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In Abujhmaria there is yet another imperative suffix -m which occurs after verbs with a long vowels and verbs ending in -y.
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Verb |
II Sg. |
II Pl. |
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ki:- ‘to do’ |
ki:-m |
ki:-m- |
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hi:- ‘to give’ |
hi:-m |
hi:-m- |
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o:y- ‘to caary’ |
o:y-m |
o:y-ma- |
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no:y- ‘to pain’ |
no:y-m |
no:y-m- |
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Subrahmanyam (1971 : 491) observes that in many languages of Telugu-Kuvi group, namely, Old Telugu, Gondi (INcluding Koya), Kui, Kuvi (dialectally) *m(u) appears as the singular suffix. In Old Telugu it is optional in all positions except when followed by a vowel - initial-word. In spoken Telugu there is no suffix for the imperative singular but the form when followed by the verb anu ‘to say’ taken as additional -am. Obviously the Old Telugu -m(u) is preserved in this construction of spoken Telugu. IN majority of Gondi dialects -m appears after verbs of the C(V#) type but in Koya it has a wider distribution.
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In Pengo, too, an additional -m appears in the imperative singular forms before the particle -de-, -re and -to though it does not occur otherwise; this also suggests that at some stage in Pengo -m was occuring as the imperative singular in all positions.
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He further suggests that *m was originally the imperative plural suffix and that in Telugu-Kuvi group it was transferred to the imperative singular because of the creation of a new plural suffix in this group and it does not originally belong to the singular for the following reasons: (a) In old Telugu it is optional; (b) In Gondi and Koya it is present in a few verb classes; (c) In Kuvi it survives only in one dialect; (d) It is completely absent in Kon·a, in Kuvi also it does not occur in the negative imperative and (e) In Pengo only traces of it found before the particles.
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| Imperative Plural: |
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The imperative plural suffix in Abujhmaria is -(u). The same suffix is retained in most of the CDr. languages.
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Old Telugu |
-u  u |
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Gondi |
-a:(~ -m) + |
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Maria |
-a:(~ -m) + |
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Koya |
-a:(~ -m) + l (~ - u) |
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Kona |
-du(~ -u ~ -ru) |
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Pengo |
-a/-a |
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Kui |
-au  -du ( ~ -u ~ -ju) |
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Kuvi |
-adu -du (~ -ju) |
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| Past Suffix: |
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Finite forms: The past suffix in Abujhmaria ins -t- which is a reflex of PDr. *-tt-. It has a variant -- after the verb un- meaning ‘to drink’ and the final -n of un- is dropped before --. In other ean-ing in -n it is replaced by -t- before the past suffix. E.g., mat-t- from man- ‘to live’, ‘to be’. The same suffix is noticed in most of the CDr. languages, namely, in Gondi, Koya, Kona (with a variant -it which is morphologically conditioned), Pengo, Kui and Kuvi.
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