Seebee
| Seebee |
|---|
Verbal Morphology
There are 61 verb classes in Seebee. One class contains irregular verbs, and is abbreviated Irr. in the Seebee dictionary. The other classes consist of three types, 3 in the first type (denoted by the Roman numerals I, II and III), 2 in the second type (denoted by the lower case letters a and b) and 10 in the third type (denoted by upper case letters or by Arabic numerals). These types together make up 60 classes (3×2×10). Each regular verb belongs to each of the three types. For example, ʻkau (buy) is of class I-a-3.
Verbs in class I are 1-2 syllables long, verbs in class II are 2 syllables, and verbs in class III are 2-3 syllables. Class II and III verbs have two alternative stems, 1 and 2, while class I verbs have only one stem. Different conjugations call for different stems.
Verbs in class a have final stress, while verbs in class b can be stressed on any syllable, including the final. However, monosyllabic verbs are unstressed if they belong to class a, and stressed if the belong to class b.
The final type of class has the following categories: B, G, L, M, N, S, 1, 2, 3, 4. Verbs in classes B, G, L, M and N have their lemma form end in -bu, -gu, -lu, -mu and -nu respectively. Verbs in class S end with -s. Verbs in class 1 and 2 end with ·. The difference is that in some conjugations, this · turns into -g- if the verb is class 1, and -d- or -j- if the verb is class 2. Verbs in class 3 end with -au, -iu, -oo, -ue or -uu. Verbs in class 4 end with -lu, but they conjugate differenly than verbs in the L class.
There are nine different conjugations in Seebee. Tenses, polarities, moods and politeness levels, and combinations thereof not covered by one of these nine conjugations are expressed by a combination of one of the nine conjugations and some periphrastic words.
Lemma
This is the form under which verbs are listed in the dictionary. The lemma form has stem 1. The lemma used alone has two meanings. 1: An infinitive, the lemma infinitive. 2: Present-positive-familiar.
The lemma followed by ʻdes stands for present-positive-polite. To form the past-positive-polite, the lemma is followed by deshta. Other words that are combined with the lemma include Seebee#to·, Seebee#ʻmo, Seebee#mae ʻni, Seebee#kaḷa, Seebee#noḍe, Seebee#naḷa, Seebee#daḷue, Seebee#deṣhue, Seebee#kaṃo, Seebee#ʻka ʻdoo ʻka, Seebee#ʻshi, Seebee#ʻna, Seebee#ʻto, Seebee#hoḍo and Seebee#laṣhii.
Polite Conjugation
This conjugation form is used for the polite-hortative and polite-present-negative. A word in this form must take a suffix (either -ṣhue for polite-hortative or -ṣee for polite-present-negative) to be grammatical. The stress of all verbs is moved to the final syllable (the suffix) in this conjugation form.
| I-B, I-G, I-L, I-M, I-N | I-S | I-Z | I-1 | I-2 | I-3 | I-4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rule | u → a | s → sha | · → ga | · → ja | Vu → a | Vlu → a | ||
| Lemma | yoḅu | sas | ʻi· | u· | ʻkau | ṃilu | ||
| POL | yoba- | sasha- | iga- | uja- | ka- | ma- | ||
| II | ||||||||
| Rule | stem 1 → stem 2 | |||||||
| Lemma | ỵogu | |||||||
| POL | oya- | |||||||
| III | ||||||||
| Rule | stem 1 → stem 2 | |||||||
| Lemma | haḷa· | |||||||
| POL | hada- | |||||||
In this table, classes that funtion similarly have been grouped together. The rule shows what part of the stem's end turn into what. An upper case V stands for any vowel. Examples follow with first words in their lemma form and then in the polite conjugation form. A worded explanation follows:
- For verbs in classes I-B, I-G, I-L, I-M and I-N the final -u is replaced by -a before the suffix is added.
- In class I-S the final -s is replaced by -sha.
- In class I-1 the final -· is replaced by -ga.
- In class I-2 the final · is replaced by -ja.
- In class I-3 the final diphthong is replaced by -a.
- In class I-4 only the initial consonant of the word remains, and to this -a is added.
- In class II and III, the second stem is used and the suffix is simply added without any other modifications.
