Page:A Concise Grammar of the Malagasy Language.djvu/23

b. If the root begins with any consonant except one of these three:—

The first consonant of the root is rejected:—k, s, t, tr, ts, and sometimes h, are rejected.

or, The first consonant of the root is changed:—h sometimes becomes g; l becomes d; r becomes dr; z becomes j (dz).

or, The first consonant of the root is rejected and the prefix changed (from man- to mam-) before b, v, f, or p.

But sometimes v is changed into b, or b itself is kept.

Before m or n, the prefix is contracted into ma-.

Ma- (or M- before vowels) is a shorter form of Man-, which forms a few transitive verbs, but a large number of adjectives usable as verbs.

Rules for the formation of the Imperative Mood of Active Verbs.

(1) Affix -a, unless the word already ends in a.

(2) Shift the accent one syllable forward, unless the root is a monosyllabic diphthong; or, unless the root is two-syllabic, but with the accent on the last syllable; or, unless the root is two-syllabic, but ending in -ka, -na, or tra-.

(3) Sometimes also one or other of the following changes are necessary:—

Change of a consonant preceding the final a: this occurs only in roots ending in -ka, -na, or -tra, where k becomes h or f, tr becomes t, r, or f, and n becomes m.