288 R. B. Shaw— A Grammar of the Language [No. 3, 
Other tenses of hol-mdq are used with this ; also durman and idim : e. g. 
(d.) 1. qel a-durghan (qelatqan) id-im “1 was to do.” 
2. QEha-durghan-id-mg “ thou wert to do.” 
3. QKLa-durghan-id-i “he was to do.” * 
&c. 
(e.) 1. QEha-durglian (qeldtqan) dur- man “I am about doing.” 
2. qe ha-durglian dur- san “ thou art about doing.” 
3. qe 'La-durghan dur “ he is about doing.” 
&c. 
( f.) qel sa-m holur iJcan, &c. (The Possessive affix of the qelsa 
changing for the different persons). This expression is very difficult to 
put into a representative English form ; but it shows how distinctly the 
Eastern Turki language keeps up the recollection of the origin of its verbal 
forms, and how little these have sunk into consolidated inflections. For 
here (after the manner of several previous tenses)* the form qelsa’m, so far 
from being looked upon merely as the 1st Person Singular of the Present 
Potential, is distinctly a Substantive in the possessed form (of the 1st Person 
Singular), and it is used as the subject or nominative of another verb [holur) 
in the 3rd Person. By changing the Possessive affix of the “ qelscc ” we 
should get fresh compound substantives, each of which would again 
form the subject of the verb holur. Such a series of expressions as these 
may perhaps be looked upon as a Tense in Turki; but they are simply sen¬ 
tences in a certain form with a nominative governing the possessive pro¬ 
nouns of the several persons successively [as in English one might say : 
my dog runs, thy dog runs, his dog runs, &c.] # 
The literal meaning of the expression, however, (as regards the 1st 
Person Singular), may he said to be as follows :— 
qels« ’m holur ikanf 
the power of doing mine about to become may be 
or, as it is used in the interrogative usually with qaiddgh (how), we may 
render it : “ [How] may my choice of action be about to come into play ?” 
or in other words : [How] shall my doing be ?” i. e., “ [How] shall I act” 
or “ should I act ?” And so with the other persons, Singular and Plural; 
the verb “ holur Alcan” remaining all through in the 3rd Person Singular. 
When used not interrogatively, this expression denotes obligation, as “ I 
should” or “ ought to....” 
1. QELStf-’m holur ikan “ I ought to” or “ should do.” 
2. QELs«-’ng holur ilcan “ thou” &c. 
3. qels« holur ilcan “ he” &c. 
* See also the 2nd Past Potential and the 3rd ditto, and the 2nd and 3rd Past 
Indefinite Tenses. 
f Bolur-ikan is the 3rd Person Singular of the Indefinite Future Present of the 
verb bolmaq. 
