emakumea, the woman;' emakumeak, the women.' The plural noun is never without the article: men' cannot be expressed.

There is no declension in Basque; the modifications expressed in other languages by cases or by prepositions, are rendered in Basque by suffixes, which are alwaysagglutinated to the noun: zaldi, horse;' zaldia, the horse ;' zaldiaren, 'of the horse;' zaldiko, 'of horse;' zaldibat, 'one horse ;' etc. The noun, when followed by the article a, is called the definite noun, and when not followed by the article a, it is called the indefinite noun.

gender

The Adjective.

As number is unknown, and as the plural is expressed by adding the plural article, there remains only to show how the degrees of comparison are formed. The comparative is formed by the suffix go, added to the definite adjective-handia, 'great;' handiago, 'greater;' and the following 'than' is expressed by baño or baino-zu baño handiago, 'greater than you.' The superlative is formed by the plural genitive, followed by the article a. Thus, handi, 'great;' handien, of the great' (see "The Suffixes "); handiena, ‘he of the great;' gizonen handiena, 'the greatest of (the) men'-or, also, gizonetatik handiena, 'the greatest among men.'

CHAPTER VII.

The Suffixes.

The grammatical relations, expressed in other languages by cases or by prepositions, are expressed in Basque by suffixes; e.g., nigabe, for ni-gabe, without me.' Hargatik, for har-gatik, is exactly the English therefore;' har is the demonstrative; gatik is 'for.'

The suffixes are joined, some of them to the definite, and others to the indefinite noun, or also to both, i.e. the noun with or without the article.

1. Those joined to the definite and indefinite noun: k, subject-agent; n, 'of;' i, 'to ;' 2, 'by ;' kin, 'with;' tzat, 'for.'

E. g. Gizon +k, makes gizonek, 'man.'

Gizona+k, gizonak, 'the man.'

2. Those joined to the indefinite noun: ra, rons, rako, 'towards;' rano, until;' ko, 'of;' dik, tik, 'from, out;' ik, corresponding to 'some;' ka, ' on, by :'—

Echera, towards (the) house '-(not echeara).
Echeronz, ""

Echeko, of (the) house.'

Gizonik, ' of some man.'

Zaldika, 'on horse (horseback).'

Echetik, 'from out of the house.'

3. Those joined to the definite noun: gan, 'in;' gana, "to;' gandik, 'from ;' baithan, 'in;' n, 'in' (our locative). Thus, echean, 'in the house,' and never echen; Jainkoagan, ' in God.'

When words have no definitive form, like pronouns, proper names, &c., one is obliged to put these suffixes to the indefinite noun; ni, 'I,' can never be nia, 'the I;' thus, ni-gan makes nigan, 'in me.' Bilbao-n=Bilbaon.

§ 2. The Suffix with the Plural Noun.

When the Suffixes are agglutinated to plural nouns, the k, mark of the plural, is scarcely ever maintained, but is generally converted into t; or it is dropped, and the hiatus caused by this dropping of k is prevented by inserting y:Hauk, 'these '+k (agent) makes hauyek, for haukek. Gizonak, 'the men' + 'of' gizonen, gizonaken. Echeak, the houses' + ko, echeetako,,, echeak-ko. Oriek, those'+ra,

orietara oriek-ra.

§ 3. Description of the Suffixes.

K is the characteristic letter of the subject-agent, i.e. the subject of a transitive verb. For shortness sake we shall call it simply the agent, in distinction to the subject of the intransitive verb, which will be called the patient. Thus, ni etorri naiz, 'I have come;' but nik badakit, 'I know it. (In Basque, as in French, 'come' being an intransitive verb, is conjugated with izan, 'to be,' of which naiz, 'I am.')

The Spanish-Basque dialects observe this difference between agent and patient in the singular only. But the French-Basque dialects have kept it up in both numbers; e.g., haurak joan dira, the children have gone:' haurrak is the usual, unaltered, plural. Legeko doktorek beretzat hartu zituzten,' the doctors of law took for themselves'... Doktorek (agent) from doktorakek; after dropping medial k-doktorack, then doktorék. Ek is thus the termination. of the plural agent.

K, the Suffix of Plural.

When followed by the suffixes z, ra, ronz, tik, ko, and n (locative), it becomes t. Echeak+n does not make echeakan, but echeetan, 'in the houses.' Oyek+ra becomes oyetara, 'towards these.' It is very seldom that k is maintained: gizonakaz (Bisc.) for gizonetaz, with the men.' The dropping of k is much more frequent than the mutation of k into te. g. hek, 'those,' becomes as agent heyek for hekek.

The Suffix IK.

This suffix corresponds to 'de' partitif of French grammar, and in English it is generally not rendered at all, or rendered by some:' Bururik eztu,' He has no judgement;' Badezu ogirik, 'You have some bread.' In French one would say, Il n'a pas de jugement; Vous avez du pain. The 'de,' called partitif, explains nothing. I think one must consider (in Basque as in any other language) 'bread,'' judgment,' &c., as words of an indefinite nature in point of number, and which are accompanied in English by some' or 'any;' in Dutch by nothing at all, leaving the noun without any modifying word, either article or preposition, or adverb; and in Basque by ik. Ik is most probably nothing else than the plural k preceded by i, to which has been assigned, for some reason or other, an indefinite meaning. In fact, when I say in English, I have not seen any house like your's,' it is clear that 'house' though a singular conveys the idea of a plural: without plurality no comparison could have been established. Ik is thus the characteristic suffix