in.] SICHUAN A LANGUAGE. 115 



"The absolute verb, or copula, or, in other words, the 

 verb which shows simple connection between action and 

 agent, is £2 = the personal pronoun /, used demonstratively; 

 or le, otherwise the connective conjunction and; and wa, 

 otherwise the pronoun me; na, present time ; la, na, past: 

 'ntse, perfect. The tenses of the others which are used for 

 the verb ''to be" show their tenses too, either by reduplica- 

 tion or in their endings. They are preceded by the same 

 words as nominatives. A pronoun is thus capable of being 

 both a nominative and a verb. Moreover, any one of the 

 simple signs of nouns may be used as the verb " to be :" 

 Morimo o molemo, God he or the good, viz. God is good ; 

 Morimo ki molemo, God's good, meaning God is good; ki 

 khomu, it is an ox ; Ida ratoa ki Morimo, I am loved by 

 God ; ki Morimo o, o, 'nthatan, 'tis God he, who, me loves = 

 it is God who loves me. 1 ' 



The past tenses are expressed by reduplication. Ex. 

 ki le motlanka, I am a servant; ki le ki motlanka, I was a 

 servant. Time still farther back would be expressed by an 

 additional le. Still more distant time is signified by greater 

 reduplication. An aorist tense seems to exist. 



Future time is expressed by prefixing //«, which means 

 come: ki tla tla, I come come, or I shall come. 



Procession in time is understood by the phrase go tla 

 go tsamaea, to come to go = until. 



The potential, optative, infinitive, and imperative moods 

 all exist in the language. 



The negative copula, or verb, contains the idea of aver- 

 sion, and is used to shew non-connexion between subject 

 and predicate. 



The infinitive is the pure root in Sichuana verbs, for it 

 is simply predicative, expressing the meaning of the word 

 without reference to persons or time : go riha, to do, make, 

 or work = ago, egi, actum, &c. 2 



1 Analysis, &c. p. 21. 2 Ibid. p. 25. 



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