882 



BEPOBT — 1889. 



PEONOUy. 

 Pebsoxal PEOsorx. 



Independent. 

 I, DE'riO 

 thou, nE'rEn 

 he, $he(j^e^nt),ne'EdEX 

 {absent), ne'etga 



me, ga 1 

 thee, gtia(n) 

 ?i>.in, lur (^pretent), — 

 (absent), — 



us, g'TTm 



(to) you, gua'sEm 



Dependent. 

 I (present), (n; — o, I (absent), — e 

 thou (mE), — En 

 he, she (present), — Et 

 (absent), — 'EXgA, Ega 



me, nE'rEm 



you, nE'rESEm 



tA^y(jwe#fn#),dEpne'EdEt them (present), — 



— —{ahsent), dEp ne'etga (absent), — 



The independent pronoun, the third person excepted, is formed from the stem 

 riET — , the origin of which is xmknown to me. 



n-^.^Em 



you, — EnsEm 



they (present), — Et 



(absent), Etga, Ega 



Possessive Pboxous. 



The independent form of the possessive prononn is identical with the nominative 

 of the personal pronoun : mine, ne'rio, kc. 



The dependent possessive pronoun is afiBsed to the noun to which it belongs. 

 There are distinct forms for the object being present or absent, and three tenses, 

 past, present, and future. There is no difference between the possessive form of the 

 noun and the intransitive verb, and it seems to the writer that according to the 

 logical form of the Tsimshian language both must be considered identical. For this 

 reason it seems possible that the form UErid (I and mine) is formed from the verbum 

 substantiruin ne and the pronominal suffix. The temporal prefixes and the 

 forms for presence and absence are also identical with those of the verb. The third 

 person plural is omitted, being identical with the singular. Further remarks on these 

 suffixes will be found on p. 884. 



Demoxstbative Peoxoux. 



Presence and absence may best be treated under this heading, as they correspond 

 to a certain extent to our ' this ' and ' that.' Absence is designated by the suffixes 

 ■ga and -(la(a), presence by -t. I do not know whether there is any difference 

 between the two forms of absence. In continuous speech presence and absence are 

 always expressed by -ga and -t. 



Besides these suffixes, we find the particles (or pronouns) -a>ga = being absent, 

 -a = being present, frequently used. The suffix -ga is used instead of the imperfect 

 tense, the absence indicating, at the same time, that the action or event belonged 

 to the past. The suffix is always attached to the word the presence or absence of 

 which is to be stated : 



negua'ts Bsordst, the (present) George's father. 

 negud'ts Dsordsdaa, the (absent) George's father. 



The demonstrative pronouns are formed by means of the same suffixes : 

 this, gue'Et and gua'a. that, gua'sga. 



In sentences our demonstrative pronoun is frequently expressed by the corre- 

 sponding verbal form : 



this man it good, am io'odEt. that man it good, am at iO'odEtga. 



