Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/108

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The articles a and the may be considered as inherent in the noun ; according to the context, may mean either a or the person.

The indefinite article a is somtimes expressed by the numeral &>", vulgarly written Q, meaning one ; as, ^^55o^oX one or a person.

There is not any separate word to represent the definite article the. In the concise and nervous idiom which characterizes the Teloogoo, this article, to- gether with the relative pronoun tvho, which, that, is incorporated with the verb, in that curious part of it termed the relative participles, which possess the combined force of the definite article, the relative pronoun, and the verb ; thus, in the sentence <^c ?"*-) #s$ari^> t ^ e p rson w fr o saw me . five glish words are expressed by three Teloogoo terms, #r&^ signifies m person, and t^&cS has the power of the, who, saio.

3d. OF THE DECLENSION OF SUBSTATIVE NOUNS.

The substantive nouns have two numbers ; the singular StfofosSfebo, anc | the plural  ; and three genders, the masculine s^e^Cs&o, including the gods and men only ; the feminine j^, , >oXsSx>, compizing the goddesses and women ; and ,the neuter t^)o'e)oX35co i including nanim ate things, and all animals, except the human species.

The cases are properly three only; the nominative, the inflexio, and the accusative ; but, in the following general remarks applicable to alhouns, the usual arrangement of six cases is observed-

SINGULAR.

It has already been mentioned that there are few words in tl Teloogoo language which terminate in a consonant, among the nouns theres not one. In the nominative cafe singular, they all terminate in some of ( e following vowels ^^=3 s sr>^ "^ ^^-^ or "^ thus, &*$ a ruler, $2^ a worn cm, ^>9 a robber, ^o$&>o beauty, "^ w a shawl, 3"jk a stick, "J. tl hand &c. m w

The" Inflexion singular varies with the declension, as explaed hereafter-