104 



JOCHELSON 



nouns for the purpose of indicating the first and second persons. 

 Only to express ownership of a third person is a possessive 

 suffix joined to nouns. 



§ 8. The following comparative table illustrates the use of 

 the possessive suffixes in nouns in the Yakut (one of the Ural- 

 Altaic languages) and the Yukaghir languages. 



Yakut. 



Yukaghir. 



£ o 



c« o 



o >-, 





Possessive 

 Suffix. 



Possessive 

 Pronouns, i 



Father 

 (Base). 



0) 



Ph 





Min 



aha'- 



m 



Met 



eci'e 





My father 



Bisigi' 



aha- 



bi'i 



Mit 



eci'e 





Our father 



En 



aha' - 



n 



Tet 



eci'e 





Thy father 



esigi' 



aha- 



hi't 



Tit 



eci' e 





Your father 



Kini' 



aha- 



fa' 



Tu'del 



eci'e- 



^i 



His father 



Kinile'r 



aha- 



la'i- 



Ti'td 



eci'e- 



pegi 



Their father and 

 their fathers 



§ 9. Instead of the possessive suffix = gi, another form may be 

 used for the expression of the idea of the relation of ownership 

 between objects. For instance : 



1. Met eci' e ninno' -gi 



2. Met eci' e-nu' ma 



1. Met eci' e-d-d' ce-gi 



2. Met eci' e-d-dce 



my father house his, or 

 my father's house, 

 my father reindeer his, or 

 my father's reindeer. 



The second form is similar to the Saxon form of the genitive 

 case in the English language (my father's house, my father's 

 reindeer) ; but it is not the suffix of the genitive case that we 

 meet with here. Only for the sake of euphony is d (or ;/) put 

 between the final vowel of the first word and that of the initial 

 in the second word. 



§ 10. The possessive suffix is used after the third person of a 

 personal pronoun, 



1 See §§54, 55- 



