Grammar (cont.) - Verbs
Background
Verb conjugations in Cuvao are more simplified than they were in Cuban Spanish. They only conjugate for number, mood, and tense. The future and preterite tenses have been lost, leaving only a past and non-past tense. Cuvao's word order usually alternates between SVO and SOV, and there is no specific word order for interrogative constructions. The simplification of Cuvao verb conjugations is mainly due to sound changes that eroded the verb endings in Cuvao and its ancestors. By 2450, this is what the present and imperfect conjugations of the verb cantar "to sing" looked like in the indicative mood:
|
1S |
2S |
3S |
1P |
2P |
3P |
| Present |
[kãto] |
[kãtah] |
[kãta] |
[kãtamə(h)] |
[kãtã] |
[kãtã] |
| Imperfect |
[kãtama] |
[kãtamah] |
[kãtama] |
[kãtamamə(h)] |
[kãtamã] |
[kãtamã] |
The similarity between all these verb forms is why Cuvao is not a pro-drop language like its Cuban ancestor. It got too confusing when using verbs without pronouns. If one decided to say [kãta ũa kãsjõ] "he sings a song", it could easily be misheard as "you sing a song" or as "they sing a song", unless they wrote down what they were trying to say. This is also why during this time period, there are many records of Cuban scribes conflating several verb forms. Here is an example of a story about Accajuco, a town in the Cuvan province of Pinal-Weht, which was written in 2500 CE. At the time, the old Cuban Spanish orthography was still used, making it an inaccurate representation of the phonology of Middle Cuvao.
Auque estás situado en medio delbosque, sindua están una comunidá vuyciosa llena de vida. Me recuerdo que cuando me pasaba po' lle pueblo po' primela ves ace 3 día, me notaban que mucha gente estaba reunida en lla plasa. Resultaba que ellos estaba tocando música y le estaban pasando de malvilla! Si algun ves tu vienes a nuestro reino ermoso, te recomiendo visitar ciudade má pequeña como Escayuco.
Reconstructed IPA: /aunkə ta sitwazo ẽ mejo dəlbohkə sindua ta ũa comuniza bujsjosa ʒena də biza mə rekuddo kə kwãdo mə pəzama po ʒəpwewlo po primela beh asə treh dia mə notama kə mut͡ʃə hẽtə tamã rewniza ẽ ʒaplasa rəzultama kə eʒoh tamã tokãdo musika i lə tamã pazãdo də məlviʒa si əlgũbeh tu vinəh a nuhtro rẽjo emmozo te rəkomĩdo bisital sjuzazəh mah pəkẽja komo əkkaʒuko/
Translation: Although [Accajuco] is situated in the middle of the forest, it is certainly a bustling community filled with life. I remember that when I first passed through the town 3 days ago, I noticed a lot of people were gathered at the town square. It turned out that they were playing music and having a wonderful time! If you ever come to our beautiful kingdom, I absolutely recommend visiting smaller towns like Accajuco.
This is an except from a book called
Wagía pa Llomundo, which was written by the famous explorer
Peiro Santoh Ferlánz, who was born in Pinal-Weht, and is known for traveling across the Americas, going to places as far as Alhettiya (modern-day Argentina) and Nuyosiri (modern-day New York City), and documenting what he saw in his travels.
Verb Conjugations
There are two different conjugations for regular verbs in Cuvao. There is the a-stem conjugation, which is derived from Spanish verbs ending in -ar, and the e-stem conjugation, which is derived from Spanish verbs ending in -er or -ir. Here are charts demonstrating each conjugation.
a-stem conjugation
|
Ind. Sing. |
Ind. Plu. |
Subj. Sing. |
Subj. Plu. |
| Non-Past |
-a |
-an |
-e |
-en |
| Past |
-ama |
-aman |
-ase |
-asen |
Participle Past/Non-Past: -azo/and
Infinitive: -al
e-stem conjugation
|
Ind. Sing. |
Ind. Plu. |
Subj. Sing. |
Subj. Plu. |
| Non-Past |
-e |
-en |
-a |
-an |
| Past |
-ía |
-ían |
-ise |
-isen |
Participle Past/Non-Past: -ezo/end
Infinitive: -el
As you've already noticed, Cuvao does not have any future tense verb forms. Instead, the future tense is formed with the verb il "to go". This means that if you want to say "I am going to speak", you would say "Me ba pa aulal." The future tense construction is as follows:
il "to go" +
pa "to" + verb infinitive -->
Me ba pa aulal. "I am going to speak"
And if you wish to add a continuous aspect:
il "to go" +
pa "to" +
tal "to be" + present participle -->
Me ba pa tal auland. "I will be speaking."
Irregular Stem Changes
The vast majority of verbs in Cuvao are regular, but there are some that are slightly irregular, such as verbs with slight stem changes. One example is the verb
pezel "to beg", which can become
me pize "I beg" or
noh pizen "we beg". I'll go through some examples of these irregular stem changes.
-e- > -i-
This change only happens when the verb is subjunctive, or when it is non-past indicative. Here are some examples:
pezel "to beg" >
me pize "I beg" and
me pezía "I begged"
repetel "to repeat" >
me repite "I repeat" and
me repetía "I repeated"
sewel "to follow" >
me siwe "I follow" and
me sewía "I followed"
-o- > -u-
This change only happens when the verb is subjunctive, or when it is non-past indicative. Here are some examples:
pozel "to be able to" >
me puze "I can" and
me pozía "I could"
dommel "to sleep" >
me dumme "I sleep" and
me dommía "I slept"
-ez- > -ih-
This change only happens when the verb is subjunctive. Here are some examples:
dezel "to say" >
ella deze "she says" and
(ca) ella diha "(that) she say"
contrezel "to contradict" >
ella contreze "she contradicts" and
(ca) ella contriha "(that) she contradict"
-uz- > -uh-
This change only happens when the verb is subjunctive. Here are some examples:
conduzel "to lead" >
ella conduze "she leads" and
(ca) ella conduha "(that) she lead"
trauzel "to translate" >
ella trauze "she translates" and
(ca) ella trauha "(that) she translate"
In my next post, I'll talk about the highly irregular verbs of Cuvao.
