LANGUAGES OF THE KILIMA-FJABO DISTRICT. 459 
accepted as a personal pronoun, meaning “he/ 5 “ she,” 
and “it.” “They” is ordinarily expressed by the 
plural form of this word, viz. Jculo. Of course, for 
strictly demonstrative purposes, this pronoun has a 
feminine form, which will be treated of afterwards. 
To summarize what I have been saying, it would 
seem as if originally there had been in Masai three 
genders or classes of nouns —masculine or strong , 
common or general, feminine or diminutive —and that 
these three classes were provided with certain particles 
which were prefixed to word-stems to indicate the 
class or gender of the governing noun. This some¬ 
what reminds one of the concord in Bantu languages, 
but the resemblance is not effectually carried out; if 
it were, yon would be able to say in Masai— 
t)Z-duhani o-gol o-sam; ki-sam-oZe; 
The man strong he loves ; we love him ; 
— The strong man loves; we love him ; 
or, 
jEfo-dangile wa-lulunga wa-kweni; kknirnna. 
The woman healthy she laughs; we hear her. 
— The healthy woman laughs ; we hear her. 
As it is yon say— 
Ol-aunani o-gol e-sam; ki-sam-eZe, and. En-dahgile nadulunga 
e-kweni; ki-nin-eZe. 
In the Bantu tongues, where there is a large (in all 
sixteen) number of noun-classes, the governing prefix 
of the subject follows throughout. Thus in Swahili 
they say— 
Wa-iu wa- zuri wa- ja; na-wa-ona; 
The men handsome they come ;-I them see; 
= The handsome men are coming ; I see them; 
or— 
Ki-t\\ Za-dogo M-mo ; Tu-H-pate. 
The thing little it is within ; That we it may get. 
= The little thing is inside; let us get it. 
