Emnian verbs

Main article: Emnian language § Grammar

In Emnian, verbs take the form of derived stems, and are conjugated to reflect their tense and mood, as well as to agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person. Each verb has an inherent voice, though a verb in one voice typically has counterparts in other voices. This article deals primarily with modern Emnian but the information shown here applies to some extent to Middle Emnian as well.

Verb classification

Roots

Verbs in Emnian, like nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, are formed and declined by altering a two- to five- (but usually three-) letter stem. Vowels are added between these consonants in a pattern to form a related meaning between different roots. For instance, somháir "he kept" and cotháibh both have the same CoC(h)áiC(h) pattern to indicate the third person singular past tense.

Emnian verbs can be further divided into strong verbs (wholly regular verbs), weak verbs (verbs with predictable irregularities), and irregular verbs (wholly irregular verbs).

There are three common types of weak verbs: guttural (containing ʾ, Ḥ, or ʿ in any position, H in any position except final, or R as second radical in the historic root), hollow (containing W or Y anywhere, or H as the final radical in the historic root), or repeating (ending with two of the same radical).

Historic radicals and their modern orthographic representations

Root	Initial	Medial	Final
ʾ (glottal stop)	∅ (deletion)	gh
b	b
g	g
d	d
h	th		∅ (deletion)
w	mh
z	dh
ḥ	ch
ṭ	t
y	∅ (deletion)	dh
k	c
l	l
m	m
n	n
s	s
ʿ (pharyngeal fricative)	∅ (deletion)	gh
p	p
	f
ṣ	s
q	c
ś	s
š
t	t

Note that c and t are resistant to lenition when derived from historic roots q and ṭ.

Guttural weak roots

Guttural roots contain a historic guttural (ʾ, Ḥ, or ʿ in any position, H in any position except final, or R as second radical). The observable effect of this is "broadening" — i.e. the replacement of a slender environnment with a broad one when a guttural consonant occurs as the final radical.

Hollow weak roots

Roots containing a historic W or Y, as well as roots with a final historic H are known as hollow roots.

Repeating weak roots

Roots containing two of the same letter are considered repeating roots. In some nonstandard dialects, roots with an initial N also behave as repeating roots.

Stems

Emnian verbs are inflected according to specific patterns called Conjugations. There are seven basic conjugations as well as some irregular verbs coming from otherwise obsolete conjugations.

Regular conjugation

Infinitive

Infinitive patterns

Stem
Conjugation I
Strong	l'o12ó3
Conjugation II
Strong	l'oi1i22éi3
guttural 3	l'oi1i22éa3
Conjugation III
Strong	l'ai12í3
guttural 3	l'ai12ío3
Conjugation IV
Strong	l'oith1i22éi3
guttural 3	l'oith1i22éagh
Conjugation V
Strong	l'u12ái3
guttural 3	l'u12á3
Conjugation VI
Strong	l'o1u22ái3
guttural 3	l'o1u22á3
Conjugation VII
Strong	l'oi11i2éi3
guttural 3	l'oi11i2éa3

Prefix conjugation (Nonpast Tense)

Nonpast tense patterns

Stem	Suffix y/n
	No	Yes
Conjugation I
Strong	-12ió3	-12ió3-
Conjugation II
Strong	-1ai22éi3	-1ái223-
guttural 3	-1ai22éa3	-1á223-
Conjugation III
Strong	-12í3	-12í3-
guttural 3	-12ío3	-12ío3-
Conjugation IV
Strong	-th1i22éi3	-th1iái223-
guttural 3	-th1i22éa3	-th1iá223-
Conjugation V
Strong	-12ái3	-12ái3-
guttural 3	-12á3	-12á3-
Conjugation VI
Strong	-1u22ái3	-1ú223-
guttural 3	-1u22á3	-1ú223-
Conjugation VII
Strong	-11i2éi3	-11iái23-
guttural 3	-11i2éa3	-11iá23-

Suffix conjugation (Past Tense)

A verb in the past tense agrees with its subject in person, number, and, in the second person and third person singular, gender.

Conjugation in the past tense is done by adding a suffix to a Conjugation-specific root. For example:

• somháir "kept" + -t (1st person singular suffix) = somháirt "I kept"
• somháir "kept" + -e, -a (3rd person singular feminine suffix) = sóimhre "she kept"

Below are the suffixes used with the past tense. Note that some suffixes have two possible forms, depending on whether the ending of the root is slender or broad.

Past tense subject suffixes

Person	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
1st person	-t		-ne, -na
2nd person	-te, -ta	-t	-ten, -tan
3rd person	no suffix	-e, -a	-eamh, -amh

Past tense patterns

Stem	Suffix
	None	Vowel	Consonant
Conjugation I
Strong	1o2ái3	1ói23-	1o2ái3-
Conjugation II
Strong	1oi22éi3	1oí223-	1oi22éi3-
Conjugation III
Strong	i12í3	i12í3-	i12í3-
Conjugation IV
Strong	oith1i22éi3	oith1iái223-	oith1i22éi3-
Conjugation V
Strong	u12ái3	u12ái3-	u12ái3-
Conjugation VI
Strong	1u22ái3	1uái223-	1u22ái3-
Conjugation VII
Strong	noi12iá3	noi12éi3-	noi12iá3-

Present participle

The present participle agrees with its subject in gender and number, as it is grammatically an adjective. In written Emnian, the present participle can be combined with a copular formula to form a periphrastic present progressive tense. For example:

• Is cothaibhe thaoi. — "She is writing."

This type of sentence structure is not common in spoken Emnian.

Present participle patterns

Root Type	Singular		Plural
	Masculine (no suffix)	Feminine -e / -a	Masculine -imh / -aimh	Feminine -eoth / -aoth
Conjugation I
Strong	1o2ai3	1o2ai3e	1oi23imh	1oi23eoth
Conjugation II
Strong	ma1ai22ei3	ma1ai22ei3e	ma1ai22ei3imh	ma1ai22ei3eoth
Conjugation III
Strong	mai12í3	mai12í3e	mai12í3imh	mai12í3eoth
Conjugation IV
Strong	moith1i22ei3	moith1i22ei3e	moith1i22ei3imh	moith1i22ei3eoth
Conjugation V
Strong	mu12ái3	mu12ái3e	mu12ái3imh	mu12ái3eoth
Conjugation VI
Strong	ma1u22ai3	ma1u22ai3e	ma1u22ai3imh	ma1u22ai3eoth
Conjugation VII
Strong	noi12ia3	noi12ia3a	noi12ia3aimh	noi12ia3aoth

Past participle

Past participles are formed according to the tables shown below. Grammatically, the past participle is an adjective and is inflected for gender and number. Conjugations IV-VII lack past participles. Conjugation I verbs that have a corresponding Conjugation VII verb use the Conjugation I past participle and the Conjugation VII nonpast to indicate different states of completion.

The Conjugation I past participle indicates a completed action:

• Is cathuibhimh them an seapharaimh. — "The books are written."

The Conjugation VII nonpast, on the other hand, indicates that the action is still being done.

• Oiciáithbe an seapharaimh. — "The books are (being) written."

Present participle patterns

Root Type	Singular		Plural
	Masculine (no suffix)	Feminine -e / -a	Masculine -imh / -aimh	Feminine -eoth / -aoth
Conjugation I
Strong	1a2ui3	1a2ui3e	1a2ui3imh	1a2ui3eoth
Conjugation II
Strong	mo1u22ai3	mo1u22ai3e	mo1u22ai3imh	mo1u22ai3eoth
Conjugation III
Strong	mu12ái3	mu12ái3e	mu12ái3imh	mu12ái3eoth
Conjugation IV
Strong	N/A
Conjugation V
Strong	N/A
Conjugation VI
Strong	N/A
Conjugation VII
Strong	N/A

Imperative

Imperatives are only used in affirmative commands. Negative commands use the particle aell followed by the corresponding prefix conjugation form.

Nonpast tense patterns

Stem	singular	plural
Conjugation I
Strong	u12ói3	u12ói3inn
Conjugation II
Strong	1a22ae3	1a22ae3ann
Conjugation III
Strong	ai12éi3	ai12éi3inn
Conjugation IV
Strong	oith1i22ei3	oith1i22ei3inn
Conjugation V
Strong	NA
Conjugation VI
Strong	NA
Conjugation VII
Strong	oi11e2éi3	oi11e2éi3inn

Action noun

Nonpast tense patterns

Stem	singular	plural
Conjugation I
Strong	i12io3a	i12io3aoth
Conjugation II
Strong	1i22iu3	1i22iu3aimh
Conjugation III
Strong	a12a3a	a12a3aoth
Conjugation IV
Strong	oith1ia223a	oith1i22ei3inn
Conjugation V
Strong	NA
Conjugation VI
Strong	NA
Conjugation VII
Strong	oi11ea23a	oi11ea23aoth