Seuna verbs: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 07:42, 3 January 2010

In finite form, the verb can have upto five slots after the main word. These slots are for subject, mood, negation and tense. A fifth slot, which gives evidential information is also often tagged on.

Subject suffix

The subject slot is filled as follows ;-

I	-a-	we(exc.)	-au-
		we(inc.)	-ai-
you	-i-	you(pl.)	-e-
he/she	-o-	they	-u-

Mood suffix

The mood slot is filled as follows ;-

indicative	-r-
subjunctive	-s-
conditional (hypothetical)	-mo
conditional (counterfactual)	-mi
imperative	-ya

The imperative mood

When the imperative is used there is no tense suffix. Also it is used only with the two second person subject suffixes. So for example;-

to hit	timpa
Hit him/her.	timpiya na
Hit him/her(spoken to more than one person).	timpeya na

For the negative imperative we use the particle kya and the verb in its recitation form. For example ;-

Don't hit him/her.

kya timpa na

Notice that in the negative form, the single/plural distinction is lost.

The conditional moods

if you hit him, I will hit you	timpimo na, timpamo yu
if you had hit him, I would have hit you	timpimi na, timpami yu

if you hit him, I will not hit you	timpimo na, timpampu yu
if you had hit him, I would not have hit you	timpimi na, timpampe yu

Usually verbs with the conditional moods come in pairs. Sometimes, however you get a conditional verb by itself in a sentence that expresses the wishes of the speaker.

benamo "millionaire" = if only I was rich

benomo miho = Would that she be mine

Perhaps one way to understand the above to examples, is that there is an unstated, second part to the sentence meaning "I would be content/happy"

The subjuntive mood

Subjunctive form

The subjunctive have the subject slot filled and then an s.

Subjunctive "reason"

I have called this mood the subjunctive because its use is similar to the subjunctives. The "reason" why Seuna has this mood, is that it is disallowed to have redundant tense/aspect information in a sentence. If the tense/aspect of a sentence has been given already by a verb in the indicative mood, then any verb in a later subordinate sentence is given the subjunctive mood (it is mandatory for the indicative form to show tense/aspect)

I will stand up and let you sit.

Also Seuna strongly dislikes redundant person/number information. It is mandatory for the subjunctive form to show person/number. For this reason the second verb in a sentence will often be reduced further to its infinitive form (or nominative form ... actually I like the Arabic term "maSdar" which means source, it seems appropriate for the Seuna infinitive form)

The English eat to live : the French live to eat.

Subjunctive examples

Although the subjunctive usually appears on sentence-non-initial verbs. In one function it can appear on the first verb of a sentence.

donais = Lets walk

Probably in this "hortative" function the 1.pl.inc person/number is the one most frequently encountered. However all the person/number forms can occur.

For the second person these come across as a mild imperative (the second person having a dedicated imperative form).

doniya = walk!

donis = why don't you walk

In the first person singular form, this function of the subjunctive form is often used when sort of talking to yourself ... as in English "Let me see"

Negative subjunctive

For the negative subjunctive we suffix ka.

timpaska na = In order that I do not hit him

The indicative mood

Note that the subjunctive mood takes no tense suffixes and no evidential suffixes. Also imperative mood has no tense suffixes and no evidential suffixes and its personal pronoun suffixes are severely trunkated.

Tense suffixes

The tense slot is filled as follows ;-

general	-o
past	-i
present	-e
future	-u
perfect	-a
past perfect	-ia
future perfect	-ua

Evidential suffixes

reported	-n
inferred	-s
seen	-a

Evidentials are only used in main(independent clauses), with the indicative mood. The "seen" evidential is only used with the past tense suffix. None of the evidentials are obligatory. The reported and inferred seem to bring into doubt the reliability of the information somewhat.

-n means inferred from evidence and is used in the situations in which we prefix or tag on "I guess" or "I think" to a clause in English.

-s means and information asserted is got from some third party and is used where we might prefix "they say" to a clause in English.

The reciprocal

For the reciprocal we place the particle gan immediately after the verb.

Negation

solboru = he/she will drink

solbortu = he/she will not drink

The infinitive is negated by suffixing hu which by itself, means 'to lack'.

hutimpa = to not hit

Two epistemic particles

The two epistemic particles meu and loi take the same positions relative to the verb as ka.

meu = "may"

loi = "probably"

Antonyms

Some verbs that end with a have antonyms. For example;-

tata = to tangle tatua = to untangle

The copula

The forms of the copula are almost identical to the TAM markings.

I was	bari	we(exc.)were	bauri
		we(inc.) were	bairi
you were	biri	you(lot) were	beri
he/she was	ri or bori	they are	buri

Notice that the third person singular copula drops the o that occurs in the verb paradigm. The u of the third person singular can also be dropped if the subject has already been stated. It usually depends upon phonological factors.

kaunu nan ro hau@e = her coat is beautiful kauneu wan buro hau@e = their coats are beautiful kauneu wan ro hau@e = their coats are beautiful

You will notice that in the above table we demonstrated the copula system using the past tense. The reason that the past tense was used is that the present tense in English corresponds to two forms and two meanings in Seuna. The difference in meaning between the two forms, is the same as the difference between the two Spanish copulas “estar” and "ser". The "e" form being used for a less permanent state of affairs (similar to the use of "estar")and the "o" form being used for a more permanent state of affairs (similar to the use of "ser").

bare buke = I am sick baro buke = I am an invalid

There is a set of negative copulas as given below;-

I wasn't	harti	we(exc.)weren't	haurti
		we(inc.) weren't	hairti
you weren't	hirti	you(lot) weren't	herti
he/she wasn't	horti	they aren't	hurti

As in Russian, if tense information is unimportant, two words can just stand together with no copula.

mi moltai = I am a doctor

Gerund constructions

In English we have what is called the 'gerund'. For example;- "Me hitting him is not on". In this example "Me hitting him" is sort of a noun. In Seuna there is only one verbal-noun. It is the 'base form' or 'recitation form' of the verb. It is also the infinitive.

timpa mige nafi horto boi = "Me hitting him is not on"

Verbs from nouns

Many nouns are also verbs in Seuna. The relationships between the verb and noun are quite varied.

In the infinitive the verb can be seen to have a different form from the noun. However in non-infinitive forms no difference is apparent. For example :-

salt	kenko
to salt, to add salt	kenkilo
She salted the food	kenkori humpos

Some key verbs

to take	eu
to give	oi
to get, to receive, to become	dai
to have	su

Note ... eu means "to pick up". To take an inanimate object (somewhere) would be "take (Object) go/come". To take a person (somewhere), one would use ???? which translates as "to lead".

As well as being followed by nouns, these key words can also be complemented by adjectives and other verbs. For example ...

1) to take (Adjective) = to make oneself (Adjective) ....for example ....ewori aiho = She made herself ugly Short for take give ya aiho ??

2) to give (Adjective) = to make someone (Adjective) ....for example ....oyori mi aiho = She made me ugly Short for oyori mi ya aiho ?? or make aiho = to uglify ??

3) to get (Adjective) = to become (Adjective) ....for example ....dayori aiho = She became ugly

4) to have (Adjective) = to be (Adjective) ....for example ....swori aiho = She was ugly

5) to take (Verb) = to (Verb) yourself (i.e. this is the reflexive) .... for example .... ewori timpa = He hit himself

6) to give (Verb) = to allow someone to (Verb) .... for example .... oyori mi laudo = She allowed me to wash

7) to get (Verb) = to be (Verb) (i.e. this is the passive) .... for example .... dayori laudo = She was washed

8) to have (Verb) = to be under obligation to (Verb) .... for example .... swori laudo = She had to wash

jene dayori laudo = Jane was washed (Not Jane is allowed to wash) jene dayore laudo = Jane is being washed jene dayora laudo = Jane has been washed *** jene dayoru laudo = Jane will be washed

jene dayori mama laudo = Jane was washed by her mother jene dayore mama laudo = Jane is being washed by her mother jene dayoru mama laudo = Jane will be washed

jene swori laudoi = Jane was washed jene swore laudoi = Jane is washed *** jene sworu laudoi = Jane will be washed

jene lauda waulo = Jane has washed her dog jene laudia waulo = Jane had washed her dog jene laudua waulo = Jane will have washed her dog

Note - in all the above occurrences of mama we could have mamate.

The constuction 2) and 6) are generally only used when the Adjective and the Verb are viewed as something that you would want. There is also another way of expressing 2) and 6) that can be used in all situations. This is with the infix -il-.

aiho = ugly

aihilo = to uglify

hau'e = beautifull

hau'ile = to beautify .... the glottal stop is real

laudilo = to make someone wash = "do" laudo .... I must read up on this, why is the morphological causative so pervasive ??

Also oi, and su can take clauses as their complements. For example ...

Verb list

Usually a verb is recognizable by its midword consonant cluster. These verbs are of course multi-syllable. However the most common verbs are single-syllable. They are given below.

?/m/my/y/j/jw/f/fy/fl/b/by/bl/bw/g/gl/gw /d/dw/l/c/cw/s/sl/sw/k/ky/kl/kw/p/py/pl /t/tw/w/n/ny/h/

to take	eu
to give	oi
to receive/get	dai	Thai	65 mil
to have	su
to lack	hu
to read	baca	Indonesian/Malasian	230 mil
to buy	osta	Finnish	5 mil
to show	kle	Baule	? mil (page 2)
to be at	fo
to be able to(mentally/generally)	weka
to be able to (physically)	wai	Thai	65 mil
to be allowed	bisa	Indonesian/Malasian	230 mil
to walk	dono
to wash	laudo
to flutter	awata
to wonder	awasa
to bite	glehe
to build	bunda
to sever	nya
to cut	kata
to talk	cata
to fly	senfo
to throw	fyo
to know	moi
to tell	myoi
to realize,recognize	maloi
to do	tu
to start	dwa
to be	ku
to become	gwa
to see	bai
to	bya
to meet	bwa
	swa
to want	ye
to need	?
to run	cwonso
to say
to write	kludau
	loi
	jwa
to feel that you should	jada
to enter	pali
to put in	palyi
to exit	malu
to extract	malyu
to stop	ha
to go down	teu
to raise	jwo
to lower	twe
to enter	pai
to exit	myu
to insert	pli
to extract	fyu
to go through	fau
to say	plo
to think	'
to wish	flua
to want	heu
to understand	nai
to follow	dwe
to cross	cwo

The initial k is not taken by ku = to be, because this is of course realized by the r paradigm when the verb is finite. It is taken by the negative copula kvrv.

fyo was originally senfyo awan is an adjective meaning 'random' gleno is a noun meaning tooth ???

??I will take = oyaru, imperative singular oi, imperative plural oye

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