Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/255

 APP. NO. I.] GRAMMATICAL NOTICES. - — MASSACHUSETTS. 219 e white ' ; noowompes, c I am white ' ; koowompes, ' thou art white ' ; wompesu, ' he is white.' Whatever is affirmed to be, or denied to be, may be verbs substantive. The third sort are the verbs substantive passive, when the person affixed is the object of the act ; as, noowadchanit, ' I am kept/ The action, when doubled or frequented, is expressed by doubling the first syllable ; as, mohmocog, ' they oft meet.' Active verbs have two forms, the simple and the suffix. The suffix form active has five various formations. I think there be some more, but I have beat out no more. I call them concordances, because the chief weight and strength of the syn- taxes of this language lies in this eminent manner of formation of nouns and verbs, with the pronoun persons. 1. When the object of the act is an animate noun ; as, koowadchansh, ' I keep thee.' 2. When animates are each other's object ; as, noowadchan- ittimun,) ' we keep each other ' ; which form wants the singular xiUmber. 3. The suffix animate and inanimate object ; as, koowad- chanumoush, ' I keep it for thy use.' 4. The suffix animate form social ; as, koowtcchtwadcha- numwomsh, ' I keep it with thee.' 5. When one acts in the room of another ; as, koowadcha- numwanshun, c I keep it instead of thee.' All these forms may be varied, according as they are affirma- tive, negative, and interrogative, and also in a causative form. The modes of action are the indicative; the imperative ; the optative or wishing ; the subjunctive or rather suppositive, as, c if it be,' ' when it is,' ' it being,' which last sense turns the mode into a participle ; and the indefinite (infinitive) which is made of the indicative mode by adding the termination at and taking away the pronominal affix. The potential mode is expressed by a word, commonly ivoh, signifying may, affixed to the indicative mode. The times are two ; present and past. The time to come is expressed by a word signifying futurity, added to the indicative mode ; as, mos,jnsh, ' shall,' or ' will.' * Verbs are often turned into nouns ; and a frequent way is by present.
 * The past tense indicative is generally formed by adding ap to the