VERBS of ABCL
BASIC/ROOT VERBS
Verbs consist basically of three letters as CVC. They are also classified in schemes similar to the nouns. Seventeen “main headings” (with the first denoting letter of the group following) are “Physical Acts -K##”, “Active Actions –Y, L, R and G##”, “People/Human – S and Ş##”, “Social Relation –F, N and P##”, “Mental Activities –B and M##”, “Household, Daily Life -D##”, “Pastime, Spor, Health -T##”, “Utterance, Nonperson Acts-Ç##”, “Business, Public -H##”, “Technic / Science / Nature-V##”. In Physical Acts, “K##” is initial consonant for the heading, ## indicates varying 8 vowels (“a” to “ü”) in the second place and alternating 20 consonants in the third place. This way 4600 verbs can be created theoretically, but for the same reason as for the nouns, only half of them will be taken in to the consideration. For the Level 1, ABCL has about one thousand five hundred of them, which seems to be adequate. The main heading could be subdivided in subheading such as KA# for a certain type of “physical acting” and KE# for another where appropriate (For the purpose of correlation with English words this “principle” has been relaxed considerably).
As example, some verbs in the category “K-physical acting” are shown below:
| kaf | fasten | kef | fill | kıf | köf | force | |||||||||||||||
| kah | haul/drag | keh | hang | kıh | köh | hew | |||||||||||||||
| kak | convert | kek | catch | kık | kök | connect | |||||||||||||||
| kal | lift | kel | load | kıl | köl | line | |||||||||||||||
| kam | mount | kem | mischief | kım | köm | modify/alter | |||||||||||||||
| kan | narrow | ken | enlarge | kın | kön | ||||||||||||||||
| kap | package | kep | place/put on | kıp | press | köp | push | ||||||||||||||
| kar | repair/mend | ker | rip | kır | kör | erase | |||||||||||||||
| kas | saw | kes | separate | kıs | splitt | kös | shear |
Verbs will be flexed for the Level 1 beside tenses also for ergative, causative, imperative, passive, reflexive, subjunctive and negative. Suffixes for further tenses and moods have been defined also for Level 2 such as reciprocal, inferential, optative, subjunctive conditional etc. additionally. Those moods of the second level can be replaced in the first level by the prepositions as in English.
DERIVED VERBS
Verbs will be derived from nouns and adjectives by adding suffixes according to a fixed scheme. They will typically end also on a consonant as the root verbs.
For the derivation of verbs from the nouns the suffixes “_k” (for transitive) and “_l” (for intransitive) will be added. (thus we will have a six letters verbs.) For the adjectives also the suffix “_l” is chosen (these types of verbs are always intransitive).
Derived Verbs from Nouns (Denominal Verbs)
- Examples (first noun of the rows translated only)
| ABCL Suffix | ABCL verb | English Suffix | English verb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (noun)_k (transitive) | venfi.k, denso.k | _, _en, _ize | fire, salt, frighten(vt), vocalize(vt), terrorize, idolise | |
| (noun)_k (transitive) | benli.k | _ate | liberate, hyphenate, concentrate, oscillate | |
| (noun)_l (intransitive) | vessu.l/vüsle.l | _en, get … | sun/sunbathe, lighten, get old, prink up | |
| (noun)_l (intransitive) | venva.l | _ize/ise | vaporize, get icy, materialize(vi), | |
| (noun)_l (intransitive) | banlu.l | be lucky | ||
| (noun)_l (intransitive) | tenfe.l | get … | get no fever |
Derived Verbs from Adjectives
Examples:
| ABCL Suffix | ABCL verb | English verb | |
|---|---|---|---|
| _l, _xl | enu.l- enux.l | be new-become old | |
| _l, _xl | ebi.l- ebix.l | biggen-become small/diminish | |
| _l, _xl | eşi.l- eşix.l | shine-become dull/tarnish/dim | |
| _l, _xl | ofe.l-ofex.l | be fresh/freshen-be stale (wither) | |
| _l, _xl | ebe.l- ebex.l | become beautiful-be ugly |
In case of adjectives created as antonym (by negation suffix “_x”), derivation suffix comes after “_x”. Thus, if the derived verb would be negated, such construction as “ebix.l.o.x” (ebixlox=not diminished) are possible sinbe the suffix “_x” will be placed after the tense-conjugation suffix.
If “x” follows or followed by a consonant, a short sounded “ı or i” may be introduced in between (in accordance with the vowel harmony) in speaking, but not in writing. (e.g. enu.x.l.o=became old).
Infinite and Imperative
| ABCL Suffix Level 1 | Example: ABCL noun | English Suffix | Some English Nouns as Samples (verbs given in italic are imperatives) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| '_eş-x | yun.eş(!), den.eş.x(!) | to ... (infinite)/! | to run, to eat / (run!, eat-don't eat!) |
Verb Transformation in ABCL
Many verbs in English are ambitransitive (ergative-anticausative) (transitive and intransitive, depending on the context) such as burn, sink, read, break etc. where the separation is provided either by their context (receiving an object) or by the special prepositions/particles. For the translation from English to ABCL, ABCL would need two different root verbs for each type of the meaning in order to overcome the ambiguity. Therefore, I have tried to minimize and to simplify this duality. The verbs defined in lexicon are either inherently intransitive (among others linking verbs including all copula verbs) as appear, be, become, feel, get, grow, keep, look, seem, sound, smell, stay, turn etc.) i.e. they cannot take object or inherently transitive, i.e. they take object anyway. Verbs such as “to boil” is considered in ABCL as inherently intransitive because boiling is an inherently specific characteristic of fluids. Equivalent of any ambitransitive English verb is defined in ABCL always intrinsically as transitive (e.g. the verb “sink=yes” is in ABCL transitive only even though in English it may have the meanings such as: the boat sank (intransitive) and the storm has sunk the bot (transitive)). Intransitive includes also reflexive and reciprocal. (Most of the natural languages have more transitive verbs than intransitive, e.g. English and German about 60%, therefore I have chosen transitive sinse as basic in case of the duality.)
Because there are too many ambitransitive verbs, which can be transformed by reflexion in to (semi-) intransitive verbs, ABCL introduced the reflexive suffix “_m” for this purpose. (Example: look at (vt) vs look nice (vi)- bul.# vs bul.#.m) With this approach the problem of the ambitransitive verbs would be overcome in ABCL. Other way around to make out of an intransitive verb a transitive one (ergative) ABCL defined the suffix “_t” and for the reciprocal the suffix “_y”.
English uses also different word or auxiliary to make out of an inherently intransitive verb a transitive verb (like “die-kill”, “sleep- get/make… sleep”) or opposite. Contrary to ABCL, it creates from transitive verb intransitive reflexive verbs by using reflexive pronouns (protect-protect oneself).
The verb “bab” is introduced as ABCL equivalent of English verb “to be”, it will be utilized however in copula mood as “zero copula”. For example, “it is beautiful” translates into ABCL (for the sake of simplicity) not as “u babe ebe” but as “u ebe” or simpler as “ebe” if the context permits it.
Other suffixes for further verbal forms are listed in the table under the title: Modal Verbs, Inflexions and Modus in ABCL further below.
