Gatschet.] 4o0 [Feb. 20, 



Tims, the article (or pronoun) na frequently combines with the follow- 

 ing word, whether this begins with a vowel or not : 

 na acuta : nacuta, UCUta ; nacnnu : na acu ano. 

 na uquostano : naquostano, uquostano. 

 iti-aye : itaye ; itiayaqe: itayaqe; isaye isa : isayesa ; isaye nate : isa- 



y ente. 

 soba hebi : sobaebi ; piaha : pia. 

 chuqua cosa : chuquosa ; clii iquila : chiquila. 

 aya-lacota : yalacota; ano eyo : anoya. 



The Verb. 



The verb being the most important part of speech in every language, I 



first call attention to the polymorphic and intricate nature of its inflection 

 as it appears in the texts. It certainly shows analytic features by not in- 

 corporating the subject-pronoun, for this may be placed before or after the 

 finite verb, its place being determined by the run of the sentence. Where 

 this pronoun is found combined with the verb, phonetic attraction alone 

 seems to have produced this effect. 



The synthetic character of the Timucua verb exceeds largely its 

 analytic features or anything that could be construed into such. It shows 

 itself in the formation of the modes, participles and verbals, of the num- 

 bers, of the voices and tenses, of negative and interrogative verbs. To ex- 

 press grain matic relation and derivation, prefixation is much less resorted 

 to than suffixation. 



A large number of American languages do not distinguish more than 

 two tenses, though others show a variety of them. Timucua is poor in 

 tenses ; the tense of the incompleted action, which mostly coincides with 

 oxxvfvtui'e, is expressed b} r suffixing manda, manta to the stem, a deriva- 

 tive of the verb mani to desire. The fact that manda sometimes appears 

 before its verb, and sometimes is used as a verb for itself (to be willing, to 

 want, to require), proves that its real function is that of an auxiliary verb. 

 As such it is placed after all the suffixes that may be added to the stem : 



viroma niponosiheromanda bohohi cho? did you believe that the husband 

 would possibly return (to you)? 



honosoma cayamaquene ubahauetilamanda bohobi cho? did you believe 

 that the deer and the partridge would not (no longer) be caught? 



nocomilemanda it will become true. 



The action completed or just being completed is expressed as follows : 



1. "When the action belongs to the past, and is expressed by our imper- 

 fect, preterit or pluperfect, -bi, vi is suffixed to the stem or basis of the 

 verb : taca quosohi cho? did you make a fire? 



2. When the action is in course of completion, and the tense answers to 

 om present tense, then the pure stem of the verb is used, and -la is added, 

 when the action is done in the presence of the speaker : motala I assent, 

 ] agree | while I am here) ; habosotala I accept. 



-la, -le being the particle of the affirmative mode, expressing certainty. 



