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* '''Indicative''': I ''have'' a lot of work. He ''needs'' to see this.
* '''Indicative''': I ''have'' a lot of work. He ''needs'' to see this.
* '''Subjunctive''': If it ''rains'', I can't do to the market.
* '''Subjunctive''': If it ''rains'', I can't go to the market.
* '''Imperative''': ''Go'' away. ''Pick up'' the dog.
* '''Imperative''': ''Go'' away. ''Pick up'' the dog.



Revision as of 07:46, 2 October 2022

Lesson 3| Present Verbs

Below is the c-fin verb conjugation table from the High Valyrian reference tables. At the beginning of each lesson covering verbs, this table will be reproduced along with some comments on observable conjugation patterns. Don't get overwhelmed, this table shows all conjugations in the language! One also does not use all of them all of the time; again, do not worry about memorizing this table yet! With practice, you will learn the most commonly used forms.

In this chart, represents a verbal stem, that is the verb minus the ending -agon, plus the personal ending. Get used to the conjugation table and keep one with you as you learn.

Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Participle Infinitive
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1s 2s 3s 1pl 2pl 3pl 1s 2s 3s 1pl 2pl 3pl 2s 2pl
Active
prs. √-an √-ā √-as √-i √-āt √-is √-on √-ō √-os √-oty √-ōt √-osy √-ās √-ātās √-are (adj. II) √-agon
aor. √-in √-ia √-is √-iti √-iat √-isi √-un √-ua √-us √-uty √-uat √-usy √-iās √-iātās √-ire (adj. II) √-igon
fut. √-inna √-ilā √-ilza √-ili √-ilāt √-ilzi √-ilun √-ilū √-ilus √-iluty √-ilūt √-ilusy √-ilās √-ilātās √-ilare (adj. II)
npfv. √-ilen √-ilē √-iles √-ilin √-ilēt √-ilis √-ilon √-ilō √-ilos √-iloty √-ilōt √-ilosy
pfv. P-an P P-as P-i P-āt P-is P-on P P-os P-oty P-ōt P-osy see below P-agon
plup. P-en P P-es P-in P-ēt
phab. P-in P-ia P-is P-iti P-iat P-isi P-un P-ua P-us P-uty P-uat P-usy P-re (adj. II)
Passive prs. √-aks √-āks √-aks √-aksi √-āks √-aksi √-oks √-ōks √-oks √-oksy √-ōks √-oksy √-āks √-akson
aor. √-iks √-iaks √-iks √-iksi √-iaks √-iksi √-uks √-uaks √-uks √-uksy √-uaks √-uksy √-iāks √-iarza (adj. I) √-iakson
fut. √-ilaks √-ilāks √-ilaks √-iliks √-ilāks √-iliks √-iluks √-ilūks √-iluks √-iluksy √-ilūks √-iluksy √-ilāks √-ilaksa (adj. I)
npfv. √-ileks √-ilēks √-ileks √-ilēks √-iloks √-ilōks √-iloks √-iloksy √-ilōks √-iloksy
pfv. P-aks P-āks P-aks P-aksi P-āks P-aksi P-oks P-ōks P-oks P-oksy P-ōks P-oksy P-a (Adj. I) P-akson
plup. P-eks P-ēks P-eks P-iks P-ēks P-iks
phab. P-iks P-iaks P-iks P-iksi P-iaks P-iksi P-uks P-uaks P-uks P-uksy P-uaks P-uksy P-iarza (adj. I)

Grammatical Introduction to Verbs

This introductory section may be a bit overwhelming;, is an overall look at verbs. The majority of this section will be covered in later chapters. Nevertheless, looking over this chapter may help you to familiarize yourself with verbs.

Verbs are parts of speech which denote action. There are two main forms of verbs in High Valyrian:

• Principal or Finite Verbs (the main verb which is found in every sentence. e.g.,: vala dekurūbas = the man is walking)

• Adjectival Verbs (also known as participles, gerunds and gerundives which describe the state of the described noun. e.g.,: vala dekurūbare = the walking man. The verb behaves as an adjective)

Every sentence must have a verb. In a sense, the principal verb is the sentence and all the nouns, adverbs and participles are only describing the scenario of the verb. Thus in High Valyrian this constitutes a sentence:

issa.

If you want to explain 'who' is or exists, you add a nominative substantive:

Daenerys issa.

We now know Daenerys 'is'. What is she? So we add an adjective.

Daenerys sȳz issa.

Now we can see that Daenerys is good; to elaborate further we can add an adverb:

Drīvose Daenerys sȳz issa.

Now we know that Daenerys is 'truly' good.

Vocabulary

Lesson Vocabulary
High Valyrian English
ñuha (adj. I) my
nyke
ao
ziry
ūja
īlon
jeme
pōnta
I
you
he/she/it
he/she/it
we
y'all
they
yne (acc.) I, me
muña (1lun.) mother
kepa (1lun.) father
lenton (3ter.) house
dekurūbas (he/she/it) is walking
dekurūbare (part. lun./sol.) walking
dakogon (v-fin.) to run
maghagon (c-fin.) to bring, carry
zālagon (c-fin.) to burn
epagon (c-fin.) to ask
jemagon (c-fin.) to lead
rȳbagon (c-fin.) to hear
pāsagon (c-fin.) to trust
ūñagon (c-fin.) to count
kȳvagon (v-fin.) to plan
ōregon (v-fin.) to hold
āmāzigon (v-fin.) to return
nektogon (v-fin.) to cut
arghugon (v-fin.) to hunt
jentegon (v-fin.) to command
sytilības should
sīr (adv.) now
daor (adv.) not
sȳrī (adv.) well
va (prep.) to

Key to Vocabulary:

  • 1lun. = first lunar
  • 3ter. = third terrestrial
  • prep. = preposition
  • adv. = adverb
  • part. lun/sol = lunar and solar participle

Examples

These two examples will demonstrate the difference between an adjectival verb and a principal verb.

The wounded knight went before the queen.
'wounded' is a perfect participle (Adjectival) describing the knight, while 'went' is the principal verb in the sentence.
The changed king sees the light.
'changed' is a perfect participle (Adjectival) describing the king, while 'sees' is the principal verb in the sentence.

Exercises

Answer the following questions:

Personal Endings

Verbs in High Valyrian are inflected to reflect the person who performs the action. English does the same to some extent in the verb to be:

High Valyrian English
iksan I am
iksā You are
issa (He/she/it) is
iksi We are
iksāt Y'all are
issa They are

High Valyrian, however, inflects all verbs, and is much more extensive than English, allowing writers and speakers of High Valyrian to often drop the personal pronoun, as the performer of the action is understood by the formation of the verb. The personal pronoun is only usually added for emphasis. In a way, the ending on High Valyrian verbs are a type of pronoun.

For example, examine the below sentence that introduces the possessive pronoun ñuha (my) and features the vowel lengthening coordination introduced in the first lesson that means and.

[nyke] ñuhe(1) muñe ñuhē kepē jorrāelan.
I love my mother and my father. 'nyke' is an optional personal pronoun.
  • (1) ñuha, my (1lun.). ñuhe, (acc.)

Exercises

Answer the following questions:

Moods

High Valyrian has three moods each used to convey certain ideas. These are (with example English sentences):

  • Indicative: I have a lot of work. He needs to see this.
  • Subjunctive: If it rains, I can't go to the market.
  • Imperative: Go away. Pick up the dog.

The two moods we will first learn are the imperative (commands and orders) and the indicative (declarative statements and factual questions).

Voice

There are two constructions verbs can have regarding voice.

Verbs can have either an active or passive voice.

E.g. 'I smash the car.' 'smash' is an active verb construct.

The passive is used when the nominative is affected by the verb.

E.g. 'The car is smashed by me.' 'is smashed' is a passive construct.

Exercises

Tense

Tense in High Valyrian comprises two parts: TIME and ASPECT. Time reflects when the action is occurring or did occur: past, present, or future. Aspect refers to the nature of the action: simple, completed, or repeated. The "completed" aspect is generally termed "perfective" and repeated aspect "imperfective."

Theoretically, a verb could have nine tenses (combinations of time and aspect). However, High Valyrian only has seven, since some possible combinations are expressed by the same verb forms. High Valyrian tenses do not correspond exactly to English ones.

Below is a rough guide to tense in High Valyrian.

Time
A
S
P
E
C
T
Present Past Timeless
Simple Present Tense
"I walk"
Perfect Tense
"I walked"
Aorist Tense
"I always walk"
Imperfective Future Tense
"I will be walking"
Imperfect Tense
"I was walking"
--
--
Perfective Perfect Tense
"I have walked"
Pluperfect Tense
"I had walked"
Past Habitual Tense
"I used to walk"

High Valyrian also has an Aorist tense for expressing ideas of an action always occurring or never-ending and a post habitual tense for expressing an action that "used to" take place.

As is evident, some High Valyrian tenses do "double duty." The High Valyrian Present and Future Tenses can either express simple or progressive aspect. Additionally, the High Valyrian perfect tense carries a number of stem changes.

Infinitive

The infinitive (impersonal) is the form of the verb which simply means 'to (verb)' e.g. 'to do', or 'to be', or 'to love', or 'to hate' etc. All forms which are not the infinitive or a participle are in the finite (personalized) form.

The infinitive has two flavors: consonant final (c-fin.) and vowel final (v-fin.). Consonant final verbs always end in -agon; vowel final verbs may end in -agon, -egon, -igon, -ogon, or -ugon. Pay special attention to vowel final verbs that end in -agon!

sīr dakogon yne sytilības = I ought to run now.

The adverb sīr means 'now' and may occur to open a sentence or before the verb as we will see later. The verb sytilības means 'should' and occurs after the infinitive. Between the infinitive and sytilības is the one who ought to be taking an action, in this case it is yne, is the accusative case of nyke.

Exercises

Answer these two questions about the infinitive and finite.

Personal Pronouns

In case you do ever use a personal pronoun to emphasise the SUBJECT of the verb, you must remember that the personal pronoun must be in the nominative case and the number and person of the verb must match that of the subject. (Review Lesson 7 if unfamiliar with the terms person and subject).

Exercises

Verbs: Conjugation in the Present Tense

The present is the simplest tense. To form the present imperfect all that is required is to place the personal endings at the end of the verb stem.

Thus, if you have the verb 'jorrāelagon' (love), to make it 'I love' you remove the -agon to form the stem to which -an is added to form the first person active indicative.

I love  =  jorrāelan
we love =  jorrāeli

Here are the forms of the verb 'maghagon', carry, in the present tense:

magh-an     I carry                     first person singular
magh-ā      you carry                   second person singular
magh-as     he, she, it carries         third person singular 
magh-i      we carry                    first person plural
magh-āt     you (all) carry             second person plural
magh-is     they carry                  third person plural

Maghan can also be translated 'I am carrying' (present imperfect); for 'I do carry' (present emphatic), use a reflexive pronoun. 'I carry' is known as the 'present simple' tense in English. Maghagon is a fricative consonant final verb, and jorrāelagon is a liquid consonant final verb.

Consonant final verbs are classified per the final consonant in the verb stem. This isn't as important for the present tense as it is for the perfective aspect. Below shows how verbs are grouped:

liquid l, r
voiceless stop p, t, k, q
nasal m, n
voiced stop b, d, g
fricative h, s, z, gh, v, j, consonant cluster
palatal ñ, lj


There are six general conjugations for consonant final verbs, and below are some examples of verbs from each of the six conjugations (present tense). Bolded are differences in endings:

zālagon, burn (liquid) epagon, ask (voiceless stop) jemagon, lead (nasal) rȳbagon, hear (voiced stop) pāsagon, trust (fricative) ūñagon, count (palatal)
zālan, I burn epan, I ask jeman, I lead rȳban, I hear pāsan, I trust ūñan, I count
zālā, you burn epā, you ask jemā, you lead rȳbā, you hear pāsā, you trust ūñā, you count
zālza, he/she/it burns epsa, he/she/it asks jemas, he/she/it leads rȳbas, he/she/it hears pāsas, he/she/it trusts ūñas, he/she/it counts
zāli, we burn epi, we ask jemi, we lead rȳbi, we hear pāsi, we trust ūni, we count
zālāt, y'all burn epāt, y'all ask jemāt, y'all lead rȳbāt, y'all hear pāsāt, y'all trust ūñāt, y'all count
zālzi, they burn epsi, they ask jemis, they lead rȳbis, they hear pāsis, they trust ūnis, they count

With the palatal class, before any endings with 'i' or a consonant, depalatalizes--ñ becomes n and lj becomes l.

There are also five vowel final verb forms that generally stick to their theme vowel. Don't get intimidated! They conjugate thusly:

kȳvagon, plan (-agon) ōregon, hold (-egon) āmāzigon, return (-igon) nektogon, cut (-ogon) arghugon, hunt (-ugon)
kȳvan, I plan ōren, I hold āmāzin, I return nekton, I cut arghun, I hunt
kȳvā, you plan ōrē, you hold āmāzī, you return nektō, you cut arghū, you hunt
kȳvas, he/she/it plans ōres, he/she/it holds āmāzis, he/she/it returns nektos, he/she/it cuts arghus, he/she/it hunts
kȳvī, we plan ōrī, we hold āmāzī, we return nektī, we cut arghī, we hunt
kȳvāt, y'all plan ōrēt, y'all hold āmāzīt, y'all return nektōt, y'all cut arghūt, y'all hunt
kȳvasi, they plan ōresi, they hold āmāzisi, they return nektosi, they cut arghusi, they hunt

Each verb uses the same final letter or letters to indicate the 'subject' - I, you, he/she/it, we, y'all, they.

As the final letter, the liquids have a 'l' or 'r'; the voiceless stops a 'p', 't', 'k', or 'q'; the nasals a 'm' or 'n'; the voiced stops a 'b', 'd', or 'g'; the fricatives, a 'h', 's', 'z', 'gh', 'v', 'j', or a consonant cluster; the palatals, a 'ñ' or 'lj'. These verb forms really should be learned by heart.

Exercises

Conjugate (find how a verb is in different forms) the verb 'jorrāelagon'.

Imperative Mood

The imperative mood conveys an order (e.g. Go!, Run!, Away Now!). The imperative mood in the present tense is formed by simply using the stem of the consonant final verb and adding -ās. If the order is to a large group of people, you must use the -ātās suffix. For vowel final verbs, the theme vowel replaces 'ā' in the conjugation. Thusly, '-egon' verbs use -ēs and -ētēs, '-igon' uses -īs and -ītīs, '-ogon' uses -ōs and -ōtōs, and '-ugon' uses -ūs and -ūtūs.

For negative commands, use the infinitive form of the verb followed with daor, 'no.' Note that in the examples below, ziry means 'her, him, or it' and has the same form in the nominative and the accusative case; ziry is accusative below.

ziry jorrāelza = I love her.

ziry jorrāelās = Love her!

ziry jorrāelātās = Love (plural) her!

ziry jorrāelagon daor = Do not love her!


In the below example, va is a preposition meaning 'to' and lenton, 'house' appears in the locative case to convey that 'house' in this sense refers to a location.

va lentot dakon = I run home.

va lentot dakōs = Run home!

va lentot dakōtōs = Run (plural) home!

va lentot dakogon daor = Do not run home!


sȳrī jenten = I command well.

sȳrī jentēs = Command well!

sȳrī jentētēs = Command (plural) well!

sȳrī jentegon daor = Do not command well!

Exercises

  • Translate High Valyrian verbs:
  • Translate sentences into High Valyrian:

Attribution

"Lesson 3-Present Verbs" by S. W. Farnsworth et al is licensed under CC BY 3.0 / This adaptation for High Valyrian aims to retain the format and pedagogy from the original