114 DETAILS RESPECTING COCHIN CHINA, 
species, the word tral, for masculine ; and the word gai for fe¬ 
minine : for animals the word dm indicates the male, the word cai 
the female, e. g. bo due, an ox, ho cai a cow; for winged ani¬ 
mals, they employ the words Prong and mat, ga trdng a cock, 
get mai, a hen. Before the names of living things they ordinarily 
put the word con (boy or girl): thus they say, con trai , a boy; con 
gai a girl; con trau , a buffaloe; con ca, a fish. They also fre¬ 
quently use the word cai before the names of inanimate things; 
thus they will say cai gM a seat ; cai nha a house. They usu¬ 
ally place the word cay , tree, before all the names of trees, and the 
word trah fruit, before all the names of fruits.^ 
To mark the plural, they add some word before the substan¬ 
tive as chung, nhung , cac,pho &c. — We, chung ioi; All those 
who, nhung he ; Messieurs, phd dng , &c. 
The nominative always precedes the verb active. When tw r o sub¬ 
stantives follow one another, the second is in the genitive. The dative 
is ordinarily marked by the word cho placed before the substantive, 
e. g. to do something to some one, lam su gi cho ai. The accusative 
generally follows the verb active, sometimes also it precedes it,— 
there is no fixed rule. The vocative is expressed by putting before 
substantive the particles d, a, or in expressing the title of the 
person whom they name:—0 my God, 6 chua tdi. The abla¬ 
tive is denoted by some prepositions, as bang hoi. 
The personal pronouns arc, tdi, may , no; me, thou, him; 
and in the plural, cluing toi, chung hay, chung no, we, you, 
they. It is to be observed, however, that scarcely any but inferi¬ 
or persons use the word toi, me; the king uses the w'ord tdrm, 
and others who are superiors in dignity use the words; iao, la, 
min. May, toi, they do not address except to inferiors ; if they 
speak to an equal, they will call him anh, brother; to a superior 
they will say dng, sir, or they will employ another titular word. 
They also rarely say no, of the third person ; this would be a term 
of contempt, unless they were very much superior in rank; they 
will say rather this Mr. (Monsieur); ngnoi dy this person, or as 
well anh dy this brother. 
Personal pronouns placed after substantives become possessive 
pronouns ; nha toi, my house. The demonstrative pronouns arc; 
nay, and dy, this, that. 
