Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/358

 38 an australian language.

Imperative Mood.

Koh, ' come '; gai war, 'do come'; gai akhi, ' come here.'

Optative or Potential Mood.

T. 1. Gap^ inanye gai.

Infinitive Mood.

Gai, ' to come.'

Participles.

Puntin, ' coming '; puntani, ' about to come.'

8. Observations on the use of the Verbs.

1. Lakkin properly signifies 'pieixing'; gate lakkin itye koye means 'I make a basket,' lit.^ 'I pierce that basket,' by piercing through and through the rushes of which it is made ; but the word is mostly used to mean the casting of any missile, as a spear, a dart, a stone.

2. The intransitive verbs take the simple nominative form of the pronouns as, their subject ; the transitive verlis take the causative form.

3. There appear to be two conjugations for verbs in the Narrinyeri language : — (1.) those in which the form for the present indicative is the same as the present participle ; as, merippin, 'cutting,' gate yan merippin, 'I cut it'; (2.) those that have another form for the present participle ; as, dretulun, 'chipping,' gate yan dre kin, 'I chip it.' Of the former class aremempin, ' sti'iking' ; pempin, 'giving'; morokkin,' seizing.' To the latter belong pornun, 'die,' pornelin, 'dying'; nam- jj u 1 u m, ' hide, ' n a m p u n d e 1 i n, ' hiding '; n y r i p p i n, ' wash, ' n y r i b b e 1 i n, ' washing. '

4. Some intransitive verbs become transitive by changing the sonant g into the surd k, or by adding -undun to the root ; as, pigkin ap, 'I fall,' piggen atte ityan, 'I throw it down'; yelkulum ap, ' I move,' yelkundun atte ityan, 'I move it '; nampulun ap, 'I hide,' nampundun atte ityan, 'I hide it.'

5. A causative meaning is given to vei'bal adjectives by adding -mindin to them; as, guldaraulun, 'tired,' guldamulmindin, ' causing to be tired,' ' making tired.'

6. The most common auxiliary verbs are wallin, 'being,' and warin, 'making' or 'causing.' Examples of these are: — nug- gari, 'good', nugga-wallin, 'being good,' nunga-warin, ma- king good'; piltegi, 'strong,' pilteg-wallin, 'being strong,' pilteg-warin, 'making strong'; wirrag-wallin, 'being l)ad " wirrag-warin, 'making bad.'

7. Verbs may therefore be arranged in four classes : — (1.) the simple verbs as, m em pin, ' striking'; takin, 'eating'; goppun, 'walking'; lulun, 'breaking'; mampulun, 'hiding'; (2.) verbs ending in -wallin, 'existing'; as, tunku-wallin, 'play-

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