44 



THE ORMURI OR BARGISTA LANGUAGE. 



[§87. 



§ 87. The following tenses are formed from the present base : — 



Aorist. 

 Present. 

 Future. 

 Imperative. 



§ 88. Aorist. — The aorist is the direct descendant of the old Eranian present, 

 and is itself occasionally used as a present, or even as a future. Generally, however, 

 it has the force of a present subjunctive. It is formed by adding personal termina- 

 tions directly to the present base, and is thus conjugated for the verb yUpek, to 



weave, present base yuf-. 



Sing. Plur. 



1. ya/"m, yaf-'en. 



2. yefi, yufai. 



3. ydf^, yafin. 



We may compare this with the Avesta : — 



Sing. Plur. 



1. bar ami, bardmahi. 



2. barahi, baraOa. 



3. baraiti, bardnti. 



and with the Sanskrit : — 



Sing. Plur. 



1. b'ardmi, b'ardmas. 



2. b'arasi, b'aratha. 



3. b'arati, b'aranti. 



It will be seen that in the singular and in the third person plural the Ormuri 

 forms can all be derived directly from those of the Avesta. In the first and second 

 persons plural, instead of the original terminations, the pronominal suffixes of the 

 nominative of these persons (§ 68a) have been added, evidently on the analogy of the 

 corresponding persons of the past tenses. 



About twenty-nine verbs of the first conjugation and nineteen verbs of the 

 second conjugation have a instead of i as the termination of the third person singular. 

 I have failed to discover any system according to which a is preferred to i. Most of 

 the a-verbs are intransitive, but there are numerous intransitive verbs that take i. 

 As examples of <?-verbs we may quote : — 





Aorist, sing. 3. 



amar'ek, to hear. 



amara. 



caPek, to proceed. 



cala. 



lag'ek, to be applied. 



laga. 



trayek, to fear. 



tray a. 



byok, to be, 



ba. 



wazyok, to slay, 



wazna. 



ywastak, to fall. 



ywaza. 



