Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 84. kötet (1982)

Tanulmányok - Riese, Timothy: The Conditional Sentence in the Ostyak Language 229

THE CONDITIONAL SENTENCE IN OSTYÁK 233 ad 2) Sy. %ojat ki tg,jton, n&r) j&r)%a jo%i\ 'wenn du jemand hast, geh du nach Hause!' (STEINITZ 163) The past tense is used much more sparingly than the présent tense in conditional sentences of open condition ; it is found in not quite 7% of such sentences. The following combinations occur: 1) past tense -f past tense, 2) past tense -f- imperative, 3) past tense -f- présent tense, and 4) présent tense -f past tense. ad 1) Serk. ü% êttd täpdt puë kë tüt'foste, täpdt tg,t yßt tiyds 'wenn er ihn siebenmal über den Kopf warf, entstand ein sieben Klafter (hohes) Haus' (STEINITZ 262) ad 2) 0 hzdm-ki uèlsèn, när\ pa %äla\ 'ha az atyámat megölted, te is halj meg!' (PÁPAY 163) ad 3) O sörma jüwdm %őjat éar-ki täjds, műj-pa nömseiq, aprdr) wqs, %änne%qjdtdn mosman täjsa, éirn AÜW yptdr\AQr\%a JIA 'wenn der Verstorbene Schamanentalent hatte, oder er war geschickt, klug, wurde von den Leuten geliebt, so wird er zum Hausgeist' (RÉDEI 36) ad 4) O kèzdn pmdh-pêldk uérna-ki ëtl, ma si pmàina %vlsdm 'ha a késed bal oldalán vér jön ki, akkor meghaltam' (PÁPAY 64) 3.1. The osN conditional sentences of rejected condition présent a somewhat différent picture and raise several problems in their analysis. They cannot in every case be distinguished structurally from sentences of open condition which means that context often plays a décisive rôle in determining meaning. There are three éléments which are important in the structure of osN conditional sentences of rejected condition: 1) the conditional partiele ki, 2) the partiele of unreality loin (lüln, AQAdn, tçtdn), and 3) the past tense. Of thèse, only the second élément loin is specifically one of rejected condition, ki and the past tense being, of course, also employed in sentences of open condition. As mentioned above, the enclitic partiele ki is used in 89% of osN conditional sentences. The percentage is only a bit higher in sentences of rejected condition. Of the 26 conditional sentences of rejected condition found in texts of osN, 24 contained ki, one had %undi in the capacity of a conditional conjunction, and only one had neither conditional partiele nor conjunction: O si tvyàina io%tds loin, si-pvràina %vldi %olt and oéds loin 'ha oda érhetett volna, akkor halálos veszedelembe nem jutott volna' (PÁPAY 158) The partiele of unreality loin is characteristic of osN conditional sentences of rejected condition. It is, however, not to be found in every such sentence, oecurring in 20 out of 26 examples. The highest occurrence was in the sentences from the Obdorsk dialect. This word, which unmistakably stamps a sentence as being rejected, does not occur in conditional sentences of open condition and is thus a major factor of differentiation between the two types. loin, the etymology of which has not yet been clarified,12 can

occur 1) in the protasis and the apodosis (8 times), 2) in the apodosis alone (7 times), or 3) in the protasis alone (5 times). ad 1) O no%-ki kilsdm loin, louèl uèlsèm loin 'ha fölkeltem volna, őt megöltem volna (PÁPAY 99) w W. STEINITZ, DEWO 758—759.