134 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



in a-tra in the prefent, in which a <r mud be fuppofed to be the 

 characteristic, this termination is plainly incident to a particu- 

 lar dialect, and thofe futures in |a>, which are faid to arife from 

 them, are actually derived from obfolete prefents : thus, T^afa, 

 the future, which is faid to come from Kguo-o-a, is evidently 

 formed from the obfolete rguyw, which may be learned from the 

 fecond future, which is -zgtzyw. Indeed, yguo-tru, and ether 

 verbs of that termination, cannot have a firft future regularly 

 formed, as <r, which is improperly adopted as the characteristic 

 of the prefent, cannot alfo be the characteristic of the future 

 in the fame verbs. I may add, that the later Attics rejected 

 that termination in <r<ru, and fubftituted rrco, faying Kgarru, in- 

 ftead of irguovw *. I muft not omit obferving too, that a few 

 verbs occur which terminate in -^u and fa>, in the prefent, in 

 which <r may be fuppofed the characteristic of that tenfe. But 

 thefe Seem to be futures fubftituted in place of certain obfolete 

 prefents from which they are derived, and whofe meaning they 

 have aiTumed. I know not that there are any more of them 

 than the following, e-vj/w, coquo ; o^a^u, mordeo j uXt%&>, opitulor; 

 auf&>, augeo. At any rate, fo few exceptions, and thofe too of 

 fuch a queftionable fhape, can have no effect againft a general 

 rule. The confequence, however, is, that fuch verbs, by ha- 

 ving a <r in their prefent, muft be defective ; for there is no 

 proper way of distinguishing their firft future, the <r already be- 

 ing employed as the characteristic of the prefent. 



3. 2ITMA never is the characteristic of liquid verbs, 

 the liquid of the prefent always remaining in the future, 

 and fome other change being employed to mark this laft 

 tenfe, fuch as the Shortening of the penult, if it be long, 

 and the circumflection of the final a f. The reafon is, the 

 analogy of the Greek tongue does not permit a liquid to pre- 

 cede or, except, fometimes in the Doric dialect, as, ogu, ex- 

 cite, 



* Vide Lennep in Analogiam L. Gr. p. 55, 56, &c. 

 ■{- See Moor Elementa L. Gr. p. 128. 



