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THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA 



luju, 



luju, 



watjunattu, 



hujuattu, 



naijattu, 



waijunuti, 



hujunuti, 



naijunuti, 



his mother, 

 her mother. 

 our mother, 

 your mother, 

 their mother, 

 our mothers, 

 your mothers. 

 their mothers. 



Many of Uie.se forms suffer elision in speaking. Tui father, datti my father, watUnatti our father, contracted to 

 wattinti {watti rarely used). 



When thus construed with pronouns, most nouns undergo some change of form, usually by adding an affix ; 

 bdru an axe, ddbarun my axe, iuli tobacco, dqjulite my tobacco. 



ADJECTIVES. 



The verb is the primitive part of speech in American tongues. To the aboriginal man every person and object 

 presents itself as either doing or suffering something, every quality and attribute as something which is faking place 

 or existing. His philosophy is that of the extreme idealists or the extreme materialists, who alike maintain that 

 nothing is, beyond the cognizance of our senses. Therefore his adjectives are all verbal participles, indicating a state 

 Of existence. Thus iixaatu, good, is from Ussdn to be good, and means the condition of being good, a good woman or 

 thing, iissati a, good man. 



Some adjectives, principally those from present participles, have flic masculine and neuter terminations i and u 

 in the singular, and in the plural i for both genders. Adjectives from the past participles end in Hie singular in fata 

 or ussia, in the plural in annu. When the masculine ends in illi, the neuter takes urru, as wadihilli, wadikurru, 



long. 



Comparison is expressed by adding ten or kin or adin (a verb meaning to be above) for the comparative, and 

 apudi for the diminutive. Ubura, from the verb uburau to be before in time, and adiki, from adikin to be after in 

 time, are also used for the same purpose. The superlative has to be expressed by a circumlocution; as tumaqua 

 aditu ipirrun turreha, what is great, beyond all else ; bokkia ilssd dduria, thou art better than I, where the last, word 

 is a compound of dai UWtiria of, from, than. The comparative degree of the adjectives corresponds (,o the intensive 

 and frequentative forms of the verbs; thus ipirrun to bo strong, ipirru strong, iplrruUn and ipirrubessabun to be 

 stronger, ipirrubetu and ipirrubessabutu stronger, that which is stronger. 



The numerals are wonderfully simple, and well illustrate how the primitive man began Ids arithmetic They 

 are : — 



1 abba. 



2 biama, plural biamannu. 



'■) kabbuhin, plural kubbuhininnu. 



4 bibiti, plural bibitinu. 



5 abbatekk&be, plural abbatekabbunu. 

 (i abbatiman, plural abbatimanninu. 



7 biamattiman, plural biamattimanninu. 



8 kabbuhintiman, plural kabbuhintimannlnu. 

 bibiiiman, plural bibitituiuanninu. 



10 biamanfekdbbe, plural biamantek&bunu. 



Now if we analyze these words, we discover that abbatekkdbc live, is simply abba one, and akkabu hand ; that the 

 word for six is literally "one [linger] of (he other [hand]," for seven "two [lingers] of the other [hand]," and so 



