1875.) ^'^1 [Gabb. 



ung in nearly a dozen Bri-bri verbs, where it Las about the same value as 

 Englisli affix ate. 



Ai'ticles and conjunctions do not exist in the language, the other parts 

 of speech being however present. 



Nouns have no inflections f'T gender, number, person, or case. If it is 

 desired to express sex,the word male or female is used; thus my daughter is 

 called je la e-ra'-lcur, my woman child ; a bull is vaca we'-nyi or male cow. 

 The only exceptions to this rule are the few wor-ds referring to the 

 human race, like man, woman, and some of the family relationships. 

 Beyond this no distinctions of gender occur. 



Number is always indicated by a numeral or by such words as much, 

 many, &c. Two or three words occur that may be considered as apparent 

 exceptions. Di-cha' means a bone ; di die' is bones. Di-ka' is thorn 

 and di-lie' is thorns, not two or three, but all the thorns on a tree, in a 

 collsctive sense. U-ra'-ska (^u-ra arm) is a finger, while n-ra-shkwe' 

 (? fingers) is the hand. The coincidence in the termination of these iso- 

 lated plurals, if they can be so called, is worthy of note. 



Person is only indicated by the addition of a personal i^ronoun. The 

 only semblance of inflection for case, is the addition of cha, the sign of 

 possession, alike to nouns and pronouns ; or of the prepositions, wa, ta 

 (with), &c., as suffixes, making an ablative. 



The personal pronouns are all monosyllables except yepa (they), a 

 compound of ye (third per., sing.) and j)a people. Although normally of 

 one syllable, they are often used with the termination re (excei^t ye-pa} 

 for either emphasis or euphony ; thus it is equally correct to say j« ov je'- 

 re. Me (yourself) is used only in connection with a verb, like me-sku, 

 move yourself; me tu is, lie (yourself) down. The sign of possession, as 

 stated above, is added alike to the pronoun, or to the name or title of a 

 person ;j;e-c7/ a, mine. Ese (that) is probably derived from the Spanish, and 

 with i (literally what) does duty for the neuter. "Where the nouns in a 

 language are so simple, it is hardly to be expected that the adjectives and 

 adverbs should suffer many changes. Boi, good or well, used either as 

 an adjective or adverb, becomes boi-na, better, and a sort of superlative 

 is formed by adding very ; boicliukli. Tyng, large, is in an increased de- 

 gree either tyng chukli, very lai-ge, or tyng hru ; bni, meaning also large 

 but adding emphasis when the two words ai-e combined. To boi and tyng, 

 Mi is added as a suffix to qualify the sense, like isli in English ; boi-kli, 

 goodish, pretty good, and tyng-kli, largish, or somewhat large. 



The short i which begins most of the Bri-bri verbs, is not specially the 

 sign of the infinitive, but is almost universally used where the verb is not 

 preceded by another word, and is sometimes used even then for 

 euphony. 



There are four well-defined moods : the infinitive, the indicative, the 

 subjunctive, and tlie imperative. The subjunctive is as simple as in Eng- 

 lish, being formed from the indicative by mi-ka-re' (if) jilaced at the be- 

 ginning of the sentence. 

 A. p. S. — VOL. XIV. 3q 



