and flexible language. It would be tedious to enter into much detail, but a few peculiarities may be mentioned. The letters B, D, F, and G (hard) are wanting, and the vowels E and O are rarely used. But there are some forcible gutturals, and some words require a very strong emphasis on the initial P and T.[1] The sound Ch is frequent. In the grammar there are no genders, no articles, and the particle, which forms the plural of nouns, is declined. The verbs have two first persons plural, inclusive and exclusive, and particles which have the effect of indicating transition from the first person to the second, second to third, third to first, and third to second. But the peculiarity in the language which gives it such great power of expression and flexibility is the use of nominal and verbal particles. They are exceedingly numerous, serving to alter the parts of speech, and to modify the meanings of words in an infinite number of ways. As is the case with some other American languages, there is a great variety of names for degrees of relationship. For instance, there is a different word for the sister of a brother and the sister of a sister, and vice versâ.
The Runa-simi was well adapted for administrative purposes, such as promulgating decrees, recording statistics, and keeping accounts. For the latter purposes the Peruvians resorted to the
- ↑ Caca has a meaning quite different from Ccaca, the latter representing a stronger guttural. Tanta and ttanta, pacha and ppacha have very different meanings.
