Several initial consonants of words and syllables are commonly interchanged, even by the same speaker if he uses a word more than once during a conversation.  That this fickleness is a permanency in the language rather than the result of the present building of new words is proved by ato names, words in use for many years —­ probably many hundred years.

One of the most frequent interchanges is that of B and F. This is shown in the following ato names:  Bu-yay’-yeng or Fu-yay’-yeng; Ba-tay’-yan or Fa-tay’-yan; Bi’-lig or Fi’-lig; and Long-boi’ or Long-foi’.  It is also shown in two other words where one would naturally expect to find permanency —­ the names of the men’s public buildings in the ato, namely, ba’-wi or fa’-wi, and pa-ba-bu’-nan or pa-ba-fu’-nan.  Other common illustrations are found in the words ba-to or fa-to (stone) and ba-bay’-i or fa-fay’-i (woman).

Another constant interchange is that of CH and D. This also is shown well in names of ato, as follows:  Cha-kong’ or Da-kong’; Pud-pud-chog’ or Pud-pud-dog’; and Si-gi-chan’ or Si-gi-dan’.  It is shown also in chi’-la or di’-la (tongue).

The interchange of initial K and G is constant.  These letters are interchanged in the following names of ato:  Am-ka’-wa or Am-ga’-wa; Lu-wa’-kan or Lu-wa’-gan; and Ung-kan’ or Ung-gan’.  Other illustrations are ku’-lid or gu’-lid (itch) and ye’-ka or ye’-ga (earthquake).

The following three words illustrate both the last two interchanges:  Cho’-ko or Do’-go (name of an ato); pag-pa-ga’-da or pag-pa-ka’-cha (heel); and ka-cho’ or ga-de’-o (fish).

Nouns

The nouns appear to undergo slight change to indicate gender, number, or case.  To indicate sex the noun is followed by the word for woman or man —­ as, a’-su fa-fay’-i (female dog), or a’-su la-la’-ki (male dog).  The same method is employed to indicate sex in the case of the third personal pronoun Si’-a or Si-to-di’.  Si’-a la-le’-ki or Si-to-di’ la-la’-ki is used to indicate the masculine gender, and Si’-a fa-fay’-i or Si-to-di’ fa-fay’-i the feminine.

The plural form of the noun is sometimes the same as the singular.  Plural number may also be expressed by use of the word ang-san (many) or am-in’ (all) in addition to the noun.  It is sometimes expressed by repetition of syllables, as la-la’-ki (man), la-la-la’-ki (men); sometimes, also, by the prefix ka together with repetition of syllables, as li-fo’-o (cloud), ka-li’-fo-li-fo’-o (clouds).  There seems to be no definite law in accordance with which these several plural forms are made.  When in need of plurals in this study the singular form has always been used largely for simplicity.

Pronouns

The personal pronouns are: 

I Sak-in’

You
Sik-a’

He, she
Si’-a and Si-to-di’