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1995–2001
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Justin B Rye
1995–2001
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There are just three affixes that can be attached to the start of verbs. Their meanings are dealt with in the following sections, but here for convenience is a summary of their forms:
negative(see negation)
imperfective(see aspect)
negative imperfective, fusing me· and on·
Like the more common suffixes, these prefixes have no effect on
the verb's stress pattern (IIb);
me·numa·uk not to see
is stressed
regularly on the second vowel of the verb numa itself:
menumáuk, men-oo-MOWK
.
The form me· becomes mi· before an e, a, or o; on· becomes n· before any vowel, and the n in both on· and man· changes to r before an r, l before an l, and m before an m, p, b, or f:
to order→ mi·ortothi·uk
not to order
to give→ om·fáru·ok
to be giving
to go→ n·ana·uk
to be going
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English negation is needlessly complicated, and involves adding a
not
(or suffixing form ·n't
) either to the
verb itself (is·n't
) or to an extra helper verb
do/did
(I do·n't understand
). In this
language things are simpler; negation is just a matter of a
prefix me· on the verb itself –
I spoke→ me·desen·ap
I didn't speak
we were→ me·re·m
we weren't
I understand→ man·asau·ap
I don't understand
Things can also be confusingly straightforward when it comes to
verbs like must
: desen·uk odoim·ap
means I must speak
(it is necessary), but desen·uk
mi·odoim·ap never means I must not
speak
– it means I needn't speak
(it is not
necessary). To say I must not-speak
, negate the verb
speak
: me·desen·uk odoim·ap.
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As a very rough guide, I could say that Aspect is like Tense; but
the Perfective/Imperfective distinction is not really equivalent
to any simple feature of the English verb system. A prefixed
on· doesn't specify when something happened, or how
long it took, or whether it was repeated (though it might well hint
at any or all of these). In essence it's just a question of
the narrator's attitude; compare the difference between English
I did something
and I have done something
.
If you're wondering how to tell past from present or future in
un-tense-marked sentences, the answer is that sometimes it
doesn't matter, sometimes it's clear from context, and sometimes
words like tuker already
anchor the sequence of
events. There are also verbs like serau plan to
or moek want to
, which can stand in quite adequately
for the English so-called future tense.
he spoke,
she has spoken,
they did speak,
(and then) he speaks, etc.
he is speaking,
she used to speak,
they always speak, and so on.
beis exceptional in that rather than having a basic perfective form and a prefixed imperfective form it has two separate basic forms: khoi (inherently perfective) used to describe incidental/transitory properties; and re (inherently imperfective) for essential/permanent properties. Thus gutho khoi·s tearik·a means
the beer is (currently) cheap, while gutho re·s tearik·a means
beer is (always) cheap. The distinction is often lost by the tendency of both versions of
to beto vanish (see Va): gutho ∼ tearik·a would be a grammatically acceptable substitute for either of the above sentences.
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A verb's basic form given in the dictionary (e.g. sifulu,
die
) is what's called the verbal stem
. Note
that when the verbal stem itself ends in u, each of the
suffixes listed below as containing a u is instead formed
with an o – thus it's sifulu·ok
to die
(not sifulu·uk),
sifulu·okh·ap if I were to die
, and so
on.
mood, a rather subtle form used to establish an attitude of tentativeness or subjectivity: thus
if I spoke, duo desen·ukh·ap. The subjunctive is often required in particular constructions such as after lemmo:
so that they would begin, lemmo daimpi·ukh.
to, but don't translate that as u – use the suffix instead. Thus niamo·uk means
(to) eatas in
begin to eator
must eat– see also IXa on word-order. The ·uk suffix is never combined with a subjunctive or pronoun-suffix ending, but it is perfectly common for it to be accompanied by a reflexive: niamo·uk·or,
to eat oneself. Infinitives can also (to a limited extent) behave as neuter nouns: raman·uk ∼ jammares·a
to fly is difficult.
subject agreement: desen·om
we spoke. Orders and entreaties take a special alternative set of pronoun-suffixes, as detailed in VIIIa.
it ate itself.
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