, ndnashgish butcher, 

 iikankatuish fetlocks, slitchishtchaggedshnish trotting-horse, slitoshtotisli go- 

 pher, vushu chest, watch horse. With these and many other terms severalty 

 has to be indicated by an adjective or numeral serving as an attribute, or 

 by the verb of the sentence, plurality by adjectives like tumi many, etc. 



Collective nouns, generally speaking, do not reduplicate distributively, 

 but prefer syntactic means to express severalty and large number. There 

 are, however, some which do so reduplicate, and in fact there is no strin- 



30 



