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TUNDRIAN LANGUAGE / LINGUA TUNDRIANA

SECOND CONJUGATION IRREGULARITIES




CONTENTS


This page is devoted to the irregularities of the second conjugation (-eir verbs).

The Tundrian-English dictionary provides forms for individual verbs from which irregular forms can be derived.

The forms of the common auxiliary verbs haveir and esseir were already covered on the Verbs page, and will not be considered here.


Infinitive

The infinitive of almost all verbs in this class end in -eir. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions:


The verb faer (to do)

In the pres.ind., this irregular verb has the forms foy, fas, fa in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd pers. sing., respectively, and fan in the 3rd pers. plural. It is regular in the future (faeroy etc.) and the conditional (faerîa etc.). In all other tenses / persons it is unused, with the corresponding forms of faceir (to make) used instead.


Present Indicative

Each pattern is illustrated by all six forms of the sample verb. Other verbs given as examples show only the infinitive and the 1st person singular. Letters in red show the irregularity and/or the stem phoneme in the stressed or otherwise affected syllable; letters in blue show the stem phoneme in the unstressed / unaffected syllable.

Note that there are no verbs in the 2nd conjugation with proparoxytonic stress in root-stressed forms (i.e. corresponding to the animar - ánimo type in the 1st conjugation).

Some verbs fit into several categories, and may therefore be mentioned in more than one place. E.g. the verb rideir (to laugh) has the 1st person singular form riydzo in the Present Indicative, which puts the verb into both the vocalic alternation class i / iy and the consonant alternation class d / dz.

Vocalic alternations (I) (unstressed/stressed vowels are different)

The basic patterns are the same as in first-conjugation verbs. Examples:

Vocalic alternations (II) (first person singular is different)

There are seven verbs with a different kind of vowel alternation: the root vowel in all persons is identical to that of the infinitive except for the 1st person singular. The patterns are:

Consonantal alternations

The most common pattern involves a change in the root-final consonant of the 1st person singular. For most patterns, there are examples of verbs showing the alternation, as well as of verbs not showing it.

Verbs with stems ending in a vowel

These verbs are fairly regular. However, Tundrian has some orthographic rules that must be maintained, and these rules require certain changes in the present tense of verbs in this class. The rules include (a) the digraph <-ei-> used for the phoneme /i/ is changed to <-î-> before and after a vowel; (b) the stressed vowel /y/ must bear the acute accent (i.e. it must be written <ú>) before word-final -e, -en, -es; and (c) the consonant /w/, normally spelt <u>, must be spelt <ü> between <g> and a front vowel (<e> or <i>). The patterns are:

There are three defective verbs with infinitives ending in -eer: leer (to read [a will or speech]), reer (to rule [a country]) and veer (to carry, convey [in legal texts]). Their present indicative conjugation is exemplified by leer:

Supporting vowel

A special problem is that of the ending of the 2nd person singular. The regular ending is -s: cadeir - cads. Nevertheless, the connecting vowel -e- is added before this ending in cases where the ending cluster would be difficult or impossible to pronounce. The rules for the need for this connecting vowel are the same as for the accusative plural of class B nouns and adjectives. Examples:

Stems ending in a geminate consonant

Also affecting the 2nd person singular is the issue of verb roots ending in a geminate consonant, essentially <-ll-> and <-tt-> (but not <-rr->, which requires a supporting vowel, see above). Before the -s ending of the 2nd person sing., the geminate is reduced to a single written consonant, and the preceding vowel obtains the circumflex accent (if it does not already have one). Examples of patterns:


Imperfect Indicative

Most 2nd conj. verbs form their imperfect indicative regularly. The rule is to remove the -eim ending of the 1st pers. plural of the present indicative, and add the endings of the imperfect indicative. Examples:

In verbs with the stem ending in a vowel, the 1st pers. plural of the pres. ind. ends  in -îm. In the imperf. ind. this is replaced with the normal endings of the tense, except that in the 1st and 2nd pers. plur. the -i- is replaced with a -y- (forms like -aiam, -êiais etc. not being allowed acc. to Tundrian spelling conventions). Examples:

In fact, as the 1st and 2nd pers. sing. forms of traîr and leer are identical to the corresponding forms of the present subjunctive, they are not much used in practice.

Irregularities


Preterite Indicative

Weak (i.e. regular) preterites

Typically, the endings of the pret. ind. are added on to the verb stem, e.g.:

When the verb stem ends in -c or -g, the palatal pronunciation is retained in the preterite, which requires the spelling of the stem-final consonant to be changed to <-ç-> and <-gi->, respectively, e.g.:

When the verb stem ends in -u- (pronounced or not) or -ü-, this letter is deleted in the preterite in order to avoid a duplication of the letter <u>. E.g.:

The verb esseir (to be) forms the pret. ind. on a different stem: fui, fusti/fus, fu, fum, fustes/fuis, furon.

The defective verbs faer (to do), leer (to read), reer (to rule, reign) and veer (to carry) have no preterites as such. For the first three verbs, the preterites of the etymologically related verbs faceir, legeir and reîr are used: feici, legiúi, rêixi, etc. If the preterite of veer is needed, those of portar or transportar are used (portái, transportái, etc.).

Strong preterites

About 40 verbs of the 2nd conjugation, plus their compounds, have what are known as strong preterites. Primarily, this means that in the 1st and 3rd person singular the pret. ind. stresses the stem, rather than the ending. In addition, the endings in the singular are different, there may be consonant changes at the end of the stem, and there may also be vocalic alternations involving the stem. Examples of patterns:

Sigmatic preterites (i.e. the preterite contains an extension in -s- or -z-)
Shigmatic preterites (i.e. the preterite contains an extension in -x-)

There are 15 verbs in this category, 5 with vocalic alternation in the stem, 10 without. The patterns are:

Other strong preterites

There are five other 2nd conjugation verbs with strong preterites, three of them involving vocalic changes in the root. All of them retain the normal root-final consonant of the infinitive. The two patterns are:


Pluperfect Indicative and Imperfect Subjunctive

These tenses are normally based on the stem of the preterite indicative. To form them, the endings are added on to the 3rd pers. plural of the pret. ind., with the -ron ending taken off.

For example, the verb cadeir (to fall), 3rd pers. plur. of the pret. ind. caduron, has the forms:

All 2nd conjugation verbs follow these rules, e.g.:


Future Indicative and Conditional

The endings of these two tenses are added on to the infinitive, except that the -ei- of the infinitive ending is either replaced by -e- (in most cases), or is completely lost (when it is preceded by some single or doubled consonants). There are some exceptions, which are best learned by example.

In the examples below, only the 3rd person singular of the future is shown - all other forms of the future and the conditional are formed analogously.

Examples where the -ei- of the infinitive is replaced by -e-, by type of consonant cluster:

In most other cases with a simple (or doubled) consonant at the end of the stem, the -e- is lost in the future and conditional. In the case of doubled consonants, it is simplified in the future and conditional, as Tundrian does not allow doubled consonants before another consonant. Examples:

The verb esseir is irregular: será.

Verbs with infinitives in -îr change it to -ïr- in these tenses, while the defective verbs in -aer, -eer are regular:


Present Subjunctive

Regular forms

As a general rule, the endings of the Pres.Subj. are added on to the stem of the verb as found before the 1st Pers. Sing. -o ending of the Pres.Ind. Examples of patterns:

Verbs with vocalic alternation

Verbs with type I vocalic alternation (except for  those with a/ai alternation) have the same kind of alternation in the Pres.Subj. - i.e. one stem vowel in the sing. and in the 3rd pers.plural, and another in the 1st and 2nd pers. plural. This may be in addition to a changed consonant at the end of the stem, which is preserved throughout the Present Subjunctive. Patterns are:

The same pattern applies to verbs with an ú/u alternation in the Pres.Ind. Examples:

Verbs with -eyo, -iyo or -uyo in the 1st pers. sing. of the Pres.Ind. lose the -y- in the 1st and 2nd pers. plur. of the Pres.Subj. Examples:

Irregular verbs

Two verbs have quite irregular stems in this tense:

The verb faer (to do) is defective, and its Pres.Subj. forms are provided by the corresponding forms of faceir (to make): fâça, etc.


Imperative

The Imperative of 2nd conjugation verbs is normally predictable:


Participles and the Gerund

Present Participle and the Gerund

The Present Participle and the Gerund of practically all 2nd conjugation verbs are regular: the -eir or -îr of the infinitive is replaced by -ent and -endo, respectively: vendent, legent, xequent, essent, havent, traent, construent; vendendo, legendo, xequendo, essendo, havendo, traendo, construendo.

The Present Participle and the Gerund of the defective verbs faer, leer, reer and veer are supplied by the corresponding forms of faceir, legeir, reîr and portar: facent, legent, reent and portant; facendo, legendo, reendo and portando.

Past Participle

Weak Past Participles

The regular Past Participle of 2nd conjugation verbs is formed by adding -ut to the stem preceding the -eir ending of the infinitive: vendeir > vendut, haveir > havut.

When the stem ends in a palatal consonant (-c-, -g-), the palatal pronunciation is normally preserved before the Past Participle ending, therefore the spelling of the stem-final consonant must be changed to -ç-, -gi-:

In verbs where the infinitive is preceded by -u- or -ü- the -u- of the Past Participle merges with the stem-final vowel. Patterns:

Strong Past Participles

All 2nd conj. verbs not following the above patterns are considered strong. There are several types (the lists, except for derivatives, are exhaustive):

Irregular -t endings preceded by a vowel

There are several types:

Irregular -t endings preceded by a consonant

Sigmatic past participles

15 verbs (plus their derivatives) have sigmatic past participles. Of the primary verbs, 10 end in single -s, 2 in -ss and 3 in -z. They are:




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