§92a.] TENSES FORMED FROM PRESENT BASE. 45 



The termination a occurs in other Eranian dialects. Kurd, has e or a, which 

 Socin (GIP. 1, ii, 280) connects with the verb substantive ast, he is. Of the Kasan 

 dialects some have a, and others e, u, and I. 



§ 89. The second person singular presents several peculiarities. If the root 

 vowel is rt, it is generally strengthened to e, as in ycfi in the above paradigm. Other 

 root vowels are similarly strengthened, as in sdtl, he may keep ; setl, thou mayst 

 keep: hizi, he may cook ; hezl, thou mayst cook. This occurs only when the third 

 person singular ends in l. We may compare this strengthening with the vowel changes 

 that occur before the long i termination of plural substantives (§ 57). 



Sometimes the second person singular is formed simply by dropping the final 

 vowel of the third person, with or without strengthening of the root vowel. This 

 occurs whether the third singular ends in i or in a. Thus, ywahi, he may say, 2nd 

 person, ywah; basl, he may give, 2nd pers. bus ; amara, he may hear, 2nd pers. amar. 



There are other minor irregularities, which will be found in the full grammar. 



§ 90. Present. — The present is formed by adding the particle bu to the aorist. 

 Thus, bu yaf'm, I weave or am weaving. The origin of bu has been dealt with in 

 § 8ia. See also the following section. 



§ 91. Future. — The future is formed by substituting su (see § 81a) for the bu of 

 the present. Thus, su yaf"m, I shall weave. 



The terminations of the aorist are true terminations and not pronominal suffixes. 

 Hence, they cannot be detached from the verb and attached to bu or su, as can be 

 done in the case of the terminations of the past tenses (§ 8ia). 



§ 92. Imperative. — The imperative closely follows the aorist. It is conjugated 

 as follows:— sing. Plur. 



1. yaf"m, yufyen. 



2. yef or yep'n, yufal. 



3. yufun or yufdn, yafun or yafon. 



In the second person singular, the termination I of the second person singular of 

 the aorist is dropped, provided the word is not a monosyllable. Thus, we have yef, 

 not ylfl. To this, the termination "n is commonly added. If the second person 

 singular of the aorist is a word of only one syllable, then the second person singular 

 of the imperative optionally takes the form of the third person. Thus, from mulak, 

 to die, we have mri, thou mayst die, and mrl or mron, die thou. 



The third persons singular and plural have the same forms, in both cases being 

 made by substituting un or on for the final I or a oi the third person singular of the 

 aorist. So far as I am aware, this ^-termination of the third person of the imperative 

 does not occur in other Eranian forms of speech. I am inclined to connect it with 

 the optative termination an" (§ 84), 



§ 92a. Other verbal forms. — A noun of agency is formed by adding wunkai to 

 the present base, as in yaf-wunkai, a weaver. This is borrowed from P^Sto. As in 

 that language, it is the nearest approach to a present participle possessed by Ormuri. 



Ormuri possesses no conjunctive participle, corresponding to the Hindi kar-ke, 



