Voigari: an alternate history Romance language. (NP: irregular verbs)

[Ares Land]

Compound tenses

The recent past

I'll discuss usage later on, but the recent past serves both as a perfective and for recent, completed events. The rule is, basically, if it happened today, use the recent past; if not, use the remote past.

Voigari uses the auxiliaries abbia and fia followed by the past participle, in the oblique case:

ao amado, I have loved.
ai amado, you have loved,
a amado, he/she has loved
avimu amado, we have loved
avadi amado, you have loved
an amado, they have loved.

The singular forms trigger initial doubling: ao ffatto, I have done; an fatto, they have done

Auxiliary choice

fia, to be, is used with verbs of motion, in which case the participle is in the nominative case.
e vvenudo, he has come
son partido, I have gone.

With reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun disappears in the recent place, but the auxiliary fia is used (still with the nominative)

me svejjai, I woke up > son svejjadu, I (just) woke up.
me bagnai, I took a bath > son bagnadu I bathed (today).

That is not true of reciprocals:

I pecenni s'an svejjadu, the kids have woken (each other) up vs. I pecenni son sejjadi, the kids have woken up.

In all other cases, use abbia, except for moria, to die: e mmortu, he's dead, and nasca, to be born: e nnadu, he's born.

Agreement.

With the auxiliary abbia, the participle always agrees with the direct object whenever there is one.

ao ffinido lo libro, I've finished the book.
ao mmagnada la rana, I've eaten the frog.

This includes second ferson pronouns: te viso, I've seen you (male), te visa, I've seen you (female), le vvide, I've seen them (female), cè vvida, I've seen them (neuter).

When there's no direct object, simply use the -o masculine/neuter ending.
a piovudo, it has rained.

And with the auxiliary fia, the participle always agrees with the subject:

sono venuddo, I have come (male speker)
sono venudda, I have come (female speaker)

The pluperfect

The pluperfect is formed with the imperfect forms of the auxiliary:

avéo amado, I had loved.
avé amado, you had loved,
avéa amado, he/she had loved
aviamu amado, we had loved
aviadi amado, you had loved
avéan amado, they had loved.

erro venudo, I had come.
erre venudo, you had come,
erra venudo, he/she had come
eramu venudo, we had come
eradi venudo, you had come
erran venudo, they had come.

The past anterior

abbi amado, I had loved.
avisti amado, you had loved,
abbe amado, he/she had loved
abbimu amado, we had loved
abbidi amado, you had loved
avuero amado, they had loved.

fui venudo, I had come.
fosti venudo, you had come,
fo venudo, he/she had come
fommu venudo, we had come
fosti venudo, you had come
forro venudo, they had come.

What's the difference between pluperfect and past anterior? The pluperfect, like the imperfect implies a progressive or habitual aspect, and an action anterior to the main narrative. The past anterior implies a punctual event.

The past anterior can also be used for the experiential perfect, or to imply that a condition is no longer true:

Abbi parlado l'Anghiesco -- I have known/spoken English -- but I don't anymore.

[Ares Land]

The subjunctive recent past

Well, at this point, you know the drill. This tense is formed with abbia/fia in the subjunctive present, followed by the past participle :

abbio amado, if I had loved.
abbie amado, if you had loved,
abbia amado, if he/she had loved
aviamu amado, if we had loved
aviadi amado, if you had loved
abbian amado, if they had loved.

fio venudo, if I had come.
fie venudo, if you had come,
fia venudo, if he/she had come
fiamu venudo, if we had come
fiadi venudo, if you had come
fian venudo, if they had come.

The subjunctive pluperfect

Same thing, with the auxiliaries in the subjunctive past:

avesso amado, if I had loved.
avessi amado, if you had loved,
avesse amado, if he/she had loved
avessimu amado, if we had loved
avessidi amado, if you had loved
avessen amado, if they had loved.

fosso venudo, if I had come.
fossi venudo, if you had come,
fosse venudo, if he/she had come
fossimu venudo, if we had come
fossidi venudo, if you had come
fossen venudo, if they had come.

[evmdbm]

So what causes the stem alternation in the second conjugation? why ella bebbe, but noi bevemo? It's not the following -e causing it or we would have ella beve.

I like this, but God it looks a nightmare to learn as a foreign language, unless you know the sound changes from Latin

[Ares Land]

So what causes the stem alternation in the second conjugation? why ella bebbe, but noi bevemo? It's not the following -e causing it or we would have ella beve.

I like this, but God it looks a nightmare to learn as a foreign language, unless you know the sound changes from Latin

v -> bb after stress, when the Latin vowel was short. Stress is most often on the penultimate: bebbe, bevemo.

But these are irregular verbs. Thankfully, most second conjugation verbs don't have stern alternation, and it's a closed and unproductive class.
In any case, there's little choice but to learn the principal parts by rote. (Even knowing the Latin etymon and sound changes won't help, because of the whole process of analogy, reborrowing, and so on).
I think it's about average for a Romance language, and more or less similar to Italian in terms of difficulty (The irregularities are a bit more complex, but there are fewer irregular verbs).

[mèþru]

Outside of Ill Bethisad and BART this is the coolest Romlang I've ever seen.