in.] SICHUAN A LANGUAGE. Ill 



3rd CLASS. 



Particles 0, eo, 0. 

 All nouns beginning with a, 

 mo, b, mo, a, take as the sign. 

 Personal nouns on b, mo, take eo, 

 and supplemental. 



Particles e, ba. 

 All nouns in a, mo form the 

 plural by changing mo into me, and 

 have e as their plural sign ; h, mo, 

 or personal nouns in mo, form the 

 plural by changing mo into ba ; 

 foreign words do the same. 



These particles or signs have no less than sixteen uses ; 

 in fact they perform the functions of numerous parts of 

 speech, indeclinable in this language, but declinable in most 

 others. 



These uses are: — 



I. Sichuana nouns being indeclinable, these particles 

 alone undergo the changes which express the oblique cases. 

 Ex: tiho ea mothu, work of man; mothu oa tiho, man of 

 work, &C 1 . 



II. The first thing which strikes an European on 

 opening a Sichuana book is the reduplication of the parti- 

 cles. The sign repeated twice is used exactly as 6 ti 

 in Greek, that which ; oti nrXeia-Tov = 6' ti to irXeia-Tov, " that 

 which the most." So in Sichuana tiho e e klolu, " work that 

 which is great," &c 2 . 



III. When connected with the substantive verb, go le 3 

 or go na, to be, reduplication of the particle shews time 

 past. Thus: selemo se le monate summer is pleasant; 

 selemo se le se le monate, summer was pleasant, &c 3 . 



IV. The signs become pronouns to their respective 

 classes of nouns by affixing the syllable na or ona. 



V. They become demonstrative pronouns when fur- 

 nished with the affix uo. 



VI. Totality or universality is expressed in reference 

 to any of the nouns of which these particles are the signs 



1 Analysis, p. 11. 2 Ibid, p. 11. 3 Ibid, p. 13. 



