30 



ETHN'OLOQT OF THE TNDO-PACIFIC ISLAND?. 



language witli tliG progress of time. In the Semitico-Li'jyan and 

 Indo-European formations we meet with facts of a like kind. The 

 same element may become singular, dun], plural, masculine, 

 feminine, neuter, possessive, objective &c. in different dialects and 

 even in different posiiiona. 



Dejinitwe Postfixes. 

 Tlie MSG of definitive postfixes belongs to the earliest alage of 

 ihe inversive formation and cannot be said to be even confined to 

 it, for some prepositional lanfruages postplace ihe definitive or 

 demonstrative, as Siaineso and most of the Indonesian languages. 

 In the Africo-Semiiie prepositional languages definitives are com- 

 mon as postfixes, and ihcy occnr in very archaic words, as ia 

 pronouns. SuhstHUtive terms are, to a great extent, composed of 

 a root and a definitive po&tfix in the Scytbic and Norih Asian, in 

 many American and African, in the Caucasian and Indo-European 

 luniiuages and even in Semitico-Libyan. 



The Draviro-Australian, unlike the Scythic and Caucasian for- 

 mations, distinguishes the gender by some of its ^lostfixes, in this 

 respect possessing ar. Irano-Semitic character. The Dravlrian 

 inanimate or neater posfix ajn, mw, mu &c U identical with the 

 Indo-European am &c of the objective which in neuter words 

 is used as the nominative. This usage is Dravirian also. In 

 Semitico-Libyan the labial has a masc. and plural force, and in 

 some languaijea it is common or neuter. The feminine i, a, of 

 Dravirian are likewise Semitico-Libyan and Indo-European femi- 

 nine terminals. The masc. (sometimes neuter) power of -n, d 

 and the fern, power of -I are not ludo-European or Semitico-Liby- 

 an, hut the roots are preserved with the same powci-s in Caucasian 

 words for "father" and "mother. " All ibe Dmviiian postfixes 

 are found in Scythic, Caucasian and Sem ilico-AJrican vocabularies* 

 It is deserving of remark ibat the wide spread definitive in s 

 which is a common Semitico-Libyan, Indo-European and Scythic 

 postfix to substantives dees not occnr as a Dravirian postfix unless 

 if df zhfj may be taken to represent it. In the Scythic languageg 

 a frequently becomes t and both take tbe sonant forms ar, d which 

 countenances this suggestion. 



The vocalic prefixes common in Scythic and African languages, 

 and b some of the Indo-European (c* g, Greek) arc rare but not 



