Part 32 (1/2)
N' debaindaun, I own it.
Ke debaindaun, Thou ownest it.
O debaindaun, He or she owns it.
N' debaindaun-in, We own it (ex.) Ke debaindaun-in, We own it (in.) Ke debaindaun-ewau. Ye own it.
O debaindaun-ewau, They own it.
These examples are cited as exhibiting the manner in which the prefixed and preformative p.r.o.nouns are employed, both in their full and contracted forms. To denote possession, nouns specifying the things possessed, are required; and, what would not be antic.i.p.ated, had not full examples of this species of declension been given in another place, the purposes of distinction are not effected by a simple change of the p.r.o.noun, as _I_ to _mine_, &c., but by a subformative inflection of the _noun_, which is thus made to have a reflective operation upon the p.r.o.noun-speaker. It is believed that sufficient examples of this rule, in all the modifications of inflection, have been given under the head of the substantive. But as the substantives employed to elicit these modifications were exclusively _specific_ in their meaning, it may be proper here, in further ill.u.s.tration of an important principle, to present a generic substantive under their compound forms.
I have selected for this purpose one of the primitives. IE-Au, is the abstract term for existing matter. It is in the animate form and declarative. Its inanimate correspondent is IE-Ee. These are two important roots. And they are found in combination, in a very great number of derivative words. It will be sufficient here, to show their connexion with the p.r.o.noun, in the production of a cla.s.s of terms in very general use.
Animate Forms.
_Singular_. _Plural_.
{Nin dye aum, Mine. Nin dye auminaun, Ours, (ex.) Poss. { Ke dye auminaun, Ours, (in.) {Ke dye aum, Thine. Ke dye aumewau, Yours.
Obj. O dyeaum-un, His or Hers. O dye aumewaun, Theirs.
Inanimate Forms.
_Singular_. _Plural_.
{Nin dye eem, Mine. Nin dye eeminaun, Ours, (ex.) Poss. { Ke dye eeminaun, Ours, (in.) {Ke dye eem, Thine. Ke dye eemewau, Yours.
Obj. O dye eem-un, His or O dye eemewaun, Theirs.
Hers. _Poss. in._
In these forms the noun is singular throughout. To render it plural, as well as the p.r.o.noun, the appropriate general plurals _ug_ and _un_ or _ig_ and _in_, must be superadded. But it must be borne in mind, in making these additions, ”that the plural inflection to inanimate nouns (which have no objective case,) forms the objective case to animates, which have no number in the third person,” [p. 30.] The particle _un_, therefore, which is the appropriate plural for the inanimate nouns in these examples, is only the objective mark of the animate.
The plural of I, is _naun_, the plural of thou and he, _wau_. But as these inflections would not coalesce smoothly with the possessive inflections, the connective vowels i. and e. are prefixed, making the plural of I, _inaun_, and of thou, &c., _ewau_.
If we strike from these declensions the root IE, leaving its animate and inanimate forms AU, and EE, and adding the plural of the noun, we shall then,--taking the _animate_ declension as an instance, have the following formula of the p.r.o.nominal declensions.
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Obj.
Plu.
Place
inflec.
inflec.
Obj.
Plural
p.r.o.n.
of the
Possessive
to the
Connect.
of the
inflec.
of the
Sing.
Noun.
inflection.
noun sing.
vowel.
p.r.o.noun.
n. plu.
Noun.
_____
______
___________
__________
________
________
_______
_______
Ne
----
aum
----
--i--
--naun
----
--ig.
Ke
----
aum
----
--e--
--wau
----
--g.
O