Fetch Verbs

[Koontz John E]

Kathy Shea's paper at the SACC in Chicago concerned preparation of a
videotaped version of the telling of the story of Rabbit and the Devouring
Hill.  In the course of presenting this she drew our attention to a
puzzling verb form which turned out to be a pattern of fetching verb that
I had not previously noticed.

So, to a-gi-MV, where MV is a motion verb or maN...dhiN 'to walk', add
a-gdhe-MV, where MV is at least thi 'to arrive here'.  The verb in
question was aa'gdhe athi or 'I arrived here to get it; I came to fetch
it'.

The a-gdhe-MV forms (whichever may exist) are more or less the opposite of
the first pattern in a-gi-MV.  The a-gi- forms involve gi 'to head back'
while the a-gdhe- forms involve gdhe 'to go back'.  In both cases I think
a is a transitivizing particle, essentially a locative, though it is not
clear whether its is superessive a- 'on', or commitative a- 'with,
accompanying' or something else.

The aagdhe athi case was interpreted by Dorsey as a suus ('get one's own')
form, but so far I think this is incorrect.  I believe that the g- marks
vertitive, not suus.  On the other hand ...

JEK