XIX

Adjectives.

Adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns; and agree with them in number, gender, case, tense, and negation. There is a diminutive termination lcéic, (55’s orjt'zje for euphony) which is entire- ly adjectival in its use, as are many of the prefixes, but it is often difficult to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs except by reference to the other words of the sentence; or again between adjectives and Verbs; for the expression 1511100521 tcélmm may either mean ‘a good man’ or ‘he is a good man.’ There is a class of adjec- tives, however, meaning ‘belonging to,‘ ‘like.’ or ‘characteristic of,’ which do not trespass amongst the verbs; these are derived directly from nouns, by the addition of ‘é,’ ‘wfi,’ or ‘izwt'z‘ according to the terminations of the words from which they are derived; for example, (a) taboo, a river, gives 5650012, like a river, or belonging to a river; (b) Immootc, wood, gives kumoatcwd, wooden; and (c) Nz'kslcdm, God, gives Nii'skzzmizwfi, Divine. These adjectives may become nouns, and take an additional termination to form new adjectives, as when léam, a moose, gives first téama'wd, of a moose, hence moose- meat, and secondly léamizwt’zed, which means like moose-meat; so also from oopukik, (pl) ‘the eyes,’ we have oopukikwdl, ‘spectacles,’ eye- things, and oopu/eikwa‘ldwd, ‘like spectacles,’ either referring to their appearance or use.

Comparison,

There are adjectives, which compare without the use of auxiliaries; as for instance, mega/e, or méskz'le, large. alkék, larger and wesoo- goolemfi, largest; and their derived adverbs follow the same rule. It may be broadly stated that the comparison of adjectives is marked by a free use of the auxiliaries meg, large, pggrwdle much, ajé, more, and mom? or bejélé, most, aptcétc, little, aplcéj’e, lesser, 7Izoza'e-aptcétc, least, (most extremely small); of which may and a]? never occur except in composition with other words. If I wish to state that I have a small hand, I say apsz'pz‘mli; a combination of apsés (aptcéz’c) and m’petzm, the hand, with the pronoun termination, while ‘my large hand‘ is megz'fleni. Notice here that the parts of the human body