Hmar
does not manifest perfect aspect in any tense. For any
event that has just happened Hmar prefers to use past
tense forms described above.
3.3.7.4
Present
Perfect Progressive
When
Hmar has to express that some action has been taking
place over a period of time it uses a phrase that combines
simple present /la/,
and past continuous. In other words, the additional
elements are progressively added. At the same time it
does not visualise anything equivalent to past perfect
progressive. The following examples of present perfect
progressive could be seen:
/ká
lá th
lái zì/mè:k/
‘while
I have been doing’
/ì
lá hrìl zì/me:k/
‘while
you have been telling’
/à
lá ín lái zì/mè:k/
‘while
he/she has been sleeping’
3.3.7.5
Past
Perfect
When
Hmar has to express that some action had taken place
and its effect is no longer there it uses a phrase that
is made up of simple present tense verb and two auxiliaries
such as /ta/ and /kha/.
The
following examples could be seen:
/ká
th
tà khà/
‘I
had done’
/i
hrìl tà khà/
‘you
had told’
/à
hú
tà khà/
‘he
had come’
3.3.8
Moods
Hmar
does not have any modal inflection. However, it has
its own device of marking imperative,
subjective and conditional moods by phrasal constructions.
The more combination of verb roots and post positions
marking various tenses and aspects mark indicative mood.
3.3.8.1
Imperative
Mood
The
mood is realised in the present tense for 2nd person
only. It is realised by using an auxiliary post positionally.
Interestingly enough, this is realised differently for
singular and plural. The following examples could be
seen:
Singular
Plural
/th
rh/
‘do’
/th
róu/
‘do’
/thàt
rh/
‘kill’
/thàt
róu/
‘kill’
/hril
rh/
‘tell’
/hríl
róu/
‘tell’
dámtè:n
hú
rh/
‘come
slowly’
/dámtè:n
hú
ròu/
‘come
slowly’
For
requesting or ordering a person an auxiliary /rh/
is combined with the request word /uo/
to form /rhuo/
which again varies with the short form /rÛo/
in singular. But in the plural place, preferably /róu/
alone, or a combination of /róu uó/ occurs.
The following additional examples could be seen:
/
mè:k/
lái zì
tà khà/
