MOINES. 429 



The adjective is usually compared bj supplying an adverbial 

 ^vot•(l witii the sense of very; frequently comparison is eflected by 

 nduiilication, complete or partial, the superlative being sometimes 

 marked Ijy a reiteration of the duplicated syllable, cf. 'worbrinun' 

 /'■/■"/. ' worbrinunun, very tired; ' worbrinununun,' excessively 

 lir.il^rp'jularly done* This hanging on a letter or syllable also 

 implies continuity or intensity in the meaning of the verb in some 

 dialects. Another mode of comparison in adjectives is by singling 

 out that object which surpasses the other or others, and saying 

 ' this big ' 'this good ' and so on. In opposition to the view that 

 a word may be a noun or adjective indifferently by tacking on or 

 omitting the case endings, and that there is no ditterence in form 

 I repeat what I have already remarked, that this is not invariably 

 true, that for instance there are certain recognisable adjectival 

 terminations such as '-ngur ' in the Kabi dialect although they 

 are affixed to only a limfted number of words. This however is 

 to l)e observed that in Kabi, nouns may become adjectives by the 

 addition of '-ngur' just as in English by affixing -like, in German -ig. 



The system of notation has been already referred to and I only 

 mention it here to remark that the term for one varies exceedingly, 

 ^vhile that for two is very uniform and reducible to about three or 

 four different types which may help to tell the tale of origin. The 

 tlnv,. main types are in English spelling, ' kootal ' in the west, 

 'I'.uknol ' across the centre from north to south, 'boolla ' in the 

 (■■^■'t, also reaching from north to south. ' Kootal ' prevails in my 

 ^Vestern Division ' barkool' and ' boolla ' are both embraced m 

 the Eastern, while the form in the Central is not determined. 

 'Boolla ' I believe to be of Papuan, ' barkool ' of Indian origin. 



The pronouns are specially remarkable for the almost universal 

 currency of certain forms, both of stem and (less uniformly) of 

 case-ending, notably those of the first and second persons singular. 

 The first and second persons singular are generally of the central 

 Indian ' nan-nin ' type (' ngan-ngin ' rather in Australia) m some 

 cases the plural has the same base as the singular, with genera ly 

 f syllable marked by the letter T to indicate plurality, this also 

 ■^ing an Indian feature. In the first and second persons there is 

 usually a dual, the first dual being, sometimes at least, such a corn- 

 Pound as we-thou, the second the numeral Uvo. In the W est 

 Australian speech different pairs are indicated by different details 

 in the three persons significant of such relations as (1) husband 

 and wife or people greatly attached, (2) parent and child, uncle 

 and nephew, and the like, (3) brother and sister or a pair of friends. 



,. * Mode used by the Melbourne blacks, vide Smyth, The Aborigines of 



