[34] The learned student will here see that Maori has, in this respect, the advantage over Hebrew; confusion often occurring in that language from the want of some means for determining which is the subject and which the predicate.
[35] Ngene is a scrofulous tumour.
CHAPTER XV.
SYNTAX OF THE NOUN.
§ 1.—Nouns in Apposition.—These were partly considered in the last chapter, and we now proceed to offer further remarks respecting them:—
When one or more nouns follow another in apposition, and are equally definite in meaning, the same article that is prefixed to the first will be prefixed to all the rest; e. g., He tangata kino koe, he tangata kohuru, you are a bad man, a murderer; ko au tenei, ko tou matua, this is I, your father; mau mai taku pu, tera i roto i te whare, bring here my gun, that in the house.
The following sentences are erroneous:—Tenei ahau, ko to koutou hoa, te mea nei, this is I your friend, who says, &c.; Tiakina to tatou kainga, ko Waikato, take care of our settlement, Waikato; the ko should have been omitted in the former sentence: instead of the ko in the latter, we should have had a. Proper names, and pronouns, will only take their proper articles; e. g., Nohea tenei Kingi a Parao? whence was this King Pharoah?
N.B.—There are exceptions to these rules. Some of them will be mentioned under the next head.
§ 2.—The preposition, which is prefixed to the first of two or more nouns in apposition, will be prefixed to all the rest; e. g., Naku tenei pukapuka, na tou hoa, na Tarapipipi, this letter is mine, (i. e., was written by me,) your friend's, Tarapipipi's: kei nga Pakeha ta matou whakaaro, ta nga tangata Maori, with the Europeans are the sentiments of us, of the New Zealanders.
The same usage holds in the vocative case, E hoa, E Hone, Friend John.