1885.] ^*1 [Brinton. 



An excellent example of this is furnished by the Maya conjugation. 

 In an analysis of it we find an element that neither belongs to the root , 

 nor is a person, tense or mode sign, and wlien their varieties and 

 changes are compared, there is evident throughout a marked anxiety 

 to express the peculiar verbal power in the form of the verb. 



The conjugation in the Maya language is formed by affixi]ig the pro- 

 nouns and mode and tense signs to the stem. The pronoun is, accord- 

 ing to a distinction to be noted hereafter, either the possessive pronoun 

 or that one which, without verbal power in itself, yet receives it when 

 a predicate is attached to it to form a sentence. 



Besides this, the sufiix cah accompanies all verbs in the present and 

 imperfect ; and the suffix ah accompanies all transitive verbs through 

 the remaining lenses, except the future. Present, 1st person, sing., 

 canan-in-cah, I guard ; imperf. 1st pers. sing., canan-in cah cuchi ; pert., 

 1st pers. sing., in canan-t-ah. In is the possessive pronoun, cuchi the 

 sign of the imperfect, t in the perfect is a euphonic letter. 



The idea of transitive verbs is here taken somewhat narrower than 

 usual. Only those are included which govern a word outside of them- 

 selves. All others ai-e considered intransitive, even those Avhich of 

 themselves are active, but either have no expressed object (as, I love, I 

 hate, etc.), or the word which they govern is in the verb itself, as in tlie 

 Greek oiKodofieo^ oUovpeiu. As these can govern a second accusative, 

 the object incorporated in the verb is included in the idea they express. 



The tenses of the intransitive verbs, except the present and imperfect, 

 while they drop ah and the possessive pronoun, are formed with that 

 pronoun which forms sentences with a predicate. 



There are cases where not only the present omits cah, but where tlie 

 stem, if it ends in ah as is often the case, drops it, and substitutes ic. 

 The signification then alters, and indicates an habitual action or quality. 

 As ic is the sign of the gerund, this change appears to be the transfor- 

 #nation of the verb into a verbal, and to effect this, it must be united 

 to that pronoun which serves as the substantive verb ; ten yacunic, I 

 love, properly, I am loving (habitually). 



What cah and ah mean by themselves, we are not informed. "Where 

 cah is attached to the stem of some verbs it signifies intensity. Ah is 

 as a prefix the sign of the male sex, of the inhabitant of a place, and 

 of names derived from active verbs. Hence it seems to have meant at 

 first person, man, and later to have become a pronoun, and finally an 

 aflix. It is noteworthy that the same difference exists between ah and 

 cah, as between en and ten. Tlie c may therefore be a radical sound. In 

 the conjugation, cah is treated wholly as a verb. For in this tlie posses- 

 sive pronoun is always prefixed ; and as in the present and imperfect it is 

 placed after the stem of the verb and before cah, it is evident from the 

 difference between the two forms canan-in-cah and in-canan-t-ah, that 

 in the former cah, and in the latter canan, are regarded as the verbs. 

 Canan-in-cah is precisely as the English " I do guard." 



