Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/193

 SECTION V: THE MOODS.

74. Among the moods the imperative is the one that is most elaborated in IN; it displays the greatest number of formatives. The conjunctive is much more scantily equipped. The modal shades of meaning represented by "can, may, must, shall, and will " are mostly expressed with the aid of auxiliary words of form, though the conjunctive can also perform those functions. The same applies to the irrealis. And it often happens that the sentence contains no linguistic element at all, apart from intonation, whereby we can recognize the mood.

75. The imperative. Nearly all the IN languages possess imperative WB's, i.e. WB's that exist only as imperatives. Examples: Nias aine, "come!", Karo ota, "let us go!", Day. hua, "attention !" — Illustration, Karo, from the Story of the Glutton: "Let us go home !" = ota ku rumah.

It is deserving of particular notice that practically all the IN languages have an imperative word for the idea "lo !", "behold !", though each language has a different one: Bont. nay, Nias hiza, Hova indru, etc. — Illustrations. Nias, from the Consecration Song on the gold ornament: "Finished is the jewel, behold ! perfected is the glittering of the gold" = ''noaway ganaqa, hiza ! nomaulu zaquso''. Hova, from the Testament of Umbiasa: "Behold, (my) son, the counsels" = indru anaka ni anatra.

76. Apart from these imperative WB's, the active imperative is formed, in the first place, by omitting the formatives, or to express it more accurately, by uttering the WB in a tone of command, request, entreaty, and the like, so as to express this mood. Thus in the Day. Story about saying "H'm" we find the sentence: "Fetch the sirih-vessel and bring it here !" = F. V. s., b. h. = duan saraṅan sipa, imbit katoh. The indi- Rh