THE MALAGASY LANGUAGE. 
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Irony, ^ 
Itony, > these; in distinction from Iretsy, those. 
Ireto, 3 
Ireo, those, these, or this; pointed out. 
Izato, this one; this one now addressed. 
On Verbs. 
The language has one substantive verb, misy; and it uses as 
auxiliaries three others— mety , mahazo , and mahay, the first 
signifying may, in the sense of permission, and suitability ; the 
second, have and can , usually signifying moral capability; 
and the third can, in the sense of physical capability. 
The moods of verbs are the indicative and imperative. The 
infinitive can scarcely be considered as distinct from the indica¬ 
tive. The subjunctive and potential moods are the same as 
the indicative, formed by the addition of some appropriate part 
of the auxiliary verbs. 
The tenses are, the present, past, future, and a paulo-post- 
future. Additional tenses, expressive of a more limited and 
definite time than simply past and future, can also be formed, 
and are in frequent use, by the addition of certain particles, 
and parts of the substantive verb. 
The tenses are made by the change of the initial letters, and 
by the aid of auxiliary particles. 
When the pronouns precede the verb, they undergo no 
change; when affixed, they are admitted only in the form 
already shown in the list of affix pronouns. 
N.B. In expanding the roots of verbs into the different forms 
or conjugations, by prefixing the formative particles, the obser¬ 
vations respecting the “ changes of letters” must be carefully 
noticed ; as, from fotsy , white, comes ma-moisy , to whiten— 
mahafotsy, to cause to be white, able to make it white. 
V seents to take the change into m as f — vonjy, mamonjy, 
mahavonjy , mpamonjy . Sometimes v changes into b , and takes 
m before it; as, voly , mam-boly ; vady, manam-bady; though 
this latter is rather a compound verb, and consists of manana 
to have, and vady a wife. 
Remarks on the Roots of Verbs, and the various modes or 
Conjugations formed from, them. 
1. The roots of verbs are usually of a participial nature, as 
already intimated in remarks on the roots of the language, and 
