§ 76.] CONJUGATION. 37 



the -^rt-suffix added. That of i" is the O. Prs., Av. pronominal base ci-, which 

 reappears in the Prs. ci, P. ^a. With ien cf. O. Prs, ciyant-, of what kind ?, and with 

 ion, the Av. cvant-, how much ?. Ciyant- and cvant- are different forms of the same 

 word, and each means both ' qualis ' and ' quantus ' . In O. both forms have been 

 preserved, and the meaning differentiated. 



§ 74. Inde-finite Pronouns. — 'All the above interrogative pronouns may also be 

 used as indefinite pronouns, the distinction of meaning being indicated by the tone 

 of voice. Thus, kuk, anyone, someone ; h'\ anything, something, and so on. Besides 

 these, we may note : — 



bl, other; Av. hitya-, second. 



hei, anything, something ; borrowed from Prs. hec. 

 har, every ; borrowed from Prs. It has a plural harr" , meaning ' all.' 

 Verbs. — 



§ 75. The conjugation of the verb follows the usual Branian system. There are 

 two bases, a present and a past. From the present base are formed the customary 

 conjugational tenses, which, in the case of Ormurl, have become the Aorist and the 

 Imperative. From the past base is formed the past participle by the addition of the 

 -^a-suffix, and from the past participle is formed the usual array of past tenses. 

 Moreover, with one or two isolated exceptions, the verbal noun, or infinitive, is iden- 

 tical in form with the past participle, — in this agreeing with P'^sto. In the case of 

 transitive verbs, the tenses formed from the past participle are passive in signification, 

 and agree in gender and number with the object, the subject being put in the case of 

 the Agent. In this respect, Ormurl is in an older stage of development than standard 

 Persian, and agrees with the Persian dialects and with the Eastern Eranian languages 

 such as the Pamir dialects, Baloci and P'sto. If the subject is a pronoun, it is indi- 

 cated by a pronominal suffix in the Agent case, as in x^alak-am , a masculine thing 

 (was) eaten by me, i.e. I ate something masculine. If the subject is a noun sub- 

 stantive, its Agent case is the same in form as the Nominative, so that the sub- 

 ject is apparently, and only apparently, in the nominative case. Thus sarai x^cilak, 

 by a man a masculine thing (was) eaten, i.e. a man ate something masculine. The 

 feminine and plural (com. gen.) of ^alak is ^alk, and sami yijoalk means either ' a 

 man ate something feminine,' or ' a man ate several things of either gender.' 



§ 76. Past Participle. — The past participle and infinitive is formed by adding 

 the -^(2-suffix to the past base, with g, 0, or a, as a junction- vowel. We may thus 

 say that it is formed by adding -ek, -ok, or -ak to the past base. By far the greater 

 number of past participles end in ek, and the verbs whose past participles have this 

 termination form the first conjugation. I am unable to give any reason for the 

 distinction between the vowels e, 0, and a. Perhaps the 0, is the relic of an older 

 labial vowel, as in hyok, become, compared with its original, the Av. huta-, or of an 

 original p, as in Hyok, given, compared with the Sanskrit prapita- (for the change of 

 Pr to &, see § 29, /.). According to a strong tendency of Ormurl (see § 13, 4), the 

 final ek is pronounced with a y-sound preceding it. After a consonant, this y is but 

 faintly heard, and the termination will be found written 'ek in these pages, but, 



