How then, could this convey the idea of a past tense as contrasted with the present? Let us look to our [pg 312] own language. If desirous to express the perfect, we say, I have loved, j'ai aimé. This “I have,” meant originally, I possess, and in Latin “amicus quem amatum habeo,” signified in fact a friend whom I hold dear,—not as yet, whom I have loved. In the course of time, however, these phrases, “I have said, I have loved,” took the sense of the perfect, and of time past—and not unnaturally, inasmuch as what I hold, or have done, is done;—done, as we say, and past. In place of an auxiliary possessive verb, the Turkish language uses an auxiliary possessive pronoun to the same effect. “Paying belonging to me,” equals “I have paid;” in either case a phrase originally possessive, took a temporal signification, and became a past or perfect tense. This, however, is the very anatomy of grammar, and when a Turk says “severdim” he is, of course, as unconscious of its literal force, “loving belonging to me,” as of the circulation of his blood.
The most ingenious part of Turkish is undoubtedly the verb. Like Greek and Sanskrit, it exhibits a variety of moods and tenses, sufficient to express the nicest shades of doubt, of surmise, of hope, and supposition. In all these forms the root remains intact, and sounds like a key-note through all the various modulations produced by the changes of person, number, mood, and time. But there is one feature so peculiar to the Turkish verb, that no analogy can be found in any of the Aryan languages—the power of producing new verbal bases by the mere addition of certain letters, which give to every verb a negative, or causative, or reflexive, or reciprocal meaning.
Sev-mek, for instance, as a simple root, means to love. By adding in, we obtain a reflexive verb, sev-in-mek, [pg 313] which means to love oneself, or rather, to rejoice, to be happy. This may now be conjugated through all moods and tenses, sevin being in every respect equal to a new root. By adding ish we form a reciprocal verb, sev-ish-mek, to love one another.
To each of these three forms a causative sense may be imparted by the addition of the syllable dir. Thus,
i. sev-mek, to love, becomes iv. sev-dir-mek, to cause to love.
ii. sev-in-mek, to rejoice, becomes v. sev-in-dir-mek, to cause to rejoice.
iii. sev-ish-mek, to love one another, becomes vi. sev-ish-dir-mek, to cause one to love one another.
Each of these six forms may again be turned into a passive by the addition of il. Thus,
i. sev-mek, to love, becomes vii. sev-il-mek, to be loved.
ii. sev-in-mek, to rejoice, becomes viii. sev-in-il-mek, to be rejoiced at.