880 REPOET — 1889. 



Tenses. 

 When the object spoken of belongs to the past, that is, if it has perished, or has been 

 destroyed or lost, the noun is used in the past tense, which is formed by the suffix 



-<?EE. 



the dead man, io'odEE = the man that was. 

 the broken canoe, qsa'dEE = the canoe that was. 



When the object belongs to the future, the noun is used in the future tense, which 

 is formed by the prefix dmn : 



thefutiire hvsband, dEm naks. 



the canoe that n-ill he made, dEm qsii'E. 



This prefix is the same as the characteristic of the future of the verb. 

 In continuous speech presence and absence are also distinguished, the former being: 

 expressed by the suffix -t, the latter by -ija. 



THE ADJECTIVE AND ADVERB. 



The adjective precedes the noun, and is generally joined to it by Ew : 



yoking man, sop'as Em io'ot. 



married man, naks Em io'ot. 



old man, wud'a'gyat Em io'ot ( = great person man). 



had man, hada'q Em io'ot. 



good man, am Em io'ot. 



In some instances a stands instead of e»h : 



good man, am a io'ot. 

 But : had man, hada'q a io'ot, is obsolete. 



Certain adjectives immediately precede the noun : 



large, wi : wi walp, a large house. 



wud'a huwalp, large houses, 

 very, important, sEmral. 



A number of adjectives are abbreviated in forming compounds : 



very, sEmral, dhhreviated, sEm : sEmhala'it, the importaDvt dance. 



good for nothing, k-amstE, ahhreriatcd, k'am : k-amwalp, a miserable Jwuse. 



The abbreviations cannot be used at pleasure. 



K'amstB walp and k-am walp, miserable house, are equally connect ; but, while we 

 have atlgE sEma'm, not very 7iice, sEma'm would not be correct ; it must be sEmral 

 a.m, re7'y nice. 



Note. — The meaning differs sometimes, according to whether Em is used or 

 omitted ; for instance : 



wlha'u, to cry ; /ro7n wi, great, and hau, to say. 



Bat : wi Em hau, to scold. 



Comparison. 



I give only a few examples of comparatives : 



John is taller than George, k'a wile'eks dE John tEst Dsords. 

 John is smollcr than George, k'a tso'oske John tEst Dsords. 

 tlwt is the heaviest, p'a'lEk's gua'a = that is heavy. 



NUMERALS. 



The Tsimshian has seven sets of cardinal numbers, which are used for various- 

 classes of objects that are counted. The first set is used in counting when there is 

 no definite object referred to ; the second class is used for counting flat objects and 

 animals ; the third for counting round objects and divisions of time ; the fourth for 

 counting men ; the llfth for counting long objects, the numerals being composed with 

 Iran, tree ; the sixth for counting canoes; and the seventh for measures. The last 

 seem to be composed with ano'n, hand. 



