Genders.—Names of mountains, stones, plants, fruits, stem, and the moon, are masculine, e.g.:—
U kyllang, the Kyllang rock. U mawlein, quartz. U phan, potato. U soh niamtra, orange. U'lur duti, the morning star. U'tiw kulap, rose. U b'nai, the moon.
Names of rivers, lakes, books, places, the sun, and' all abstract nouns are feminine, e.g.:—
Ka wah, river. Ka nan, lake. Ka kitap, book. Ka Shillong, Shillong. Ka sngi, sun Ka jingsneng, advice.
The article i is used either as a diminutive, as i khunlung, a baby, or for denoting endearment, as i mei, mother.
Number.—U, ka, and i stand for the singular number, e.g. u khla (a tiger), ka khoh (a Khasi basket), i khun (a child). Ki is the sign of the plural, as Ki maw, the stones. Ki in some few instances is used honorifically, as ki Siem, the king, ki kthaw, the father-in-law.
Cases are eight in number, and are denoted by prefixes. The declension of the noun lum (hill) is given below by way of example:—
Singular. Plural
Nominative u lum ki lum
Accusative ia u lum ia ki lum
Instrumental da u lum da ki lum
Dative ia, ha, or ia, ha, or
sha u lum sha ki lum
Ablative na u lum na ki lum
Genitive jong u lum jong ki lum
Locative ha u lum ha ki lum
Vocative ko lum ko phi ki lum
The sign of the genitive case, jong, is sometimes omitted for the sake of brevity, e.g. u ksew nga (my dog) for u ksew jong nga. The preposition la gives also the force of the possessive case, e.g. la ka jong ka jong (their own). There are some nouns which change their form, or rather are abbreviated when used in the vocative case, e.g. ko mei, not ko kmei = Oh mother; ko pa, not ko kpa = Oh father. These, however, are all of them nouns showing relationships.
Pronouns.—Personal pronouns are nga (I), ngi (we), me (thou, masculine) pha (thou, feminine), phi, (you, masculine or feminine), u (he, it), ka (she, it), i (diminutive form of u or ka), and ki (they).