ipt® 
1903. | MATHEWS— ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES. 181 
Case.—The principal cases are the nominative, causative (or 
nominative-agent), genitive, accusative, instrumental, dative:and 
ablative. ; 
The nominative merely names the animal or thing, as, ngurui, 
emu; dhaggufi, paddmelon ; wirri, bandicoot ; wagan, crow; mulli, 
boomerang ; kinni, yamstick ; giindal, dog; gugai, opossum ; ngura, 
acamp; wungga, a bird’s nest. 
Causative: Guladyu ngunna wirrunga, a kangaroo me scratched. 
Instrumental : Méndyu wagan mullinyu bundhara, a man a crow 
with a boomerang hit. 
Genitive: Mugingu kinni, a woman’s yamstick. Wagangu 
wungga, a crow’s nest. 
Dative: Dhan yanna nguranggu, come to the camp. 
Ablative: Dhirri yanna ngurango, go away from the camp. 
Accusative: This is the same as the nominative. 
ADJECTIVES. 
Adjectives are placed after the nouns they qualify, and are simi- 
larly inflected for number and case. 
Nominative: Gundal kittyu, a dog small ; gundalbural kittyubural, 
a couple of small dogs ; gundaldhu kittyudhunna, several small dogs. 
Causative: Mugindyu thurdadyu guthera bundhara, a woman 
large a child beat. 
Genitive: Méngu thurdagu mulli, the large man’s boomerang. 
Adjectives are compared by using such phrases as, thurda nhu, 
kittyu niingga, large this, small that. Superiority is implied by 
saying, thurdaburra, very large. 
PRONOUNS. 
Pronouns are inflected for number and person, and comprise the 
nominative, possessive and objective cases, some examples of which 
are given in the following table. There are forms in the first 
person of the dual and plural to express the inclusion or exclusion 
of the party addressed : 
Singular. 
Nominative, Possesstve. Objective. 
act Persog) ) i... s..- Ngadhu Ngundi Ngunna 
Rg ORS, Se Ngindu Ingga Bunga 
RCS SERENE Sah ett Yallunggo Ngumboga Bunha 
