The Verb. 21 



These generally correspond thus Fa., Eth., Amh., rih or fivu, 

 halaiuu, alu = they are, they were. Fa. eru is a '' verbal 

 pronoun," and corresponds to the auxiliary use of the Eth. 

 and Amh. With Eth. elu, originally eluni =z they are, ela 

 feminine, simple meaning "these:" compare the common 

 word for " they " or " these " in Oceanic (see I.) " They are '* 

 readily became " they " and '' these." This tlioroughly 

 explains the prefixed I (r, d) in the numeral 2, Mg. roa, 

 My. duiva, Fa. riia, Sam. lua (see II.), and in the Dual 

 Verbal Pronoun, Fa. ra, or era, Sam. la (see I.) ; originally 

 identical that with the Numeral is the Article, that with the 

 Pronoun is the Verb Substantive. And thus we see also 

 why the numeral is rua, lua (r-ua, l-ua), the pronoun ra, 

 la (r-a, l-a), the numeral being the sepaTate dual pronoun 

 uraa, huma, with the article I prefixed to it, whereas the 

 pronoun is really the 3rd person dual of the perfect of the 

 verb substantive. Thus ra, la consists of ")' or I, the verb 

 substantive, and the suffixed verbal dual pronoun a, contracted 

 for huma, as it is found in, for instance, Arb. (co contracted 

 for huma) in the 3rd person dual of the perfect of verbs. 

 Ra, era, and la, and Fa. ru or eru (3rd person plural of the 

 perfect of the verb substantive), point to a very ancient 

 time when the Oceanic languages possessed the suffixes of 

 the perfect, and we may infer the imperfect inflexion also, 

 like all the ancient Semitic languages ; and when probably 

 the ancient Semitic mother-tongue of the Arb. and Eth. had 

 not yet given birth to these two daughters ; but when, even 

 then, before the Oceanic branch shot out over the sea, and 

 become separate from the parent stem, the original huma, as 

 suffixed to the verb 3rd person dual perfect, had become 

 contracted to a. 



It is quite certain then, that in Oceanic, some of the 

 personal pronouns, whether separate or verbal pronouns, are 

 really ancient Semitic inflexional compounds of the personal 

 pronouns and a verb substantive, that in common use have 

 come to be regarded as mere personal pronouns, or even in 

 the third person, as mere demonstratives, like " this " or 

 ''these." 



Take another Semitic verb substantive in Arb. kana, with 

 sometimes the n elided, Eth. kon, usually as ka in Oceanic, 

 with the n elided, and compare Eromangan kik. Fate kag^ 

 and kaiga (for kak, kaika,) Harari akhakh, Malay kangkoM 

 (cf. dikau), thou, with Eth. konka, thou art (Arb. konta), 

 second person singular of the perfect. 



