410 GRAMMAR OF THE KLAMATH LANGUAGE. 



It has long been disputed wliether Indian languages have a real infinitive, 

 and therefore 1 have given a number of passages referring to the question. 

 Some of these infinitives could be explained by the principle of co-ordina- 

 tion of sentences, others by aj)heresis of -tki, as in the first sentence: 

 ktiyaktcha for kayaktchdtki, because the verbs embodying an order, mes- 

 sage, announcement usually have the verbal in -tki or -sh after them.* But, 

 nevertheless, the form exists as a verbal distinct from all other verbals. 



2. The verbal indefinite. 



This verbal ends in -sh, -s, and is the only verbal undergoing inflection 

 for case in the absolute and distributive form Like the other verbals, it is 

 dependent on some finite verb (predicative personal verb), and the sentence 

 in which it is embodied would be expressed in English by an incident 

 clause. The verb on which verbals depend is either gi to he or some other 

 temporally inflected verb; if it is gi, this gi is often suppressed for 

 brevity. 



When the logical subject of the verbal indefinite of a transitive verb 

 is a noun, it sometimes stands in the possessive case in -am; if a pronoun, 

 it is expressed by the possessive and not by the personal pronoun. Thus 

 we have to say: maklaksam shishukash the fight of the Indians, g^-u g^-ish 

 my departure; lit. "the warring performed by the Indians", "the going 

 away by me." These verbals indefinite have hence to be understood in a 

 passive sense, and the same holds good of the preterit verbal in -uish, which 

 does not inflect for case unless it turns into a substantive noun. 



But when the subject stands in the subjective case and the pronoun in 

 the personal form, the ti'ansitive verb is in the active voice, and has to be 

 translated. as such. Examples of both constructions will be found below. 



There are two verbals indefinite: (1) one in -ash, referring to the act 

 expressed by the verb, the action in ahatraeto in present or past; (2) an- 

 other in -ish, referring to a person as grammatic or logical subject of the 

 act expressed by the verb in the present or past. On account of rapid pro- 

 nunciation, slurring over, or syncope of the vowels -a- or -i-, both verbals 

 often become indistinguishable, and are easily confounded. Many verbs 



* Cf. what is said under " Verbal lutentional," p. 416. 



