ünite on Secondary past tenses of the Indicative: a. Durative past in -ttăm b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul- c. Past of the preterite

UNIT TEN

Secondary past tenses of the Indicative:
a. Durative past in -ttăm
b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul-
c. Past of the preterite: -se + -ttĕm
The Morpheme chchĕ "was‘

The Durative Past

The past imperfective or past iterative seems to function essentially as a past tense to the durative, as regards its function (but not its formation). As the durative indicates action extending in the present, the durative past, as we shall call it, indicates an action extending in the past, like the imperfect of Western European languages. It may thus frequently and conveniently be translated by forms such as “I was reading, I was writing.“ It indicates incompleted action. The tense formant is the morpheme -tt-, arising from the verb tăr- ‘to stand, to be,‘ thus, “I stand and work“ > I was working.

 vulattăm ĕşlettĕm  şyrattăm pĕlettĕm
 vulattăn ĕşlettĕn  şyrattăn pĕlettĕn
 vulatchĕ ĕşletchĕ  şyratchĕ pĕletchĕ

 vulattămăr ĕşlettĕmĕr  şyrattămăr pĕlettĕmĕr
 vulattăr ĕşlettĕr  şyrattăr pĕlettĕr
 vulatchĕş ĕşletchĕş  şyratchĕş pĕletchĕş

The negative forms to the above are the following.

 vulamastăm ĕşlemestĕm  şyrmastăm pĕlmestĕp
 vulamastăn ĕşlemestĕn  şyrmastăn pĕlmestĕn
 vulamastchĕ ĕşlemestchĕ  şyrmastchĕ pĕlmestchĕ

 vulamastămăr ĕşlemestĕmĕr  şyrmastămăr pĕlmestĕpĕr
 vulamastăr ĕşlemestĕr  şyrmastăr pĕlmestĕr
 vulamastchĕş ĕşlemestchĕş  şyrmastchĕş pĕlmestchĕş

Fast in the Future

Just as the durative has its past, so too can the future have a past. This tense, commonly called the future perfect, refers to an action that will be past at some future time, thus, if one year from now, I can say “I have taught five years,“ then now, that is expressed as “I shall have taught five years“ (in a year from now). This tense is not a native Chuvash formation, but has obviously been introduced on the model of those found In other languages. Its form, too, is not one employing stem changes or root morphemes, but merely one of juxtaposition of forms. It is little used, and no instance is found in our reading selections. It is made by adding to the stern the invariable morpheme {. nA}, followed by the verb pul- ‘to be, become‘ in the future tense.

 epĕ kajnă pulăp  “I shall be one who has gone,“ “I shall have gone"
 esĕ kajnă pulăn  you will have gone
 văl kajnă pulĕ  he will have gone

 epir kajnă pulăpăr  we shall have gone
 esir kajna pulăr  you will have gone
 vĕsem kajnă pulĕş they will have gone

If a verb with front vowels is used, as il- ‘to take, buy,‘ the corresponding form ilnĕ ‘taken, bought‘ Is substituted. This form in -nă/-nĕ will be discussed shortly at length. The negative to this is in -mAn, as /kajman/ or /ilmen/, viz. epĕ kajman pulăp “I shall not have gone.“ Since the formation is invariable, no additional listings will be given here.


Past Preterite

The preterite too may have its own past, which the Chuvash grammarians call the ‘long-past categorical.‘ Although not connected in form with the preterite proper, its function seems to place it here as a sort of pluperfect, being used to denote an action which went on in the past before the completion of another action also in the past. Like the preterite, this too ja an eyewitness tense. It actually arises from a compounding of the main root morpheme with the coordinate gerund in -sa (a feature to be taken up shortly), to which the formation -ttăm (etc.) of the past durative is then added. In the negative formation, note that the allomorph -ma- occurs before the morpheme -sa-. This tense too is a rather artificial one, and seldom seen.

 vulasattăm ĕşlesettĕm  şyrsattăm pĕlsettĕm
 vulasattăn ĕşlettĕn  şyrsattăn pĕlsettĕn
 vulasachchĕ ĕşlesechchĕ  şyrsachchĕ pĕlsechchĕ

 vulasattămăr ĕşlesettĕmĕr  şyrsattămăr pĕlsettĕmĕr
 vulasattăr ĕşlesettĕr  şyrsattăr pĕlsettĕr
 vulasachchĕş ĕşlesechchĕş  şyrsachchĕş pĕlsettĕş

The negative formation is as follows.

 vulamasattăm ĕşlemesettĕm  şyrmasattăm pĕlmesettĕm
 vulamasattăn ĕşlemesettĕn  şyrmasattăn pĕlmesettĕn
 vulamasachchĕ ĕşlemesechchĕ  şyrmasachchĕ pĕlmesechchĕ

 vulamasattămăr ĕşlemesettĕmĕr  şyrmasattămăr pĕlmesettĕmĕr
 vulamasattăr ĕşlemesettĕr  şyrmasattăr pĕlmesettĕr
 vulamasachchĕş ĕşlemesechchĕş  şyrmasachchĕş pĕlmesechchĕş

The Morpheme chchĕ ‘was‘

The morpheme –chchĕ has the meaning of “was, were,“ and may be added to many stems to give the additional emphasis that something is completed, or in the past. It is exactly equivalent in origin, meaning and usage to the -dy of Turkic languages. It may be attached to the nouns pur and şuk to yield purchchĕ “there was, there were“ and şukchchĕ “there was not, there were not.“ Note that in the case of several tenses, the 3rd p. sg. ends in -chĕ‚ which is more properly considered part of the tense formation. The morpheme chchĕ occurs regularly as a free variant with zero in the past preterite and the past durative, viz.:

 şyrattămchchĕ  şyrsattămchchĕ
 şyrattănchchĕ  şyrsattănchchĕ
 (şyratchĕ)  (şyrsachchĕ)
 
 şyrattămărchchĕ  şyrsattămărchchĕ
 şyrattărchchĕ  şyrsattărchchĕ
 şyratchĕş  şyrsatchĕş

As the same formation is added to front and back words alike, and to the negative forms, there is no need to give a separate listing here.
The formation may be a bit clearer if we paraphrase it into rather long-winded English, giving its literal meaning as:

  “I was one who was working“
  you were one who was working
  he is one who was working
  (etc.)

  “I was wie who had been working“
  (etc.)