Case is indicated by position, or by postpositions. The nominative, and, generally speaking, the accusative, have no postpositions, but are ascertained by their position in the sentence, the nominative at the beginning, the accusative following it before the verb. Both, when necessary, can be emphasised by the addition of the particles -kē and -sī, which in some sort play the part of the definite article; but these are not case-postpositions. There is no device (as in Tibetan) for distinguishing the case of the agent with transitive verbs.

The genitive always precedes the noun on which it is dependent. When the word in the genitive is a pronoun of the first or second person, nothing intervenes between them: nē-mèn, “my name”; nàng-pē, “thy clothes.” But when, the pronoun is in the third person, or a noun is in the genitive case, the following noun has ā- prefixed: e.g. lā ā-pō, “his father”; Ārnàm ā-hèm, “God’s house”; hijai-ātum ā-kàm, “the jackals’ work”; ārnī-kàngsàm ā-pòr, “day-becoming-cool time.” This prefixed ā- is really the pronoun of the third person, and means his, her, its, their; the full meaning of the combinations given above is therefore “he, his father”: “God, his house”: “the jackals, their work”: “day becoming cool, its time.” As in many other languages of the Tibeto-Burman family, nouns (especially those denoting personal relations, parts of the body, etc.) are seldom conceived as abstract and self-contained; they most often occur in relation to some other noun, and thus the syllable ā- is more often prefixed to them than not. Especially is this the case with adjectives; these ordinarily follow the noun which they qualify, and almost always have ā- prefixed; e.g. Ārnàm ā-kethē, “God Almighty”: lā ā-kibī ā-bàng, “that younger one.” Sometimes this prefixed ā- is thinned down to ē-, as in hèm-ē-pī, hèm-ē-pō, “widow, widower,” literally “female or male owner of the house”: hijai ē-hur, “a pack of jackals.” Most postpositions (originally nouns joined to the genitive of the qualified word) similarly require ā- before them; and the suffix -tum of the plural, since it means “a company,” also in this manner assumes the form ā-tum. Before ing- the prefix ā- is absorbed, and the result is àng.

The other cases are formed by postpositions. The instrumental is generally indicated by pèn (sometimes with prefixed ā- or ē-, as āpèn, ēpèn, but more often without), or pèn-sī. The dative takes ā-phàn, “to or for,” which is also occasionally used for the accusative. The sign of the dative of purpose is āpòt: pī-āpòt, “what for, why?” kopī-āpòtsī, id. The ablative is formed with pèn or pènsī: nòn-pèn, “from now”; dàk-pèn, “from here”; āpārā (Ass. parā) is also used, generally with pèn as well. The locative has a number of postpositions, according to the position required: -sī is used for “in,” as hèm-sī, “in the house,” ādèt-sī, “in his country”; ārlō is also used for “in, inside.” Lē (properly the conjunctive participle of a verb meaning “arrive, reach to a place”) is often used as a postposition for “at, in.” Other common locative postpositions are ā-thàk, “upon, on,” àngsòng, “above, upon,” ārum, “below,” ābēr, “below,” ālòng “together with” (lòng means “place”), ādun, ādung, “beside, next to” (dun is a verb meaning “to be with, accompany”), ādàk, “between,” àngbòng, “in the middle of,” āphī, “after.”

Adjectives.

Adjectives are regularly formed by prefixing ke-, ki-, or kā- to the root, and do not change for gender, number, or case. Thus, from the root mē, “to be good,” we have kemē, “good”; hēlō, “distance,” kāhēlō, “far off”; dòk, “to have savour,” kedòk, “savoury”; hō, “to be bitter,” kehō, “bitter”; lòk, “to be white,” kelòk, “white”; rī, “to be rich,” kirī, “rich.” Ke- and ki- are generally used with monosyllables, kā- with longer words; kā- with ing- forms kàng.

The form of the adjective is precisely the, same as that of the present participle of the verbal root, used to form the present tense, and also as that of the infinitive or abstract of that root, and the collocation of the sentence alone determines the meaning of the word used. When particles of comparison or other modifying elements are added to the adjective, the prefix kē- etc. is often dropped as unnecessary; thus—

But kàngtui, “high”; kàngtui-mū, “higher”; kàngtui-nē, “highest.”

Comparison is effected by means of the postpositions āpār and āphàn; “his brother is taller than his sister,” ā-tē āpār (or āphàn) ā-kòr ding-mū.