308 Notes on the Languages spoken by the Mi-Shmis. [No. 4>. 



published in the XIV. Volume of the Asiatic Society's Journal, 

 (see p. 477). I fear I can add nothing of importance to the valu- 

 able information he then communicated regarding the manners and 

 customs of this people. I shall, therefore, confine myself on this 

 occasion to a few notes on the grammatical peculiarities of two of 

 the Mi-Shmi dialects, the Taying and Mi-jhu, the only two I have 

 yet had an opportunity of investigating. 



The Language of the Taying and Me- Me Mi-Shmis. 

 Oe Nouns. 



Nouns admit of no variations expressive of number ; the plural 

 state is generally denned by a numeral, or some other word expressive 

 of quantity. Thus; Nkoe, a dog, Nkoe Ka-iprei, four dogs, Nkoe- 

 Su-Newe, many dogs. 



Nor are the accidents of case, distinguished by any inflections or 

 differences of termination. The genitive case is denoted merely by 

 the juxta-position of the two substantives ; the former being under- 

 stood to be in the genitive case, e. g. 

 Tamium lami, the monkey's tail. 

 Machom hari, the root of the tree. 

 Maji ru, the buffalo's horn. 



The accusative is the same as the nominative, and is distinguished 

 only by its position in the sentence. 



Ha teku bri no, L want to buy faddy. 



A ro lum ma-bie, the boy will not catch the goats. 



The other relations of nouns are marked by the use of post-posi- 

 tive particles. 



Gender, in individuals of the human family, is marked by the 

 use of distinct terms. Eor example : 



Mawa, man — mia, woman. 



Nab a, father — nam a, mother. 



Ayewa, son — ayia, daughter. 



Pamyo, younger brother — mathie, younger sister. 



In the case of the inferior animals, the appellatives karii, male, 

 and tassi, female, are added to the noun. E. g. Majari karii, a male 

 cat — majari tassi, a female cat. 



