816 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



take entirely different forms in different groups of modes. Three 

 groups of modes may be distinguished, — the indicative, the subjunc- 

 tive, and the potential,-^to whicli may be added a fragmentary series 

 of imperatives. 



§ 27. Tense 



The expression of tense by grammatical form is slightly developed. 

 There is nothing in the simple form of the verb to mark the distinc- 

 tion between present and past time. It may express an act as in 

 duration, as passing into a condition, or as momentary; but the 

 time of the action, whether present or past, is to be inferred only 

 from the context. This tense is referred to as aorist. It has its 

 peculiar marks, which will be pointed out in the section on modes 

 and pronominal forms. There may be said to be but one distinct 

 grammatical tense, the future, which is indicated by the vowel i or 

 the syllable wl. A fuller treatment of this tense will also be given 

 further on. 



The extreme lack of grammatical form to express tense must not 

 be taken as an indication that the language is unable to make dis- 

 tinctions in the time of an action. On the contrary, stems of the 

 initial class [§ 16] express great variety of temporal relations. 

 Some of these relations are the notions of completion, with an 

 implication of — 

 Past time. 



^I'dpyd^w"^ he has come (literally, he finishes the movement 

 hither) 



Frequency. 



nahi'/iawa'w" he frequently sees him, he used to see him, he kept 

 seeing him 



Continuity. 



xnemitci'' penASiiw°' he is constantly taking it up with his hand 



Incipienc3^ 



wa'pip^/a'w" he began coming, he begins to come 

 Cessation. 



^b'nipija'w'^ he no longer comes 

 Furthermore, temporal adverbs are used to express tense. 



Present : 



ne''i)y°- inug' I come now, I came to-day 



§27 



