Eay & Haddon — The Languages of Torres Straits — II. 285 



2. 1^'uMBEE. — The dual is shown by the numeral netoa. Moro tuo 

 netoa, moro airo netoa, your two hands, your two feet. 



MacGregor states that in Kiwai the plural is sometimes formed by 

 adding ro to the singular. Some words in the vocabularies to which a 

 plural meaning might be assigned end in ro, though they are not given 

 as plural. Such words are dirimoro (ks), dirimo (k), land ; dodo (k), 

 beach, shore ; dodoro (k), coast. 



In the text the plural is formed by the word mabu following the 

 noun. Mabu literally translates the Miriam gi%, and has the same 

 meaning of "origin or foundation." luio malu, days; koimi mabu 

 (Mir. haimeg giz), disciples. 



The adjectives sirio and rorodia are also used to express the plural. 

 Sirio aruhi a numabu, many men and things ; sirio tanar, every act. 



Some nouns appear to have an irregular plural. Dubu, a man ; 

 urubi, didiri, men ; orolo, a woman ; upi, women. 



These methods of expressing the plural are sometimes combined. 

 Iwio mahu rorodia, all the days ; sirio sai mabu (k), many days ; arubi 

 mabu keahe a arubi uibu, arubi numabutato a sirio buaraigo, white men 

 and black men, poor men and chiefs. 



3. Gendee. — There is probably no gender. There are no examples 

 of the method of distinguishing sex. 



4. Case. — The noun is declined by means of suffixes. The cases 

 found are the Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative, 

 and Locative. 



(«) Nominative. — This is the simple form of the noun. 



(b) The Accusative does not differ in form from the Nominative, 

 but is known by its position following the verb. Oradubu atauti sirio 

 numabu, God made many things ; nou dodiai sirio horopa artibi, he 

 healed many sick men. 



Often, however, the accusative precedes the verb as in Miriam and 

 Saibai. Kigiro agiuai, give life ; moto odoro, enter the house ; wadura 

 waopo, prepare the pipe. 



(c) The Genitive or Possessive is shown by the suffix -na. Oradubu- 

 na mere, God's son ; lesuna ouera, Jesus' word ; girop-na numabu, 

 thing of the heart ; didiri-na ouera, men's word. 



id) The Dative is formed by the suffix -to or -ito. Savage's ms. 

 gives ou-to for Mir. kotor-em, to heaven ; opu-ifo, to the world, Mir. 

 ^eseb-em ; mauro-ito, to a place ; Mir. uteb-em. 



