1885.] ^^' [BrintoH. 



connecting the participles with possessive pronouns ; i-iligodi, I (am) 

 explaining ; but no doubt less definitely, " my explaining," " I to 

 explain." 



The language of the Abipones slightly alters the possessive pronouns 

 in some persons and uses them in a similar manner : ri-acd, I am lazy ; 

 yo-amkata, he is good. 



"When the verbal pronoun is used in such expressions, it is entirely 

 identical with the verb. 



This is the case with the Mexican, where the verbal pronoun united 

 to the participle forms a sentence : ni-tlar^otlani, I (am) a lover. 

 Tliis expression differs from the present indicative only in the form of 

 the root-word, ni-tlar^otla ; but it cannot form another tense or mode. 

 The grammarians call such an expression a tense indicating habit. 

 This, however, would not be a tense but a mode, and, in fact, the term 

 rests on a misunderstanding. That such expressions indicate habit is 

 shown by the fact that they do not apply, like the present of the verb, 

 to the temporary action, but convey that it is a custom, or a business ; 

 not that I am loving just now, but that I am habitually a lover. 



An entirely similar instance occurs in the Xorth Guaranay language, 

 which also permits, besides the regular conjugation, a union of the 

 root of the verb with a pronoun, the verb being omitted. The gram- 

 marians of that tongue say that this adds extension and emphasis to 

 the sense of the verb. The real difference, however, is that this pro- 

 cedure treats the verb as a noun, and the extension comes from consid- 

 ering the action expressed by the verb to have become a permanent 

 quality, a'poroiuca, I kill men (ordinary conjugation) ; xe poro iuca, 

 I (am) a man-killer (form with the possessive pronoun) ; I kill men as 

 my business. 



In both these languages, therefore, what have been represented as 

 peculiar and separated forms, tenses indicating habit, or forms of 

 extension, are simply erroneous explanations of quite simple construc- 

 tions. In Mexican the correctness of this explanation is confirmed by 

 the forms of the vocative, which ai'e identical with this supposed tense, 

 in ti tlatlacoani, O thou sinner; literally, thou who (art) a sinner. 



In the above examples the verbal power lies in the pronouns. But 

 the Mbaya language constructs verbal sentences by adding the sign 

 of the future to any adjective without a pronoun. This sign is cZe, 

 or before a vowel d : de liidl, it will be pleasant to the taste ; d 

 otiya, he will be fat. I do not find other examples, and am uncertain 

 whether other tenses and modes are thus formed. In that case the 

 pronouns would have to be added, and the expression would lose its 

 peculiarity, which is that the tense sign alone carries with it the notion 

 of Being. 



The Othomi language makes use in such expressions not only of the 

 pronouns but of all the affixes of tlie verli, and conjugates a noun 

 together with its article, treating it as a verbal radical : qui-no-nmnti- 



PllOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXII. 120. 2q. PRINTED MAY 28, 1885. 



