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Verbs! Hooray! They're even more fun than nouns!
Or so you would think.
Nrit's verb system is torturously baroque. I'm very sorry it has
to be that way, but it gives my life great joy to envision some poor fool
trying to memorize all these awful patterns.
Please view this page in UTF-8 encoding to see all the characters properly.
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Weakness and Strength:
We begin with the discussion on weakness and strength.
There are two types of verb in Nrit, weak and strong. The strong
verbs are so called because their stems never change as the verb is inflected,
unlike a weak verb, whose stem undergoes a sound-change process.
The Nrit grammarians are of the opinion that the weak verbs are those that
descend directly down from proto-Nrit, or those derived from these, while
the strong verbs are those that were borrowed out of the neighboring languages
of the now-extinct Scarab, Centipede, and Spider clans. It seems that
the native Nrit verbs were softened into more euphonious patterns, while
the foreign verbs kept their regular conjugations, and then a regularization
occurred.
What identifies a weak verb is the slightly different set of affixes it
takes, and the stem weakening process. That process is outlined below,
and the weak endings are listed beside the strong endings in each chart.
If only one suffix is listed, it is the same in both conjugation patterns.
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The Stem Weakening Process:
If the final consonant is retroflex, it becomes alveolar.
If it is aspirated, toggle voice and remove aspiration.
If it is an alveolar affricate, it becomes a postalveolar fricative.
If it is an alveolar stop, it becomes an affricate.
If it is any other type of stop, it becomes a fricative.
If it is a nasal it becomes /n/.
If it is a liquid it becomes /l/.
Then, if the resulting syllable contains a long vowel, shorten it.
If the resulting syllable ends in a cluster, extend the stem by suffixing
/a/.
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The Tenses:
There are five simple tenses: present, eternity, never, past, and future.
The first three are known as the stable tenses, because they have
a well-defined place in time. The other two are called the fluid
tenses, because they are capable of "flowing" from point-in-time to point-in-time.
The stable tenses inflect with the dictionary form of a verb, its stable
stem. There are five derivation patterns that can determine a verb's
fluid stem, given its stable stem; these are also part of a verb's definition.
The past tense inflects with the same affixes as the eternity tense, and
the future corresponds to never.
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The Five Patterns:
Each pattern is a process by which a verb's fluid stem is found from its
stable stem. Each stem is regularly either weak or strong.
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Fluid Derivation
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Stable Stem
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Fluid Stem
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-issa
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strong
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strong
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-ali
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strong
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strong
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-S*
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strong
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weak
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-Ca
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weak
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weak
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stem weakening**
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weak
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strong
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*: The last syllable of the verb (which in
this particular pattern is always CV or CVC) is reduplicated and any appropriate
coumpounding processes applied.
**:The stable stem is put through the weakening process to create the fluid
stem, but in the fluid tenses it takes strong affixes.
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The Verb Endings:
These are presented in the form strong / weak | strong passive / weak passive.
An omitted weak form is one that is identical to the strong form.
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First Person
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Second Person
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Third Person
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Sg.
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ni | nihi / nî
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ts / x | ci / ṭṣi
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k / â | akka / aḥa
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Present
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Pl.
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nìn | nun
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tsùn / xùn | cun / ṭṣun
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kùn / hùn | aqun / aḥù
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0
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nî | na / nàà
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tsih / xih | ca / ṭṣa
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aq / aḥ | aqa /
aha
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Sg.
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sni /sì | sunih / sììh
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sts / ṣ | suci / uṭṣi
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sûk / sûh | sûq /
sûḥ
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Et. / Pa.
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Pl.
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sìn | sunìn / sììn
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stsùn / ṣù | sucun /
uṭṣù
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sûkùn / sùùn
| sûqun / sûḥu
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0
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sunî | sunâ / sàà
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sutsih / suxî | suca / uṭṣa
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sûkih / sîh | sûqa
/ sûḥa
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Sg.
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rni / lìì | rinî
/ lììh
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rits / lix | rici / liṭṣi
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rîk / lîh | rîki
/ lîhi
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Ne. / Ft.
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Pl.
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rnìn / lììn |
rinîn / lììn
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tsùr / xùl | ricun /
liṭṣa
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rîkùn / lùùn
| rîqun / lîḥu
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0
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rni / lîh | rna / là
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tsîr / xîl | richa / liḍẓa
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rîkih / lîh | rîqa
/ lîḥa
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Webpage graphics by the inestimable Jaguarwoman.
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