3. N-GEN+R-ya (for the present-imperfect)
8.6 Auxiliary verbs
The verbs βο- “to be, to become”, αστο “to be”, þι “can, must”, can be used as or auxiliary verb in Bactrian. The verbs “to have” (ληρ- in Bactrian) however, can only function as full verbs in Bactrian, while in other languages, it can function as both full and auxiliary verbs.
An auxiliary verb can be commonly used in forming passive, progressive, or perfect constructions, or it may function as a modal.
In Bactrian the verb αστο “to be” as an auxiliary verb has the following functions:
1. Forming the forms from the past stems
The enclitic form of the verb “to be” is added occasionally to the past stems to form different verbal past forms, as in the following tenses:605
Perfect
The perfect is formed with past participle + -γο + verb “to be”. In the following example, the third person, plural, present indicative form of the verb “to be” -ινδο, is added to a past participle, i.e., ναβιχτιγο:
(J 18)
(364) πιδο παδουαμονδδιγανο ναβιχτιγ-ινδο
PRE boundary write.PF.3p
“has been stated with reference to the boundary”606 Pluperfect
The full form of the verb “to be” can also be used with a past participle. In the following example, the third person plural past form of αστο, i.e., ασταδδινδο, is added to κιρδδιγο and forms a pluperfect:
(M 4-5)
(365) ασιδ-ασο μωιανο παρο κιρδδιγο ασταδδινδο
which-PRE PN loan.PLUP.3p
“which had been loaned by Moyan”607 Past Subjunctive
The negative form of -αδο is used to indicate the negative form of a past subjunctive verb, as shown in the following example:
(be 17)
(366) ταλο ναδο.αγαδο
here NEG.PST.SBJV.3s
“[if…] should not have come here”608
604 See Gholami 2009b: 49.
605 Examples of perfect verbs are very rare in Bactrian. Sims-Williams classifies only the above verbs as perfect and pluperfect.
606 Sims-Williams 2000a: 59.
607 Sims-Williams 2000a: 73.
608 Sims-Williams 2007a: 61.
2. Negation
The auxiliary verb “to be” is used very commonly to form the negative form of verbs. The following negative forms of the verb “to be” are used in the extant material:
Table 32. NEG Auxiliary
NEG. Auxiliary Positive form/Tense Function
νιστο -ιστο/ PRS.IND.3s 3s.PST.IND
νινδo -ινδο/ PRS.IND.3p 3p.PST.IND
ναδο -αδο/ PRS.SBJV.3s 3s.PST.SBJV
Three negative forms of the verb “to be”, i.e., νιστο, νινδo and ναδο, are attested in the extant material. The negative particle να- is added directly to the enclitic forms of the verb “to be” and constitutes the negative form. The form νιστο is the third person singular, present indicative, while the form νινδo is the third person plural, present indicative and ναδο is the third person, present subjunctive. It must be added that only in these tenses does the negative form of the verb “to be” occur. In other cases, only negative particles are used.609
The word νιστο is the negative form of the third singular past, while νινδo is the negative form of third plural past and ναδο is the negative form of third singular past subjunctive.
In the following example, νιστο is used in an ergative construction to form a negative past verb. In this case, the verb “to be” occurs in the present indicative form with a past main verb:
(cp 29)
(367) κοαδα-μο νιστο φρομαδο that-I.CP NEG.order.PST.3s
“that I did not order”610
The negative form of the verb “to be” as an auxiliary may also occur with an intransitive verb, as in the following example:
(U 9)
(368) νιστο ωζαδο
NEG.to be a liability.PST.3s
“was no liability”611
In the following example, νινδο occurs with a past verb:
(J 25)
(369) οτο-μηνο οαυαγο οισπο ασποριγο νινδο αγγιτο
and-we.CP price all complete NEG.receive.PST.3p
“and (that) the price has not been received by us all complete”612
In the following example, ναδο is used with the verb αγαδο, which is past and subjunctive:
(be 17) (370) ναδο αγαδο
NEG.come.PST.SBJV.3s
“should not have come here”613
609 For negation and prohibition in Bactrian, see Sims-Williams 2007a: 47.
610 Sims-Williams 2007a: 29.
611 Sims-Williams 2000a: 109.
612 Sims-Williams 2000a: 59, 61.
613 Sims-Williams 2007a: 61.
3. Forming passive
The verbs βο- “to be, to become” is used three times in our corpora to indicate a passive construction. (see the examples 359-363)
8.6.1 The syntactic position of the auxiliary verb
From the above examples we can understand that an enclitic form of the auxiliary verb is suffixed to a main verb (example (364)), and we see that the full form of auxiliary occurs after that (example (365)). But in the case of negation, the negative form of auxiliary occurs before the main verb (examples (369), (370)).
In the case of negative auxiliaries, the negative particle is attached directly to the enclitic forms of the auxiliary verbs. In the extant material, only the third singular present and subjunctive and third plural present tense of auxiliary verb “to be” are used. The other forms of the auxiliary verb “to be” are not found in the present texts.
8.6.2 Summary
The enclitic or full form of the verb αστο “to be” may be used as an auxiliary verb in Bactrian. It may occur in past forms as perfect and pluperfect.
Some verbal forms are negated by negative forms of the verb “to be”. Only three negative forms of the verb “to be” are attested in the extant material. As an enclitic form, it is attached to main verbs and as a full form it occurs usually after main verbs. The negative form of the verb
“to be” always occurs before the main verb. The verb βο- “to be, to become” is used with a past participle to indicate a passive mood. It occurs in all examples after past participle.