LANGUAGES OF THE KILIMANJARO DISTRICT . 453 
by Europeans. Another pleasant feature about it is 
tliat every syllable is so clearly enunciated by the 
people who speak it that a stranger may much more 
easily distinguish each word and realize its meaning 
than is ordinarily possible with a barbarian tongue. 
The leading features of the Masai language are these. 
It distinguishes three genders or classes of nouns, 
answering approximately to masculine , feminine , and 
neuter (or common). These genders are indicated by 
the form of the demonstrative article, demonstrative 
pronoun, nominal, adjectival, and participial prefix, but 
only the last—the neuter, or common—is represented in 
the personal pronouns and in the persons of the verb. 
There are two numbers, singular and plural. The 
plural is formed by an addition to or a change in the 
termination of the noun in the singular, sometimes by 
a change of article, 5 and in certain parts of speech 
(pronouns, a few adjectives, &c.) by prefixing or 
affixing Ku or K to the root. 6 
There are no cases or declensions of the noun ex¬ 
pressed by inflection or change in termination. The 
substantive in the genitive case follows the governing 
word, with a particle interposed between the nomina¬ 
tive and genitive. This particle seems to be either 
masculine, feminine, or neuter, according to the 
gender of the noun in the nominative case. 
The adjectives are either independent substantives 
assuming an adjectival position, or else they are par¬ 
ticiples from a verbal root, preceded by the masculine, 
feminine, and neuter (or general, or collective) prefixes. 
5 As in the masculine nouns, which in the plural take the neuter 
article. 
6 This is a very common prefix in Bari, where it becomes Ko gene¬ 
rally : not always there used in a plural sense, but rather an intensitive. 
