The verb is the primitive part of speech in American tongues. To the
aboriginal man every person and object presents itself as either doing
or suffering something, every quality and attribute as something which
is taking place or existing. His philosophy is that of the extreme
idealists or the extreme materialists, who alike maintain that nothing
_is_, beyond the cognizance of our senses. Therefore his adjectives are
all verbal participles, indicating a state of existence. Thus _üssatu_
good, is from _üssân_ to be good, and means the condition of being good,
a good woman or thing, _üssati_ a good man.
Some adjectives, principally those from present participles, have the
masculine and neuter terminations _i_ and _u_ in the singular, and in
the plural _i_ for both genders. Adjectives from the past participles
end in the singular in _issia_ or _üssia_, in the plural in _annu_. When
the masculine ends in _illi_, the neuter takes _urru_, as _wadikilli_,
_wadikurru_, long.
Comparison is expressed by adding _bén_ or _kén_ or _adin_ (a verb
meaning to be above) for the comparative, and _apüdi_ for the
diminutive. _Ubura_, from the verb _uburau_ to be before in time, and
_adiki_, from _adikin_ to be after in time, are also used for the same
purpose. The superlative has to be expressed by a circumlocution; as
_tumaqua aditu ipirrun turreha_, what is great beyond all else;
_bokkia üssá dáuria_, thou art better than I, where the last word is a
compound of _dai uwúria_ of, from, than. The comparative degree of the
adjectives corresponds to the intensive and frequentative forms of the
verbs; thus _ipirrun_ to be strong, _ipirru_ strong, _ipirrubîn_ and
_ipirrubessabun_ to be stronger, _ipirrubetu_ and _ipirrubessabutu_
stronger, that which is stronger.
The numerals are wonderfully simple, and well illustrate how the
primitive man began his arithmetic. They are:--
1 abba.
2 biama, plural biamannu.
3 kabbuhin, plural kubbuhinínnu.
4 bibiti, plural bibitinu.
5 abbatekkábe, plural abbatekabbunu.
6 abbatiman, plural abbatimannínu.
7 biamattiman, plural biamattimannínu.
8 kabbuhintiman, plural kabbuhintimannínu.
9 bibitiman, plural bibititumannínu.
10 biamantekábbe, plural biamantekábunu.
Now if we analyze these words, we discover that _abbatekkábe_ five, is
simply _abba_ one, and _akkabu_, hand; that the word for six is
literally "one [finger] of the other [hand]," for seven "two [fingers]
of the other [hand]," and so on to ten, which is compounded of _biama_
two, and _akkabu_ hands. Would they count eleven, they say _abba
kutihibena_ one [toe] from the feet, and for twenty the expression is
_abba lukku_ one man, both hands and feet. Thus, in truth, they have
only four numerals, and it is even a question whether these are
primitive, for _kabbuhin_ seems a strengthened form of _abba_, and
_bibuti_ to bear the same relation to _biama_. Therefore we may look
back to a time when this nation knew not how to express any numbers
beyond one and two.
Although these numbers do not take peculiar terminations when applied to
different objects, as in the languages of Central America and Mexico,
they have a great variety of forms to express the relationship in which
they are used. The ordinals are:
atenennuati, first.
ibiamattéti, second.
wakábbuhinteti, our third, etc.
To the question, How many at a time? the answer is:
likinnekewai, one alone.
biamanuman, two at a time, etc.
If simply, How many? it is:
abbahu, one.
biamahu, two.
If, For which time? it is:
tibíakuja, for the first time.
tibíamattétu, for the second time.
and so on.