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than the Basque language. The present of the indicative contains the verbal theme, preceded or followed by the pronouns dakart, 'I-bear-it,' from d-ekar-t.

§ 3. MOODS AND TENSES.

The Basque Verb has three moods-the Imperative, the Indicative and the Optative Mood; and two tenses-the Present and the Imperfect. The Infinitive, the Subjunctive and Participles (except the Past), do not exist in Basque. A Verb is mentioned in the Dictionary by the verbal adjective (past participle).

The Imperative.

The second person contains the verbal theme, followed by the pronoun; ekarri, 'to bear,' makes ekark, 'bear thou,' from ekar-hi; ekarzu, 'bear you,' from ekar-zu. The third person has the pronoun prefixed-b-ekar or bekar, (may)

he bear.'

The Indicative.

The Indicative has two tenses-the Present and the Imperfect. The present is formed by the verbal theme, preceded by the object and followed by the subject. The present is never without the object 'it,' expressed by d; thus, dakart, from d-ekar-t, I-bear-it;' dakark, from d-ekar-hi, 'thou-bearest-it; dakar, from d-ekar, '(he) bearsit.' The initial vowel becomes always a, with some few exceptions, as irudi, izeki, &c.

The characteristic letters of the subject and object are derived from the pronouns. They are:

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We saw that the third person is conspicuous by its absence; the other persons are, dakargu, dakarzu, dakarte. The third person plural is made from the singular, adding te, a sign of plurality. T as subject has an unknown origin (see the Pronouns).

The second person singular, being superseded by the second person plural, it was necessary to distinguish the new plural, and thus te was added, and dakarzu becomes dakarzute, 'you (plural) bear it.'

If the object ben, 'me' (instead of d), then we get n-ekar-hi, or nakark, 'thou bearest me;' nakar, '(he) bears me;' nakarzu, 'you bear me,' &c. One cannot take two pronouns (object and subject) of the same person; this would give a reflective relation, which is expressed in another way. If the object be hi, then the flexions will be h-akar-t, 'I-bear-thee;' hakar, (he) bears thee,' &c. All the presents of all the indicatives of all the transitive verbs are inflected in this same way.

The Imperfect.

The imperfect never takes up in its flection the object; the subject precedes the verbal theme, which is followed by the termination n, a constant characteristic of this tense. The pronoun subject is not t, but n (for ni, 'I'), which we find perhaps as object 'me' in the present (e.g., nakarzu, 'you bear me').

If an object have to be expressed, it precedes the flection, and the subject is then agglutinated to the verb and is followed by the termination n; e.g., n-ekar-zu-n, or nekarzun, 'you bore me.' The imperfect without object will be

n-ekar-n, or nekarren, I bore.

h-ekar-n, or hekarren.

ekar-n, or ekarren.

gekar-n, or gekarren.

zekar-n, or zekarren.

ekar-n, or ekarren.

This form is the more primitive, and is still found in the Biscaian dialect; but in the other dialects it is always found with the following variations:

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The principal difference here is the introduction, after the initial vowel, of n, the origin of which is unknown. The initial of the third person is another deviation from the

original form; it is exceptionally found in the Biscaian dialect. The second person plural, now in use as a singular, becomes zenkarten, as a new plural.

The Optative.

The optative has two tenses, formed like those of the indicative, with this difference, that the verbal theme is followed by ke. Thus, dakart becomes dakarket, 'I may bear,' and nekarren becomes nekarke, 'I might bear.' The final n of the imperfect is always dropped.

This mood is no longer used, the present nowadays is considered as a future, and the imperfect as a conditional; and even the future, at least in the auxiliaries, is only known in the French-Basque dialects.

§ 4. CONJUGATION OF THE INTRANSITIVE VERB.

The Imperative.

The conjugation of the intransitive verbs is, in some respects, still more simple than that of the transitive verbs; there is no object to be expressed. The number of moods. and tenses is the same.

The second person singular of the imperative contains the verbal theme preceded by the pronoun-hoa, for hi oa, 'go thou,' from joan. The second person plural is zoaz, 'go you:' the final z is a supplementary plural characteristic. The third person is b-joa, which is written bijoa, ‘go

he,' and in the plural bijoaz, 'go they.' The n of joan, and the like, is always dropped. The initial vowel is generally converted into a in the second person; but it is preserved in the third person-etorri, 'to come,' makes ator, or hator, 'come thou;' betor, 'come he.'

The Indicative.

PRESENT.

The present is the verbal theme preceded by the pronoun

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The imperfect is formed precisely as the imperfect of the transitive verbs-n-joan-n, which is written nioan, '] went;' hioan, 'thou went,' &c. We find also the introduced after the initial vowel, as in the imperfect of the transitive verbs; netorren, 'I came,' is in some dialects nentorren, &c. The Biscaian dialect has generally not the initial in the third person; etorren, Biscaian; zetorren, Guip., 'he came.' The supplementary plural, generally placed after the theme, is z, and also tz; thus, ginoazen, zinoazen, zioazen, we went,' 'you went,' 'they went;' from g-ioa-z-n.

D

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