Carnian grammar: Difference between revisions

Carnian grammar (view source)

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 * Three moods: indicative, imperative, and conditional
 * Two aspects: perfective and imperfective
+=== Aspect ===
+As in other Slavic languages, Carnian inherited a verbal system based on the opposition between perfective and imperfective aspect. Perfective verbs present an event as a bounded whole, while imperfective verbs are used for ongoing, incomplete, habitual, or otherwise unbounded situations (e.g. ''pisat'' 'to be writing' vs. ''napisat'' 'to write'). The present indicative of imperfective verbs expresses present time reference, whereas the present indicative of perfective verbs typically has future reference. Past participles of both imperfective and perfective verbs are used in analytic past and future constructions; the interpretation of these forms depends on the aspectual properties of the lexical verb and, where applicable, on aspectual particles.
+==== Formation of Aspectual Pairs ====
+Aspectual pairs are traditionally formed in several ways:
+* by adding the imperfectivizing suffix ''[[Contionary:-at#Carnian|-at]]'' to perfective verbs
+* by adding the perfectivizing suffix ''[[Contionary:-nant#Carnian|-nant]]'' to imperfective verbs
+* by adding perfectivizing prefixes (most commonly ''na''- and ''po''-) to imperfective verbs
+In contrast to most Slavic languages, the inherited aspect-forming suffixes remained productive in Carnian for a considerably longer period and historically constituted the primary means of deriving aspectual counterparts. In the modern language, however, these traditional (im)perfectivizing suffixes are no longer productive. While Carnian still employs a range of verbal prefixes, these are now used primarily for lexical derivation and semantic modification rather than for purely aspectual opposition; prefixes that serve only to mark perfectivity are increasingly marginal.
+==== Biaspectual verbs ====
+A relatively large and growing group of verbs in Carnian are biaspectual, that is, they can function with either perfective or imperfective interpretation. This group consists mainly of loanwords, newer verb formations, and older inherited verbs whose original aspectual counterpart has been lost. Biaspectual verbs may be accompanied by the perfectivizing particle ''[[Contionary:œr#Carnian|œr]]'' or the imperfectivizing particle ''[[Contionary:sien#Carnian|sien]]'', both of which are highly productive in the modern language and serve exclusively as aspectual markers.
+Unmarked biaspectual forms tend to be interpreted as imperfective in most contexts; consequently, the perfectivizing particle ''œr'' is more frequently used to explicitly mark event completion. The particle ''sien'' is employed either to reinforce imperfective interpretation or to imperfectivize verbs with an inherently perfective or resultative reading, effectively replacing the older imperfectivizing suffix -''ivat'', which is no longer productive.
+Examples:
+* ''Jem œr to deau'' – I did it (''[[Contionary:deat#Carnian|deat]]'' 'to do', biaspectual)
+* ''Jes œr ċitau ta kengà?'' – Did you read the book? (''[[Contionary:ċitat#Carnian|ċitat]]'' 'to read'; historically imperfective, now biaspectual; cf. Serbo-Croatian imperfective ''čitati'' vs. perfective ''pročitati'')
+* ''Jem sien perpisau to due ori'' – I was copying it for two hours (example usage of ''sien'' with a perfective verb ''perpisat'' 'to copy')
+The number of biaspectual verbs in Carnian continues to increase, as newly introduced verbs generally do not develop distinct aspectual counterparts. As a result, biaspectuality is expected to become characteristic of an increasing proportion of the verbal lexicon. This development is especially advanced in the ''Fyn'' dialect, where analytic particle constructions frequently replace the older inherited aspectual distinctions.
 === Conjugation ===