________________
AUGUST, 1907.]
j.-Limited Pre-inflexion.
In combination with and before the radical prefixes the "personal pronouns thus in all the languages of the Bojigagiji Group :
Abbreviated "Pronominal" Forms.
(d'- in Bea, Balawa t-in Bojigyâb, Juwai, Kôl ng'- in all the Group
not expressed in the Group m'- in all the Group (ng'-in Bea, Balawa, Bojigyâb ng''1 in Juwai, Kôl Snot expressed in Bea, Balawa n'-in Bojigyâb, Jūwai, Kôl k'-in Bea, Balawa, Kôl
RECORD OF THE LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES
ENGLISH.
my, mine thy, thine his, her, its
I, my
thon, thy he, hie, &c.
we, our...
you, your
they, their
this, that one that one
In this way it can be shown that there are no real "singular possessives" in Andamanese, as the so-called "possessive pronouns" are merely the abbreviated forms of the "personal pronouns " plus ia (-da), &c. = belonging to, (property): thus
...
***
BEA
d'ia-da
ng'ia-da
Ia-da
mâmi-ke sleeping-is
...
www
www
not expressed in Bojigyâb, Juwai t' in all the Group
"Possessive Pronouns."
BALAWA.
d'ege ng'ege
ege
BOJIGYAB.
t'iya-da
ng'iya-da
iya-da
d'un-t'ig-jäbag
I-hand-eye-bad
JUWAI.
t'iyea-kile ng'iyea-kile eyea-kile
The "plural possessives" have been brought into line with the expression of plurality by radical prefixes, as will be seen later on.
Now, it is easy enough to express on paper the true nature of the above abbreviations by the use of the apostrophe, but in speech there is no distinction made. Thus, one can write "d'un-lama-re, I missed (my) blow," but one must say "dunlamare." So one can write ng'ot-jubag-da, "you. (are a) vicieus (brute )," but one must say ngotjabagda. So also one can write:
l'eda-re exist-did.
đi làm formerly achitik
d'un-t'ig-beri-nga
now
I-hand-eye-good
(once I was a duffer, now I am good all round).
233
are abbreviated
-mâmik-ka sleeping-was
But one must say "artám duntigjabag ledare, achitik duntigberinga." It would, therefore, be correct to assert that, though Andamanese is an agglutinative tongue, it possesses a very limited pre-inflexion, i. e., inflexion at the commencement of its words.
mâmi-re
aloeg-did
KOL.
t'iye-che ng'iye-dele
iye-dele
Limited Correlated Variation (Concord)
The Andamanese also express the intimate relation of the "personal pronouns" with their predicators (verbs) by a rudimentary correlated variation (post-inflexion in the form of concord) of forms thus :
mâmi-nga sleep-ing
