Tsakxa verbs

Verbs in Tsakxa are comparatively heavily inflected, conjugating by aspect, mood and voice. There are two classes of verbs, the monopartite verbs (which have a single stem and are conjugated regularly) and the bipartite verbs (which have a bipartite stem and whose conjugation is far more complex and irregular).

Commonalities

Polarity

Negativity is marked with the particle pa, which is placed in a variety of places depending on emphasis and personal taste. Reduplication to apa creates an emphatic 'no' or 'never':

Wen-ø wes-enxa-ø apa su - I never eat meat (meat-TOPIC eat-IMPERF-INDIC never 1ps)

An emphatic declarative is also possible with the particle ʔu which works in much the same way as pa:

Wen-ø wes-enxa-ø ʔu su - I always eat meat (meat-TOPIC eat-IMPERF-INDIC DECL.EMPH 1ps)

Voice

In finite forms, the passive voice is marked with the particle, or prefix, se. This precedes the verb:

Wen-ø se wes-enxa-ø - as for meat, it's always being eaten

The passive voice is always used when the topic is the patient of the verb.

Monopartite verbs

Monopartite verbs are by far the more common type of verb in Tsakxa. They have a single stem, as implied by the name, and take only suffixes for inflection.

Aspect

All verbs carry inflection for aspect (perfective or imperfective). In monopartite verbs, this is accomplished by the addition of a suffix.

Perfective aspect

The Perfective aspect implies a single action, complete and independent of any other action and is formed by (e)ngxu (the /e/ assimilates to a preceding vowel and causes lenition of /t/ to /s/ and /p/ to /f/ in preceding consonants). For example:

Sesu-sa ta-ngxu - I saw/see my sister at one point (sister.TOPIC-PERSONAL see-PERF)

The perfective does not imply any kind of past tense, and can be used in the future for any distinct single action:

Sesu-sa ta-ngxu patangqa - I will see my sister tomorrow (sister.TOPIC-PERSONAL see-PERF)

Imperfective aspect

The Imperfective aspect implies continuous or repeated action. It is formed with (e)nxa:

Sesu-sa ta-nxa - I'm currently seeing my sister/I see my sister frequently (sister.TOPIC-PERSONAL see-IMPERF)

Sesu-sa ta-nxa pangxu - I used to see my sister/I was seeing my sister last year (sister.TOPIC-PERSONAL see-IMPERF last.year)

Mood

All verbs also carry inflection for mood. There are four moods distinguished in Tsakxa:

Indicative

The Indicative mood describes actions that definitely have happened, will happen or are happening within the speaker's knowledge. It is marked by a null morpheme (shown here with -ø but not marked in the actual written language).

Kangqa ta-ngxu - I saw the beast

It is also used for imperatives in almost all verbs:

Baʃung-ø ugqe-kxa sut-ngxu-ø! - Read the book! (book-TOPIC 2ps-ERG read-PERF-INDIC)

Some verbs, however, have their own distinct imperative root:

Baʃung-ø ugqe-kxa sang-ngxu-ø! - Look at the book! (book-TOPIC 2ps-ERG see-PERF-INDIC)

Subjunctive

The Subjunctive or Modal mood describes actions that may or may not have happened and that the speaker feels strongly about. It is marked by a suffixed -s:

Aʔ-ø, utxu-nxa-s - I hope he's dying somewhere (3ps-TOPIC die-IMPERF-SUBJ)

It is also used for 'if I were' sentences:

Su-ø, piʃ-enxa-s - if I were a rich man (1ps-TOPIC rich-IMPERF-SUBJ)

Dubitative

The Dubitative mood describes actions devoid of emotional content that the speaker wishes to distance themselves from - primarily reported speech. It is formed with the suffix -l:

Aʔ-ø, utxu-nxa-l aʔ-m tik-enxa-ø - 'he says that he's dying' (3ps-TOPIC die-IMPERF-DUB 3ps-TOP say-PERF-INDIC)

Interrogative

The Interrogative is used to ask questions. It is formed with the suffix -f:

Uʔ-ø wes-enxa-f? - Will you be eating? (2ps-TOPIC eat-IMPERF-INTER)