A grammar of the Telugu language/BOOK NINTH
BOOK NINTH
SYNTAX OF THE TENSES.
THE AORIST.
TheTelugu Aorist is often translated by the present tense, as పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/295
The following well known stanza in the Gajendramoxam, (a legend in the eighth book of the Bhagavat lately printed separate) uses a succession of verbs, (which I have marked with stars) in the Aorist form, with the past sense. "The god" (says the poet,) "heard his prayer,"—
a&e*r»tfcaoi& ^>s£' * (^rx's&So s£;jDo;&-c5* *re3s-*-»0
"He spoke not to his spouse, he arrayed not himself with the conch and discus: he called not his train; he saddled not (his steed) the feathered king, he tarried not even to bind up his clustering tresses, and even forgot that in his grasp he held the veil of his queen ; as he descended in haste to rescue his suppliant in the hour of need."
The Aorist denotes usage, or custom: thus l>e>aHsSe£>c£> they would come on being called, (j^^oM^^i/Soao they used to pass their time thus.
'll x£;SXe> sSbX'jb tr°£Kp
"Women will lay down their very cloaks before the feet of a money making husband; they view him with all respect. But if a husband be able to earn nothing, they will laugh at him and say There comes, the walking corpse."
(B. VII. 64. Tale of Prahlada.) " wealth may be safe in, the' street under the care of providence : it may vanish out of the purse. An infant left in the wilderness unprotected may [or often will) thrive : while one duly tended in the palace expires."
See further instances in L. VII. 40.. -rt^a <^S>&« ^dt&sfcOo Also for the Neg. Aor. feminine See Padma 3. 17. describing Ahalya.
"She never turns her glance towards me : or if she looks, she will not smile: if she smiles, she will not fall into conversation: if she begins talking, she is not frank. No it is of no avail to set my heart upon her: why did I give myself up to these thoughts? Love incited me to try every method to gain her: ah I had better be dead!"
The following verse P. 2. 123 well exemplifies the Negative Aor.
|| S^SjO<r*cS53 C) »oi£ £pg>X& (O gjcSeu £o<&-f®-K*
eSjScSS (,) Kj&swEoOa "gSfroJStfi ar* (,) ^bpio^s-sSoSopr ||
'When the noble behold a man of wealth they do not scorn him because he listens not. They will not despise him though a blind man : they will not gibe him on account of his paunch : if he has lost his ears, they will not avoid him. Though he be a dwarf they mill not depart, they will not quit him though he is sour minded orignorant, nor shun him nor will they call him a wretched diseased creature, and even though he be (a man of no morals) immoral, they will not revile him, provided he be opulent.'
Or it has a future sense. Thus S^^ts" will not he come again ? T^sSe&So they will come to-morrow, ^^ifc^1^0^5^31*^ Aj-S^)aS)<o«6 (for, geeks and 5><Sb?S>) Ah! when shall I em brace him, when again shall I hear him speak? In the Tale of Tara (3. 87.) She says; పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/298
- Sir William Jones has spoken of the mystic obscurity in which the sulras or metrical Aphorisms of Sanskrit Grammar are involved. The treatises written in Sanscrit verse by Nannaya, and his commentators, on Telugu Grammar, are equally abstruse, and the rules on EDI. (Chap. LXXVI1,) are peculiarly intricate. Every Telugu rule is laboriously deduced from a Sanscrit canon; the connection of which with the Telugu language, is not easily discernible. That arrangement is, to an English enquirer, illogical, and were Nannaya and his laborious commentators translated into plain English, the rules would still remain nearly unavailable. Happily for the English reader, Mr. Campbell's Telugu Grammar contains all the more useful rules; he has excluded much that was unprofitable, and I have yet further abridged the old rules while I have added many that are new.
The Grammar written by Nannaia Bhatta (who is also called Annaparyulu fc» jS^j^jjfigtw) has the title ' Andhra Sabda Chintamani,' Or, The Etymological Standard. It passes over, with very brief notice, those niceties regarding ardha Undu, and tacata Btp/.a in which modern pedants waste all their strength. పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/300 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/301 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/302 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/303 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/304 Who is that man answer
[Another alteration in the verb occurs in the 3d pers. sing, m. f. aorist. S"^ becomes GfiSo 'he saw' cone 'he bought'
becomes r'pas coniye. This form is only used in poetry.]
In Tenses ;—occasionally the present is used for the past: thus Parvati Kalyan. 2. 43. ftS-da^So offcab-j^^ 'To which, what replies he?'
In pronouns: thus ffi (Hunc me) KP. 3. 31. "This me."
Some poetical forms as trwepi are now vulgar: Thus in English 'To Ketch' is very vulgar and is used in Spenser 3. VI. 37. Thus in every language some vulgarisms are merely the antique forms.
Peculiar contractions are used in the verb : thus «£>S"3c!&3 for !fc»"eBiS + akao KP. 3. 18.
Several words drop the final vowel: particularly U. Thus S") becomes ?>S~, rm, re-, Ho^/sSeuo, ^[VsSnjr, esoHOoj*) tJoscfir-,
ON IMPERSONAL VERBS.
In Telugu as in other languages there are impersonal verbs: that is verbs which use only the third person singular : as it seems, it rains, it ought, it must, it should.
Examples : from "3ScJfc>t> to appear "3cx>(6j^ai. it seems U9#jSQ it appeared, it is evident, I know. Aorist. Ue"&>, or Uuo&fSi the same. These may often be governed, as usual, by a dative: thus T^aS'gaj^j^e it seems so to me, I am of opinion. ^"Stx)^^ you see it sr»o£°&"33bS>a2»fib they cannot see it. sSej&ij This verb originally meant To love, but as an impersonal denotes Must, should. &*s>'Sr& (Aorist) must go "O'^"amust come. The nominative may be any word, singular or plural. Thus "Ss&ooJr6^ E i& (we) must go &r>&d-s;S13p6 (you) must go. Past tense sSaSjSS thus ir*:5ej§i5a (you, we, he, it, &c.) must go. The aorist and the past are in English translated by the present equivalent to il fallait in French.
C. P. Brown's Telugu Grammar. L 1 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/307 పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/308