The Aorist

To-Do

• Add farinye-type preterite
• Add mai-type verbs

Ablaut in Aorist Stems

Aorist stem is formed from a verb stem with either a short- or zero-grade ablaut:

• zero-grade: formative and long verbs in aorist and future, other conjugations in all tenses;
• short-grade: formative and long verbs in preterite.

Note

• Derivative and causative conjugations have only zero-grade stem (→@@).
• The u-verbs don’t have a short-grade ablaut.
• Basic and a-verbs use short-grade ablaut only in derivational morphology, but not as a part of tense conjugation.

Thematic and Athematic Aorists

Forms built on the aorist stem follow either a thematic or an athematic conjugation.

• thematic conjugation: all causative tense forms, aorist and preterite tense forms of derivative and a-verbs, aorist tense form of long and formative verbs.
• athematic conjugation: all basic and u-verbs tense forms, preterite and future tense forms of long and formative verbs, future tense forms of derivative and a-verbs.

Late Tarquesta

In preterite a-verbs became athematic: far-a- > far-ne.

Tense Endings

Tense endings are added after a theme vowel in thematic conjugations, or directly to stem in athematic conjugations.

• aorist tense endings: -ë in basic, nil everywhere else.
• preterite tense ending: -(n)e.
• future tense ending: -uva.

Exception

The u-verbs might receive the aorist tense-ending when unmarked for number or person, but drop it before secondary ending: haru- > haru(ë) > harun.

Sound Changes in Tense Stems

Several sound changes become apparent in aorist stems. The most important is metathesis (@@), discussed below. For rhotacism and other, more obscure changes, @@.

Metathesis occurs in preterite tense of athematic conjugation, except for u-verbs, and might involve assimilation (@@): cat- > cat-ne > cante, tup- > tup-ne > tumpe, sulup- > sulup-ne > sulumpe.

Verbs which experience metathesis:

• ending in voiceless stops -p, -t, -c: cap-ne > campe, mat-ne > mante, ruc-ne > runce;
• ending in voiced stop -d: red-ne > rende;
• ending in fricatives -f, -h, -z: raf-ne > rappe, lah-ne > lacce, cez-ne > cesse;
• ending in -l: tul-ne > tulle;
• ending in -s: hlas-ne > hlasse.

Note

Ending in -l commonly had an alternative form without metathesis: tul-ne > tulde.

Late Tarquesta

The combination -mne was pronounced /nne/, but it was not reflected in spelling: nemne /nenne/.

Overview of Regular Forms

Examples (short-grade ablaut stems and thematic vowels are highlighted):

	verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
basic	cen-	cen-ë	cen-ne	cen-uva
vocalic u	lir-u-	lir-u-(ë)	lir-u-ne	lir-u-uva > lirúva
long	talat-	talt-a-ø	talat-ne > talante	talt-uva
formative (a)	sir-y-	sir-y-a-ø	siri-y-ne > sirinye	sir-y-uva
formative (b)	lah-t-	lah-t-a-ø	laha-t-ne > lahante	lah-t-uva
vocalic a	far-a-	far-a-ø	far-a-ne	far-uva
derivative	tengu-a-	tengu-a-ø	tengu-a-ne	tengu-uva > tengúva
causative (a)	tul-ya-	tul-y-a-ø	tul-y-a-ne	tul-y-a-uva
causative (b)	tul-ta-	tul-t-a-ø	tul-t-a-ne	tul-t-a-uva

Particular Formations

Spurious Verbs

It happens that in different tenses some verbs belong to different conjugations. The reasons for that vary, but all those verbs are usually easily recognized, and more importantly, they behave regularly within the selected conjugation. We can find:

• spurious u-verbs: they behave like basic verbs in aorist and preterite: micu- > aorist miquë, preterite minque; but like u-verbs in future: micu-uva > micúva;
• spurious formatives: they behave like formative verbs in aorist and future: cay-t- > aorist caita, future caituva; but like basic verbs in preterite: cay-ne > caine;
• spurious s-verbs: they behave like formative verbs in aorist and future: cal-s- > aorist calarya, future calaryuva; but like long verbs in preterite: cala-s-ne > calasse;

Spurious u-Verbs

There are two types of spurious u-verbs:

• verbs ending in a velar consonant: micu-, nicu-;
• defective basic verbs which were partially displaced by u-verbs: lir-, cel-.

verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
nicu-	niqu-ë	niqu-ne > ninque, nic-u-ne	nicu-uva > nicúva
lir-	lir-ë	lir-ne, lir-u-ne	lir-u-uva > lirúva

The preference for a form in preterite is sporadic and varies from author to author.

Spurious Formative Verbs

The basic verbs ending in a semivowel largely blended with the formative verbs from the same historical root. Such verbs show variant forms in preterite:

verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
cay-(t)-	cay-t-a-ø	caya-t-ne > ceante, cay-ne > caine	cay-t-uva
law-(t)-	law-t-a-ø	lawa-t-ne > loante, law-ne > laune	law-t-uva
law-(y)-	law-y-a-ø	lawa-y-ne > loanye, law-ne > laune	law-y-uva

The spurious verbs with y-extension were rare, but basic preterite for t-extension was regular.

Late Tarquesta

Eventually formative verbs were brought into line and became regular. Basic forms which persisted commonly transferred to long peterite (see below).

Spurious s-Verbs

Formative verbs with -s- largely merged with formative (a) conjugation, but have long conjugation in preterite:

verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
cal-s-	cala-s-y-a-ø > calarya	cala-s-ø-ne > calasse	cala-s-y-uva > calaryuva

Caution

Spurious s-vebs have only short-grade ablaut form.

Augmented Preterite

A special group of formative verbs of √tā shape might form preterite from inverted root with an augment: is-t- > i-si-t-ne > isinte, or-t- > o-ro-t-ne > oronte. The resulting form is superficially the same as from short-grade ablaut: isi-t-ne > isinte, orot-ne > oronte. However, the augment is not a part of the stem, and can be freely omitted, especially if following a vowel (elision, @@): sinte, ronte. The vowel of a short-grade ablaut stem can’t be elided.

Long Preterite

Some basic and formative verbs show a lengthened-grade ablaut in preterite:

• verbs ending in -b or -w: lab- > láve, tyaw- > tyáve;
• verbs ending in -d beside regular -nde sometimes reformed either after regular -r verbs to no-metathesis -rne: nid- > nirne; or, more commonly, to long preterite: yod- > yóre;
• verbs in -y beside regular -ine could have a long preterite form (see below): ray- > ráie;

Late Tarquesta

• later verbs in -l also formed a long preterite: tul- > túle;
• eventually such forms started to spread and become more common: car- > cáre.

Long Future and Contract Future

Basic verbs ending in -b or -w show an irregular future form depending on its root vowel:

• if root vowel is -o- or -u-, the future ending is -ua: tub- > tuvua;
• with any other root vowel, the final consonant is dropped: lab- > la-ø-uva > lauva.

Verbs in -ea

A small and rare group of verbs which show -ea in aorist tenses comprises basic verbs with stems in -ay and a-verbs ending in -e(g)a:

	verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
basic	ray-	ray-ë > rea	ray-ne > raine	ray-uva
vocalic a	te(g)a-	te-a-ø	te(g)-ne > tenge	te-uva

Note

Since basic verbs in -y became spurious, they typically show formative forms in aorist and future tense, but basic form in preterite: ray- > aorist raita, future raituva, but preterite raine (instead of regular formative raya-t-ne > reante).

But verbs which kept basic conjugation, commonly employed long preterite: ray- > ráie, cay- > cáie.

Formative-Derivative and Causative-Derivative

The derivative verbs which make use of additional suffixes like -t, -s or -ta technically belong to either formative or causative conjugation, except that just like derivative verbs, they have no ablaut.

Verbs with addition of -s were spurious (see above): they had formative (a) forms in aorist and future tense, but joined long conjugation in preterite.

Caution

Verbs with -nta suffix were derivative-proper: telco-nta > preterite telcontane, future telcontuva (not causative **telcontauva).

	verb stem	aorist tense stem	preterite tense stem	future tense stem
formative (a)	tenca-s-	tenca-s-y-a-ø	tenca-s-ø-ne	tenca-s-y-uva
formative (b)	tenca-t-	tenca-t-a-ø	tenca-t-ne	tenca-t-uva
derivative	tenca-ta-	tenca-t-a-ø	tenca-t-á-ne	tenca-t-a-uva

For the rhythmic lengthening tencatáne, → 2.