998 Grammatical construction of the Ho language. [No. 106. 



of the language is sprightly and cheerful ; if the subject be of a 

 complaining nature it subsides into a strange chaunt, the sentences 

 being linked together by such see-saw sounds, as " na-do na-do en^te 

 na-do'* which have no meaning, but serve to connect together the 

 speaker's ideas. 



When two or more words come together, the former ending, and 

 the latter beginning with similar vowels, they are joined by ellipsis, 

 as '* Hola'le seniena," instead of '' Hola alle seniena," we went yesterday. 



Article. 

 There are none, (properly speaking), definite or indefinite. 



Noun. 



There is no distinction of genders; marked or influenced by ter- 

 mination, it being determined by the sense or meaning of the word, 

 whether referring to a male or female being. Besides man and 

 womany '' erril" and " era," hoy and girl^ " koa" and *' kooee," names of 

 relations, and those of a few domestic animals, all other nouns are 

 distinguished in their gender by prefixing '' Sandee" mahy or " Enga" 



femalcy as in Persian or English -=-ij « J Jo (^«iU, he-bear^ 

 she-bear. ' ^' 



A noun has three numbers, singular, dual, and plural, as in Greek. 



The nouns can scarcely be said to have declension as the terminal 

 does not vary either according to number or case, although a dis- 

 tinguishing adjunct, which may be called a ' Pronoun article,' from 

 its nature and use, is added. 



Singular. Dual. Plural. 



Nom. Seta, a dog. Seta king, two dogs. Seta ko, dogs. 



Gen. S^ta-d, of a dog. Seta kingya, of two dogs. Seta koa, of dogs. 

 Ab. Seia-i^, from a dog. Seta king t6,from twodogs. Setakoie, fromdogs. 



The dative, accusative, and vocative cases do not differ from the 

 nominative, being only known from their position in a sentence. 



In composition, the noun in an accusative case takes the first place 

 in the sentence, if the nominative be a pronoun; otherwise the noun- 

 nominative precedes, the accusative follows, and the oblique or dative 

 case comes immediately before the verb, sometimes immediately after 

 it. '' En ho kajikeeai aya era," that man said to his wife, *' Dendka 



