BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMEEICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 845 



§ 39. THE REFLEXIVE VERB 



In the reflexive verb the action refers back to the subject. The 

 sign of the reflexive is -tisu- or -tiso- with the u or o vowel in either 

 case sometimes long. The reflexive sign occurs in the same place as 

 the reciprocal; viz., between the stem and the final pronoun. The 

 difference of meaning between the two signs is, that -tisu- represents 

 the subject solely as the object of the action, and does not, like -ti-, 

 convey the reciprocal relation which two or more subjects bear to 

 one another. Reflexive -ti- in -tisu- is plainly the same element as 

 the reciprocal -ti-. 



wdbA'tiso'^w"^ he looked at himself {wabA- same as wdpA) 

 pAgA'tiso^w"^ he hit himself (pAgA allied with pAgi to strike) 

 ahitisutd he then said to himself 286.22 (hi to say) 



§ 40. THE MIDDLE VOICE 



Thus far the description has been of verbs in the active voice. Two 

 other voices are yet to be mentioned, — the middle and the passive. 

 The middle voice represents the subject in close relation with the 

 action of the verb. It is a form of construction of which the dialect 

 is especially fond. The form of the verb is active, and mainly of a 

 predicative intransitive character; but the meaning is passive. The 

 voice is distinguished by animate and inanimate signs. Only two 

 sets of signs will be taken up, the two most frequently met with. 

 The animate sign is o and u long and short, and the inanimate is a. 

 These vowels are immediately preceded by intervocalic consonants, 

 among which are s for the animate and t for the inanimate. It is 

 perhaps better to refer to the combinations of so and so, su and su, 

 and td, as some of the signs of the middle voice. These forms are 

 incorporated between the stem and the pronominal ending. The 

 combinations of su and td were met with before in the section on 

 secondary connective stems (§ 20). They appeared there in the role 

 of co-ordinative stems, and the sense they conveyed was that of heat 

 and warmth. They were used with reference to an existence or con- 

 dition of the subject, and occurred among verbs of an intransitive 

 nature. The same verbs used in the examples there can all be classed 

 in the middle voice. The same signs can be used without the mean- 

 ing of heat and warmth. 



§§ 39, 40 



