Khangaþyagon Verbs

Verbs

Khangaþyagon is an agglutinating language, and its grammatical affixes are suffixes - the native term is segunakar, "follow-parts".

Stem, Person, Infinitive and Participles

The stem of a verb always ends in a consonant, and need not be phonologically complete. This is obligatorily followed by either one of the person suffixes

a

1p

yaga ya

I speak

e

2p

yage ye

you speak

i

3p

yagi rik

the man speaks

which refer to the person of the subject of the verb, or the infinitive ending

o

infinitive

yago

to speak

or by a participle suffix

on/ont

present participle

yagon

speaking, speech, language

osht

past participle

yagosht

spoken

A participle may refer to a person characterised by the action, rather than the action itself. eg

bagiront

keeper.

Which sense a participle has is entirely lexical, as is whether the verb has the "on" or "ont" form of the present participle. These do not correlate.

These may then be followed by the following segunakar, in order of occurrence

Reflexiveness

d+reduplication of person ending

Reflexive. Indicates that the direct object of the verb is identical with the subject.

gwendidi khratap

The thief hides himself.

Continuous aspect

ha

Continuous. Indicates an ongoing or habitual, as in "be doing" or "keep doing".

yagaha ya

I am speaking

Perfect aspect

fœ

Perfect. Indicates a completed action. The English equivalent is "have done"

yagafœ ya

I have spoken

yagahafœ ya

I have been speaking

Tense

Khangaþyagon has a three-tense system, in which present in unmarked, and past and future are marked with the following segunakar.

ng

past tense

yagang ya

I spoke

yagahang ya

I was speaking

kh

future tense

yagakh ya

I will speak

yagafœkh ya

I will have spoken

yagahafœkh ya

I will have been speaking

Voice

Khangaþyagon has two voices, active, which is unmarked, and passive

uf

passive. May indicate either a stative passive "be done" or an eventive passive "get done"

eskringuf glaf

The horse was ridden

A reflexive passive indicates that the subject is the indirect cause of an action that affects himself.

gwenda ya

I hide (would normally require an object)

gwendada ya

I hide myself

gwenda'uf ya

I am hidden

gwendada'uf ya

I get myself hidden

Mood

Khangaþyagon has four moods, indicative, which is unmarked, and the following-

azh

Conditional. Indicates "if" or "would"

yagifœazh yi

if he had spoken/he would have spoken

lt

Imperative. Khangaþyagon's imperative also covers the semantic space of an optative or hortative

yagelt ye

Speak!

yagehalt ye

Keep speaking!

yagilt yi

May he speak!

dau

Interrogative. Forms polar questions

yagafœkhdau vlakhmark?

Will the king have spoken?

More on the usage of these moods may be found in the syntax section

Negation

she

not

yagangshe ya

I do not speak

bilbitehaltshe ye

Stop wittering on!

Number

This refers to the number of the subject of the verb.

(a)r

plural

yagar yar

we speak

yagingar yir

they spoke

The a appears epenthetically when this segunak follows a consonant.

Paradigm Summary

The form of the verb can thus be summarised as
{set of alternatives, separated by commas}
[optional segunak]
stem+{person,infinitive,participle}+[Reflexiveness]+[continuous]+[perfect]+[tense]+[voice]+[mood]+[negation]+[number]

The Existential Verb

The equivalent of "there is" is indicated by using the verb dah- (be) in the passive voice, eg

dahiuf rik

there is a man

Modal Verbs

There are four verbs

osf

must. Indicates a strong obligation, especially moral obligation, to perform the action.

ovl

can. Indicates the possibility or ability to perform the action.

orng

should. Indicates that the action is desirable, but does not convey the sense of strong obligation that osf does.

olw

might. Indicates that the action is uncertain.

which occur only in compounds with other verbs. As such, they occupy a morphological grey area between segunakar and roots. As a closed class of bound morphemes, they share properties with segunakar, and all begin with o, which is associated with non-finite verb forms. However, they take stress, which is a property of roots (segunakar never take stress). Also, when they occur, the form of the present participal is determined by the modal verb, and not by the verb they compound with.

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