Carpathian verbs
Carpathian verbs reflect a complex system of morphology, more complicated than the nominals, with verbs categorized according to their conjugation class. Each finite verb is conjugated for person, number, tense, aspect, and mood, the last three usually being combined into a single category, called TAM. In addition to finite verbs, non-finite forms such as participles, infinitive and supine are also extensively used. Transitive verbs agree with two or more of its arguments, which is called polypersonal agreement, while intransitive verbs only agree with one argument — its subject. An extreme example of the agreement complexity can be seen in the following sentence: ei-ta-dōdah-ā-mi “He/she made me give it to them” ("to.them-that-made.give-he/she-me").
Most Carpathian verbs have three or four distinct basic stems, i.e. the stems of the imperfective, the aorist, the perfect and the infinitive. All forms of the verb were based on those stems: “sit” — sēdē- (infinitive and aorist), sēdi- (imperfective) and sōd- (perfect); “remain” — lik- (infinitive), leik- (present), likā- (aorist) laik- (perfect).
Personal Endings
Carpathian has two different categories of verbs, based on their present tense personal endings: athematic and thematic, the latter category being much larger and still productive, consisting of every class of verbs but one. The subject endings of the two categories (for the M-type accent paradigm) are:
| Athematic | Thematic | Athematic | Thematic | Athematic | Thematic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Aorist | Perfect | |||||
| Singular | 1st | -mi | -ū | -ùn | -ùn | -ai | -a |
| 2nd | -si | -ei | -s | -is | -tai | -ta | |
| 3rd | -ti | -e | -∅/-a | -e | -ei | -e | |
| Dual | 1st | -wḗ | -(e)wā́ | -awḗ | -(a)wā́ | -wḗ | -wā́ |
| 2nd | -tā́ | -(e)tā́ | -atā́ | -(a)tā́ | -tā́ | -tā́ | |
| 3rd | -tìs | -(e)tìs | -atìs | -(a)tìs | -tìs | -tìs | |
| Plural | 1st | -mès | -(e)mùn/-mà | -amè | -(a)mè | -mè | -mè |
| 2nd | -tè | -(e)tè | -atè | -(a)tè | -tè | -tè | |
| 3rd | -eñti | -añti | -iñ | -añ | -ínti | -ín | |
- In Western Carpathian the 1st plural present thematic ending is -mun, while in Eastern Carpathian it is -ma.
Conjugation
The following conjugations of verbs exist in the present tense: athematic, simple thematic ("e"-stem verbs) and suffix-thematic ("ī"-stem, "ē"-stem, and "ā"-stem verbs, as well as derived "jā"-stem, "au"-stem, "nō"-stem among others). The future tense is formed using the si- suffix attached to the infinitive stem. The aorist tense has "ā"- and "ē"-stems. With a few exceptions, all verb endings were at some point of Carpathian history influenced by the ending of the present tense.
| Athematic verbs | e-stem verbs | ē/ī-stem verbs | ā-stem verbs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| skeistéi “to read” | stèrhetei “to extend” | turḗtei “to hold” | gidā́tei “to wait” | ||
| Singular | 1st sg | skeĩmi | stèrhū | turiū́ | gidā́hū |
| 2nd sg | skeĩsti | stèrhei | turiéi | gidā́hei | |
| 3rd sg | skeĩsti | stèrhe | tùrie | gidā́ | |
| Dual | 1st du | skeitwḗ | sterhewā́ | turiewā́ | gidewā́ |
| 2nd du | skeistā́ | sterhetā́ | turietā́ | gidetā́ | |
| 3rd du}} | skeistìs | sterhetìs | turietìs | gidetìs | |
| Plural | 1st pl | skeimès | sterhemà | turiemà | gidemà |
| 2nd pl | skeistè | sterhetè | turietè | gidetè | |
| 3rd pl | skeiteñti | sterhañti | turiañti | gidañti | |