Interrogative Pronouns.
| Ta, tare, | who? |
| na, nani, | what? |
| izure, izu, | which, what? |
| ika, | what manner? ποῖος. |
| iku, | what number? &c., πόσος. |
Other pronouns are shi, onore, mi, self, onore and mi, often I myself, or I, ono-ono, every, mina, all. Other pronominal forms, chiefly indefinite, are explained in the glossary.
Only the principal particles need here be noticed. Others are explained in the glossary. The following are of special importance, and are found mainly in connexion with nouns as postpositions. They are wa (ha), ga, no, ni, he (e, ye) and wo.
ha (wa, ba) isolates and emphasizes the noun rather as apart from the verb—chichi haha ha, uwe-samukaramu, father and mother, they will be hungry and cold; kono toki ha, ika ni shitsutsuka, this time then while doing what. This emphatic force explains its occurrence after verbs and sentences or clauses—ihazu-ba, not say indeed = should we not say …; Yamato ni ha, it is in Yamato that …; yuki furu yo ha, a night indeed on which snow falls: a wo koso se to ha, it is I indeed whom (you should call) husband.
ga is a possessive particle, wa-ga (warega) ohokimi, my great lord; Wazami ga hara, plain of Wazami. It may be used before verbs, tori ga naku, the bird cries; or after, nabiku ga gotoku, like bending before. Sometimes it resembles ha kimi ga agari-ki-masamu, my lord, he will embark.
tsu is possessive, amatsu kami, gods of heaven, kuni tsu kami, gods of the land. It seems to follow names of things only.
no (originally nu, be?) is used as a genitive particle, like ‘of’. It is more general than ga, which is special; no sometimes almost equals ha (wa). Mi-torashi no adzusa no yumi no hazu no oto, sound of the notch of the bow of whitewood of his royal grasp; Uchi no ohonu, the great moor of Uchi. This particle may connect other words than nouns, ari no kotogoto, all one has, or, there is (ari); miru no goto, like miru (seaweed); ame tsuchi no wakareshi toki, heaven—earth’s separated time (time of separation of heaven and earth). This connexion by no of parts of a sentence—often wide apart—other than nouns must be carefully kept in mind. Thus read hito no [mono wo omofu], a man’s thinking of things (regretfully): not [hito no mono] wo omofu, to think of a man-thing (or man’s things, &c.)[5].
ni (perhaps a stem of nu, be) = in, to, at, for, with, by, on, near; Yamato ni, in Yamato; toki ni, at time = when; miya ni amori, descend from heaven to the palace; te ni tori, take in the hand; ashita ni, on the morrow; asagari ni tatasu, start for morning-hunt; tokoro ni yuku, go to a place; also adverbially, yasukaranaku ni, in a not-restful way; aya ni, strangely; kogi-yuku ni, in or while rowing on; tokoshihe ni, everlastingly. Ni sometimes transfers the action of a causative or transitive verb to the noun it follows.
wo, after a noun indicates it as object of action or, sometimes, as subject of state or condition; unasaka wo sugite, passing beyond bounds of ocean; miyako wo tohomi, miyako (as to), be distant (Aston); mikado wo sadame, settle on a site for a palace; kuni wo sadame, terram debellare. In this sense wo is often omitted, oi mo sezu, old-age even not-doing = never growing old. It may follow a verb as an emphatic particle, or even a noun as such, but in these cases there is probably an ellipsis of suru (do) omofu, (think) or the like, or again it may follow a particle, to bakari, &c. (Aston). Where it appears to have an adversative force there is probably ellipsis of omoheba, omohite, &c. Wo ba = wo ha, and singles out the noun as specially emphasized. Wo sometimes almost equals ni.