User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/3-2
Lesson 2| Participles and Infinitives
Participles
Participles derive from verbs and function like adjectives. As High Valyrian is a generally verb-final language, participles are most commonly encountered as postpositive adjectives; that is, the general 'verb last' concept is preserved. In English, there exist two forms: the present participle that ends in '-ing,' and the past participle that ends in '-ed.' High Valyrian has eight participle forms for the active present, aorist, future, and past habitual; and for the passive aorist, future, perfect, and past habitual. The below table summarizes the endings for participles where √ is the verb root, M is the theme vowel, MP is the perfect stem, and MF is the future stem condensing theme vowel into ē for -agon and -ogon, and ī for -egon, -igon, and -ugon.
| Consonant Final | Vowel Final | |
|---|---|---|
| Active Present | √-are | √-M-re |
| Passive Perfect | √P-a | √P-a |
| Active Aorist | √-ire | √-M-je |
| Passive Aorist | √-iarza | √-M-ssiarza |
| Active Future | √-ilare | √-MF-lare |
| Passive Future | √-ilaksa | √-MF-laksa |
| Active Past Habitual | √P-re | √P-re |
| Passive Past Habitual | √P-iarza | √P-iarza |
We begin with the forms common to English.
The Present Participle
Present participles convey that a verb is ongoing. The present participle has a number of translations as evident in the example Dārie buzdarī dāeremare iotāptī which may be translated:
- We respect the queen freeing the slaves.
- We respect the queen who is freeing the slaves.
- We respect the queen while she is freeing the slaves.
Consonant final verbs form the active present participle thusly; √-are, where √ is the verbal stem.
Vowel final verbs form the active present participle thusly; √-M-re, where √ is the verbal stem and M is the theme vowel.
| High Valyrian | English |
| Daenerys, buzdarī dāeremare, dārȳsa brōstaks | Daenerys, freeing the slaves, was named queen Daenerys, who is freeing the slaves, was named queen Daenerys, while she is freeing the slaves, was named queen |
| Āeksia pōja glaesa izūgariar hen oktiot dakotis | The masters, fearing for their lives, ran from the city |
These two examples show the participle conveying an action or attribute of the subject. These are in the nominative case. In the first, dāeremare agrees with Daenerys, and buzdarī is in the accusative. In the second, the same concept applies with izūgariar and āeksia.
| High Valyrian | English |
| sesīr zȳhon urnēbion keliton issa | and now his watch is ended |
Here, the participle keliton functions as an adjectival predicative expression with the copula issa. The participle is declined nominative, singular, and terrestrial to agree with zȳhon urnēbion. To clarify what a predicative expression is (we've seen them before): in the example taoba sȳz issa, the good boy, sȳz is the predicative expression; likewise, in the sentence zokla gevie issa, the wolf is beautiful, gevie is the predicative expression.
| High Valyrian | English |
| Daenerys va āeksȳti dakoroti drakari jentetas | Daenerys commanded dragon-fire at the running masters |
| Drogon āeksȳti dakoroti toliot sōvetas se vali ilziri zaltas | Drogon flew above the running masters and burned the scattering men |
Notice how in the examples, the participle agrees with the noun in gender, case, and number. Regarding commas, they generally follow the rules of English and do not follow special rules as High Valyrian is intended to be written in distinct orthography. All use of the Latin alphabet is simply a Romanization of the language!
The Past Participle
In High Valyrian, the passive past participle indicates a verbal action that occurred before the main verb. This participle is easy to form; simply add -a to a perfect verbal stem, or as an expression: √P-a.
The past participle also has a number of translations as evident in the example Dārie āeksȳti ondossi sēnte iotāptī which may be translated:
- We respect the queen (having been) killed at the hands of the masters.
- We respect the queen who has been killed at the hands of the masters.
- We respect the queen after she has been killed at the hands of the masters.
| High Valyrian | English |
| Dohaeriros istin, sindita liortā, qilonta ozbartā | I was a slave once, bought and sold, scourged and branded |
This example features istin in the past habitual followed with a sequence of four past participles. All are class I adjectives are declined singular, in the nominative case, and in the lunar gender. A lunar declination occurs frequently in default when there is no subject expressed as in this case. Note how the coordination translates as the list is broken into two pieces.
Recall that participles function as adjectives and thusly agree with a noun in gender, case, and number like any ordinary adjective.
The Aorist Participles
The aorist participle has an ending beginning with i, remember that ñ becomes n and lj becomes l. Form this participle thusly:
- Consonant final verbs: √-ire
- Vowel final verbs: √-M-je
The passive aorist participle is formed like this:
- Consonant final verbs: √-iarza
- Vowel final verbs: √-M-ssiarza
The Future Participles
The future participle has an ending beginning with i, remember that ñ becomes n and lj becomes l. Form this participle thusly:
- Consonant final verbs: √-ilare
- Vowel final verbs: √-M-lare
- Where M is ē for -agon and -ogon and -ī for -igon, -egon, -ugon.
The passive future participle is formed like below. Again, watch the palatals ñ and lj.
- Consonant final verbs: √-ilaksa
- Vowel final verbs: √-M-laksa
- Where M is ē for -agon and -ogon and -ī for -igon, -egon, -ugon.
The Past Habitual Participles
Form the past habitual participle for both consonant final and vowel final verbs thusly:
- √P-re
Form the passive past habitual participle for both consonant final and vowel final verbs thusly:
- Consonant final verbs: √P-iarza