LANGUAGES OF THE KILIMA-NJABO DISTRICT. 465 
compound substantives, such as, “ dog-collar, 5 ’ “ meal¬ 
worm, 55 &c.) and unassociated with gender or class ; 
or else verb-roots, which are preceded by the class- 
prefix of the noun they qualify, and which are adjec¬ 
tives in a participial sense. 
Of the first description there are words like torono, 
toroh, originally a substantive meaning 6< destruction, 
anything broken, spoilt, 55 but now only used as an 
adjective with the meaning of “ bad, very bad, 55 
according to termination. Toroh is at once the plural 
and the intensified form. Thus :■—- 
A 
Ol dunani torono is “ the bad man.” 
A 
Ol dunani toroh is “ the very bad man.” 
El dunanah toroh is “the bad men.” 
Adjectives of this description generally agree with 
their governing substantive in number (unless they 
are only found in a collective form possessing no 
plural), but exhibit no prefixes indicative of gender; 
but those of the second class, which comprise the bulk 
of the adjectives, and which may possibly be present- 
participles, always prefix to their stem the distinctive 
particle showing the class of the noun they qualify. 
Thus, irosi, a verb-root meaning “ to be heavy,” 
becomes oirosi , masc., nairosi , fern., eirosi , common, 
according as it serves as adjective to— 
* 
Ol-alem (masc.), “ the knife.” 
En-dolu (fern.), “ the hatchet.” 
El-ekari (common), “ the bread.” 
These adjectives do not change their termination in 
the plural. Masculine nouns, which, as I have already 
explained, go into the common, neutral gender when 
they become plural, change their adjectival prefix also. 
Thus you say :— 
H h 
