Part 3 (1/2)
My host or his son never failed to invite me each day to spend some time in the outer enclosure, but never intentionally left me alone there. On one occasion, when Kevima had been called away and I ventured to walk down towards the gate, my host's youngest child, who had been playing on the roof, ran after me, and reaching me just as my foot was set on the spring that opened the gate or outer door, caught me by the hand, and looking up into my face, expressed by glance and gesture a negative so unmistakable that I thought it expedient at once to comply and return to the house. There my time was occupied, for as great a part of each day as I could give to such a task without extreme fatigue, in mastering the language of the country. This was a much simpler task than might have been supposed. I soon found that, unlike any Terrestrial tongue, the language of this people had not grown but been made--constructed deliberately on set principles, with a view to the greatest possible simplicity and the least possible taxation of the memory. There were no exceptions or irregularities, and few unnecessary distinctions; while words were so connected and related that the mastery of a few simple grammatical forms and of a certain number of roots enabled me to guess at, and by and by to feel tolerably sure of, the meaning of a new word. The verb has six tenses, formed by the addition of a consonant to the root, and six persons, plural and singular, masculine and feminine.
Singular.
Masc.
Fem.
Plural.
Masc.
Fem.
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-------- I am
ava
ava
We are
avau
avaa Thou art
avo
avoo
You are
avou
avu He or she is
avy
ave
They are
avoi
avee --------------
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The terminations are the three p.r.o.nouns, feminine and masculine, singular and plural, each represented by one of twelve vowel characters, and declined like nouns. When a nominative immediately follows the verb, the p.r.o.nominal suffix is generally dropped, unless required by euphony. Thus, ”a man strikes” is _dak klaftas_, but in the past tense, _dakny klaftas_, the verb without the suffix being unp.r.o.nounceable. The past tense is formed by the insertion of _n_ (_avna_: ”I have been”), the future by _m_: _avma_. The imperative, _avsa_; which in the first person is used to convey determination or resolve; _avsa_, spoken in a peremptory tone, meaning ”I _will_ be,”
while _avso_, according to the intonation, means ”be” or ”thou shalt be;” i.e., shalt whether or no. _R_ forms the conditional, _avra_, and _ren_ the conditional past, _avrena_, ”I should have been.” The need for a pa.s.sive voice is avoided by the simple method of putting the p.r.o.noun in the accusative; thus, _daca_ signifies ”I strike,” _dacal_ (me strike) ”I am struck.” The infinitive is _avi; avyta_, ”being;”
_avnyta_, ”having been;” _avmyta_, ”about to be.” These are declined like nouns, of which latter there are six forms, the masculine in _a, o, and y,_ the feminine in _a, oo, and e;_ the plurals being formed exactly as in the p.r.o.nominal suffixes of the verb. The root-word, without inflexion, alone is used where the name is employed in no connection with a verb, where in every terrestrial language the nominative would be employed. Thus, my guide had named the squirrel-monkeys _ambau_ (sing. _amba_); but the word is declined as follows:--
_Singular._ _Plural._
_Nominative_ ambas ambaus
_Accusative_ ambal ambaul
_Dative, to_ or _in_ amban ambaun
_Ablative, by_ or _from_ ambam ambaum
The five other forms are declined in the same manner, the vowel of the last syllable only differing. Adjectives are declined like nouns, but have no comparative or superlative degree; the former being expressed by prefixing the intensitive syllable _ca_, the latter, when used (which is but seldom) by the prefix _ela_, signifying _the_ in an emphatic sense, as his Grace of Wellington is in England called _The_ Duke _par excellence_. Prepositions and adverbs end in _t_ or _d_.
Each form of the noun has, as a rule, its special relation to the verb of the same root: thus from dac, ”strike,” are derived _daca_, ”weapon” or ”hammer;”, _daco_, a ”stroke” or ”striking” [as given]
both masculine; _daca_, ”anvil;” _dacoo_, ”blow” or ”beating” [as received]; and _dake_, ”a thing beaten,” feminine. The sixth form, _daky_, masculine, has in this case no proper signification, and not being wanted, is not used. Individual letters or syllables are largely employed in combination to give new and even contradictory meanings to a root. Thus _n_, like the Latin _in_, signifies ”penetration,”
”motion towards,” or simply ”remaining in a place,” or, again, ”permanence.” _M_, like the Latin _ab_ or _ex_, indicates ”motion from.” _R_ expresses ”uncertainty” or ”incompleteness,” and is employed to convert a statement into a question, or a relative p.r.o.noun into one of inquiry. _G_, like the Greek _a_ or _anti_, generally signifies ”opposition” or ”negation;” _ca_ is, as aforesaid, intensitive, and is employed, for example, to convert _afi_, ”to breathe,” into _cafi_, ”to speak.” _Cr_ is by itself an interjection of abhorrence or disgust; in composition it indicates detestation or destruction: thus, _craky_ signifies ”hatred;” _cravi_, ”the destruction of life” or ”to kill.” _L_ for the most part indicates pa.s.sivity, but with different effect according to its place in the word. Thus _mepi_ signifies ”to rule;” _mepil_, ”to be ruled;”