148 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



(d) Potential. — Ability to perform an action is expressed by the 

 ■word ngulaig, knowing, or to know how. Ngangulaig get6wani% senahi 

 watri pawa? who can forgive sins? In Mk. xiv. 8, ngulaig is used 

 with a possessive pronoun. Na inuasin nidizi nanu ngulaig, she has 

 done her ability, i.e. what she could. The negative of ngulaig is 

 korawaig. Tana Tcorawaig aipurutan, they could not eat ; noi Tcorawaig 

 u%a/r, he could not go ; ngai Tcorawaig, I don't know. 



(e) Subjunctive and Conditional. — There seems no definite way of 

 expressing a dependent sentence, and there is no change of form in 

 the verb. The words used to introduce a conditional sentence are 

 sihe, if ; ha, if ; toma, tuma, lest ; tomalca, perhaps. The adverb wa, 

 yes, is often used between the protasis and the apodosis : the dependent 

 sentence is frequently in the future. 



Ex. Sike ngalpa iamuliz daparngu, kai noi mulepa, Mipa ngita 

 nuhepa toradoiginga? if we.' say, from heaven, he will say. Why have you 

 not received him ? Ngalpa tizar senahi amadan lag'6, ngai maumizineka 

 siei, we go to the next place, that I may (will) preach there ; sike 

 kauralaig, wa, noi ka/rengeniin, if (he) possesses ears, then he hears ; ha 

 ngato tanamulpa waean, tana umuwalepa siei iahugudanu, if I send them 

 away, they (will) faint there on the way ; ngai ngihia kahnel umanga, 

 wa, ngai nginungu gudotodaiginga, if I die with thee, I do not deny 

 thee ; sike kuilculunga iaupain toraiginga senahi goiga sena, wa/ra mdbaeg 

 igiliginga, if the Lord had not shortened those days, any man (would) 

 not live ; tuma noi tarai mangizo a iman ngita a mata utui, lest he come 

 quick and find you still asleep ; noi iautumiz nongo niaikazi magina 

 gulpa noino ugan, ino mahaeg koigorsar, toma tana nuhepa kai garona- 

 namiz, He ordered His disciples for a little boat to await Him, the men 

 (were) many, lest they should crowd Him ; I^ga mahaeg kain waina 

 paieudan senahi au dopuza, tomaka papalamizo kae senahi dohu huiu, what 

 man pours new wine into an old thing, perhaps the old bottle will 

 burst. 



(2.) Tense :— 



Three apparent tense endings appear in the Gospel, but the distinc- 

 tion between them is difficult to make out. These endings are pa, iz, 

 and n. 



{a) Pa. — This ending was given by Macgillivray for the present 

 tense (see p. 145), but is of comparatively rare occurrence in the 

 Gospel. Even when used it seems to express an infinitive of purpose 



