IKTBODUCTION, xlV-
pluralising words, whatever they were, and thus to have acquired plui-al terminations ; of this our geanni is an instance ; in western Victoria, 'we' is expressed by ga-ta-en, that is, gata, ' I,' with the suffix -en — the same as the -ni of geanni. The Awabakal ' we ' is geen. Such plurals are very old, for they are found in the Babylonian syllabaries ; there the second pronoun is zu ; its plural is zu enan, that is, ' thou-they' = ye ; there also, ' I ' is mu ; with which compare ba, ma.
The Second Pronoun. — There are only two base-forms for the second pronoun, bi o?' bu and gin. The latter is strengthened by the addition of -da, which may also be -de, -di, -do, -du, and these vocalic changes support my contention, that this syllable proceeds from the demonstrative ta, for if the original is da or ta, all the others may proceed from that, but it is not likely that, conversely, any one of them would change into -da. The -to a in the Awa- bakal gin-toa is the same as in gcit-toa, and the initial g is the same as ga, ge. But what is the body of the word — the -in ? I can only say with certainty that it is the base-form of the second pronoun, for I can give no further account of it. Possibly, it is for bin with the b (v) abraded ; for the other base-form, although it now appears as bi, may have been originally bin — the same as the accusative ; and yet, in the accusative dual, we have gali-n and bulu-n, and in the singular bon for bo-un, where the n seems to be a case-sign. If the -in of gintoa is for bin, then we get back to bi as the only base-form of the second Australian pronoun, and bi gives the forms wi-ye, we, i-mi-ba, win-in, q.v. The other base-form of bi is bu, and this is attested in Australian by b lib la, wuru, nuro, nuni, q.v. ; the n'yurag in South Australia shows how the initial ?i has come in, for that plural is equivalent to gvurag, from bu; it also shows the origin of the Awabakal plural nu-ra. The -ra there is certainly a plural form ; for we have it in ta-ra, 'those,' from the singular demonstrative ta, and in ba-ra, ' they,' from ba. In the genitive gear-unba, ' of us,' the -ar may be this -ra, but it may also be simply the -an of the nominative. This same -r a is a pluralising suffix in Melanesia. In many parts of Melanesia, likewise, this mu — often when used as a verbal suffix — is the pronoun ' thou.'
I may here venture the conjecture, without adding any weight to it, that, as the Sanskrit dva, 'two,' gives the Latin bis, bi, so, on the same principle, the Sanskrit tva, ' thou,' may be the old form to which our bi, bu is allied.
As to the prefix ga, I know that, in New Britain, ngo is 'this,' in Aneityum, nai, naico, i-naico is 'that.' This nga, also, as a prefix, occurs in a considerable number of words in Samoan; for instance, tasi is 'one,' and tusa is 'alike,' solo is 'swift'; an in- tensive meaning of each is expressed by ga-tasi, ga-tusa, ga-solo ;
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