Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/165

 OF VERBS. 99

therefore very simple ; &*& having beaten makes in the first form r &&> / have beaten, S^^BSS thou hast leaten c. The third person of the first form is Tlb?& he, she, or it has beaten, the 9 of ^|3 being dropped when the termination "^ &>, beginning with a vowel, is added to it. In the second form, ^""3 Lhaving beaten, makes S^lS^jfo & c . I have beaten Sfc. Both of these forms are strictly grammatical, and both are equally in common use.

FUTURE.

All the terminations added to the root, to compose the two forms of this tense, commence with vowels ; the final o of the root is therefore dropped, when they are added to it ; thus, the root ^^ makes ^~^>25^ or ^"to^), / will beat. The second form of this tense is used by the vulgar only. The first person singular of the second form of this tense must not be confounded with the third person singular in the first form of the past tense. ^ "l^^ I will beat is entirely distinct, in meaning, from ^~^ji^ he, she, or it has beaten ; but the only difference in writing or pronouncing them, is, that the ~* before r& j s long in the former, and short in the latter. It is of much importance to the reader to understand, that the two forms of the future tense are soldom used ; the present or the aorist being commonly substituted for them.

AORIST.

The formation of the affirmative aorist from the root, and of the negative aorist from the infinitive, by the addition of the affixes shewn in the table, is so simple, as scarcely to require explanation : the root ^^ makes it's affirmative aorist r k x >&>f&, 7 do beat, have beaten, or will beat ; and from the infi- GO riitive ^^ comes s^^^X), I do not beat, have not beaten, or will not beat.

IMPERATIVE, PARTICIPLES, AND VERBAL NOUNS- AFFIRMATIVE VERBS.

The afiTirmative imperative is formed by a'dding to the root&>or Sxr* for the 2d person singular ; &&x>, or in the common dialect "^55oo, for thelst person plural ; and c agb or cd for the 2d person plural : the last mentioned termination, in the common dialect, is added to the infinitive, instead of the root ; thus, from