MASON, TEPECANO, A PIMAN LANGUAGE OF MEXICO 351 



A large number of steins, however, retain, as do certain nominal 

 stems, their final vowels, and a small number of stems commence 

 with a vowel. 



Morphological Classification of Verb Stems 



Two classes of verbs are distinguished in Tepecano, those which 

 predicate an action and those which predicate a state or condition. 4 " 

 The former class comprises the majority of verbal stems. In the 

 preterit tense the stem of this class of verb undergoes a modification 

 according to certain phonetic laws, most frequently by the dropping 

 of the final consonant or syllable. The characteristic of verbs of 

 the second class, which on this account may be termed defectives, 

 is that they are not affected by these laws and have no distinctive 

 preterit stem. In place of the preterit stem they use the verbal 

 suffix of past continued state (imperfect). Other class characteristics 

 will be noted from time to time. 



Composition of Verb Stents 



Composition of verbal stems is not a characteristic of Tepecano 

 but a few examples are found. Thus the frequent verb o7(')/;wr, 

 "walk, go", is probably a compound of the common verb m'or. 

 "run", with the less frequent verb o/, "accompany". 



atin.c'i he went with me 



numa'vamtir there he runs! 



a'ni.o-'iiniii; I am walking 



Similarly the verb oriel with the meaning "feel, be in a certain 

 psychological or physical condition" generally requires a second 

 verbal stem to complete its sense. 



anicaptu.d'riD I am in my usual health 



kuhapii))iinisoi"da so thus ye shall endure it 



anisoi'nu'riD I feel sad 



anisoi'ma-'c I look badly 



Singular and Plural Verb Stems 



A few verb stems are used solely with one number, a different 

 stem being used for the other. Some of these are : 



-° Of. Dolores op. tit., p. 243, 244. 



