ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 



873 



k'iil, to see. 

 Indicative ; Presest Tense. 



Note. — It seems that in the first person plural the transitive pronoun d'ali:'/! is 

 contracted. It is remarkable that the characteristic suflix of the third person pliiral 

 -rO is also used when the object is in the third person plural. When the object is a 

 substantive it is placed before the subject : 



td'no tl td'ga, I eat salmon. 



It will be seen that the suffixes of the transitive verb are the same as those of the 

 intransitive, with the sole exception of the second persons, where the termination -gF.it 

 is missing. This, however, is also frequently the case in intransitive verbs. 



Note. — While in the great majority of cases the verb is inflected, as indicated 

 above, I found a considerable number of instances in which the terminal -ga was 

 missing; for instance, tla gata' and tla gata'ga, I eat ; tin gvdK'/i, I hear. In other 

 cases I found tlie terminal syllable -gE/l instead of -ga ; but I was not able to detect 

 any rule regarding their use. 



tla gatd'ng e'sE/i tla gata', I eat and eat again. 



tla giidE'/'igEii, I hear. 



tla skuagudE'ngEii, I smell. 



tla k-i/igE/l, I see it (something inanimate). 



Note. — There are a few instances in which the pronoun, second person singular, 

 seems to be tin or tla/i : 



da tin kiflga, I see you. tcin tla tlailra ta ! eat your salmon ! 



thira nd'gai, your house. 



Note.— Sometimes the syllable gyl is added to the first person without changing 

 the meaning : 



gyt de gt&tl yua'ngang, I should like much. 

 dsTl li-ea'Ugai ggfde gudE'nga, 1 wish to see you. 

 gyl de k-'ae'gkidd'gane 1 I forgot ! 

 hal de gyl sqd'wai i'sta ! give me a knife I 



It may be that it is an interjection similar to ' oh 1 ' (Latin utinam .') 



Interrogative. 

 The interrogative is expressed by the particle gua, which is placed after the subject, 

 object, or adverb, as the case may be. 



