THE MOHAWK LANGUAGE. 11 



That arises from there being two forms — a masculine and feminine, 

 for the pronoun their. Were we speaking of both genders, as a boy 

 or girl, in. the expression " their book," we would use the masculine 

 form. 



There is no distincfcion between the nominative and accusative 

 forms. 



Reference has already been made to a masculine, feminine, and 

 neuter gender. 



We shall find that the masculine and feminine are confined entirely 

 to mankind, and that the initial E. seems to be in some way con- 

 nected, as already mentioned, with the masciilrae, while with the 

 feminine, K and Y are used, e.g. : — 



^on-kwe Man. Fon-kwe Woman, 



^ih-yen-ah My son. ATie-yen-ali My daughter, 



^ax-ah Boy, Aax-Iia Girl. 



We have already pointed out the existence of two forms of the 

 feminine, confined, I believe, to the singular. There is one form 

 applied to those whom we esteem, as to a mother, and there is a 

 general form, which, perhaps, may be more properly regarded as a 

 common gender, and it is the form used when speaking of the beasts 

 of the field, and applied without distinction of gender. This form is 

 used when speaking in general terms of the female sex. 



The common gender is confined entirely to the brute creation. 

 Where no masculine or feminine exists, as I stated in the formation 

 of the possessive case, whenever we are speaking of both sexes, as 

 man or woman, we use the masculine, dual, or plural form, as the case 

 may be. 



There are in nouns, conti-ary to what we should expect from what 

 we have seen of the pronouns, only two numbers, the singular and 

 the plural, there being no dual. 



The formation of the plural is quite simple and uniform, being 

 efiected in two ways, according as the word represents an animate or 

 inanimate being. For the foi-mer we add to the singular the termina- 

 tion o-konh, e.g. : — 



Ya-ko-sa-tens = Horse Ya-ko-sa-tens-o-^oreA = Horses. 



On-kweh = Mankind On-hw&h-o-konh. 



For the inanimates we add o-kon-ah, e.g. : — 



Ak-sa-reh — Knife Ah-sn-reh-o-kon-ah = Knives. 



Ah-dak =Slioe Ah-dah-o-kon-ah = Shoes. 



