The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt: With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American VerbBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Philosophy
The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt: With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Grammar, Comparative and general; Humboldt, Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1767-1835; Indians -- Languages
Strictly speaking, both the verbal notations here expressed are
identical with those already mentioned. Here also the verb is supplied
by the mind. The difference is that in the latter case the pronouns
alone signify being, and contain this notion in themselves, whereas in
the other cases this notion arises from the conjunction of subject and
predicate. Then also in the Maya language there is a special pronoun for
this sole purpose. As far as the forms go, they entirely resemble those
of a true verb, and if _que_ and _ten_ are regarded as mere verbs
substantive, one who did not examine their elements would take them to
be true verbs like the Sanscrit _bhū_, the Greek ειμι, and the Latin
_sum_. The example of these languages thus teaches that in the analysis
of the substantive verbs of other tongues it is not necessary that a
common phonetic radical need be employed.
In the Huasteca language the substantive verb is replaced by affixing
a tense sign to the independent pronouns; _naua itz_, I was, _tata
itz_, thou wert, etc. But the case is not the same. The pronoun
receives the verbal power by the suffix _itz_, and this appears only
in later times to have become a sign of the preterit, and in an
earlier period to have had a general sense. The mountaineers who seem
to have retained the older forms of the tongue use the _itz_, not only
in the preterit, but in the present and future. It was doubtless the
expression of some general verbal idea, as, to be, to do, etc.
II.
THE NOTION OF BEING IS INCORPORATED WITH THE VERB AS AN AUXILIARY.
Auxiliary verbs are used only for certain tenses, or form the entire
conjugation. The former arises from accidental causes having relation
only to these tenses, not to the verb in general. The latter readily
arises when a substantive verb offers an easy means of conjugation by
uniting with another verb. Sometimes the conjugation by means of an
auxiliary shows that the linguistic sense of a notion sought something
beyond the person and tense signs to express the verbal power itself,
and therefore had recourse to a general verb. This can, indeed, only
be constituted of those elements and a radical; but the want in the
language is thus supplied, once for all, and does not return with
every verb.
An excellent example of this is furnished by the Maya conjugation. In
an analysis of it we find an element that neither belongs to the root,
nor is a person, tense or mode sign, and when their varieties and
changes are compared, there is evident throughout a marked anxiety to
express the peculiar verbal power in the form of the verb.
The conjugation in the Maya language is formed by affixing the
pronouns and mode and tense signs to the stem. The pronoun is,
according to a distinction to be noted hereafter, either the
possessive pronoun or that one which, without verbal power in itself,
yet receives it when a predicate is attached to it to form a sentence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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