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Full text of "Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group"

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422

ASSAMESE.

• The termination of the Ablative is to, which, in the specimens is always added to
the dative. Thus, bdpok-ordng-td, from a father. To signify ' from in', it is added to
the locative, as in bdrit**d, from in the house. So morone-to or mronot-to, from in dying,
i.e., after dying, and other similar idioms with verbal nouns.
The termination of the Genitive is * «i aft°r a consonant, or, as in War or
bdpokor, of a father. The Kuki-Chin termination td is also used, as in baha-ta> of a father.
The termination of the Locative is e or *, the latter becoming at after a consonant.
Thus, gore in the houte; aukhondt, in that; ntironott on dyirfg.
ADJECTIVES.—These precede the nouns they qualify, as in durai des, a far
country. But adjectival pronouns, as we shall see subsequently, and numerals, follow
them. Thus, Mdnu dgor muni jiput dugo dsild, of one man there were two sons. "When
the emphatic particle au is added to ago, one, the two become agau, one only, even one.
The Comparative degree is formed with jinge, pore, the noun with which com-
parison is made being put in the ablative. Thus, lonok-rdng-td jinge us, taller than the
sister. So, for the Superlative, Mbi-rdng-tojinge w, taller than all, tallest.
PEONOUJSS.—The following are the Personal Pronouns :—
First Person.             Second Person.                        Third Person.
Sing. Nom.                         . wi                    ti                           td.
Gen.                             wor                   tor                         tdr.
ObL                             »w-                   <*•                         td*
Plur, Norn*                            MM                  tmii                       tdno.
Gen.                            dmar                 tomdr or tumdr      tdnor.
ObL                             ama-                  tomd- or tumd-       tdno-
In the first and second persons, the plural is used honorifically for the singular. In
all, the usual case suffixes are added to the oblique form. Thus, mo-re, me; ta-rdng,
to him.
The Demonstrative Pronouns are e, this, and CM, 6, or u, that* To these, the
pleonastic suffixes, go, khan, or td are almost always added. With the termination e of the
nominative, go becomes goi. It is sometimes written git. Khan is often written khona
or khnd. Thus, aukhondt, or aiikhndt, on that, thereon. When these pronouns are used
as adjectives, they invariably follow the nouns to which they refer. Thus, gora egor> of
ibis horse; pham aukhomt, in that place; chus <t<uta-lo, by those husks.
The Relative Pronoun does not seem to be used. The Tibeto-Burman idiom of
employing a participle is used instead. Thus, tor jwtok-ote (te here means * but') notir
tulld log oiya> thy son who associated with harlots, literally * having associated'.
The Interrogative Pronouns xrekwg (to which^Smaybe added, as usual), who?
and Mtd, what? Kar is whose? and kd-rdng»to, from whom? Eitai is 'anything',
and Jcmngau or kiwg-gb ago is * anyone'. Isu is c so many'.
Verbs*—^Throi^iout the conjugation, the plural is freely used for the singular.
As in th6 case of nouns, pleonastic suffixes are freely added, without affecting the meaa-
in^. These are, in the case of verbs, td and gd. Td occurs in the specimens most com-
monly in interrogative sentences, but not always so. Thus (interrogative sentence)
JdtdroJsa gujwrtara-fo ? why are you making a noise ? (direct sentence) m ning karawri-
t&) I am making consideration. Od is very common, and is used with all tenses, but