Proto-Tungric: Difference between revisions

Strong verbs were characterized by a past stem different from the present stem that took the following personal endings in the indicative:

The past stem was also used to form the past subjunctive with a connector vowel ''-i-''<!-- (which becomes ''-ī-'' in the case of heavy ''j''-presents)-->.

Strong verbs can be classified into classes based on how the past stem is formed:

#'''Class 1:''' This class had a present stem vowel of ''-i-''. It had two subclasses:

#:'''a.''' The past stem is formed by changing the stem vowel to ''-ai-'' — e.g. ''*'''wit'''ēō'' "I see" > ''*'''wait'''ai'' "I saw", ''*'''wis'''saz'' "seen"

#:'''b.''' The past stem is formed by changing the stem vowel to ''-ī-'' — e.g. ''*'''winh'''ō'' "I conquer" > ''*'''wīh'''ai'' "I conquered", ''*'''wih'''taz'' "conquered"

#'''Class 2:''' This class has a present stem vowel of ''-u-'' which changes to ''-au-'' in the past stem — e.g. ''*'''buk'''jō'' "I flee" > ''*'''bauk'''ai'' "I fled", ''*'''buk'''adaz'' "fled"

#'''Class 3:''' This class has a present stem vowel of ''-a-'', ''-e-'', or ''-i-'' that becomes ''-ē-'' in the past stem — e.g. ''*'''dah'''jō'' "I do" > ''*'''dēh'''ai'' "I did", ''*'''dah'''taz'' "done"

#'''Class 4:''' This class has a present stem vowel ''-a-'' that becomes ''-ō-'' in the past stem — e.g. ''*'''skab'''ō'' "I scratch" > ''*'''skōb'''ai'' "I scratched", ''*'''skab'''adaz'' "scratched"

#'''Class 5:''' The past stem has the same stem vowel as the present stem — e.g. ''*'''fip'''ō'' "I drink" > ''*'''fip'''ai'' "I drank", ''*'''fip'''adaz'' "drunk"

#<b>Class 6:</b> The past stem is derived from the present stem by adding ''-s-'' — e.g. ''*<b>þrag</b>ō'' "I drag" > ''*<b>þrahs</b>ai'' "I dragged", ''*'''þrah'''taz'' "dragged"  

#'''Class 7:''' The past stem is formed by reduplication of the first consonant followed by ''-e-''. In some verbs, there may also be a vowel change (usually ''-e/i-'' to ''-a-'') — e.g. ''*'''han'''ō'' "I sing" > ''*'''hehan'''ai'' "I sang"

#'''Irregular:''' The past stem is formed in another way besides those above — e.g. ''*stêō'' "I stand" > ''*steþai'' "I stood"

Some strong verbs have irregular presents. This affects the present tense (both indicative and subjunctive), present participle, infinitive, and imperative. There are three types of irregularities, and they can co-occur:

# A ''j''-suffix. Such verbs are said to be ''j''-presents, and may be light or heavy. This affects the present tense suffixes in much the same way as it does in nouns and adjectives.

#An nasal infix. This does not affect the verb's endings, but affects the present stem. Such verbs are called nasal presents.

#A vowel suffix (usually ''-ō-'' or ''-ē-''). Such verbs are called ''ō''-presents or ''ē''-presents respectively. They conjugate similarly to class 2 or 3 weak verbs respectively in the present forms. There is also the exceptional verb ''*stêsi'' which has the suffix ''-ê-''.

The past participle of strong verbs is formed with the suffix ''-þaz'' which, depending on the verb, may become ''-taz'', ''-daz'', or ''-saz''. There may or may not be a connector vowel. If there is one, it is usually ''-a-'' (or ''-i-'' in the case of ''j''-presents.

Weak verbs do not change their stem, and they take the following endings in the past indicative:

Strong verbs are characterized by a past stem different from the present stem that takes the following personal endings:

The ''-b-'' is usually preceded with a connector vowel, which depends on the weak verb class.

The past subjunctive endings are also added to the present stem. A connector vowel is also used, which can be predicted from the connector vowel of the past indicative.

#*The present stem contains a ''-(i)j-'' and is conjugated in the same way as strong ''j''-presents.

#*The past indicative has the connector vowel ''-(i)ja-''.

Class 1 weak verbs conjugate similarly to ''j''-present strong verbs in all non-past forms.

The past indicative has a connector vowel ''-(i)ja-'', while the past subjunctive and past participle have a connector vowel ''-i/ī-''. In both cases, the suffixes follow Siever's law.

Class 2 weak verbs have the following characteristics:

*The present stem ends in ''-ō-'', which absorbs any following short vowels and contracts with 1S ''-ō-'' to ''-ô-''. In the present subjunctive, expected *''-ōǭ'' contracts to ''-ǫ̂'', while expected *''-ōā-'' becomes ''-ōē-''.

*The connector vowel in the past (both indicative and subjunctive) and past participle is ''-ō-'', as in the present stem.

There are two subclasses of class 3 weak verbs.  

The first subclass is conjugated with the suffixed vowel ''-ē-'', which absorbs following short vowels (similar to the ''-ō-'' of class 2) but does not contract with long vowels. The past participle has the connector vowel ''-a-''.

The second subclass is conjugated similarly to the first subclass but with the following exception: The present subjunctive are conjugated similarly to class 1 weak verbs (i.e. without the vowel ''-ē-'' and with a palatal suffix). The past participle has the connector vowel ''-i-''.

Class 4 weak verbs do not have a suffix. Their non-past conjugation follows that of non-''j''-stem strong verbs.

The past indicative has a connector vowel ''-a-'', and the past subjunctive has a connector vowel ''-i-''. The past participle has no connector vowel.

Preterite-present verbs are verbs whose present tenses conjugate as a strong past (of any class). Preterite-present verbs have weak pasts.

The verb "to be" has two stems ''*(i)s-'' and ''*bu/bū-''. They can be treated as two separate verbs that share past indicative and imperative forms.