1858.] 



JBd hing Vocabu lary . 



433 



1. Lacho giyi. 



2. Lacho giyisi. 



3. Lacho giyimi 



1. 



Indicative present. 



First person. 



Lacho giso. 

 Lacho gisiki. 



1. 



2. 



3. 



2. 



.3. 



Lacho gisoki. 

 Lacho gisikisi. 



Lacho gisomi. 

 Lacho gisikinii. 



And so on conjugating the transitive giwo, to give, in the passive voice, like the 

 passive of javvo, to eat aforegone. Latmo giyi = let me go, give me to go. But 

 observe that in order to say let him go, you must use the active voice, as below. 



Lacho giso. 

 Lacho gfki. 



I Lacho gisosi. 

 / Lacho gikisi. 



Lacho gisomi. 

 Lacho gikimi. 



Singular. 



Let me go, lacho giyi. 

 Let him go, lacho giwo. 



Dual. 



Let us two go, lacho gisiki. 

 Let them two go, lacho giwosi. 



Plural. 



Let us all £0, lacho giki. 



Let them all go, lacho giwomi. 



j" Remark. — If to th?se forms we add those of 

 the middle voice. S. Lacho giso. D. Lacho 

 gische. P, Lacho gisine, we have a good clue 

 to the character of the three voices in this lan- 

 guage which are based upon the idea of me, 

 the speaker, being the exponent of the passive ; 

 of self, the spoken to, being that of the middle ; 

 and of him, or her, or it, the spoken of, being 

 that of the active voice, Gi-wo = give him : 

 Gi-so = give thyself: Gi-yi = give me, are 

 respectively the starting points of the active, 

 middle and passive voices. 



Interrogative Mood. 



It resembles the indicative, lagna I shall go, or shall I go ? 



Prohibitive and Negative Mood. 



There is no separate form of the negative verb as in Dravidian tongues, nor even 

 any prohibitive particle distinct from the negative. 



Ma prefixed expresses verbal negation and prohibition and also nominal priva- 

 tion , e. g. Ma jawo, eat not. Ma jagna, I do not eat. Ma neuba, not good = bad. 



Inceptive Mood. 



It is formed by subjoining to the ordinary infinitive form (cho) of the main 

 verb, .the subsidiary intransitive verb prenso, to begin, or the transitive pawo, to 

 do, to make : e. g. tucho pawo, begin to drink ; tucho papta, he began to drink: 

 jacho prenso, begin to eat ; jacho, prensigna, I begin to eat. 



Einitive Mood. 



It is formed as above, but substituting for pawo or prenso the transitive theumo 

 (conficio), e. g. jacho theumo, finish eating, jacho theumtong, I have done eating. 

 Sometimes "ne,"* replaces the infinitival "cho" of the main verb. 



* The infinitival sis^n varies, not always intelligibly. Where purpose is meant 

 "tha" is the sign, as jatha lati, I went to drink, i. e. for the purpose of drinking. 

 Where commencement and end are expressed, " ue" is more frequent than "cho" 

 jane prensigua, jane theumu, I shall begin to eat, and I shall have done eating. 

 So also where wish is expressed jane dwaktong, I wished lo eat. But cho is the 

 common form and always used alone, us Jacho ma jacho agyem neu, which is better 

 to eat or not to eat. 



2 i 



