Pabappa verbs

Pabappa verb conjugation is much like a radically simplified version of that of Poswa. Only tense is marked on the verb, and there are only 3 tenses, since aspect is not marked either. Neither agent nor patient person markers are present on the verb, and there is no distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, or between active and passive verbs.

There are separate conjugation classes in Pabappa, but these differ only in which consonant the ending begins with, not in any vowels.

Tense

The basic Pabappa suffixes are -pi, -pa, and -pu for the past, present, and imperative respectively. They appear as if they are related to Poswa's monosyllabic intransitive suffixes (-bel, -ba, -bob), perhaps through analogy with the respective subjunctive forms, but are in fact heavily analogized descendants of the disyllabic transitive suffixes. Early on, the "extra" vowel remained, but a later sound change pushed the last vowel of the stem into the suffix. Later, these were analogized in such a way that it appeared the initial vowel had never existed.

However, the consonant stems take forms that are indeed originally from the intransitives, since the above vowel shift did not take place in consonant stems.

Imperatives

Where one might expect to see a future tense, Pabappa instead has an imperative. This is used for commands and strong wishes. For example, one might say

Bluridap mamabu!

Drink your milk!

Conjugation tables

Vowel stems

All verbs whose stems end in a vowel take endings beginning with -b. Below is the verb pepu "to bend, fold":

pepu	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	pepubi	pepuba	pepubu
(Subjunctive)	pepubep	pepubap	pepubop

Since Pabappa verbs are not marked either for person or for transitivity, pronouns must be present for context. However, when two pronouns come together in a word, they are elided into a single word stressed on the initial syllable. Thus for example:

Pom pubulap pepubi.

I folded the shorts.

Pomap pepubi mupadarna pubom.

I bent you over a barrel.

Note that the subjunctive forms are the same as those of the 3rd person Poswa intransitive subjunctives, but that, as above, they are in fact derived from the transitives.

-p stems

Verbs whose stems end in -p change the p to s and omit the -b-. Below is the conjugation of pupimip "to sit (up)":

pupimip	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	pupimisi	pupimisa	pupimisu
(Subjunctive)	pupimisep	pupimisap	pupimisop

Pom pupimisa urtam.

I'm sitting on the floor.

-m stems

Verbs whose stems end in -m keep the -m and add -p- instead of *-b. Below is the conjugation of pudem "to ask (for information)":

	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	pudempi	pudempa	pudempu
(Subjunctive)	pudempep	pudempap	pudempop

"Mom," blumpur pudempi, "pampabum patsa sana poplosa?"

"Mom," asked the child, "where do babies come from?"

-s stems

Verbs whose stems end in -s keep the s and omit the -b-. Below is the conjugation of wapipas "to wall out, seal from within":

	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	wapipasi	wapipasa	wapipasu
(Subjunctive)	wapipasep	wapipasap	wapipasop

Note, however, that verbs ending in -s do not always correspond to nouns ending in -s, because historically all final -s was dropped. Nouns lost their -s but verbs often did not because the stem of a verb in Pabappa is never used in its bare form, and thus the -s was never word-final.

-l stems

Verbs whose stems end in -l omit the -l and also omit the -b-. Below is the conjugation of parsappel "to growl in anger, to bare one's teeth":

	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	parsappe	parsappea	parsappeu
(Subjunctive)	parsappep	parsappeap	parsappeop

Pom parsappea!

I'm angry!

Note that the past tense indicative form of the verb ends in -e, not the expected *-ei. This is due to a sound change that took place in recent times, shortly after the general loss of all preexisting final -e. Thus, the past tense form of -l-stem verbs is one of the very few places in Pabappa where final -e is found.

Thus one can say

Parlapsi pop parsappe.

The dog growled at me.

-r stems

Verbs whose stems end in -r change the r to b and thus resemble vowel stems. Below is the conjugation of piner "to drink (alcohol)":

	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	pinebi	pineba	pinebu
(Subjunctive)	pinebep	pinebap	pinebop

Pom pampomop pineba.

I drank the wine.

Pom paropomop pineba porlap.

I drank the beer too.

Aspect

Pabappa uses both suffixes and standalone words to mark aspect.

The suffixes are placed after the stem of the verb and before the tense markers. Some of them are descended from infixes, and are cognate to infixes in Poswa. In Pabappa they became suffixes because sound changes split each one into three depending on the final vowel of the stem, and then these were mostly merged into one form for each aspect marker.

Other aspect suffixes are descended from morphemes that were originally independent words, and some of these can still be used as such.

Verbal aspect expressed with infixes and suffixes

Iterative aspect

The iterative aspect denotes a repeated action, often involving physical motion.

Resumptive aspect

The resumptive aspect is used to show that someone is resuming an activity. It can be expressed with either a serial verb construction or a suffix on the main verb.

In the serial verb setup, the morpheme involved is blim, which is generally used as an intransitive and conjugates with the same tense as the verb it modifies:

Pom blimpi pasesi.

I began to bathe myself again.

When marking the resumptive aspect by using a suffix on the main verb, the same morpheme is used, and may cause sound changes depending on the verb it follows. For example, the sentence above could be rewritten:

Pom paseplimpi.

I began to bathe myself again.

Where the combination of -p + bl- contracts into -pl-.

Verbal aspect expressed with serial verbs

For other aspects, Pabappa uses only serial verbs. These are similar to some English expressions like "keep running", but unlike English, Pabappa conjugates both verbs. A partial list of these aspects, conjugated in the present tense, is below.

Continuative aspect

The verb babor- is used to mean "keep, maintain, remain; to be still doing something":

Pom baboba publipisa.

I'm still lathering myself up.

Inchoative aspect

The inchoative aspect denotes someone beginning an action, whether for the first time or as a resumption of previous activity (but see #Resumptive_aspect above). The word to use here is sublam, a serial verb expressed as follows:

Pom sublampi publipisi.

I started scrubbing myself.

When a resumptive sense is intended, some speakers will double up the verb marking by using sublam before the verb and the infix -plim- within it, producing sentences such as

Blalola sublampi watsaplimpi.

The girl started to dry herself off.

Cessative aspect

The cessative aspect denotes someone stopping an action, whether gradually or immediately. It is expressed with the serial verb blep-. Generally, this implies a telic verb. In the present tense, it often corresponds to English sentences such as "I just stopped..." because English speakers do not generally say "I'm stopping now!" and the like unless they are responding to a command:

Pom publipip blesa bubarnuba.

I just stopped rubbing the soap between my hands.

Use of the cessative imperative

The cessative is commonly used in the imperative tense.

Waba, mas publipibap blesu pumpubu!

Please stop grabbing my soap!

Frequentative aspect

The frequentative aspect is often used to specify careers and habits without using a noun such as "nurse", "caretaker", and so on. It often corresponds to the English simple present, as opposed to the present progressive. It is expressed with a serial verb construction fronted by pusom:

Pom wares pusompa pibibibap pasesa, pi pum wampopibap.

I wash my body before my hair.

Note that there is no italicized word in the English sentence because this construction corresponds to an English null morpheme.

When used in the past tense, it implies that there has been a change in habits, even without the use of an additional particle such as the cessative blep-:

Pom pusompi pasesi postibas parpisi, pibinamibas mospubi.

I used to scrub myself from my bottom to my top.

The copula verb pip

Unlike Poswa, Pabappa has a copula verb, pip. It is historically the same word as Poswa's pys- "to find".

Pip is conjugated like a regular -p verb, meaning its basic indicative forms are pisi, pisa, and pisu, with the subjunctives being pisep, pisap, and pisop.

pip	Past	Present	Imperative
(Indicative)	pisi	pisa	pisu
(Subjunctive)	pisep	pisap	pisop

Uses of the copula

Pip can be used for both short-term states and long-term identities and statements of equivalence. For example, at mealtime one might say

Sometiba lurpi pisi.

My plate was full.

Pur, papubes risama pisa.

But now it is empty.

Pansa, blubelmimiba plummupam pisa.

Because my vegetable salad is in the trash.

Pom bapamas baboba pisa.

I am still hungry.

Use as a conjunction

Pip can also be used as a conjunction, with a meaning similar to English "if".

Serial person marking

Infinitive

Pabappa does not have an infinitive verb form such as English "to work" and Spanish trabajar. Instead, functions that are in other languages given to infinitives are in Pabappa taken up by serial verbs and by nouns.

Serial verbs

Generally, the tense marker will match between the two members of a serial verb construction. For example, one can say

Pom panampi parpabompibap blabusi.

I enjoyed cleaning my apartment.

Papubes, pom topuba pulmasa.

Now, I want to sleep.

Negative verbs

Verbal negation is accomplished in several ways.

The affix -pida

Most verbs can be negated by adding the affix -pida, which also functions as a standalone noun meaning "decoy" and as a verb meaning "fake; to be false".

Poma paplompi.

I whistled at you.

Poma paplompidabi.

I didn't whistle at you.

Like other affixes beginning with -p-, it changes to beginning with -b- after a verb ending in a vowel:

Poma pipsibi.

I spied on you.

Poma pipsibidabi.

I didn't spy on you.

Auxiliary negative verbs

In many cases, a Pabappa speaker will want to emphasize before the verb is spoken that the meaning of the sentence is negative instead of using an infix in the middle. After all, Pabappa sentences often place the verb at the end of the sentence, and some sentences can be quite long. Generally, the auxiliary verb will be placed after the personal pronouns and before the verb. The different auxiliaries have different shades of meaning:

Poma pubi pipsibi.

No, I didn't spy on you.

Poma pabubi pipsibi.

I didn't spy on you. (It was someone else!)

Poma pubebi pipsibi.

I didn't spy on you. (I did something worse!)

Poma puppibi pipsibi.

I avoided spying on you.

Also, since they are grammatically considered intransitive verbs, the auxiliaries change to accomodate different tense markers:

Poma puba pipsiba.

I'm not spying on you.

Double negatives

It is possible, for emphasis, to use both the infix -pida- and a fronted auxiliary, but it is not nearly as common as it is in Poswa. People who overuse double negatives are often assumed to be Poswobs who haven't learned fully the differences between the two languages.

Pida as a standalone verb

The infix -pida- used above can function as a standalone verb, and is considered to be a suppletive negative form of the verb pu "to do", because it replaces the stem of that verb instead of attaching to it:

Pidabi!

I didn't do it!

Other frequently used verbs

Verbs of possession

Pol

A general purpose verb is pol, which is cognate to Poswa's bul. Like other -l-stem verbs, the -l disappears, leaving a vowel hiatus. The rarely used imperative form loses its final -u as well and thus becomes po. Thus one can say

Pom narmip poi.

I had a ponytail.

Pasuler

Another verb implying physical contact is pasuler, which is cognate to the word for banana, pasur. Thus one can say

Pom patamap pasuleba.

I'm holding onto a whip.

Papap

A verb describing the act of carrying someone or something is papap. It originally referred specifically to carrying babies, but soon came to be applied to anyone carrying an object in a similar manner to the way in which one would carry a baby. Thus one can say

Pom waplemibap papasa.

I'm carrying my water bottle.

Tipim

To say that one owns something, the most common verb is tipim. Thus one could say

Pom pippabibap tipimpa.

I own my house.

Pupupam

A verb implying passive possession is pupupam. This is originally a derivation from pupupa "to sit on" with the passivizing marker -m. This is used in situations where the speaker may not want what they have.

Pom wimbabumup pabiapo blepibam pupupampa.

I have ants in my underwear drawer.

Note also that the nominal suffixes -b and -ap can be used as standalone verbs, but are not commonly found in modern Pabappa. Both are disjoint verbs, which conjugate as follows:

pi

The verbal counterpart of the nominal suffix -b is pe-. It is a regular verb despite bearing little resemblance to the nominal affix to which it is related. It generally denotes inherent possession, of a type that the possessor cannot control. For example one might say

Blalola wampopap pirisi peba.

The girl has blonde hair.

ap

The verbal counterpart of the nominal suffix -ap is ap-, but is an irregular verb which conjugates by adding an -o- to its stem (the reflection of the lost -y of the Old Pabappa form of the nominal stem). It implies purposeful possession:

Upur pospalerbip apoba.

The boy has his soap bubble wand.

Processes of verb formation

Polysynthetic compounds

Subject-object-verb compounds

Some nouns are actually complete sentences with just the verb endings removed. This could be classified as a type of polysynthesis. Unlike the subject-verb compounds above, SOV compounds generally show transitive action, and are commonly used as verbs. However, because all verbs have a stem which behaves grammatically as a noun, they are nonetheless grouped with the other compounds as nouns.

Polysynthetic compounds are generally used metaphorically, since the subject is generally present in the sentence. Many of these words are very old, and make use of short, sometimes even subsyllabic, morphemes that no longer have any independent use in Poswa as standalone words. For example, the early Pabappa verb pi "to kill" has disappeared from the language as a standalone verb because it coalesced with a verb meaning "to lick". However, it is still found in SOV compounds of this type.

Active element	meaning	Passive element	meaning	Verbal element	meaning	New word	meaning
pop	sharp object	wul	fish	pi	to kill	poppi	to go fishing
wul	fish	si	ice	ti	to break open	isti	to behave as a fish breaking through ice
po	hand	lara	legs	pana	to create pleasure	blana	to masturbate
—	—	lara	legs	pana	to create pleasure	lana	to have sex
pul	baby	—	—	isi	to guess	pulisi	children guessing naively; to guess
ta	toddler	—		musa	to play with each other	tansa	children playing with each other; as on a playground
pup	penis	pip	vagina	pana	to create pleasure	pupipuna	to have (penile-vaginal) sexual intercourse
po	hand	pup	penis	pana	to create pleasure	popupana	a man masturbating
po	hand	pip	vagina	pana	to create pleasure	popipuna	a woman masturbating

Word order

Pabappa has a flexible word order. The dominant order is SOV, meaning that a verb's subject will come first in a sentence, then the object, and then the verb itself. However, a verb can be placed between the subject and object, or even at the beginning of a sentence, to show emphasis.

Interjections

Interjections can be considered to be either a subset of the nouns or a subset of the verbs. However, going far enough back in the history of the language, the "verb" analysis is shown to be the only correct one, as the nouns that resemble interjections were themselves originally verbs.

Many interjections are used to express pain and unpleasant emotions. Interjections have a lesser role in Pabappa than they do in Poswa, and the Pabaps consider the Poswobs' frequent use of interjections to be a prime example of their cultural impoliteness.

Some interjections have been borrowed from Poswa. For example, young Pabap children can say

Bebo!

I have to go to the bathroom!

This is a recent loanword from Poswa's bevo. However, while Poswobs will keep on interrupting each other's conversations to say "Bevo!" at the most seemingly inappropriate times even as adults, Pabaps learn to break themselves of this habit in early childhood. A Pabap would be more likely to use a softer phrase such as

Pom liplempa.

I'm uncomfortable.