6 AN AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE.
The adjective dukkai, 'dead,' takes numerous forms; thus: — 2. dukkai, dukkai-ljiuf; 3. touara-gun, dukkai-gunf, dukkai-bin- gunf, dukkai-gun-binf; 4. dukkai, dukkai-binf.
2. Number.
Nouns and adjectives do not change their form to denote number. The word paigal may mean one 'man,' or any number of ' men.' With regard to the pronouns, some of them are singular, some dual, some plural, and some of them indefinite so far as number is concerned. The number of a noun is generally known by the iise in the same sentence, or in the context, of a singulai', dual, or plural pronoun, or by the scope of the sentence or other surround- ing circumstances.
3. Gender,
There ai'e two ways by which the feminine is distinguished from the masculine — either by a difterent word or by adding the ter- mination -gun, of which the?f is always short; as: —
Masculine. Ftmiuinc
Mobi, 'a blind man.' Mobi-gun, ' a blind woman.'
Y^rubilgin, 'a male singer.' Yerubilgin-gun, 'a female singer.'
Kicom, 'old man.' Merrug, ' old woman.'
Cubbo, 'boy.' Yagari, 'girl.'
Koroman, male 'kangaroo.' Imarra, female 'kangaroo.'
riWNOUA'S.
These are: — (1) Personal pronouns, (2) Demonstrative.s, (3) Indefinite pronouns, (4) Numerals, and 5) Interrogatives.
Personal jn'onoicns.
Singular. Gai, 'I.' We, 'thou.' Nyuly, 'he'; nyan, '.she.'
Plural. Grully, ' we.' Buly, ' you.' (?annaby, 'they.'
The Minyug has no simple dual, although there are compound terms and phrases denoting the dual number; such as, gulliwe, gullibula, 'we two'; we gerrig, 'you two,' 'you and another.' The personal forms of bula are sometimes used as dual pro- nouns; as, bulaily, 'they two,'?»asc., and buiaili-gun, 'they two, /em.; and even such phrases as w6 gerrig bulaily and we gerrig bulaili-gun, ' you two,' are used.
Demonstratives.
Besides these, there is a peculiar class of words, which may be called demonstratives. When used as predicates, they have the general meaning of 'here,' ' there,' or 'yonder.' They are often used as demonstrative adjectives, and then mean this,' ' that
�� �
