a 'recent past' tense marker in all dialects, with reduction to -ngu in Kalau Kawau Ya. In the other dialects bongel 'last night' is a fully functioning temporal adverb used in conjunction with either the today past or the recent past. The dialects differ in the forms of the following affixes: present imperfective/near future perfective/verbal noun dative: KKY/KY -pa, KLY/KulY -ka Recent past KKY -ngu, KLY/KY/KulY -ngul Today past KKY/KLY/KulY -nu, KY -nul (older -nulai) Habitual KKY -paruig/paruidh/-parui/-paru/-pu (-pu most commonly on stems of two or more syllables, and the bi-syllabic forms on stems of one syllable [the consonant final forms are emphatic forms]) KLY/KulY -kuruigKY -kurui Nominal affixes The main nominal affix difference is the dative ending, which has the following forms in the various dialects: KLY/KulY -ka; -pa with kipa 'to here', sipa 'to there', paipa 'to ahead', pawupa 'to behind, off to one side'; -pa (sometimes in poetry/singing) KY -pa; -ka in ngaikika 'to/for/towards me'; -ka (often in poetry/singing) KKY -pa in all cases; -ka (often in poetry/singing) The plural/HAVE suffix -LAI (underlying form) also shows a small amount of dialect variation with stems of two syllables, where Kulkalgau Ya differs from the other dialects in retaining the full form of the suffix -lai, reduced to -l in the other dialects. In stems of three or more syllables, the suffix is reduced to -l in all dialects, while retained as -lai (variants according to noun sub-class -thai, -ai, -dai) with stems of one syllable. Three+ syllable stem burum 'pig', stem: buruma-, plural burumal Bisyllabic stem lag, KLY laaga 'place, home, home island', stem: laga-, plural lagal, KulY lagalai Monosyllabic stems Regular vowel final: ma 'spider', plural malai Regular -i glide final: mui 'fire', plural muithai, KLY muithail Regular -l final: pel 'fish tail', plural pelai Regular -r final: wœr/wur/uur 'water', plural wœlai/wulai/ulai, KKY wœrai Irregular vowel final stem: ya 'speech, word(s), message, language, etc.', plural yadai, KLY yadail Vocabulary The main differences between the dialects are to do with vocabulary, as can be seen in the following examples: house/building: KLY mùùdha (laaga), KulY mùdh (laag), KY laag (mùdh), KKY laag mud: KLY/KulY/KY berdhar (sœœya 'sandy mud/silt'), KKY sœœi (berdhar 'softness of food, mud, etc.') grandad: KLY/KulY/KY athe, KKY pòpu frog: KLY/KulY kœtube, kœtak, kaata, KY kat, KLY (Saibai-Dœwan) kat, (Bœigu) kœtuke, kat axe: KLY/KulY/KY aga, KKY agathurik (thurik 'cutting tool') namesake: KLY/KulY natham, KKY/KY nasem small, little: