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AMHARIC.
ISENBERG writes:--"The Abyssinians have not, strictly speaking, more than two divisions of time, i.e., the past and the present; the present being used also for the future The present,
which might be perhaps with propriety called aorist ? because it is applicable to the future, as well as to the present tense, is a form composed of the contingent and the auxiliary.
"Whether this form, when it occurs, is intended for the present or the future, generally depends on the context. In order, however, to have no doubt when they speak of future things, they use the simple contingent form with additional particles, I have am to be honourable; time is for me to come that I am to be honourable.'
"The simple preterite of the indicative is used ... for the present or immediate future. 'I am
gone,' i.e., if you allow me I go now; or when a person is frequently called, and does not come, he at last answers, I have come, I have come, i.e. 'I come, I come.'
"The present indicative is used for both the present and the future tenses.
"The future time is "generally" expressed by the same forms which serve for the present, except the aoristic construction. In page 66 of this work we pointed out a decidedly future form, besides which they make use of the contingent with "al" and "dohonal"; but these two latter forms are not confined to the future; they are also used for the present tense."