Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/181

 is 'to go or depart'; uwanun is the future teuse of the verb of motion, 'to come' or 'to go,' accordiug as the word waita, 'to go,' or tanan, 'to come,' is attached to it. The Tahitians have a similarity of form in the expression haere, 'to come ' or 'to go,' according as the particle mai or atu is attached; thus, haere mai, 'come,' haere atu, 'go.'

Mr. Elliot, inhis Grammar, shows that the Massachusetts dialect has numerous conjugations of its verbs ; and Mr. Eeisberger has divided the Delaware language into eight conjugations of verbs. In my Grammar, also, 1 have traced out eight modifications of the Australian verb as spoken at Lake Macquarie ; and its tenses are not confined simply to the past, present, and future, but have various modifications of each time; for instance, they have a present with the termination -a n f or the verb, and -1 i n for the par- ticiple; as, wiy-anbag, 'I speak' now; wiyel-lin, 'speaking' now; a definite past tense has the particle -keiin; as, wiya-keun, 'have spoken' this morning; wiy -ell i-keiin, 'have been speak- ing ' this morning ; and an indefinite past is wiy a, 'told or spoke', and wiyelli-ela, 'spake,' both terminatingin a. There are three varieties of the future ; as, w i y e 1 1 i k o 1 a g, 'to be about to speak '; where wiyelli is the bare form of the infinitive wiyelliko, ' to speak,' and kolag is 'towards '; then there is also a definite future ; as, viya-kin, 'shall or will speak' to-morrow morning ; and besides, an indefinite future, wiy a nii n, ' shall or will speak ' some time or other. These peculiar tenses are not noticed in the Indian Grammars, and, therefore, it is presumed that they are pecixliar to the languages of the aborigines of this land.

The South Sea Islanders make no change in the endings of the verb; neither do the aborigines of Australia; for each tense-form of the verb may be made available to any person, according to the pronoun substituted. The change of person is seen only in the English translation, and not in the Australian word ; thus, from wiyelliko, 'to speak,' ' to communicate by speech or sound' — applied to the speech of man, the crowing of a cock, or the striking of a clock — come wiyan bag, 'I speak'; wiyan bi, ' thou speakest'; wiyannoa, 'he speaks'; wiyan bountoa, 'she speaks'; wiyan gali, ' this speaks'; wiyan ge en, 'we speak'; wiyan banug, ' I speak to thee'; wiyan bali bulun, 'we two speak to you two '; wiyellin bag, 'I am speaking '; wiyellin banug, 'I am speaking to thee'; wiyellan bag, 'I speak and continue to speak,' 'I tell'; wiyellan banug, 'I tell thee'; wiyellan bali, ' we two tell one another,' 'we converse'; wiyellilin bag, 'I am speaking and continue to speak,' 'I am talkmor'; -wiyan gali-ko clock-ko, 'the clock strikes.' Muk-ka-ka tibbin-to wiyan, 'the cockcrows'; here muk- kaka is the nearest sound to express the cackling of fowls; literally the sentence is, 'the bird says mukkaka.'

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