Poswa verbs
Poswa verbs have 8 conjugation classes corresponding to the final letter of the stem of the verb. The commonest final vowel is /a/, so -a is considered the first conjugation class. Each verb also conjugates for three persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and three tenses: past, present, and imperative. The "plain" future tense is derived from the imperative. Verbal moods are handled by inflecting the conjugated verb (which always ends in a vowel) with consonants that resemble noun inflections. It could thus be said that verbs in Poswa are merely a subset of nouns. Lastly, each verb can be inflected for transitivity, so from each verb stem can be formed 54 forms. [1]
The verb stem
The bare stem of a verb is rarely used in Poswa. Many verbs are highly irregular, but if one thinks of an alternate, "oblique" stem that replaces the primary stem, they become largely or entirely regular. Nevertheless, unlike in Pabappa, Poswa speakers cannot simply ignore the existence of the primary stem because it still does appear in certain constructions, such as indefinite serial verbs. Thus the verb stem can be thought of as an "indefinite" stem.
Another place where the bare stem comes into play is when infixes are placed into verb stems. Here, the verb stems that end in consonants are often changed into ones that end in vowels, or into ones that end in different consonants.
Forming verbs from nouns
Nominative
As above, the stem of a verb is considered a noun, although some verb stems are not used as nouns. When a noun is turned into a verb, the nominative case of that noun becomes the verb stem, and a list of rules governing vowel and consonant mutations is applied to derive the new verb forms, since for many noun shapes there is no regular form at all. (A few verbs are formed from other cases; these are described below.)
The most straightforward derivations are for nouns ending in -m or (in most cases) the vowels -e or -i, as the stems remain intact and the verbal suffixes are simply added onto the end. The meaning of the verb is often similar to the meaning of the instrumental case of the noun, despite being formed from the nominative:
- Plinob₁ twembi.₂
- I boated₂ home.₁
Where twem means "boat" and -bi is the 1st person past tense marker. (Verbs are not marked for number, so there is no separate 1st person plural marker.)
With most verb stems, however, the suffixation process is not so simple, and Poswa speakers need to learn a separate "oblique" stem that makes the process seem more intuitive. For example, poppup means "knife", but
- Tašepi₁ poppifebi.₂
- I cut₂ the apple.₁
shows a vowel change from -u- to -i- and a consonant change from -p to -f-.
Instrumental
Food and drink
Names of whole foods and drinks are verbalized by adding suffixes to the instrumental case rather than the nominative. This is considered a type of subject incorporation even though the food is semantically the patient of the verb rather than the agent, and even though the verbs produced are not actually compounds because the instrumental case is a stem-changing infix rather than a separate morpheme. These verbs are indefinite, and are intransitive if the object is not specifically named. For example:
- Pawiebo.
- I'm eating a banana.
- Levibo.
- I'm eating strawberries.
- Piebo.
- I'm drinking wine.
Note that up above, the choice of how to translate the verbs into English was dependent on the meaning of the verb. Whereas most humans will eat only one banana at a time, strawberries are generally eaten in bunches. This is because these verbs are indefinite, seen as "general use" verbs, and therefore not marked for number. Thus, one would not use the plural suffix -bum in the middle of a verb and produce a word such as
- *Levobiebo.
- I'm eating (a bunch of) strawberries.
Here the plural infix is correctly changed from -bum to -bie- because of the inflection, but the word is still considered grammatically incorrect because this type of verb is generally indifferent to number.
All of the verbs above were intransitive because there was no explicit object named. If the object is explicitly named, the verb will be transitive:
- Levobiepo levibo.
- I'm eating the strawberries.
However, since the above sentence translates literally as something like "I strawberry-ate the strawberries", Poswob speakers would more often simply use one of its many verbs for eating that does not involve incorporation, such as
- Levobiepi bavebi.
- Levobiepi amnebebi.
- I ate the strawberries.
- Levobiepi biumbebi.
- I ate the strawberries by actively pressing them against my teeth with my tongue.
- Levobiepi pyparebi.
- I ate the strawberries whole, using only my tongue and my lips.
- Levobiepi vwambebi.
- I ate the strawberries rapidly.
- Levobiepi vabžebi.
- Levobiepi možambebi.
- I gobbled the strawberries with my mouth, without using my hands.
- Levobiepi pirpafebi.
- I ate the strawberries by nibbling them in small pieces.
(Here the verbs have been changed to past tense in order to give the speaker more time to digest the eight bowls of strawberries.)
Other foods
As above, whole foods and drinks are able to form indefinite verbs using the instrumental case of the noun stem. For foods, this use is restricted to fruits and vegetables. The Poswa word for chicken is tuppi, but one cannot say
- *Tuppwabo.
- I'm eating chicken.
The reason for this mismatch is because animals are not seen primarily as food products. In a room containing a human being and a banana, only one interaction between the two presents itself, but an interaction between a human and a farm animal can resolve in many possible ways. The choice of whether the verbal construction is permitted or not is determined by whether Poswa considers the noun to be both edible and an animate noun, rather than by strict biological criteria. Thus, small sessile sea animals are not considered animate and thus can be eaten in a single word.
Likewise, food products that have other purposes cannot be verbalized this way, such as
- *Potibo.
- I'm eating pine sap.
In the case of liquids, the same alternation produces an indefinite verb indicating drinking:
- Blwibo.
- I'm drinking milk.
- Piabo.
- I'm drinking wine.
- Pippibo.
- I'm drinking juice.
But not every liquid is considered potable:
- *Porsybo.
- I'm drinking blood.
- *Potibo.
- I'm drinking pine sap.
Oddly,
- *Twibo.
- I'm drinking water.
Twibo, formed from the instrumental form (twub) of the commonest word for water (twu), is avoided because it conflicts with the unrelated verb twub "to pee", formed from the nominative form of the word for urine. Thus, the sentence above actually means "I'm peeing!" Since the instrumental form of twub "urine" is also twub,
- *Twibo.
- I'm drinking urine.
Is also forbidden.
Essive
The essive case is rarely used to form verbs. When it is, it retains its basic meaning of indicating that one thing is made from another, such as:
- Nobellam blwiba.
- Icecream is made of milk.
However, since such verbs are almost always long-term general truths, Poswa prefers not to use verbs at all for such statements. The sentence above might subtly imply that icecream may not be made of milk next week. One would more often hear:
- Nobellam blwi.
- Ice cream is made of milk.
This sentence has no verb, so it is not distinguished from "ice cream (that is) made of milk", but this is how Poswa and most of its neighboring languages (but not Pabappa) express general truths.
Person markers
Poswa marks the person of both the agent and the patient on the verb, but does not mark number, gender, or animacy. The number is often left entirely unspecified:
Bwabbu pofšap biumbebel.
- The sheep ate the grass.
But sometimes may be inferred from context:
When direct specification is desired, suffixes are placed on the nouns to specifically indicate their number:
Pwopwa pisiam taesfaba.
- The child is sitting on the rock.
Pwopwabum pisiam taesfaba.
- The children are sitting on the rock.
Pwopwabum pisambiem taesfaba.
- The children are sitting on the rocks.
The gender of both the subject and the object is likewise inferred from context, and animacy is a property of each individual noun that speakers memorize as they learn the language (and it faithfully follows real-world semantics).
Interaction with animacy
All Poswa nouns are either animate or inanimate. Poswa verbs can be conjugated as either transitive or intransitive. Inanimate nouns can only take the intransitive verbs; if an inanimate subject gets a transitive verb, it implies an understood subject, corresponding to the person marking on the verb.
For example, the sentence
- Blaba žuftatiep rufaba
means not "Paper covers the floor" but "His paper covers the floor", which to many Poswobs would actually imply something like "He covers the floor with his paper". Pronouns are rarely used in Poswa except for explicit emphasis, as the person markings on the verb, and to a lesser extent the nouns, take care of the functions that in Pabappa and other languages are given to pronouns.
Adjectives and the habitual tense
Not shown in the conjugation tables below is the habitual tense, which is historically the "original" tense of all verbs. In very early Bābākiam, infixes came to be placed within the habitual tense forms of the verb to derive the other tenses. These were redundant, since tense was already marked by a suffix, but the redundancy became frozen into the grammar and later sound changes made it less redundant. Note that this is considered a tense rather than an aspect because of where on the verb it is marked. Thus, aspect markers can be used in the habitual tense.
The habitual tense is the same in appearance as the present tense except that the vowels -o -ae -a are replaced by -y -e -a. Thus, to be used in the third person, an additional affix is needed.
Adjectives
Poswa does not have a distinct part of speech corresponding to adjectives. Concepts expressed with adjectives in many other languages are expressed in Poswa partly by verbs and partly by nouns. The verbs are often in the habitual tense, since there is no copula verb. For example:
- Pabo¹ pabbubuffy.²
means "I¹ am tall²". Pabbubup is the stem of the word meaning "tall", and if used with no affix, is a noun denoting any tall object. (It means literally "causing shadows".) With the 1st person habitual suffix on, it is a verb meaning "I am tall (as a stable property)". The use of the pronoun pabo is for emphasis only, as even a habitual verb can be used as a sentence by itself.
One relic of the historical emergence of a new class of nouns from modifying verbs is that most verbs that are used with a lexically adjectival meaning can also function as nouns, be they transitive or intransitive. For example,
- Bampfaba puvlwas pumwapwaba.
- The one who hunts is running from a cougar.
This contrasts with a traditional noun setup, such as
- Bampata puvlwas pumwapwaba.
- The hunter is running from a cougar.
Conjugation tables
-a
The verb luba "to change color, repaint" is used here as an example of an -a verb.
| luba | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | lubi | lubo | lubub |
| 2nd person | lube | lubae | lubi | |
| 3rd person | lubel | luba | lubob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | lubebi | lubabo | lubbub |
| 2nd person | lubebe | lubabae | lubbi | |
| 3rd person | lubebel | lubaba | lubbob |
Thus one can say
- Blebblobopi lippipa lubebi.
- I painted the wall green.
But
- Lusafampi lubi žužum.
- I turned pink from embarrassment.
After discovering you've painted over the windows as well.
Consonant mutation
The -a- conjugation class undergoes consonant mutation for the consonant before the final vowel. The verb above had a -b- before the final vowel, and the mutated form of -b- is still -b-, thus masking the effect. But for other consonants, the table of consonant mutations is followed.
-pa
- -p-
- Below is the conjugation for pirlipa "to cartwheel, roll around on one's hands and feet":
pirlipa Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person pirlifi pirlifo pirlifub 2nd person pirlife pirlifae pirlifi 3rd person pirlifel pirlifa pirlifob Transitive 1st person pirlifebi pirlifabo pirlifpub 2nd person pirlifebe pirlifabae pirlifpi 3rd person pirlifebel pirlifaba pirlifpob
- Note the change of the expected -b- to -p- in the transitive imperative.
- This verb is often used transitively in a metaphorical sense, so one can say
- Pobbliup,₁ pirlifebi.₂
- Sorry,₁ I bumped into you.₂
- Pobbliup,₁ pirlifebi.₂
- With the implication of "Sorry, i just disrupted your plans or messed up something you built."
- This verb is often used transitively in a metaphorical sense, so one can say
-ma
- -m-
- Below is the conjugation for brama "to bite (off), as with a beak; to cut with a uniformly sharp instrument":
brama Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person bravi bravo bravub 2nd person brave bravae bravi 3rd person bravel brava bravob Transitive 1st person bravebi bravabo bravbub 2nd person bravebe bravabae bravbi 3rd person bravebel bravaba bravbob
- Thus one can say
- Bravbi!
- Bite me!
- Twup!₁ Loppasufo₂ bravaba;₃ sas₄ pop₅ pubbvub₆ pelpies?₇
- Ouch!₁ My pet falcon₂ is biting me,₃ can₄ we₅ talk₆ later?₇
- Bovepiopi₁ bulžirebi,₂ wa₃ po₄ bravabi.₅
- I grabbed₂ my teething ring,₁ and₃ bit it₅ hard.₄
- Bravbi!
- The similarity between a baby's mouth and a bird's is that neither of them have (many) teeth, and therefore they both bite with a smooth flat surface rather than a many-pointed one. Other verbs are used for biting animals that have teeth. It can also be used for inanimate objects:
- Leppiapiub,₁ rulpos₂ lompapi₃ bravabi.₄
- With my scissors,₁ I cut off₄ the corner₃ of the napkin.₂
- Leppiapiub,₁ rulpos₂ lompapi₃ bravabi.₄
- Thus one can say
-sa
- -s-
- Below is the conjugation for masa "to jump, leap, try to escape":
masa Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person maši mašo mašub 2nd person maše mašae maši 3rd person mašel maša mašob Transitive 1st person mašebi mašabo mašpub 2nd person mašebe mašabae mašpi 3rd person mašebel mašaba mašpob
-na
- -n-
- Below is the conjugation for pana "to be thirsty":
pana Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person pavi pavo pavub 2nd person pave pavae pavi 3rd person pavel pava pavob Transitive 1st person pavebi pavabo pavbub 2nd person pavebe pavabae pavbi 3rd person pavebel pavaba pavbob
- This verb is mostly used intransitively:
- Pavo!
- I'm thirsty!
- Pavo!
- This verb is mostly used intransitively:
-la
- -l-
- Below is the conjugation for pustila "to shake, to cause something to vibrate":
pana Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person pustiži pustižo pustižub 2nd person pustiže pustižae pustiži 3rd person pustižel pustiža pustižob Transitive 1st person pustižebi pustižabo pustižbub 2nd person pustižebe pustižabae pustižbi 3rd person pustižebel pustižaba pustižbob
-ra
- -r-
- Below is the conjugation for taera "to run":
taera Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person taebi taebo taebub 2nd person taebe taebae taebi 3rd person taebel taeba taebob Transitive 1st person taebebi taebabo taebbub 2nd person taebebe taebabae taebbi 3rd person taebebel taebaba taebbob
- Taebo požva fufažiub.
- I'm running towards my martial arts class.
-wa¹
- -w-
- Below is the conjugation for wupwawa "to write":
wupwawa Past Present Imperative Intransitive 1st person wupwawie wupwawio wupwawiub 2nd person wupwawie wupwawiae wupwawie 3rd person wupwawiel wupwawia wupwawiob Transitive 1st person wupwawiebi wupwawiabo wupwawiabub 2nd person wupwawiebe wupwawiabae wupwawiabi 3rd person wupwawiebel wupwawiaba wupwawiabob
-e/-i
As Poswa inherited the "a e i o u" vowel order from Pabappa, and places its vowels before its consonants, the second conjugation is the one representing verb stems ending in -e or -i. The verb wape "to help, provide for" is used here as an example of an -e verb. The endings would be the same if the verb ended in -i instead. Unlike the -a conjugation, the -e/-i conjugation always adds a syllable to the intransitive form and two syllables to the transitive form. This is because the final vowel of the verb stem does not collapse the way it does in the -a words.
| wape | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | wapebi | wapebo | wapebub |
| 2nd person | wapebe | wapebae | wapebi | |
| 3rd person | wapebel | wapeba | wapebob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | wapebebi | wapebabo | wapebbub |
| 2nd person | wapebebe | wapebabae | wapebbi | |
| 3rd person | wapebebel | wapebaba | wapebbob |
-o/-u/-y
A more complicated setup is the third conjugation, that which reflects words ending in the rounded vowels /o/, /u/, and /y/ (a rounded schwa-like sound).
The verb subu "to conquer, take over" is used here as an example of an -u verb. The endings would be the same if the verb ended in -o or -y instead, but note that most verb stems ending in -o do not belong to this conjugation.
| subu | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | subwi | subwo | subwub |
| 2nd person | subwe | subwae | subwi | |
| 3rd person | subwel | subwa | subwob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | subwebi | subwabo | subwubub |
| 2nd person | subwebe | subwabae | subwubi | |
| 3rd person | subwebel | subwaba | subwubob |
The first person imperative is used in the sense of "let me X!", so the one-word sentence Subwubub! would mean "Let me take you over!" (If no object is given, it is understood to be a 2nd person object.) Whereas the third person imperative is also used with a similar sense: Pupipup subwubob! translates as "Let him take over the world!"
-p
The first consonant-stem conjugation is the -p conjugation, because /p/ is the first consonant in the Poswa alphabet. Since all reflexive verbs end in /p/, this conjugation is more common than the other consonant conujgations. However, many verb stems that end in /p/ are normal verbs, not reflexives. The verb blop "to see, focus" is used below as an example of a non-reflexive /p/ verb. Note that, unlike the vowel conjugations above, the transitive form is not merely derived by inserting the infix "-ab-" into the intransitive form.
| blop | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | blofi | blofo | blofub |
| 2nd person | blofe | blofae | blofi | |
| 3rd person | blofel | blofa | blofob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | blobbi | blobbo | blobbub |
| 2nd person | blobbe | blobbae | blobbi | |
| 3rd person | blobbel | blobba | blobbob |
Thus one can say
- Muššiep bi blobbi!
- Look at that horse!
-m
The -m conjugation is very simple. The verb pessam "to cuddle, hug, squeeze someone" is used here as an example of an -m verb.
| pessam | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | pessambi | pessambo | pessambub |
| 2nd person | pessambe | pessambae | pessambi | |
| 3rd person | pessambel | pessamba | pessambob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | pessambebi | pessambabo | pessambybub |
| 2nd person | pessambebe | pessambabae | pessambybi | |
| 3rd person | pessambebel | pessambaba | pessambybob |
-s
The -s conjugation has a few slipups. The verb pipsis "to sleep in a tree, camp out" is used here as an example of an -s verb.
| pipsis | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | pipsiši | pipsišo | pipsišub |
| 2nd person | pipsiše | pipsišae | pipsiši | |
| 3rd person | pipsišel | pipsiša | pipsišob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | pipsispi | pipsispo | pipsispub |
| 2nd person | pipsispe | pipsispae | pipsispi | |
| 3rd person | pipsispel | pipsispa | pipsispob |
Note that the transitive sense of verbs like pipsis is not "to sleep in a tree" (with the tree as the object of the verb) but "to sleep (someone) in a tree; to put someone to sleep in a tree" and thus one would not normally find a word for tree in the accusative in this sentence. If the tree is mentioned, it would be in the locative case. Thus, with both pronouns understood, Pipsispi fadžam can mean "I put you to sleep in a palm tree". (It can also mean "(You) put me to sleep in a palm tree!" (imperative), but this would be distinguished by tone of voice and context.
Some verbs ending in -s have a reflexive meaning, even though the reflexive ending in Poswa is -p. This refers to an old sense related to the genitive, in which verbs for things like "to comb one's hair" (pampapes) were used with the genitive instead of the accusative. These verbs are generally used only intransitively, because the transitive meaning of, for example, pampapes is not "to comb someone else's hair" but "to make someone comb their hair".
Distance verbs
/-s/ can also indicate "distance verbs". e.g. tura = "bomb"; turas = "there are bombs here". wap = "to be happy"; wakas = "for you to be happy". Hence Wakašo "I make you happy" etc
-l
Most verb stems that end in -l belong to the -el or -ul subcategories. Less common are -il and -ol; there are a few verbs whose stems end in -yl which behave the same as the -ol verbs. No verb stems end in -al; roots Romanized with a final -al actually end in a phonemic /alʷ/.
-el
The verb pelpel "to pounce" is used here as an example of an -l verb.
| pelpel | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | pelpeži | pelpežo | pelpežub |
| 2nd person | pelpeže | pelpežae | pelpeži | |
| 3rd person | pelpežel | pelpeža | pelpežob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | pelpelebi | pelpelabo | pelpelbub |
| 2nd person | pelpelebe | pelpelabae | pelpelbi | |
| 3rd person | pelpelebel | pelpelaba | pelpelbob |
Thus one can say:
- Sanža puvlwap pelpelebel.
- The boy pounced on the cougar.
-o
The -o conjugation is considered a consonantal one, because it reflects a lost final /r/ that changed to /b/ in some words but coalesced with the preceding vowel in others. This is why most verb stems with final -o are not in the -o/-u/-y conjugation above, but rather in this one. This conjugation can be called B5 because it is traditionally the fifth of the consonantal conjugation classes. The verb poto "to chase down, run and catch, as in war" is used here as an example of an -o verb.
| poto | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | potabi | potabo | potabub |
| 2nd person | potabe | potabae | potabi | |
| 3rd person | potabel | potaba | potabob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | potarebi | potarabo | potarybub |
| 2nd person | potarebe | potarabae | potarybi | |
| 3rd person | potarebel | potaraba | potarybob |
-ob
A subtype of the B5 conjugation exists for verbs whose stems end in -ob or -u and historically ended in an -r. Below is the conjugation of the verb povbob "to become pregnant":
| povbob | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | povbwi | povbwo | povbwub |
| 2nd person | povbwe | povbwae | povbwi | |
| 3rd person | povbwel | povbwa | povbwob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | povbwebi | povbwabo | povbwubub |
| 2nd person | povbwebe | povbwabae | povbwubi | |
| 3rd person | povbwebel | povbwaba | povbwubob |
The implied object of this verb is not the child being conceived but the father of the child. Thus
- Povbwebi blebbelmeptap.
means "I got pregnant through the bricklayer", not "I got pregnant with the bricklayer".
This is essentially identical to the -u conjugation above, despite arising from a stem-final consonant rather than a stem-final vowel.
-ub
A subtype of the B5 conjugation exists for verbs whose stems end in -ub or -u and historically ended in an -r. Below is the conjugation of the verb bivub "to advise, sponsor":
| bivub | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | bivibi | bivibo | bivibub |
| 2nd person | bivibe | bivibae | bivibi | |
| 3rd person | bivibel | biviba | bivibob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | bivirebi | bivirabo | bivirybub |
| 2nd person | bivirebe | bivirabae | bivirybi | |
| 3rd person | bivirebel | biviraba | bivirybob |
Note that the final vowel in the stem changes to i even though the bare form of the word has an u. Neither vowel is the original; the original vowel in most words in this class was y, which changed to u in most closed syllables and i in most open ones.
Hyper-regular verbs
Most Poswa verbs involve some form of consonant mutation. However, in a few verbs, the mutated consonant has merged with the original consonant due to succeeding sound changes. Thus, the verb can be said to be hyper-regular since it avoids even the normal changes that other Poswa verbs undergo. Most of these verbs end in -pa or in a sequence that becomes -pa after mutation. Below is the conjugation of pumpa "to drill":
pumpa
The verb pumpa "to drill" is a hyper-regular verb:
| Agent | Patient | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | — | pumpi | pumpo | pumpub |
| 2nd person | — | pumpe | pumpae | pumpi | |
| 3rd person | — | pumpel | pumpa | pumpob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | 2nd person | pumpebi | pumpabo | pumpybub |
| 3rd person | |||||
| 2nd person | 1st person | pumpebe | pumpabae | pumpybi | |
| 3rd person | |||||
| 3rd person | 1st person | pumpebel | pumpaba | pumpybob | |
| 2nd person |
Thus one can say:
- Sanža žuftatiep wubbuwavbem pumpebel.
- The boy drilled into the floor of the jail.
Pumpa belongs to a small class of verbs where the mutated form of the consonant is the same as the original. In an older stage of the language, the word for drill was pumpra. The mutated form of this verb has for the last 3000 years been pumpa, but the plain form only underwent the sound change of -mpr- > -mp- much more recently. This particular sound change only triggered when an -m- was present before the -p-.
Subjunctive mood
The subjunctive mood is formed, in every case, by adding -p to the inflected form of the verb. For those forms that end in consonants, the same regular sound changes that apply to nouns also apply here. Effectively the verbs are considered as nouns and the subjunctive mood marker is the same as the accusative case marker -p.
Since the vowels are the same on all of the tables above, it is only necessary to produce one table showing the subjunctive mood, as the endings here can be applied equally to all of the verbs in the tables above. The verb pwembwi "to shoot, to throw an object forcefully at a target" is used because there was no example of a verb ending in -i in the -e/-i table above.
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Note that many forms merge in the subjunctive mood, and the use of pronouns or other words is sometimes necessary to keep the distinction. Whereas the merger between the 2nd person imperative and the 1st person past generally causes no trouble in indicative verbs, the three way merger between the various -bup forms can cause confusion in the subjunctive.
Aspect
Verbal aspect is expressed in Poswa primarily through infixes on the root of the verb. Thus, verbs that end in a vowel will remain in the same conjugation with the use of each aspect marker. However, verbs that end in a consonant will switch to an oblique stem that ends in a vowel, usually the same as the vowel that occurs before the final consonant. Thus, aspect markers may appear to be fusional despite the fact that they come before anything else and thus the forms of the verb in each aspect still always rhyme.
For example, below is the conjugation of welwa "to pick (fruit); to pull something off a support" in the continuous ("default"; no infix) and iterative (-at-) aspects:
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The difference can be used to show a difference in number, as below:
- Apapi welwafabi.
- I picked cherries.
- Apapi weliabi.
- I picked a cherry.
Other aspects
Continuative aspect
The continuative aspect can be expressed with the affix -(p)py-, which goes after the verb stem and before the tense/person marker. This is a regular sound-changed variant of the standalone verb prib "to remain, stay". This always becomes -(p)pw-, since all verb suffixes begin with -b-, and a sound rule causing -yb- to change to -w- kicks in:
- Tšapompwo?
- Am I still dripping?
For extra emphasis, it can also be expressed by adding wawepwob to the above. This word can be placed anywhere in the sentence, but is usually adjacent to the verb:
- Wawepwob tšapompwo?
- Am I really still dripping?
Voice
Reciprocal voice
Verbal voice is marked primarily by changing the inflections. However, there are some lexical affixes that attach to the stem instead, and thus produce entirely new verbal roots. For example
- Plabbži.
- I danced.
contrasts with
- Pop₁ plabblaši.₂
- We₁ danced with each other.₂
where the reciprocal suffix -s attaches to the stem of the verb in order to convey the meaning "each other". This suffix generally pairs with intransitive verbs because its subject is also its object. This holds true even when the partners are separately named:
- Pypub₁ wa₂ mapo₃ plabblašel.₄
- The boy₁ and₂ the girl₃ danced together.₄
The verb can be made transitive in order to imply that while the two partners acted together, one was active and the other passive. This does not necessarily imply involuntary or forced action, but merely passive action. In this case, the passive partner must be placed into the accusative case:
- Pypub₁ mapop₂ plabblašebel.₃
- The boy₁ and the girl₂ danced together.₃ (He asked her to dance with him.)
Note that the -š- does not change to an echo consonant reduplicating the initial consonant of the root because it is derived from a palatalized -s rather than being original to the word.
Some verbs are used so often with the reciprocal voice that their original roots have nearly disappeared from use. For example, mušos "to play with each other" is common, but mušo "to play" by itself appears only in compounds, usually with sound changes, such as bempom "play room, den for babies".
Reflexive voice
The reflexive voice is marked by adding a -p to the stem of the verb. Using the example above, one could say
- Pwopwaby₁ mušofel.₂
- Each of the children₁ played by themselves.₂
Even though, as above, the bare verb mušo is not generally used, Poswobs are familiar enough with the -s/-p alternation to apply it to coin new words such as mušop "play by oneself".
Infinitive
There is no true infinitive, but, in transitive verbs, what functions as one can be formed by changing "bo" to "va" in those forms that end in -bo. The passive form of this changes the va to la. This is called an impersonal verb rather than an infinitive.
Thus, for example, from the noun posapa "fire" comes the verb posafava "to burn (up)", and its passive form posafala. This is best understood as a verb that is inflected for voice and tense but not for person, so posafava really means "someone is burning something" and needs additional words in order to take on the functions of an infinitive. Note that this pattern exists only for transitive verbs. For intransitive verbs, the suffix -(b)a (originally a particle) is used. This suffix forms verbs that in English would often be adjectives. It is not etymologically related to the 3rd person intransitive present tense verb ending -ba, but has come to be treated as if it were the same ending, thus heightening the impression that most "adjectives" are merely intransitive verbs.
Serial person marking
Functions that in many languages are given to infinitives are done in Poswa and Pabappa by verbs inflected for person. This leads to internal rhymes, because all verbs, even irregular ones, reliably use the same vowels for the same person markings. Thus for example
- Banambo¹ papibabo.²
- I enjoy¹ spitting on you².
However, with passive verbs, an impersonal form is sometimes called for, to show that the action being described is not being performed by the speaker:
- Tiša banambae papibala?
- Do you enjoy being spit on?
has no person marking on its verb, and thus does not rhyme. It contrasts with
- Tiša banambae papibažae?
- Do you enjoy being spit on by me?
which has a 2nd person marker on the verb, and is passive, and thereby implies 1st person agent. This could be replaced with
- Tiša banambae papibabo?
- Do you enjoy me spitting on you?
which has an active verb and a 1st person marker, but the passive form is more common because Poswobs prefer to use the rhyming verbs to show agreement even though the agent of the first verb is the patient of the second.
Subject incorporation
Poswa verbs can incorporate indefinite subjects. For example, taempos means "children playing with each other". This is a compound of tae "children" + mušos "playing with each other". It is conjugated the same as any other verb, so the one-word sentence "Taempoša" means "Some children are playing with each other."
Toddlers on the treadmill
The incorporated subject is tae, which means "young children", but is not the most common word for children as it has been mostly replaced by pwopwa. Verbs with incorporated subjects often preserve fossilized meanings of nouns. For example, tae meant toddler originally, and is the same word as Khulls lē which generally refers to children who can walk ("toddle") but still need diapers (lé). As above, tae is rarely used as a subject in modern Poswa, but survives in various other uses, such as a child equivalent to the agent suffix -ta, which has come to be restricted to adults. For example, pwampta means a cashier or shopkeeper, but a pwamptae can mean a young child helping out in her mother's carpet store or a preschooler running a lemonade stand. Like many words, it can be used metaphorically, and has even come to be used for adults as a form of familiar address. Meanwhile, an old word for baby, bul, has moved up and pushed out tae in many of its original uses for children. For example, the commonest word for "to guess" is besse, originally meaning "baby's answer, baby's solution" because a baby can only guess at anything it wants to know. But it came to be seen as "child's answer" before its meaning became fixed. Then a word originally meaning fetus or embryo, bamba, came to be the commonest word for a human baby, and the new coinages pammo and wabvi took over for fetus.
Nevertheless, one would not simply say *Tae taempoša to indicate that a specific group of children are playing with each other. It would be grammatically correct, but tae is rarely used as a subject. Any word could do, but the most common word for children in modern Poswa is pwopwa, from a word originally meaning an apprentice. This word, like other words, is unmarked for number, but takes the plural suffixes -bum and -by to indicate that that being plural is significant to the meaning of the sentence. Thus, the sentence Pwopwabum taempoša has the same meaning as just Taempoša alone, but has a definite subject (i.e. "the children" rather than "some children") and is more emphatic. It could be used to mean "the children are playing with each other like children often do." (If the noun were singular, but the verb retained the -s ending, the meaning would be taken as "the child is playing with himself".)
The purpose of subject incorporation is to make new verbs that can be used with other subjects. While taempos does mean "children playing with each other", it can be used for adults in a metaphorical sense to indicate that they are behaving like children (in this case, it is nearly always a compliment, not an insult). These compound verbs are no different than simple noun+verb compounds except for the fact that sound changes which do not normally apply across word boundaries are allowed to take place, and some coinages which were made far back in history retain sound changes that have accumulated over time. This is why the part of the word that means "play with each other" is simply -mpos, which would not be pronouncible in isolation.
Incorporation of inanimate nouns
Pipsis is another subject-incorporating verb, but pipi "tree" is inanimate, so the meaning is passive with respect to the tree, and the sentence needs an animate subject to make sense. The word pipi for tree is rarely used in modern Poswa, as it is homophonous with several other words, but it still is used in the narrower sense of a fruit tree (a meaning shared with the longer pispum). Thus, although pipsis is widely understood, the first part of the compound is sometimes replaced with a different morpheme, resulting in words such as pispumpis, fampis, ipisis, povvasis, publofsis, pobbasis, popesis, and so on. Note that the verb for "sleep" is normally sys, but the sound-mutated version from pipsis has carried over to the other words and is effectively now a second verb for sleeping.
Passive animate incorporation
Purely from a syntactical perspective, sometimes even a noun that appears to be an incorporated subject can assume a passive role. For example, as above, tae "children" is animate, and functions as an agent in words such as taempos "children playing with each other" and talsafi "children counting on their hands", both of which can be used metaphorically or literally. However, the verb taeppa "to kidnap, abduct" also exists, and its structure is essentially the same as that of its English counterpart: tae "children" + -ppa "to abduct"; i.e. "kid" + "nab". Thus, despite the lack of an accusative marker on tae, the verb is readily understood to refer to a child victim and not a child perpetrator when used in everyday speech.
Nevertheless, when used with definite subjects, the subject of the sentence again takes on the active role. Thus
- Pwopwabum raefobop taepfebel.
means
- "The children kidnapped the toads."
rather than "The children were kidnapped by toads" or "the children made toads kidnap them" or some other such thing. Likewise the simpler sentence
- Pwopwabum taepfel.
still means
- "The children kidnapped [someone]."
rather than referring to the children themselves being kidnapped by an outsider. Further, the unlikely construction
- Pwopwa laserbop taepfebel.
translates as
- "The child kidnapped the enemy soldiers." (He was a pacifist who just wanted to protect his people.) indicating that the meaning of the verb holds regardless of how implausible its implication.
Incorporation of inalienable nouns
Body parts and other inalienable nouns can also be placed before a verb. In this case, they really are considered subjects, but only because they derive their animacy from an unspoken possessor. Often, especially with body parts, these words serve mostly as intensifiers, as the verb is generally already specific enough to get the meaning across clearly.
For example:
- Pappapwebi.
- means "I slapped you.", and
- Peppapwapwebi.
- means "I slapped you with (my) hand". The meaning is essentially the same in both words, but peppapwapwebi implies a more forceful slap. (The change of -pp- to -pw- is due to a sound rule.)
Forming questions
Yes-no questions
There is no "interrogative" mood for verbs in Poswa. In many contexts, a sentence can be made into a question simply by placing the verb into the subjunctive mood and leaving everything else, including the word order, intact. However, in most situations Poswobs will mark the sentence as a question in other ways, such as using question particles. Tus, placed at the beginning of a sentence, makes that sentence into a yes-no question. At the end of a sentence, the particle pa, which means "or" in certain contexts, can also be used. This is generally "spaced" away from the preceding sentence by a pause intended to draw the listener's attetnion, even when the context is already clear. Double-marking a sentence by beginning with tus and ending with pa while also placing the verb into the subjunctive mood is optional but not frowned upon.
Thus:
- Wivafta¹ pešfop² posafebel.³
- The teacher¹ burned³ the book.²
contrasts with sentences such as
- Tus wivafta pešfop posafebep, pa?
- Did the teacher burn the book, or ...?
Non-accusative verbs
All verbs in Poswa have an unspoken and unwritten prefix showing which case the object of the verb is placed into. Most verbs govern the accusative case, and the prefix that shows this is wi. This is considered part of the verb, but is never pronounced or written down even in a dictionary. It is considered a separate word. Thus, for example, the verb for "to promise" in Poswa is technically wi pambap, but even in a dictionary, one will only find an entry for pambap.
Verbs that govern cases other than the accusative have different prefixes. These are still normally unspoken and unwritten, but will appear in a dictionary in order to remind the student of the proper use of the verb in question.
Locative
For example, the verb for "to become" is dži tiša. It is both a highly irregular verb and one that places its object into the locative case rather than the accusative. The verb behaves mostly as if its stem were a hyper-regular p-. Thus one can say
- Pobbam pebel.
- He became an oak tree.
(The tiša stem contracts to simply p- because of sound rules that are triggered in constructions such as this where two words are spelled separately but treated as a prosodic unit.) Because of the potential for confusion, this verb is usually used directly after its object; that is, the word order is not flexible the way it is for most accusative verbs. Thus, for example, one would not normally say
- *Pobbam pwuwumbam pebel.
- He became an oak tree in the forest.
Because the speaker would likely initially hear the sentence as if pwuwumbam "in the forest" were the object of the verb, and thus imagine a man becoming a forest while trapped inside an oak tree.
Other cases
The full list of prefixes corresponding to the six core noun cases is below:
| Case | Prefix | Sample verb |
Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | a | ||
| Accusative | wi | ||
| Locative | dži | ||
| Possessive | ši | ||
| Essive | e | ||
| Instrumental | y |
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.
Nevertheless, interjections have carved out a niche for themselves in Poswa, and the speakers do not often think about what grammatical part of speech they should be grouped with. Poswa's interjections are often seen as childish and rude by surrounding cultures, as the Poswobs have a tradition for verbal bluntness that is rare even among their close relatives.
Many interjections are used to express pain and unpleasant emotions. For example, a Poswob speaker who was too slow at getting through a revolving door might say Pup!, which is the accusative case of an obsolete word for hand. Thus, it can be analyzed as roughly equivalent to the English "Ouch! My hand (got hurt)!" even though the word for hand from which pup is derived is no longer in use in modern Poswa.
Many of the interjections are one syllable long, but some have two or three syllables. Poswob children learn early to say
- Bevo!
- I have to go to the bathroom!
This is historically descended from a longer verb that got worn down over several thousand years of sound changes. It is cognate to the modern words bwem "bathroom" and vub "to spray".
Irregular verbs
Poswa has many irregular verbs, although many of these can be treated as regular if the speaker imagines an "oblique" stem that replaces the nominal stem from which the verb was originally derived. These oblique stems often end in consonants or clusters which are not permitted at the end of Poswa words and therefore are not usually thought of as independent words.
Examples of irregular verbs
- See Poswa irregular verbs for a partial listing.
mi
The verb mi "to see" is an irregular verb with a stem change to the oblique variant v-:
| mi | Past | Present | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive | 1st person | vi | vo | vub |
| 2nd person | ve | vae | vi | |
| 3rd person | vel | va | vob | |
| Transitive | 1st person | vebi | vabo | vwub |
| 2nd person | vebe | vabae | vwi | |
| 3rd person | vebel | vaba | vwob |
Notes
- ↑ This seems low? I think there is a second conjugation which substitutes an -al- for all of the -ab- infixes, changing the meaning to passive (and can only be used with transitive verbs). Also, I just remembered that the -ab- changes to -eb- to mark yet another shade of meaning, and that there is probably an -el- too, so the transitive tables should actually be quadrupled.
