UNIT TEN
    
     Secondary past tenses of the Indicative:
     a. Durative past in -ttăm
     b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul-
     c. Past of the preterite: -se + -ttĕm
    The Morpheme chchĕ "was‘
    
    The Durative Past
    
     The past imperfective or past iterative seems to function essentially as a past tense to the durative, as regards its function (but not its formation). As the durative indicates action extending in the present, the durative past, as we shall call it, indicates an action extending in the past, like the imperfect of Western European languages. It may thus frequently and conveniently be translated by forms such as “I was reading, I was writing.“ It indicates incompleted action. The tense formant is the morpheme -tt-, arising from the verb tăr- ‘to stand, to be,‘ thus, “I stand and work“ > I was working.
    

	vulattăm	ĕşlettĕm		şyrattăm	pĕlettĕm
	vulattăn	ĕşlettĕn		şyrattăn	pĕlettĕn
	vulatchĕ	ĕşletchĕ		şyratchĕ	pĕletchĕ

	vulattămăr	ĕşlettĕmĕr		şyrattămăr	pĕlettĕmĕr
	vulattăr	ĕşlettĕr		şyrattăr	pĕlettĕr
	vulatchĕş	ĕşletchĕş		şyratchĕş	pĕletchĕş

    
    
    The negative forms to the above are the following.
    
    

	vulamastăm	ĕşlemestĕm		şyrmastăm	pĕlmestĕp
	vulamastăn	ĕşlemestĕn		şyrmastăn	pĕlmestĕn
	vulamastchĕ	ĕşlemestchĕ		şyrmastchĕ	pĕlmestchĕ

	vulamastămăr	ĕşlemestĕmĕr		şyrmastămăr	pĕlmestĕpĕr
	vulamastăr	ĕşlemestĕr		şyrmastăr	pĕlmestĕr
	vulamastchĕş	ĕşlemestchĕş		şyrmastchĕş	pĕlmestchĕş

    
    
    Fast in the Future
    
     Just as the durative has its past, so too can the future have a past. This tense, commonly called the future perfect, refers to an action that will be past at some future time, thus, if one year from now, I can say “I have taught five years,“ then now, that is expressed as “I shall have taught five years“ (in a year from now). This tense is not a native Chuvash formation, but has obviously been introduced on the model of those found In other languages. Its form, too, is not one employing stem changes or root morphemes, but merely one of juxtaposition of forms. It is little used, and no instance is found in our reading selections. It is made by adding to the stern the invariable morpheme {. nA}, followed by the verb pul- ‘to be, become‘ in the future tense.
    

	epĕ kajnă pulăp 	“I shall be one who has gone,“ “I shall have gone"
	esĕ kajnă pulăn		you will have gone
	văl kajnă pulĕ		he will have gone

	epir kajnă pulăpăr 	we shall have gone
	esir kajna pulăr 	you will have gone
	vĕsem kajnă pulĕş	they will have gone

    If a verb with front vowels is used, as il- ‘to take, buy,‘ the corresponding form ilnĕ ‘taken, bought‘ Is substituted. This form in -nă/-nĕ will be discussed shortly at length. The negative to this is in -mAn, as /kajman/ or /ilmen/, viz. epĕ kajman pulăp “I shall not have gone.“ Since the formation is invariable, no additional listings will be given here.
    
    
    Past Preterite
    
     The preterite too may have its own past, which the Chuvash grammarians call the ‘long-past categorical.‘ Although not connected in form with the preterite proper, its function seems to place it here as a sort of pluperfect, being used to denote an action which went on in the past before the completion of another action also in the past. Like the preterite, this too ja an eyewitness tense. It actually arises from a compounding of the main root morpheme with the coordinate gerund in -sa (a feature to be taken up shortly), to which the formation -ttăm (etc.) of the past durative is then added. In the negative formation, note that the allomorph -ma- occurs before the morpheme -sa-. This tense too is a rather artificial one, and seldom seen.
    
    

	vulasattăm	ĕşlesettĕm		şyrsattăm	pĕlsettĕm
	vulasattăn	ĕşlettĕn		şyrsattăn	pĕlsettĕn
	vulasachchĕ	ĕşlesechchĕ		şyrsachchĕ	pĕlsechchĕ

	vulasattămăr	ĕşlesettĕmĕr		şyrsattămăr	pĕlsettĕmĕr
	vulasattăr	ĕşlesettĕr		şyrsattăr	pĕlsettĕr
	vulasachchĕş	ĕşlesechchĕş		şyrsachchĕş	pĕlsettĕş

    
    The negative formation is as follows.
    
    

	vulamasattăm	ĕşlemesettĕm		şyrmasattăm	pĕlmesettĕm
	vulamasattăn	ĕşlemesettĕn		şyrmasattăn	pĕlmesettĕn
	vulamasachchĕ	ĕşlemesechchĕ		şyrmasachchĕ	pĕlmesechchĕ

	vulamasattămăr	ĕşlemesettĕmĕr		şyrmasattămăr	pĕlmesettĕmĕr
	vulamasattăr	ĕşlemesettĕr		şyrmasattăr	pĕlmesettĕr
	vulamasachchĕş	ĕşlemesechchĕş		şyrmasachchĕş	pĕlmesechchĕş

    
    
    The Morpheme chchĕ ‘was‘
    
     The morpheme –chchĕ has the meaning of “was, were,“ and may be added to many stems to give the additional emphasis that something is completed, or in the past. It is exactly equivalent in origin, meaning and usage to the -dy of Turkic languages. It may be attached to the nouns pur and şuk to yield purchchĕ “there was, there were“ and şukchchĕ “there was not, there were not.“ Note that in the case of several tenses, the 3rd p. sg. ends in -chĕ‚ which is more properly considered part of the tense formation. The morpheme chchĕ occurs regularly as a free variant with zero in the past preterite and the past durative, viz.:
    

	şyrattămchchĕ		şyrsattămchchĕ
	şyrattănchchĕ		şyrsattănchchĕ
	(şyratchĕ)		(şyrsachchĕ)
	
	şyrattămărchchĕ		şyrsattămărchchĕ
	şyrattărchchĕ		şyrsattărchchĕ
	şyratchĕş		şyrsatchĕş

    As the same formation is added to front and back words alike, and to the negative forms, there is no need to give a separate listing here.
     The formation may be a bit clearer if we paraphrase it into rather long-winded English, giving its literal meaning as:
    

		“I was one who was working“
		you were one who was working
		he is one who was working
		(etc.)

		“I was wie who had been working“
		(etc.)