ON TUB NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 



883 



Demonstrative adverbs are : here, gue'E ; there, ya'gua. 



the book here, sftwuns gue'e. 

 It seems that these suffixes are also attached to words : 



your children here, tlguEne'E. 

 J?ome prepositions have separate forms for presence and absence : 



at, to, present — da. at, to, absent — ga, gasga. 



THE VERB. 



The Intransitive Verb. 

 Present tense. 



Singular. 

 1st person: (») — o 



2nd „ (me) — en 



3rd „ present : — et (e<) 



3rd „ absent : — t^ffa, Ega 



Plural. 



(dsp) — EM. 



(niESEin) — ETMEm. 



(dEJj)--Et(h't). 



(dEp)—Etga, Ega. 



The prefixes placed in parentheses are not always used, but seem to serve merely 

 for the purpose of giving greater clearness or emphasis to the sentence. 



The imperfect tense is formed by the prefix he — ,the future by dsm — . It seems 

 that in the imperfect the personal prefixes are almost always used. They are con- 

 tracted with the temporal character. 



The perfect is formed by tla preceding the present tense, the plusquamperfectum 

 and futunim exactum by the characteristic particles of these tenses preceding the 

 perfect. 



7ie has been sick, tla sI'epgEt. he had been sick, na tla sl'epgBt. 



he will have been sick, dEm tla si'epgEt. 



1st person 

 2nd „ 

 3rd „ 



Interrogative. 



Singular. 

 — Enawe 

 VIE — une' 

 — e 



Plural. 

 — sname. 

 — E»eme. 

 — e. 



Negative. 

 1st person singular, atlgE — e. 1st person plural, atlgE — «w 



2nd „ „ atlgE — sn. 2nd „ „ atlgE — ExEin. 



3rd „ „ atigs — Et. 3rd „ „ atigs—st. 



Note. — Nouns and adjectives with the rcrbitm siibstantinim are inflected in the 

 same way as the verbum intraiusitirum. If the noun is accompanied by an adjective, 

 the former is infl«cted : 



I am a Tsimshinn, Ts'EmsianO'. I am a good tronian, ama' hana'rano. 



yoH arc Tsimshian, Ts'Emsia'nsEm. are you a Tsimshian? Ts'EmsianEne' ? 



The third person Is frequently expressed by adding the demonstrative pro- 

 noun : 



they are Tsimthian, Ts'Emsian dEp gna'sga. 



3 L 2 



