1058 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



which assumes a personal meaning only when the purport of the 

 sentence as a whole forces upon the speaker and hearer the idea of a 

 third person that is in a certain condition (passively or reflexively). 

 Thus it happens that personal and impersonal verbs show the same 

 forms throughout. 



si' CLLLerpoq rain is, it rains 



atorpoq use is, it is used 



tiJcippoq arrival is, he arrives 



I'apiwoq stab is, he is stabbed, or he stabs himself 



Accordingly the inflected verb in the indicative intransitive is prop- 

 erly translated in this manner : 



atorpoya my use = I am used 

 atorputit thy use = thou art used 

 atorpoq use = one is used 



= he, it, is used 

 tikippoya my arrival = I arrive 

 tikipputit thy arrival = thou arrivest 

 tikippoq arrival = one arrives 

 = he arrives 



The same applies to the transitive forms of the tinite verb; thus — 



atorpara my its use = I use it 

 atorpat thy its use = thou usest it 

 atorpaa his its vise = he uses it 

 kapiwara my its stab = I stab it 

 kapiivat thy its stab = thou stabbest it 

 kapiwaa his its stab = he stabs it 



In case an independent word is added as subject, it is used in the 

 relative case: 



Peeiip kapiwaaya Peele's m3^-his-stab = Peele stabs me 

 Peelip hapiwcmtit Peele's thj^-his-stab = Peele stabs thee 

 Peeiip kapiwaa Peele's his-his-stab = Peele stabs him (another) 



It is worth noticing that the base of the verb seems to have a passive 

 or reflexive sense; e. g., PeeU kapiiooq p. stabs himself, or p. is 

 STABBED. Our trausitive sentence construction (he stabs me) is based 

 on the idea of an active relation between subject and object. The 

 corresponding Eskimo form of speech is based on a passive or 

 reflexive relation between the subject and the object; that is to say, 

 in the Eskimo language no strictly transitive use of the verb is 



§59 



