in a concise Grammar to give all these conjugations in full; but though the phonetic rules may not always be applied in the same regular way, the reader will be able to analyze many flections, knowing the method of inflection and the phonetic rules.

All verbs were formerly inflected in this way, as may be seen in Liçarrague's New Testament, and Dechepare's Poetry.

CHAPTER XL

The Adverbs and Conjunctions.

There are primitive adverbs, as han, 'there;' hor, 'there;' hemen, 'here;' nor, 'where;' but the greater part are what in other languages is called the locative of a noun-aitzinean, 'before,' from aitzin-n, 'in front;' goan, ' above,' from goi-n, 'in the height.' This is the reason why they are accompanied by a noun in n, i.e. a genitive : mendiaren ganean, 'on the top of the mountain' on the mountain.

The adverb of affirmation is ba, yes.' Ba is also used to affirm the verbal flection, perhaps like English 'do :' Badakit, I know it,' or I do know.

Some rules about the Conjunctions will be found in the Chapter on Syntax.

SYNTAX.

CHAPTER I.

The Article and the Noun.

THE use of the article is nearly the same as in other languages. The noun is without the article if there is another word that defines it: gizon on, that man;' zer liburu? What book?'

Subject and object exist of course in Basque-logic requires it; but Basque Grammar does not distinguish the one from the other; only the subject, when agent, has the characteristic letter k; e.g. Gizonak ikusten du, 'The man sees it;' Ikusten dut gizona, 'I see the man' (object). The subject of an intransitive verb remains as it is: gizona dator, 'the man comes.'

The logical subject of a passive verb is considered as acting, as agent, and takes k; e. g. Semea aitak maitatua da, 'The son is loved by the father.' The English or French rendering by 'by' or 'du' is also employed, but is not considered as correct Basque: semea maitatua da aitagandik.

Grammatical relation is expressed as economically as possible, only by the last word of the sentence, so as not to express twice one relation; e. g., Zer gizonek esan dio? Which man said it?' and not zerk gizonek. Bere eche sainduan, 'in his holy house,' and not echean sainduan.

The predicate remains unchanged (as in English), in the French-Basque dialect; in the Spanish-Basque dialects the predicate is made to accord as in French.

The qualifying noun, adjectives as well as suffixes, pronouns, numerals, follows the noun which it qualifies. The principal exception is the genitive, which always precedes: aireko egaztiak, 'the birds of the air.'

The Pronouns.

The demonstrative pronoun follows the noun except when it is employed as corresponding to 'his;' e.g. eta oyen iru semeak, and his (of this) three sons.'

When the demonstrative pronoun is followed by the relative pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun is invariably a, as subject and as object: ikusten duena, he who has in sight' he who sees it; du-n-a-he-that-has-it.

=

The personal pronoun is always expressed in the flection. The relative pronoun was originally, most likely, non (see the suffix n); and the sentence, ikusten naun aurra, 'the child that sees me,' was ikusten nau non aurra. The noun to which n is related is generally placed after the verb, as is seen by this example.

The Verb.

The Basque language has no more a subjunctive than the English language, but of course the subordinate sentence is known, and consequently the governed verb; and this verb, if an auxiliary is necessary, is ezan for the transitive, and edin for the intransitive verbs. When I say, Nere

aitak nai du joan nadin, this signifies 'My father wishes that I may go;' and never French Mon père veut que j'aille.' Nadin is nadi-n, i. e. the present of the indicative of edin, followed by n, 'that.'

The infinitive is also unknown; its place is sometimes filled up by a verbal substantive. E. g., galdu is 'lost,' from a theme gal. This gal becomes a locative, galtzen (for galten, or galtan, parallel form to hiruretan). This locative is used in the perisphrastic conjugation: galtzen dut, 'I lose' (compare English 'I am a going,' for 'I am on going.' (See Max Müller, Lect. ii. p. 18.) This galtzen is used as a kind of infinitive, after losing n-galtze; thus, Bere adiskideak galtzea ezbear da, 'It is a misfortune to lose one's friends.' Galtzea corresponds to, but is not an infinitive; it is plainly a verbal substantive with the article a.

When governed by a verb the verbal substantive in n takes the place of the infinitive; e. g. ikasi det irakusten, 'I have learned to read.' Also after the interrogative pronoun, Zer egiten? What to do?'

Sometimes the verbal adjective corresponds with the infinitive: (1) When the governing verb is an invariable verbal noun, as nai-nai ninzan etorri, 'I wished to come;' albanaiz etorri, if I can come.' (2) When gabe follows ioan gabe,' without going.'

Adverbs.

The adverb bai or bei in the French-Basque dialects is often found preceding the verbal flections. This is generally

t

the case to introduce a subordinate sentence, something like German fo;' and, as a rule, it always comes after: zeren, 'because ;' zoin-ere, 'howsoever;' zer-ere,' whoever,' &c.

Conjunctions.

The two conjunctions n and la, both that,' should not be confused; n is used when the subordinate sentence is conjunctive, and la when it is positive. Halakotz diotsuet ezen edekiren zaizuela Jainkoaren resuma (Matt. xxi. 43), 'Therefore I say unto you that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you.' Eta bere sasoinean fruktuak renda dietzoyoten berze laborariri bere mahastia alocaturen (Matt. xxi. 41), ' He will lay out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, that they may render him the fruits in their season.' Dietzoyoten is the third person plural of the present of the indicative of ezan, with a plural object (fruits), and a singular dative, 'to him,' followed by n, 'that:' that-they may-them-to him-d-etza-ho-te-n. Eza becomes etza when the object is plural; zo for za is phonetic corruption.

Ba, the conditional conjunction, may be followed by any tense of the verb; but when it is followed by the so-called conditional, then the flections appear generally in a contracted form-they drop ke; e.g., Ni errege balin baninz, 'If I were king.' Baninz is for baninzake; nintzake, or ninzake, is the first person of the so-called conditional, in fact the imperfect of the optative. Balu is for baluke; baledi, &c., for baledike.