________________
300
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1891.
are expressed by auxiliaries which are worth recording here :
y8 (to wish) = future intention intend going). alde (just now) = immediate future (just going
to).
the words used in counting cocoanuts (the staple product) and money, differ from those used in counting other objects. From the simple numerals, derivatives, formed on the principles already largely illustrated, are in use to denote a limit in enumeration, e. g. heang, one, heméang, only one i8edt, seven, missat, only seven.
Numeral co-efficients are used as fully as in Burmese and other Further Indian tongues, but with the difference that, as in Persian, the co-effi, cient is between the numeral and the article epumerated, instead of the article preceding numeral and co-efficient, e. g. Persian, chuhar ranjfri fi, four chain of elephants : Nicobarese, løe koi koan, three head (of) children; but Burmese la hna yauk, men two human beings; ngwé lé jat, silver four flat-pieces (= 4 rupees). In the rare instances of the use of numeral co-efficients in English the Nicobarese system is followed : four head of cattle; two and half couple of snipe;. two leash of grey-hounds.
Concrete expressions are used to denote time in the manner common to all barbarous and semiharbarous people : e. g."you could reach that place in three betel-quids (chews) time."
As regards suffixes, prefixes and inflxes, their use has been mostly illustrated already, and we need not specially notice any here except an interesting olass which refers to the human body and its parts, and which bear a remarkable analogy to a like peculiarity in the Andamanese languages. The system appears to be to attach the actual words for hand, foot, leg, head, ear, face, voipe and surface to other words to modify the sense of the base and form fresh expressions for ideas from the compound, e. 9., tni, hand; kwapta-tai, clutch (through fear or rage): Idh, foot, leg, ongelah, depart : koi, head; kaòpekoi, capsize : nong, ear; himdnganang, CAUtion: chakd, face ; yachaka, intend: ngd, voice; pawangé, echo : mat, surface ; et-lat-mat, wipe.
The collocation of words is similar to that of English, except that the adjective usually follows the noun and that in assertive sentences the verb "to be" is generally onitted.
Simple interrogation is expressed by the inflection of the voice, or by prefixing ka, kd. kan to the subject of the sentence, or when an affirmative reply is expected, by so prefixing an. Nogation is expressed by the insertion of particles of negation indioating it under the various circum. stances of life, like the English "not, none, not any, nothing, don't, isn't, never, never more, and
enyah (afterwards) = simple future (will) eat (already) = simple past (was). leät-ngare (entirely) = long past (dead and
gone). yanga (from) immediate past (just finished). yudng-shit (busy) = imperfect, (having, being) ytang-shits-yanga = pluperfect (had). leap and dóh (ability) = ability (can). d6h (ability) =unknown intention (may). dohta (obligation) - pbligation (should). ka (indeed) = obligation (must). oklalongató, (permission) = permission (let. kaiyah toshe (power) = power (you may). dth (ability) = power (you may). hargh-ta-yando unknown intention (might). lak and shók = invitation (let us). root = negative precaution (don't).
Finally there is a curious class of intensive particles in use which are best explained by illustrations thus:ka (indeed): an, he, anka, he himself; ane, that,
ane ka, the very same; chud, silver, chud ka, real silver ; halak, a ladder, kalák ka, a proper ladder; chaling, long, chaling ka,
very long. ondah, pendah, with adjectives, verbs and
adverbs has the same force as ka. pait (much), takard (very), taur thatohe (exces.
sively), ka kq, indeed, can also intensify ad.
jectives and adverbs. We have thus dwelt at length upon Mr. Man's explanation of the Nicobarese tongue, for two reasons, vis., the remarkably clear exposition given by him of a most interesting tongue, and because it is not likely that we shall ever be favoured in this generation at least with any further light on it.
Mr. Man's energy and clear grasp of grammar as a science have given us an insight into a class of languages of the greatest value to philology as & etudy, for we have now had an exposition of a group of tongues that is agglutinative in verbal structure and analytical in its syntax, and which expresses cognate ideas by the expansion of its simple radices by means of a series of regularly used prefixes, suffixes and infxos, and occasionally even by pure intromutation after the fashion of the Semitic languages. Could a series of facts of greater interest be placed before the philological student ?
DO."
The various moods and tonses of the vorb
