Stonebreaker Language/Grammar/Verbs

Verbs

There is such a lot to learn about verbs in Stonebreaker, I have made this into a separate lesson. Don't be put off, though, as things are pretty much regular and straightforward.

Infinitive

The infinitive of the verb is easily recognized in Stonebreaker as almost all end in –na. Examples include: Donna to give Idna to go Imna to want or need

And the irregular verbs: Eina To be Oona to have

There are 3 persons that exist in the singular and plural: I, You (sing), he/she/it, We, You (pl), They In regular verbs, these are expressed as follows:

Present Tense

Donõ: I give,
Donor: You (sing) give
Don: He/she/it gives
Donoth; We give
Donorth: You (pl) give
Donith: They give

The third case is formed by removing –na from the infinitive:
Im: he wants, from Imna to want
Id: he goes, from Idna to go
Pel: he speaks from Pelna to speak

The plural is formed by adding the generic –th to the singular. Note that in the first person the o is unstressed in the plural. So:
Imõ (I want) becomes Imoth (we want)
Idõ (I go) becomes Idoth (we go).

Imperative

Singular: Dono’ Give (it)! Õl Dono’! –Give it to me! Plural Doneth Let’s give (it) Doneth Ekk Harnquistol – Let’s give the axe to Harnquist

Simple Future tense

In Stonebreaker, the concept of future is expressed by the use of the word en (and). This can be seen in the words for Today (Dem) and Tomorrow (Demen – ‘Today…and…’)

The simple future is made by adding –en to the end of the present tense in each case, using apostrophes where necessary to avoid vowel clashes: Dono’n: I shall give Donoren: You (sing) will give Donen: He/she/it will give Donothen: We shall give Donorthen: You (pl) will give Donithen; They will give

Notice again the unstressed o in the 1st person singular: Dono’n

In some dialects the apostrophe is avoided by the addition of the letter ‘m’. So Verõ (I swear) can take the form Veromen (I will swear) in the future tense. (This construction is also used in expressing the Ablative case for plural nouns – more on this later). The name ‘Veromen’ means ‘one who will be faithful’ ie one who will swear allegiance. Both forms are acceptable, so Donomen and Dono’n both mean I shall give.

Past Historic

This is the tense used most in narrative and reported speech. It’s construction is slightly more complex than the future. First, take the 3rd person singular (the root of the verb): Don. Now add –el to create the past participle: Donel (‘given’). Note that this is not the same as the adjective Dona – ‘given’ as in Don’ekk – a gift-axe. To conjugate add the present tense of the verb Oona – to give: Donelõ: I gave Donelor: You (sing) gave) Doneloo: he/she/it gave Doneloth: We gave Donelorth: You (pl) gave Donelooth: They gave

‘Oo’ is pronounced as a short ‘oo’ as in the English ‘Shoot’