Classical Arithide conjugation

See also Classical Arithide grammar for more information

Classical Arithide verbs are divided into two conjugations based on their stems: whether they end in a vowel or a consonant. There is no infinitive, and verbs are quoted in dictionaries in their perfect finite form. The two conjugations differ in their basic finite forms, whereas additional affixes for the various aspects and moods are common; a small group of verbs are mixed-conjugation: though consonant-stem, they take vowel-stem conjugations.

Within consonant-stem verbs, nasal-stems (-m- and -n-) conjugate slightly differently from the non-nasal-stem verbs; also, vowel-stem verbs possess a second stem, with which are formed their derivatives, such as the protractive aspect and the agentive noun.

Verbs in each class are conjugated for four or five voices, three basic aspects, five derivative aspects, seven moods and one tense, on a cascading hierarchy as above. I.e., to the root form of the verb would first be appended affixes indicating voice, followed by aspect, then mood and subsequently tense. Certain aspects and moods in Classical Arithide constitute separate verbs eo ipso, but, as semi-independent verbs, are not always able to take the full range of verb conjugations.

There is a small class of antideponent verbs in Classical Arithide, i.e. verbs with an active form but a passive meaning.

Verbs are the only group of words in Classical Arithide that exhibit a significant degree of non-inflectionary morphology, namely, agglutination, which occurs in affixing aspects, moods and tenses onto individual verbs.

Voice and transitivity

Classical Arithide verbs, besides their usual classification system as consonant-stem or vowel-stem, can also be classified, in grammatical literature, according to whether the root is active or passive. Because of the conflation of voice with transitivity, "active" and "middle" voice may in fact correspond to "transitive" and "intransitive" in certain cases, though to the Areth of the Classical Age, the difference was scarcely material.

The flexible verb system of the language means that it is possible for individual verbs to cross categories, i.e. for active verbs to take on the middle voice and vice versa. By scholastic agreement, verbs can fall into either of two groups by this criterion: Group 1 (numatheros, lit. "down group") contains verbs analogous to the Germanic "weak verbs", i.e. they change voice with suffixes; Group 2 (bisatheros, lit. "up group") are the "strong verbs", which undergo ablaut to convey the same meaning. Each group is divided into two subgroups (a) and (b), the former of which consists of verbs whose roots are active, and take suffixes to middlise/intransitivise, and vice versa.

Whereas Group 1b verbs uniformly activise by taking the suffix -āthā, Group 1a verbs take various endings depending on the phonological environment:

• Where [r] occurs in the stem (particularly in the first syllable) after the vowels [e], [i] and [y], the suffix -erai is used
• Where it occurs with any other vowel, or with diphthongs, the suffix -arai is used
• Where either [r] or [m] is the final consonant in the stem, the suffix used is -anai
• All other situations employ the suffix -onai

Conjugations of an Arithide verb

The basic conjugations of an Arithide verb are given in table format as laid out in the following templates.

For verbs in the active voice or transitive verbs:

verb	habitual, inceptive, frequentative, protractive, volitive desiderative, jussive, subjunctive
imperative, cohortative supine (I) location (II) instrument (V) agent (VI) patient (VII, VI)	perfect aspect	perfect participle	perfect supine
	perfective aspect	perfective participle	perfective supine
	imperfective aspect	imperfective participle	imperfective supine
	future tense	future participle	future supine
	potentive, causative, passive, (middlisation)

For verbs in the middle voice or intransitive verbs:

verb	habitual, inceptive, frequentative, protractive, volitive desiderative, jussive, subjunctive
imperative, cohortative supine (I) location (II) instrument (V) agent (VI) patient (VII, VI)	perfect aspect	perfect participle	perfect supine
	perfective aspect	perfective participle	perfective supine
	imperfective aspect	imperfective participle	imperfective supine
	future tense	future participle	future supine
	potentive, causative, (activisation)

Note the (logical) presence of an extra voice, the passive voice, listed in the table for active/transitive verbs, and the absence thereof from the table for middle/intransitive verbs.

Stem & gerund

The conjugation of a verb is conducted with its stem as the basis. To find the stem of a verb, simply remove the perfect ending (-ā with consonant-stems, -s with vowel-stems). From the stem is formed the second major part of a verb's conjugation, the gerund. The gerunds of vowel-stem verbs are identical to the stems; consonant-stem verbs affix an -o, hence napsā "to hide" > napso. Most complex conjugations are formed using the gerund, as are a number of common verbal phrases and periphrastic constructions; frequently, when those conjugations require an affix beginning with a vowel, the -o of the gerund in consonant-stem verbs is elided.

Imperative & cohortative

At the top-right of the table, listed with the stem and the gerund, are the imperative ("walk!") and the cohortative ("let's walk") moods respectively. These are the only two forms of the verb that are progressively invariable (see Progressive inflection), i.e. they do not inflect further for the next level of time-flow distinction, in this case tense. The imperative is formed with V-verbs by lengthening their inherent vowel and adding -ra, and with consonant-stem verbs by adding -ēra to the stem (i.e. napsā > napsēra, kalas > kalāra, sebis > sebīra). In colloquial speech or for purposes of scansion, the final -ra may be omitted. The cohortative is constructed in consonant-stem verbs by appending -ō to the stem; vowel-stem verbs add -ō to their stem, and the thematic vowel is elided with stems ending in -a, -o and -u.

Free derivatives

The only derivative verbs that can conjugate nearly as fully as the active verb itself, with only minimal restrictions (the "free derivatives"), number three, and are the three other verb voices in Classical Arithide: the potentive (-ētai, "able to"), causative (-ārā, "make/cause to") and passive (he-, "be done something to").

To illustrate, napsētai (naps- + -ētai potentive) can take any ending that the main verb can, except the passive, because potentive verbs are intransitive by nature and thus do not have a passive; nor can henapsai (naps- + prefix he- passive), for the same reason that passive verbs are also intransitive by definition; in addition, the causative is the only derivative of the three that allows recursion: napsārārā "make to cause to hide" is semantically permissible, whereas napsētētai is illogical and hegenapsai (doubled he-; the second he- is mutated due to historical phonological sound changes) is forbidden for transitivity reasons as already discussed.

There is a third-person imperative ("let him hide") ending in -(e)sit—i.e. henapsesit

Records of earlier Arithide show the passive form as originally having been constructed -sita, which casts some light on the origins of the seemingly irregular third-person imperative, and the patientive verbal noun. The latter is attested as once regular (napsesitis, which phonetic attrition reduced), and the former of which is unattested but postulated by scholars to have been napsesitu, paralleling the imperative and cohortative. For those moods, however, no material is available to explain their distinct construction from the active.

Limited derivatives

The "limited derivative" verbs are, as opposed to the free derivatives, independent derivative verbs that may not take the full range of conjugations. Most derivatives in this category are modal: the inceptive mood (-zai "to begin to"), the frequentative (-eusai "to do repeatedly"), the protractive (-ndai "to go on and on"), the volitive (-amai "to be willing to"), the desiderative (-ssai' "to want to"), the jussive (-spai "to want the listener to") and the subjunctive (-ōnai). The first three moods take the imperfective stem; the latter three take the gerundive stem with C-verbs and the basic stem with V-verbs. None of these verbs may take a subordinate voice (as they are moods), nor recur outside literature (i.e. napsizizai, for example, is not normally permissible); all may take the inceptive and the subjunctive subordinately, and the inceptive may take the frequentative in subordination, to give the meaning of "repeatedly began (but never finished)".

Also part of the limited derivatives are the progressively invariable habitual and perfective habitual aspects, which are conjugated like tenses, by taking the imperfective stem, affixing -mnai, and conjugating it for the perfect or perfective aspect, e.g. hoirimnei "used to turn". The simple habitual (with the perfect-aspect ending) also doubles as the generic mood, to express universals, e.g. lēreu dialimnai, "the sun rises (every day as a matter of certainty/fact)". These aspects are considered unique, in that they are the only ones that may follow a mood in affixation, to give, e.g. agnizimnai "he habitually begins to do things (and leave them hanging afterwards)".

Verbal nouns

The left side of the table, shaded slightly darker, lists the main verbal nouns, of agency (doer), of patiency (done to), of instrument (tool), of location (place done at), as well as the supine (act of). The supine is a declension I noun, locative nouns are declension II, agentive nouns are of declension VI and instrumentive nouns are declension Vb, the patientive is declension VII (see Classical Arithide declension for the respective inflection patterns).

Different consonant stems take different epenthetic consonants in forming their supines and locatives, illustrated by the table below:

Voiceless plosives/fricatives	Voiced plosives/fricatives
topēn, top-, topsos1	stebēn, steb-, stepsos
ikēn, ik-, iksos1	vagēn, vag-, vaksos
gatēn, gat-, gassos1	fidēn, fid-, fissos
pathēn, path-, passos	fodhēn, fodh-, fossos
bēsēn, bēs-, bēssos	fizēn, fiz-, fissos
Sonorants
damēn, dam-, dantos1	thenēn, then-, thentos1
sulēn, sul-, sultos	lerēn, ler-, lessos
Clusters, Geminates
kompēn, komp-, kompros	kambēn, kamb-, kambros
eptēn, ept-, eptros	dandēn, dand-, dandros
arkēn, ark-, arksos	kargēn, karg-, karksos
almēn, alm-, almbros	sernēn, sern-, serndros
illēn, ill-, iltros	kaplēn, kapl-, kapeltos
firrēn, firr-, firstos	ēbrēn, ēbr-, ēberos
hessēn, hess-, hestos

¹

Geminates for these consonants form their verbal nouns identically to the single-consonant stems, i.e. stammēn > stantos (homonymous with the word for "importance") etc.

Applicative infixing

There is an applicative infix, -it-, that is appended only to first conjugation (consonant-stem) verbs, to derive nouns one degree removed semantically from the verb. Examples are:

• segrēn "to write" > segros "the act of writing", segritos "writing (i.e. words that have been written)"
• damēn "to carry" > damos "the act of carrying", damitos "transport, conveyance"

Aspects & tenses

Classical Arithide was an aspect-salient language; distinctions as "he eats" and "he ate" mattered far less to an Arithide-speaker then than did ones such as "he ate" and "he was eating". In this respect it bears much resemblance to the Chinese languages. The proclivity towards aspect-differentiation rather than tense persisted well into the koine era, and it was only with the rise of Modern Arithide did tenses begin to play a greater role.

The verb conjugation table is ordered with the aspects preceding tenses, for reasons of origin: the tenses ultimately derive from reduced versions of the aspects; the perfect aspect gave rise to the present tense, the perfective to the past tense, and the once-common irrealis/conditional mood decayed into the future tense, in a logical process of mapping, in the final decades of the Equora dynasty. Written records exhibit tenses only from the late 9th century CIE, and even then only in informal documents.

See also Development of Classical Arithide tenses for more information

With the stronger role of the tenses in the koine, finer temporal distinctions became possible, and the aspects evolved from finite verb forms to dually functioning affixes: they could stand alone without tense-marking, or they could act as aspectual stems and take tenses. This overlapping feature of the aspect was often utilised in literature, as well as politics, for reasons of style, emphasis, or deliberate ambiguity.

Participles

The participles of the various aspects and the conditional mood serve two main purposes. First, due to the SOV syntax of Classical Arithide, verbs were used prenominally as modifiers. Initially these modifier verbs used the same forms as final verbs, but gradually evolved distinct forms with lengthened vowels and, in the case of the imperfective, lost the accompanying consonant. Adjectives of the verbal class, however, did not undergo this change (see Classical Arithide adjectives). Second, analogously to the Latin ablative absolute construction, the participles could indicate the context of a main sentence, e.g.

• Kodhē roimeūm, sōpedōi tholtae vermairēn. Having weakened the enemy, the soldiers went in for the kill.

These participle forms were largely developed already by the Aphoiros dynasty, and codified into the language of the respectable classes upon the rise of the Equora.

Participial verbal nouns

Participles can also derive verbal nouns, such as sthorāsthos "the fact that you have held (him) back" or sthorāsthon "the person who held (him) back", from sthorāsos "having held back, who has held back", from sthorā "has held back, to hold back". These are quoted in the tables below in the abstract -os form which corresponds to "the fact that...", but can also take declension VI endings by replacing the ending -os, changing their meaning to become "the person who...".

Deriving other parts of speech

Like many other SOV languages, most notably Japanese, early Classical Arithide could turn its verbs into modifiers simply by putting them directly before the noun they modify, e.g. ores soli "the river flows (lit. is flowing)" vs. soli ores "the flowing river" "the river that flows (lit. is flowing)". However, due to the language's extensive and growing inflection, and consequently considerably free word order, the practice declined rather early on in the Lazeian Empire's existence in favour of the participle forms, which had already begun to differentiate from the finite forms before the conquest of Galaria (see Classical Arithide verb differentiation); it only experienced a sort of recovery after the fall of the Equora dynasty, and the consequent accelerated decay of the intricate inflection system it had built up over the years.

In the conjugation tables below, the participles for each verb are listed with an additional letter each appended in parentheses to the end. In the "standard" Classical Arithide, the correct participle forms do not include the letters in brackets, nor as modifiers include them but simply conjugate in their base form according to the declension class of their referent. In earlier periods, however, up to the decades before the Three Hundred Golden Years, the correct forms for the perfective and imperfective participles ended in -a, subsequently dropped, and as modifiers of the nominal class declined as per the fifth declension.

At the same time, in the active and middle voices verbs can form various adjectives and nouns using their different aspectual participle forms (such as fragai "to rebel, to mutiny" > fragīēs sōpedēs "rebelling/mutinying soldiers", fragaiēs sōpedēs "soldiers who have rebelled/mutinied—implied and by consequence are now no longer part of the force", frageinēs sōpedēs "soldiers who rebelled/mutinied—before/once, and that is over and done with in their histories"). This is also true for the passive voice, hence hezuraier Ganymēder "stolen Ganymede" is still missing while hezureiner Ganymēder has been returned, and Zeus can stil be seen taking away hezurīer Ganymēder.

Voice, aspect, mood and tense

Verbs in each class are conjugated for four or five voices, three basic aspects, five derivative aspects and seven moods. Of the following list, those marked with an asterisk form separate verbs (i.e. take their own infinitives), which usually do not hold the full conjugation range. Additionally, the interrogative mood is (commonly, and obligatorily in writing but not speech) marked with the auxiliary particle da. Verbs are conjugated on a cascading hierarchy as above, i.e. to the root form of the verb would first be appended affixes indicating voice, followed by aspect, then mood and subsequently tense.

Voices

• Active John hits the ball.
• Middle John makes a hit.
• Passive The ball is hit by John.
• Causative Jack makes John hit the ball.
• Potentive Jack can hit the ball.

Aspects

• Imperfective, indicating the progression of an action
  • Habitual/Generic & Perfective Habitual I walk/used to walk to work every day. Mangoes (used to) grow on trees.
  • Protractive* I walk on and on; I go on walking.
  • Inceptive* I begin to walk.
  • Frequentative* I walk around.
• Perfective, indicating the completion of an action
• Perfect I have walked to the cinema (and am now there).

Moods

• Indicative, stating facts, strong beliefs
• Subjunctive*, used with wishes, hopes, doubts, conditions
• Desiderative* I want to walk.
• Jussive* I want you to walk.
• Volitive, I am willing to walk
• Imperative Walk!
• Cohortative Let's walk.
• Negative¹

I do not walk.

¹ There are technically two types of the negative mood in Classical Arithide, but traditionally have been conflated into one by the Dethrians, who were not generally able to effectively distinguish between the two (see next section for more information).

Negation

In Classical Arithide, as with its modern descendant, there are two possible ways of constructing negation—broad and narrow—using the affix av-, -va respectively. Broad negation negates the semantic meaning of an entire word, phrase, or even sentence; the narrow variant negates only the specific conjugated meaning of the verb.

Compare the following two sentences and the nuanced difference in their meaning:

• Vaksae raenētaiva. You cannot choose to go. (lit. "going choose-can-not")
• Vaksae auraenētai. You can not choose to go. or You can choose not to go. (lit. "going not-choose-can")
• Auvaksae raenētai. You can choose not to go. (lit. "not-going choose-can")

The former sentence is an example of narrow negation, because the negative suffix applies only to the conjugated verb, i.e. it refers to the narrow act of not choosing; the latter of broad, because the prefix inverts the lexical meaning of the verb, and subsequent conjugations modify the prefixed verb as a single unit of negative meaning—the new word is technically considered grammatically affirmative.

Certain constructions require the use of either of the negatives over the other due to grammatical constraints, e.g. in the case of the following two sentences:

1. Sit iter auvagōn do, vagmai. If that person is not going, I will go.
2. Sit iter vagōn do, vagmaiva. If that person is going, I will not go.
3. Sit iter auvagespai. He does not want that person to go. (Lit. "he desires the person to not-go")
4. Sit iter vagespaiva. He does not want that person to go. (Lit. "he desires not the person to go")

In the first sentence the broad negative has to be employed due to the overlap in the various functions of the subjunctive mood, which here is used as a "subjunctive of condition": if it were said Sit iter vagōnaiva..., it would imply a separate grammatical topic (e.g. dās "I", nās "he" etc.) and that the subjunctive is being used as a "subjunctive of desire", i.e. the clause would mean, instead, the equivalent of sentence (4).

First conjugation: Consonant-stem verbs

The first conjugation, containing all consonant-stem verbs, is the most common conjugation to which verbs in Classical Arithide belong, encompassing approximately three-quarters of all verbs. The regular conjugation is illustrated by the example verbs valā "to settle (active), to site" and aurai "to meet" below. Sernā "to order, to command", is also listed below.

Active voice verb valā "to site":

VAL-	valimnā, valīzai, valeusai, valindai, valoumai valossai, valospai, valōnai
imp. valē(ra) coh. valō sup. valtos loc. valtas ins. valeta agt. valter, valon pat. valsis, valsion	valā	valāsos	valāsthos
	valēn	valeinos	valēnthos
	vali	valīos	valīthos
	valma <*valuma	valmos <*valumos	valonthos <*valunthos
	valētai, valairā, hevalai, (valonai)

Middle voice verb aurai "to meet":

AUR-	aurimnai, aurīzai, aureusai, aurindai, auroumai aurossai, aurospai, aurōnai
imp. aurē(ra) coh. aurō sup. aussos loc. aussas ins. aureta agt. ausser, auron pat. aussis, aussion	aurai	auraios	auranthos
	aurein	aureinos	aurēnthos
	auri	aurīos	aurīthos
	aummai <*aurumai	aummos <*aurumos	auronthos <*aurunthos
	aurētai, aurairai, (aurāthā)

Verbs whose stems end in -n take a slightly different ending in the perfective aspect, which has arisen due to historical phonetic dissimulation.

SERN-	sernimnā, sernīzai, serneusai, sernindai, sernoumai sernossai, sernospai, sernōnai
imp. sernē(ra) coh. sernō sup. serndros loc. serndras ins. serneta agt. serndrer, sernon pat. sernosis, sernosion	sernā	sernās(os)	sernāsthos
	sernēn	serneimos	sernēnthos
	serni	sernīos	sernīthos
	serma <*sernuma	sermos <*sernumos	sernonthos <*sernunthos
	sernētai, sernairā, hezernai, (sernerai)

Second conjugation: a-stem verbs

The regular conjugation for a-stem verbs is given below with the example kalas "to give".

KALA-	kalamnā, kalazai, kalausai, kalandai, kalōumai kalassai, kalaspai, kalatōnai
kalā(ra) kalō sup. kalatos loc. kalatas ins. kalateta agt. kalater, kalaton pat. kalasis	kalas	kalatos	kalathos
	kalau	kalaumos	kalōnthos
	kalāi	kalāios	kalaithos
	kalama	kalamos	kalanthos
	kalaetai, kalatārā, hegalai, (kalanai)

Third conjugation: e-stem verbs

E-stem verbs conjugate like pares "to run" below.

PARE-	paremnai, parezai, pareusai, parendai, pareoumai paressai, parespai, pareōnai
parē(ra) pareō sup. paretos loc. paretas ins. pareteta agt. pareter, pareton pat. paresis	pares	paretos	parethos
	pareu	pareumos	pareonthos
	parēi	parēios	pareithos
	parema	paremos	parenthos
	parētai, pareārā, (pareāthā)

Fourth conjugation: i-stem verbs

The regular conjugation for i-stem verbs follows sebis "to hear" as elaborated:

SEBI-	sebimnai, sebizai, sebiousai, sebindai, sebioumai sebissai, sebispai, sebiōnai
sebī(ra) sebiō sup. sebitos loc. sebitas ins. sebiteta agt. sebiter, sebiton pat. sebisis	sebis	sebitos	sebithos
	sebiou	sebioumos	sebionthos
	sebiēi	sebiēios	sebieithos
	sebima	sebimos	sebinthos
	sebiētai, sebiārā, (sebiāthā)

Mixed conjugation verbs

The mixed conjugation verbs are all consonant-stem verbs that conjugate as per vowel-stems. Due to the consequent coincidence of the consonants from the stem and the ending, phonetic assimilation or dissimilation may occur as demonstrated below. In certain cases where the syllable structure of the verb changes (e.g. from open to closed), vowel alterations may also take place with the high vowels i and u, lowering them to e and o respectively.

Certain mixed-conjugation verbs also act as if they were e-stem verbs, and can conjugate accordingly, leading to two different conjugal matrices for the same verb; all the example verbs given below belong to this category: ludēn "to gamble", dagēn "to contain", simēn "to host" and levēn "big".

LUDĒN	lud-, ludo, ludē(ra), ludō(ra) ludabēn, ludārēn, losstēn
sup. luttos loc. luttas ins. ludeta agt. ludon (lutter) pat. ludosis	ludes, luder- lōs, lōr-	ludent	ludes lōs
	ludet, luded- lutt, lodd-	ludēth lōth	ludeth lutth
	ludian, ludiam-	ludian
	(ludiōn, ludium-)	(ludiōn)	ludiōn
	ludimnēn, ludizēn, ludivasēn, ludindēn ludossēn, ludospēn, ludōnēn

DAGĒN	dag-, dago, dagē(ra), dagō(ra) dagabēn, dagārēn, dakstēn
sup. daktos loc. daktas ins. dageta agt. dagon (dakter) pat. dagosis	dages, dager- daks, dagr-	dagent	dages daks
	daget, daged- dakt, dagd-/dangd-	dagēth dākth	dageth dakth
	dagian, dagiam-	dagian
	(dagiōn, dagium-)	(dagiōn)	dagiōn
	dagimnēn, dagizēn, dagivasēn, dagindēn dagossēn, dagospēn, dagōnēn

SIMĒN	sim-, simo, simē(ra), simō(ra) simabēn, simārēn, simostēn
sup. semptos loc. semptas ins. simeta agt. simon (sempter) pat. simosis	simes, simer- semps, sempr-	siment	simes semps
	simet, simed- sempt, sembd-	simēth sēmpth	simeth sempth
	simian, simiam-	simian
	(simiōn, simium-)	(simiōn)	simiōn
	simimnēn, simizēn, simivasēn, simindēn simossēn, simospēn, simōnēn

LEVĒN	lev-, levo, levē(ra), levō(ra) levabēn, levārēn, lepstēn
sup. leptos loc. leptas ins. leveta agt. levon (lepter) pat. levosis	leves, lever- leps, lepr-	levent	leves leps
	levet, leved- lept, lebd-	levēth lēpth	leveth lepth
	levian, leviam-	levian
	(leviōn, levium-)	(leviōn)	leviōn
	levimnēn, levizēn, levvasēn, levindēn levossēn, levospēn, levōnēn

See also

• List of Classical Arithide irregular verbs

• Classical Arithide
• Classical Arithide grammar
• Classical Arithide declension
• Classical Arithide adjectives
• Classical Arithide adverbs
• Classical Arithide determiners
• Classical Arithide adpositions
• Classical Arithide pro-forms