Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/291

 APP. NO. I.] GRAMMATICAL NOTICES. CHOCTAW. 255 Examples of adjectives used as verbs. suk-kiil-lo, 1 am strong, suk-kota, / am weak or languid, sul-lush-pa, / am hot, sii-chuk-wa, i" am cold, sai-him-mi-ta, I am young, sus-se-pok-ne, I am old, such-e-to, I am large, sus-kit-i-ne, 1 am small, su-toh-be, I am white, su-lu-sa, I am black, sai-ub-be-ka, I am sick, um-a-chuk-ma, lam well, sai-yup-pa, I am glad, sun-nuk-honk-lo, I am sorry, si-a-chuk-ma, / am good, sai-ok-pul-lo, / am bad. Neuter or intransitive verbs are conjugated as the passive transitive verbs.* Verbs in the Chahta language admit of various changes, to express the relations and states of things ; as, Pisa, He sees, ( The root of the verb.) Pisa, He is seeing, (Participle) Pihisa, He is in the habit of seeing, or he frequently sees. (Frequentative.) Plesa, He does not see. (More emphatical tlian Pisa.) Pisachi, To make to see. (Causal form.) Pisahanchi, He keeps or continues to make, him see. Each of the above has a negative form ; as, Ikpeso, He does not sec. Ikpiso, He is not seeing. Ikpihiso. He does not frequently sec. Ikpieso, He docs not sec. Ikpis-acho, He docs not make him see. Ikpisahancho, He does not keep making him see. Besides this negative form of the verb, the language has sev- eral negative particles ; as keyu, ' not ' ; aheld, ' cannot ' ; awa, 1 cannot,' 'will not,' 'shall not.' Pisa keyu, He docs not see. Pisachi keyu, He docs not make him sec. Pisa held, He cannot sec ; used in familiar conversation. Pisa wa, He cannot sec ; the language of jjassion, used in public speaking and in animated discourse. Pisa na, Let him not see; used only in the imperative mood. To express past time, the verb has several forms ; as, tuk, toJc, kamo, or Jcomo, and chamo. Pisa ink, ' He has seen,' referring to what is just done, or to an action though commenced not completed. the Spelling-Book of the verbs to sleep and to die. For the specimens of verbal forms see the appended tables, A, G.
 * This is inferred from the examples given of the conjugations in