Northian grammar
Northian grammar is highly synthetic and fusional. This page aims to cover some of the more technical and historical points regarding Northian garmmar, specifically that of its oldest form, Early Galic Northian. The coverage will take a systemic, bird's eye view for the most part, relegating specific conjugational and declensional paradigms on appendical pages Northian nominals and Northian verbs.
Northian grammar, particularly in nouns, has been important to the reconstruction of Proto-Erani-Eracuran owing to its conservativeness. Though the Galic corpus is hardly large, its 12,000 or so words have been endorsed by historical linguists as a trove of relics that are either unique or corroborating forms for unique items elsewhere. As C. Cloverdale said, "Northian Gales are valued in this science for their fidelity in transmission and consistency in grammar." However, the outward conservativeness of Northian is attributed to the early date of its compositions, where archaic formations are expected, and its exceptional position in the field owes mainly to the fidelity of the transmission that has prevented the loss of relics.
Historical development
Nominals
The category of nominals in Northian encompasses nouns, adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives, reflexives, and certain adverbs. They are considered to belong to this class as they undertook similar grammatical processes and showed the same set of endings.
Endings
Athematic
The following chart recapitulates the ordinary endings of athematic nouns in Galic Northian. Because the ablative is syncretized with the genitive in the singular, with the dative and instrumental in the dual, and with the dative in the plural, it is usually not listed separately in grammatical tables for athematic nouns.
Forms are often unpredictable and variable under the influence of ablaut, laryngeals reflexes, analogy, vowel contraction, and compensatory lengthening for illegal consonant clusters in coda position. All endings are subject to modification according to the suffix. OX stands for the oxytone group of patterns, and PX for the paroxytone group. Certain neuter nouns take a collective ending; these nouns are not formally predictable. Because neuter nouns always have the same nominative and accusative forms, only their nominative endings will be listed, and in grey. Other than root nouns, there are virtually no neuter nouns that take the OX pattern; as such, their endings are listed together with the PX stems.
The cells listed in gree are typically paired with the full-grade noun stem, and the orange ones only sometimes; these do not apply for nouns with invariant stems.
| Athematic endings | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Collective | ||||||||
| OX | PX | Ntr. | OX | PX | Ntr. | M/F | Ntr. | ||||
| Nominative | -ō, -ā̊, -s | -s, -š | -Ø | -ōi, -ā, -ō | -i, -ī, -ū, -ōi | -ī, -Ø, -ū | -aH, -aHaH | -a, -i, -ō | -ō | ||
| Vocative | -Ø | ||||||||||
| Accusative | -m, -n, -ā̆, -ā̊, -ō, -ōi | -ā̊, -ā, -ō, -ūš, -ī | |||||||||
| Locative | -Ø, -i | -Hō | -Hū | -hū, -šū | -Ø | ||||||
| Genitive | -ō, -ā̊, -ā | -š, -ō, -ŋh, -ā̊, -Ø | -Huš, -Hū, -Hā, -Hō | -Hõm | |||||||
| Ablative | -mō | -muš | |||||||||
| Dative | -ā | -i | |||||||||
| Instrumental | -ōi | -i, -Ø | -(m)βyō, -(m)βiyō, -βiš, -βīš | ||||||||
nom sing nntr A general discussion of the athematic declension cannot omit the comment that, while many divergent forms are phonetically conditioned, there too are divergences resulting from divergent proto-forms. In no other place is this statement truer than in the nominative singular.
The marker of the nominative singular has been a tormented subject, in part also for the radical schism on the parent language's morphosyntactic alignment. By sole comparison, animate (= masculine and feminine) nouns may have been in the proto-language sigmatic, that is ending in *-s, or asigmatic, that is without final *-s and taking a long-grade suffix; as root nouns had no suffix, they were (at least thought to have been) obligatorily marked by *-s. Neuter nouns, in contrast, generally have the zero-grade of the suffix in the nominative and correspond well with the accent.
Because the long-grade and final -s are mostly in complimentary distribution, some authorities regard the long-grade as the legacy of compensatory lengthening having dropped final *-s after a resonant, but others hold there was no *-s originally and attribute the long vowel to ablaut variation sensitive to the case. On the other hand, there are also nouns that have an exceptional zero-grade suffix, e.g. hanuš "jaw" and notoriously ϑeɣā "earth", and some of these could not have had *-s. There are also forms that show simultaneous *-s and the long-grade ending, in some root nouns and the present/aorist active participle *-ōnt-s. Some such forms in root nouns appear to have been results of monosyllabic lengthening, though this process cannot explain the forms that are not monosyllabic.
In Northian, final *-s has been suffixed to animate nouns quite broadly but haphazardly in prehistory, so there is no obvious pattern to its distribution; many words have alternative forms differing by -s. We may distinguish three situations in Northian as to the nom. sing., stems ending in vowel, in resonant, and in non-resonants.
- -s is always present and surfaces as -š after *i- and *u- in animate nouns, and its absence in these stems indicates neuter gender, both instance without regard to ablaut pattern.
- Final *-s was absent in resonant-stems (-m, -n, -r, -l), whose nom. sing. was often signified by lengthened o-grade in OX and PX (though a few nouns have zero-grade). The long final syllable ending in a resonant was then opened, giving rise to -ā̊ and -ō.
- After obstruents the distribution of *-s is not predictable: bā̊ "wife" and ϑənū "body" were asigmatic, but āβrtās "immortality" certainly had *-s.
In OX resonant stems, the lengthened o-grade is altered prehistorically by the opening of closed long syllables ending in a resonant.
voc sing The vocative consists of the bare strong stem in all cases. Where the nom. had *-s it is dropped, and where it did not the voc. is the full- or short-vowel-grade.
acc sing nntr In the proto-language, the accusative ended in *-m and, as the morph contained no vowel, could theoretically not bear an original accent; this rule is violated by the semivowel (i-, u-) stems, where the vocalized vowel usually does bear accent.
Normal ending. In stems ending in non-resonants, the ending is vocalized as -m̥ > -ā̆, length varying according to Cloverdale's law.
Ending after semivowels. For the semivowel i- and u-stems, the accusative singular ended in -in and -um. Technically, these forms violate the normal vocalization pattern, which requires the first sonorant from the right in a sequence of multiple to vocalize when not bordering a true vowel; under this canon words like huiium are expected to be *huuiuuā̆, since both semivowels and nasals are sonorants. Semivowels are not preferred to nasals in vocalization in other places, viz. krauuati vs. karənute (reflex of *-nu- in the proto-language bolded). For this and other considerations, the semivowels are often deemed an anomalous class of athematic nouns, and indeed some view them as i-thematic and u-thematic, respectively, given the observed overriding tendency to preserve the semivowel as vowel at all other costs.
Ending after long vowels. If the stem contained a long vowel, such as effected by compensatory lengthening for the deletion of like consonants or Stang's law after *y, *w, and *m, the deletion of codas yielded -ā̊, -ō, or -ōi, e.g. ziiōi < *dyēm. This is particularly salient in the case of n-stems, where the accusative singular was in long vowel.
loc sing The locative generally took the accusative stem and either added final -i or was endingless. Thus, for PX nouns, the locative and dative were often syncretized. For the effects of -i on the preceding vowel, see dat. sing. entry.
gen sing In OX the gen. singular nearly always ends in -ō < *-os; its consistency led grammarians to consider it a feature of the OX declension. But there are a handful of instances where the genitive ending was -ā, which only occurs sporadically in the environment of *-h₂es > *-ah. Thus, both alloforms of the genitive singular in the parent language were inherited into Northian, but where *-es did not follow *h₂ it was replaced wholesale by *-os, so the original distribution of the two forms cannot be readily detected from Northian.
In PX, the ending *-s when attached to the stem generated a motley of forms, and this (compared to OX) irregularity in turn is deemed the feature of PX nouns. The Northian evidence is important to the phonetic process Szemerényi's law: by its regular operation, final *-s is dropped after resonants and lengthens the preceding vowel, but in Northian as in most languages, restorations are common. In n-stems, *-s was either not dropped or was early on restored and became something like a glottal stop, as in puwaŋh < *ph₂wén-s = fire's; yet in the in- and un-stems, *-s was not restored, resulting in gen. endings -ī and -ū, obtained by *-in-s and *-un-s.
In liquid stems, final *-s is usually retroflexed, as in māϑrš < PEE *meh₂tr̥s. If the stem contained a long vowel, usually indicating a laryngeal, the result is -ā̊ < *-ās, e.g. zñiϑriyā̊. In s-stems, the ending generally disappears, e.g. mā̊ < *mn̥s-s. In the semivowel stems (i- and u-) the ending *-s, obeying Szemerényi's law, disappeared and caused compensatory lengthening. But such long diphthongs in final position, as in other long syllables closed by resonants, lost the final glide, giving in the i-stems the ending *-ei̯-s > -ā and u-stems *-ou̯-s > -ō. For at least the u-stems, the intermediate form *-ōw must have obtained, since a following enclitic *-kʷe delabializes to -ke.
abl sing For all athematic nouns, the ablative singular was syncretized wtih the genitive singular.
dat sing In OX the dat. sigular ending was originally *-ei̯. This ending susceptible to colouring by a preceding *h₂- or *h₃-, as well as the influence of i̯- and *u̯-, to become -ai and -oi respectively.
In PX, the ending was regularly *-i. But this ending was replaced by the OX ending in the i-stems early. For all nasal and laryngeal stems, the ending -i caused a preceding /e/ or /a/ to mutate to /i/ and /ai/ (written <aē>). For stems ending in -n, the -n sandwiched between i became /ñ/. In nouns of the type taēuuī, the ending was full-grade even if the PX endings are otherwise employed, and there it appears after the suffix as -iiaē. In all cases the dat. singular ending following a vowel was a separate syllable. In u-stems, the ending is dropped just like final *-s of the genitive; the result is identical forms for the gen., dat., and loc. in the singular.
ins sing The OX ending -ōi for the ins. singular originated as *-eh₁ in the proto-language. This ending is rarely problematic by phonological processes, but it is liable to be replaced in some stems, e.g. endings -ī and -ū in the i- and u-stems respectively, from the PX declension. The PX ending evolved from *-h₁. This ending was preserved only after plosives as -a. Following resonants, the preceding vowel was lengthened and opened. Following laryngeals, it disappeared.
nom-voc-acc du For animate nouns in plosives and resonant stems, the du. ending for all direct cases in OX was generally -ōi < *-ē, which is coloured in the usual ways to -ā and -ō, which do not mutate. After stems ending in laryngeals, there are concomitant spelling changes. In semivowel stems and all PX stems, the ending -a is visible after only after plosives, as it had the proto-form of *-h₁. After i- and u-stems stems, the ending was dropped causing the preceding vowel to lengthen, e.g. dorū. After laryngeals, it disappeared.
nom-acc du ntr For all neuter nouns, other than the u-stems, the ending was -ī.
'voc du nntr Northian has a unique vocative in the dual, which is -ū, appearing only sometimes. The ancestry of the form is debated, and recent conclusions hold that while superficially similar to loc du -ū, it is associated instead with recessive accent and is not length-variable, suggesting *-u-H, which could be an ablaut variant of something given the recessive accent.
loc du In OX the loc du ending was -ō < *-ou̯. In PX, the ending was -ū, which developed from original *-u lengthened in final position.
gen du The proto-form of the dual genitive is sometimes considered that of the locative with added *-s at the end, borrowed from the singular. Thus in OX the ending was usually -ō < *-ōw < *-ou̯-s, which was identical to the loc. form even in sandhi. But in some instances, the loc. form takes the strong grade stem, which provides a difference with the gen. In PX, the ending was -uš, which like the locative dissimilated to *-āḫ if there was a preceding u. In this case, the ending was -ō. For the feminine nouns ending in *-eh₂, which are athematic in origin, the ending was a special -ō < *-eu̯s; see below.
The gen. du., unlike any of the other oblique cases outside the locative, was sometimes a strong case taking the full grade of the suffix. It has been argued the weak stem was replaced to disambiguate this form from the gen. sing. and that the strong grade was taken over from the collective; if the latter be true, the practice would probably be ancient. But neither explanation has received general acclaim because very few items are attested uniquely in the strong stem.
abl-dat-ins du These three forms were syncretized in Northian as -mō.
nom-voc pl nntr There were two proto-forms here. The simplex ending in full grade was *-es, regularly > -aH. However, if it followed a stem ending in -w or (in some cases) -uH, w-colouring operates and generates -ō instead. A zero-grade version of this ending *-s is also found following -iH and (likely secondarily) -uH. In sandhi, the uncoloured ending can appear as -eš or -ē. The simplex ending -ā is attested only rarely, possibly because it was similar to the thematic nom pl ntr ending -ā.
Instead, the form -aHaH is seen, representing reduplicated < *-es-es.
nom-voc pl ntr The ending prehistorically was *-h₂. After -m, it became -ă, and after any other stop, -i. In the n- and s-stems, the laryngeal dropped and triggered compensatory lengthening of the full-grade suffix vowel. The resulting syllable was subsequently opened and became -ō in the n-stems (fnumō < *pnew-men-h₂) and -ā̊ for es-stems (neβā̊ < *nebʰ-es-h₂). In the i- and u-stems, the ending caused the zero-grade stem vowel to lengthen, resulting in endings -ī and -ū. After another laryngeal, the ending disappeared without a trace, e.g. oštō < *h₁osth₁-h₁.
acc pl nntr This ending was derived from *-m̥s following consonants or *-ms following vowels. In the case of semivowel stems, which occur in the weak grade in this form: for *-i-ms, the resulting ending was just -ī, except uniquely in the word for "three", where it remains as -īš (not *-īs!); for *-u-ms, the outcome was regularly -ū. That the pre-form contained *-ms rather than *-ns is argued to indicate Northian was more archaic than most other daughter languages, which mostly show the reflex of *-ms > *-ns; in Northian, *-ms is diagnosed because at least *-ums seems to have a different reflex than *-uns, which occurs regularly in the wn-stems of nouns and becomes -ənh.
For consonant stems, the vocalization of *-n̥s (not distinguishable in this context from *-m̥s) is regular under Cloverdale's Law, where a syllabic resonant's surface quantity depends on the preceding syllable's (underlying) weight. Thus, where it was underlyingly heavy, the form *-ah > *-ā is created, and where it was light, *-āh > -ā̊ is used instead. Yet due to analogical replacement of the stem, the syllable on which the ending is based is not always present, and so the ending is not synchronically predictable; since the weak stem tends to replace the strong in this position, the combination of a heavy ending with a heavy stem is common. Additionally, a vocalized resonant that is superficially long under Cloverdale's Law still counts as a short vowel for the purposes of other instances of Cloverdale's Law.
Ending in nasal-stems. Since the ending -ms began with a nasal, it is susceptible to assimilation and then deletion in nasal-stems. Thus the acc pl ending of n-stems was -əŋh < *-ens rather than *-enn̥s, while that of the m-stems was (at least originally) -ōi < *-ems rather than *-emm̥s, but the two were interchangeable since early times.
The form of the acc pl was evidently a driving factor in the replacement of the simple nom pl ending, which had also become *-ah under the colouring influence of *-h, and it became reduplicated as *-ahah in most contexts, leaving *-ah as an irregular alternative. The form -ō is used in the laryngeal stems, though it is disputed whether this is merely an orthographical alteration to avoid contraction of like vowels or a genuine sound change.
gen pl The ending was consistently -õm.
abl-dat pl The ending was -muš.
ins pl The ending evidently consisted of the element *-bʰi̯- in the proto-language. It was usually added to *-os > -βiiō, with Sievers's alteration to disyllabic -βiyō following heavy syllables (long vowel or short and two consonants). The disyllabic form was noticeably more common. In demonstratives the equivalent sequence was -βīš or -βiš; it is not completely clear if this was simply an ablaut variant or reflects a different combination of morphemes.
Thematic
| Basic ā-stem endings | Basic o-stem endings | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | ||||
| nom | -ā | -aHī | -aHā e -ā |
-ō | -õm | -ō | -oHī | -ā̊, -aŋhā | -ā |
| voc | -e | ||||||||
| acc | -ā̊ e -ō |
-ā̊ e -ō |
-õm | -ō | |||||
| gen | -āHuš, -aHuš | -aHõm | -ōyō | -ō | -õm | ||||
| loc | -aē | -āHū, -aHū | -āhū | -ōi | -ohū | ||||
| dat | -āmiyā | -āmβiyō | -omyā | -oβyō | |||||
| abl | -aoṯ | -ōṯ | |||||||
| ins | -ā | -āyš | -ō | -oiš | |||||
nom sg The ā-stems showed the expected ending -ā. M. and f. o-stems have -ōḫ < *-os, which scans short at the end of sentences and other pauses. N. o-stems have -õm.
voc sg The ā-stems have the same form as the nom. M. and f. o-stems have -i < *-e, while n. o-stems have the same form as the nom. In both cases, the accent is always retracted to the first syllable of the word.
acc sg for ā-stems is affected by Stang's law, which appears as -ā̊. The ending for m. and f. o-stems is the same as the n., -õm.
loc sg ā-stems have dysyllabic -ayi; o-stems have monosyllabic -oy.
gen sg ā-stems show -ā̊ for *-eh₂-s; o-stems have the compound suffix -ōyo, for *-osyo.
abl sg in ā-stems is dysyllabic aā̊ṯ; the quantity owes to dissimilation.
dat sg ā-stems
ins sg ā-stems
Noun stems
| -C | -t | -m | -n | -r | -s | -i | -u | -ī | -ū | -H | -r/n | -nt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OX-B | About 80 root nouns and suffixed nouns in -k, -l, -ns, -d, etc., fos = "foot", xō = "heart" | A few in -ōs, nepōs "child"; -it melit "honey"; -ut xaput "head" | About 20 feminine, in -ō or -am, xay-ō "winter" | Many, in -ō and -ə̄, often binds m-, s-, t-, i-, u-, H-, θxām-ō "human" | haz-r "arm" and personal, feminizing suffix -ez-r | A handful in -ā̊, awšt-ā̊ "dawn"; the perf. act. ptcpl. wayδuš "knowing" | Some in -ō and -iš, hak-ō "friend, ally", ow-iš = "ewe"; neuter var. in -ai, oxϑ-ay "finger" | A few dozen in -ōš or -uš, han-uš "jaw" | Some in -ī, wrk-ī "wolfess" | A handful in -ū, ϑen-ū "body" | fənδōy, "path" | Derived coll. of heteroclitics, in -r ~ n-, ō-grade in nom. > -ā̊ | A few in -āṯ, dāṯ = "tooth" |
| OX-A | No | Productive suffix -tāt-, āβr-tās "immortality" and -tūt-, wəš-tūs "moistness" | No | Productive, in -ṓ and -ā̊ | Productive through agentive -ter, duhiϑ-ṓ "daughter" | Productive, comparatives in -yā̊- maz-yā̊ "bigger", perf. act. ptcpl. in -wā̊-, βeβiž-wā̊ "trusting" | Verbal nouns, middle, in -doi, št-oi "an eating" | Certain denominal nouns, in -ṓ, piϑr-ṓ "uncle" | Non-ablauting feminine derivatives in -ī́ | No | Certain nouns in -dōy, žβā-dōi "libation-giver" | No | Productive pres. aor. act. ptcpl. of thematic verbs, in -ās hadáʸy-ās "sitting" |
| PX | No | No | No | Productive, neuter var. of OX n-stems, exhibiting same bound suffixes | yāϑr, "husband's sister" | Productive, neuter var. of OX s-stems, in -ō; neβ-ō "cloud", xrat-ō "power" | Productive, animate in -iš, action nouns -tiš, zāt-iš "a step"; neuter in -i, mər-i "sea" | Productive, animate in -uš, wiš-t-úš "witness"; neuter in -ū, oii-ū "life" | Proliferate suffix deriving feminines in -ī; geniϑr-ī "genitrix" | Same as -ī but more common in adjectives, in -ū; hozr-ū "mother-in-law" | bā̊ "wife" | Neuter, in -r ~ n- suffix, yaH-arə "year"; more in -tr, -mr, -zr | No |
| PP | About 30 root and suffixed nouns in obstruent stems | nox-ṯ "night", haš-ṯ "bed", xom-d "hand" | tā̊ "house" | Extended with -n-s, maHā "moon" | māϑ-r "mother", βrāϑ-r "brother" | zraw-š "gore" | aŋhi "serpent" | Neuter nouns in -ū, gon-ū "knee", wəšt-ū "settlement" | Feminine pres. aor. act. ptcpl. with static accent, déδāṯīš "of the giveress" | No | A few, particularly neuter in -i, ošti "bone" | A few, in -r ~ n-, f-ō "shrine" | A few nouns; pres. aor. act. ptcpl. with static accent, déδāṯ "giving" |
As appears from this schematic, most suffixes are associated with more than one accentual pattern. But even in Galic, the majority of suffixes have only one productive accentual pattern or separate productive patterns associated with masculine-feminine gender and neuter gender (the case of the n-stems and s-stems). Additionally, some suffixes are only productive through petrified compounds, which tended to be hysterokinetic and have invariant stems, such as the comparative in -yā̊- and perfect active participle in -wā̊-; otherwise, the s-stems in amphikinetic is non-productive.
Where there are multiple productive accentuation patterns, neuter nouns are almost always identified with the proterokinetic pattern, and masculine-feminine with the hysterokinetic or amphikinetic. The exception is for i-stems and u-stems, wherein proterokinetic accentuation is standard, and particularly productive through the compound with -t.
As is generally observed across all the Erani-Eracuran daughter languages, the suffixes ending in resonants and semivowels, i.e. n-, i-, and u-stems, tend to be productive over the suffixes in stops. There is some speculation why this is the case, one theory being the resonants were able to be vocalized as syllables and thus did not produce illegal clusters of consonants, given the tendency to delete vowels in unaccent positions. It is argued that the compound suffixes, which often mix one stop and one resonant are the results of transferrals from suffixes in stops to those in resonants; if so, these transferrals must have occurred quite early, as their older siblings in stops generally do not leave visible remnants in attested languages.
Unlike verbal formations, where suffixes often have specific meanings and exist as part of the standard morphology of verbs, the meanings of noun suffixes are barely if at all recoverable. Synchronically, there is no obvious meaning to most of the suffixes present in Galic, even the productive ones, above a rudimentary association with certain parts of speech from which a noun is derived. For example, the -tiš nouns most often are nomina actionis derived from verbs, -tuš having a similar function, -tāt and -tūt deriving states of being, but there is no comparable explanation for their common constituent -t-, which appears as an independent suffix in nouns like haš-t and nep-ot.
Adjective stems
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case, within their lexical paradigms. Inasmuch as nouns have differing endings that convey the same number and case, so too do adjectives have lexical paradigms; adjectives do not agree with the paradigms of nouns that they modify.
| -n | -s | -i | -u | -nt | -ā | -o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OX | Masculine forms of adjectives with heteroclitic neuters, in -ṓ, pīuuō "fat, fertile" | 1. Productive es-stem, humen-ā̊ "well-intended", n -ā humen-ā; 2. productive comp in -iiā̊ -išṓ, θəñ-iiā̊ "thinner"; 3. productive pf.act.ptcpl.m in -uuā̊ -ušṓ, tita-uuā̊ "having made", f -uśiiā, n -uš |
No | A handful, in -uš -uuṓ, meδ-uš "sweet" | 1. Productive derivative meaning "rich in, bearing" in -uuā̊, β-uuā̊ "rich in power"; 2. productive pres.act.ptcpl of athm.v with mobile accent in -ā̆t -ā̆tṓ, and of thm.v, in -ṓs -əṇtō |
Masculine and feminine in -ō, some obligatory feminine in -ā, neuter in -õm | |
| PX | No | No | Productive, adjectives in -uš, feminine in -ū or -uuī, neuter -ū, pr̥t-uš pr̥š-wī pr̥t-ū "flat" | Productive, adjectives in -iš, feminine in -yī, neuter -i, hámil-iš hámil-ayī hámil-i "similar" | No | ||
| PP | No | No | No | No | pres.act.ptcpl of athm.v with static accent, mn -ā̆t, -ā̆s, f -ā̆sī, -ā̆sī | ||
Adjectives need to agree with the nouns they modify not only in number and case but also in gender, but forms for each gender may not necessarily be distinct from each other. Synchronically, many adjectives have a single form for animate (both masculine and feminine) referents, and a handful have the same forms for all three grammatical genders. Whether an adjective has distinct forms for each gender is lexical, and there is no obvious semantic difference which appears to condition their presence or absence. The usual historical explanation is that the feminine gender was a late grammatical development and did not always correspond to semantics of biological gender, though the mechanisms of the grammaticalization of the feminine gender is uncertain.
For o-stem adjectives with a masculine nom. sing. terminating in -ō, there is always a separate neuter form ending in -õ. Those which have a distinct, obligatory feminine form will have one ending in -ā. Thus these adjectives are called "three-ending" o-stem adjectives. Those without a distinct, obligatory feminine ending terminate in -ōḫ for both masculine and feminine referents. These are "two-ending" o-stem adjectives. It should be noted that feminine forms of o-stems add the -ā directly to the stem, not after the -o theme vowel; this is in contrast to the *-h₂ stems (see below) which is usually added following an existing suffix.
Adjectives terminating in -n and -s generally do not have distinct forms for masculine and feminine referents, but a handful will have a -ī suffix following the existing suffix to create a distinct feminine form. The netuer form is distinguished from the animate form in one of two manners. It may be by ablaut, taking a short vowel grade when the animate has long grade or taking a zero grade when the animate has short. Or it may be by the absence of final -s in the nominative, where the animate nom. has -s.
Adjectives in -i and -u often have distinct feminine forms ending in -ī, but there are also adjectives which have just one form for animate refernets or even one form for referents of all genders. Furthermore, there are feminine forms which have a long vowel where the masculine has a short vowel, e.g. fem. nom. sing. -ī and -ū, contra masc. nom. sing. -iš and -uš. The long vowel is conditioned by final *-h₂, which is the same as in *-ih₂ > the usual feminizing suffix -ī.
Adjectives in -nt and -wos, mostly participles, create their feminine forms by adding -ī.
There are a few aberrant adjectives not provided above. The k-stem adjective mera-xš "soft" shows amphikinetic pattern, while the t-stem duš-ṯ "bad" has acrostatic pattern. The item máz-š "big" has a stem ending in laryngeal.
There is also a class of heteroclitic adjectives based on heteroclitic nouns, which are all neuter except hāuuərə "Sun", a feminine term. Those heteroclitic items which have PP inflection take the PX inflection for their primary adjectival forms, which are also neuter and have zero grade in the suffix. The masculine form is produced by adding OX n-stem endings, and the feminine by the -ī suffix to the neuter form. In the feminine, the heteroclitic suffix has full grade and the suffix zero grade in the strong cases, and vice versa in the oblique cases.
It has been noted that adjectives often show a different ablaut pattern compared to nouns derived from the same stems. That is to say, a noun with proparoxytone or paroxytone accent can often respectively form an adjective of similar meaning with a paroxytone or oxytone accent or oxytone accent. The source of this derivation is academically debated but remained visible and productive in Northian.
All Nordic languages have an extant distinction or some vestige of it between strong and weak declensions for the same adjective, where the "strong" represents the adjective's inherited declension and the "weak" its declension as an n-stem. This is not true of Northian, which lacks a weak declension.
Numerals
1 – 4
Cardinal numbers one through four are declinable as athematic adjectives of various declensional patterns, agreeing with the nouns (explicit or implicit) they modify in gender, case, and number. Of course, "one" is only inflected in the singular, "two" in the dual, and "three" and "four" in the plural. Numbers five and above are indeclinable.
| "one" | "two" | "three" | "four" | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m | n | f | m | n | f | m | n | f | m | n | f | |
| nom | hā̊ | hõ | hámī | swō | duHā, tuHī | ϑráiiā | ϑrī́ | ϑrižrā | koswárā lg koswóraŋhā |
kótur | kóswr̥žrā | |
| voc | hõ | |||||||||||
| acc | hā̊ | ϑrī́s | ϑrižrā̊ | koswárā̊ | kóswr̥žrā̊ | |||||||
| loc | hám | hāyaHā lg hāyaHē |
duHā | duHō | ϑrištū | ϑrižr̥štū | kóswr̥štū | kóswr̥žr̥štū | ||||
| dat | zmā lg mē |
dumō | duHāmō | ϑrimuš | ϑrižr̥muš | kóswr̥muš | kóswr̥žr̥muš | |||||
| abl | zmō lg mō |
hāyā̊ lg hāyaHē | ||||||||||
| gen | duHō | duHaHuš | ϑriyõ | ϑrižrõ | kóturõ | kóswr̥žrõ | ||||||
| ins | zmōi lg mōi |
hmiHā | dumī | duHā | ϑrimβiiō | ϑrižr̥βiiō | kóswr̥βiiō | kóswr̥žr̥βiiō | ||||
1 is a root noun with a stem ending in -m. As with other stems ending in -m, the accusative preform *sem-m̥ would by regular phonetic change become *sēm, i.e. the same as nominative *sēm, because the PEE ending *-m̥ regularly absorbs the previous resonant, hence also nom. syō but acc. syā̊; in the number, -am is often but not always restored. In the oblique cases, the stem is in zero grade and appears as hm- < *sm-. If the position requires the /m/ to be vocalized, the result is the hā-, such as seen in feminine forms with accent over the suffix; these are a perfect match with Syaran μιᾶς = hāyā̊ , etc.
2 is only declined in the dual number. There are two stems in use: the full-grade zwo- and zero-grade tuH-. The feminine form nom tuHā only appears sporadically..
3 is a regular i-stem and is only declined in the plural. Nom. ϑráiiā shows regular development of *e > a bordering yod. As with others, the accusative plural has a zero-grade suffix followed by a zero-grade ending: *tri-ns > ϑrī́s. The sequence *-ins developed irregularly, usually appearing as -ī in Northian; alternatively it may reflect a more archaic *tri-m-s, without assimilation in the ending. It is a notorious false friend to Nordic þrīz, which was not the accusative but the nominative = Northian ϑráiiā. The feminine forms employ the feminizing infix -sr-, which is always found in the zero grade, and take regular athematic endings. There is also a particular form for three women or goddesses, as in ϑaewiyā ϑraežrā "three goddesses".
4 behaves like most athematic nouns and also employs the feminizing infix -sr- for its feminine forms. Note however that the ablauting element was the second syllable of the stem -tuuor-, which in zero grade appears would be -tuur-. Which of the two resonants vocalize depends on the phonetic environment. Where the suffix stands alone the *-w- is vocalized, as in neuter nominative kotur < *kʷetw̥r, but where an obstruent follows the suffix it is the *-r- that becomes syllabic, as in kóśwr̥muš < *kʷetwr̥mus. There was also a singular form košuuō < *kʷetwōr = Venetian quattuor.
The feminine forms for "four" have the particularly long stem of koswr̥-žr̥-, which is for *kʷétwr̥-sr̥- where the ending begins with a consonant. The masculine stem for "four" frequently supplants the feminine owing to the sheer length of the etymological stem, which is metrically unusable. Note that the accent is on the suffix syllable in the strong forms owing to the effects of the eponymous kʷetwóres rule, which shifts the accent from a preceding *e to the following *o if followed by only one other syllable.
5 and higher
5 pəṇto is from *pénkʷe.
6 xšwaxš from *kswéks, a match with Xevdenite xšuuah.
7 hafθa from *septm̥.
8 oxθō, the proto-form of this word is disputed. Northian oxθō can be traced back to both *(H)oktow and *(H)oktoH, with or without an initial laryngeal; the form with initial laryngeal is preferred on root phonotactic grounds, since most vowel-initial words can be shown to have had an initial laryngeal. Morphologically, it is the dual of óxθō "fingers", in ei-stem.
9 nauuā
10 tegā
Pronouns
First person
| sing | du | pl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tonic | enclitic | tonic | enclitic | tonic | enclitic | |
| nom | áxa, áɣā̊, ázəm | wō | wāy | |||
| acc | mḗ | mi | āŋhō | nō | ə̄mmé | nā |
| gen | méni | mai | nō | áŋrō | ||
| dat | mézya | nanā́ | ā̊(s) | |||
nom sg The term for "I", usually áxa, comes from Erani-Eracuran *éǵ-h₂, with regular devoicing of a stop before *h₂. The long form áɣā̊ must have *éǵ-ōm, without laryngeal, but cognate extensions to the pronoun with this suffix all have the laryngeal. This would suggest that an unattested Northian form of *ák < *éǵ may have existed independently for the suffix to be added.
Second person
| sing | du | pl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stressed | enclitic | stressed | enclitic | stressed | enclitic | |
| nom | tū́ | yṓ | yā̊ | |||
| acc | swe | ti | ūmé | wō | ušpé | wā̊ |
| gen | ϑáya | toi | yuϑr- | yušr- | ||
| dat | ϑə̄mβyō | wanā́ | ušmái | |||
Demonstrative
| sing | du | pl | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m | n | f | m | n | f | m | n | f | |
| nom | ha | ϑaṯ | hā | ϑō | ϑoyī | ϑāyī | ϑoi | ϑa | ϑai |
| acc | ϑõm | ϑā̊ | ϑā̊ | ϑáō | |||||
| loc | ϑoi | ϑahiiai | ϑṓhō | ϑohū | ϑāhū | ||||
| gen | ϑōiio | ϑahiiā̊ | ϑṓhōš | ϑoiiõm | ϑāõm | ||||
| dat | ϑōžmōi | ϑahiiayi | ϑṓzma | ϑoiiomuš | ϑāmuš | ||||
| ins | ϑō | ϑahiiā | ϑoiiomβīš | ϑāβīš | |||||
Interrogative
| sing | du | pl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m f | n | m f | n | m f | n | |
| nom | kiš | kiṯ | kə̄ | ϑoi | ϑa | |
| acc | kim | ϑā̊ | ||||
| loc | kāsmi | kiyō | ϑohū | |||
| gen | kāiio | kiyōš | ϑoiiõm | |||
| dat | kāsmai | kimō | ϑoiiomuš | |||
| abl | kāṯ | ϑoiiõm | ||||
| ins | koi | ϑoiiomβīš | ||||
Indefinite article
The Northian indefinite article, which introduces an indefininte noun phrase, is derived from the PEE root *oywos, meaning "one". Note that the endings are those of demonstratives.
| aiwō, "a, an" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| M & F | N | ||
| nom | aiwō | aiwó | |
| voc | |||
| acc | aiwõm | ||
| loc | aiwōi | ||
| dat | |||
| abl | aiwōṯ | ||
| gen | aiwōiš | ||
| ins | aiwō | ||
Verbs
Paradigm
Unlike nouns, multiple derivations of the same verb root may be considered the same lexical item, whereas nouns are restricted to one derivation, and a different derivation creates lexically distinct noun. It is thus necessary to describe the relationship between the various derivations as a complete system.
According to the canonical description of the Erani-Eracuran verb, each root may form one stem in each of the three grammatical aspects called primary derivations, while the root itself may stand as a stem within an "inherent" or "lexical" aspect assigned (largely arbitrarily) to it. Thus, for example, an aorist root like štaˀ- "stand" may form a stem with no further alteration that has aorist aspect, since it is the same as the lexical aspect of the root. To use this root in a different aspect, some sort of marker is necessary to denote those aspects, and in this behalf are attested the present stem štaˀ-u-, with suffix -u-, and perfect stem teštō̆ˀ-, with reduplication and o-grade root.
Apart from the stems that encode grammatical aspects, secondary derivations provide more specific meanings. The canonical difference with primary derivations is that secondary derivations 1) are all aspectually present and 2) cannot derive modal stems containing its derivational marker; thus, while they may have significant semantic departures from any of the primary formations, they are grammatically still dependent on the root's primary formations to express those meanings. This mandatory present aspect is only grammatical and rarely semantic, and in later stages of the language the restriction is altogether abandoned. In Early Galic, the secondary verbs did not form injunctives, subjunctives, and optatives but did form imperfects and imperatives, as well as participles and infinitives.
While this structure holds true in varying degrees for most Erani-Eracuran languages, the very most archaic forms of the daughters often show clues that the canonical structure may reflect a basic prohibition of multiple derivative markers upon a root, rather than a more elaborate system within the parent language. These clues are corroborated by the system's own idiosyncratic peculiarities. The particulars more fully appears elsewhere in this and related articles.
The various secondary derivations generally behaved as tenses in the Gales, but in the Epics they often became independent stems to which a variety of tenses were formed. That is, in abstract terms, the secondary derivations have been promoted to primary status by the Epic period and were thus permitted to form their own modal forms. After all, if a passive form existed and evolved to be completely parallel to the active and middle, then there appeared to be little reason why it should not form a corresponding imperfect, subjunctive, optative, etc. Looking backwards in time, some have commented that the non-root primary forms behave more like secondary forms in the Pre- and Early Galic periods, largely defective in modal formations. Thus, the evolution of the basic verbal grammar seems to be a gradual extension of cross-classification or permutations of various attributes, reaching the canonical Erani-Eracuran form in the Late Galic period and exceeding it in the Epic age.
Tenses attested in Early Galic are in bold; in Late Galic, in normal face; in the Epics, in italics.
| Present stem | Aorist stem | Perfect stem | Root |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present indicative | |||
| Present injunctive | Aorist injunctive | Perfect injunctive | Prohibitive |
| Imperfect | Aorist | Pluperfect | |
| Perfect | |||
| Present optative | Aorist optative | Perfect optative | |
| Present subjunctive | Aorist subjunctive | Perfect subjunctive | First subjunctive |
| Present imperative | Aorist imperative | Perfect imperative | |
| Future imperative | Aorist future imperative | Perfect future imperative | |
| Derivatives | |||
| Passive I (stem) | Passive II (stem) | Future perfect (stem) Perfect passive (stem) |
Desiderative Inchoative Future Causative |
| Denominative Stative | |||
| Non-finite forms | |||
| Present active participle | Aorist active participle | ||
| Perfect active participle | |||
| Present middle participle | Aorist middle participle | Perfect middle participle | |
| Present active infinitive | Aorist active infinitive | ||
| Perfect active infinitive | |||
| Present middle infinitive | Aorist middle infinitive | Perfect middle infinitive | |
Voice
There are two sets of endings that encode the grammatical "active" and "middle" voices, attached to stems, to form the finite verb. For the majority of verbs, the active voice placed the nominative subject of the sentence in the position of agent, which acted upon an accusative patient, while the middle voice of the same usually indicated the subject was somehow affected or benefited by its own action, i.e. has a position as patient as well. Such verbs, where the meaning of the middle is a modification of the active, are called active verbs. However, there is also a sizeable group of verbs that either did not have an active voice or had one that modified the meaning of the middle; such are called media tantum verbs. While linguists prefer to see a transitivity-based distinction between the active and middle verbs, many media tantum have transitive meanings and take accusative objects.
Clues found in old Northian deponents have been interpreted to suggest, at a very early stage of the parent language, stems once took either set of endings, but not both. Some old middle forms that complement active verbs demonstrate a surprising degree of "independence" from the form of the active; for example, G.Nr. 771 has tuzitay "it lactates", with zero-grade root, in present middle, while the active has tuzinawši "thou milkst" with the nu-suffix. tuzi- "milk" is a root of aorist origin, but its present active and middle forms have been created by separate primary derivational processes. Some words appear to be aorist middle forms with the hic et nunc particle -i added, where such a particle is proper only to present stems. Some hold this peculiarity to obtain that deponent verbs may not have had an original aspectual distinction between present and aorist.
Attinger argued there are at least three possible origins of middle forms, 1) formed directly from an active, 2) media tantum, and 3) derived separately from the active and subsequently paired with it. This classification was originally aimed at ablaut aberrancy of the middle compared to the active: according to him, only class 1 middle forms consistently took the weak grade of the active stem "because only they were formed on the basis of the active". But if lexically active and middle verbs were originally exclusive, and if actives secondarily acquired class 1 middle forms, it has been asked if middles also secondarily acquired active forms. That opposite process has however proven much more elusive. To date, there are few plausible examples of such a transition, though the absence of ablaut in a handful active stems could be attributed to the middle.
Endings
Athematic I & II
The athematic verb endings, like their noun counterparts, are directly attached to the verbal stem without an intervening theme vowel. The primary endings are used for the present indicative and all subjunctives, and the secondary endings for the aorist indicative and all injunctives, imperfects, and (with the suffix) the optative. As is clear, outside of the present indicative, the present and aorist stems take the same set of endings, and their distinction consequently lies in the stem itself.
In the two following charts, this convention is observed: where variant endings are conditioned by surrounding phonetic environment, they are separated by the tilde, and where they are instead conditioned by ablaut or another unanalyzable process, by the comma instead. We may reason that environmental variations were more transparent to ancient Northians, as these mostly represent post-Erani-Eracuran phonetic divergences, while ablaut variations had become more opaque as its conditioning factor had become non-operational by the last phase of the proto-language. Thus, phonetic variations have tended to resist levelling for longer, while ablaut variations tended to disappear over time.
The most important ablaut variation in endings comes in the mid 2 & 3du and act 3pl; of these, the more frequently used 3pl survived longer. At least in the 3pl ablaut variation was more conservatively observed, since in the extension of the *-(e)nt marker of the active to the middle, the zero-grade morph *-n̥t is always selected in the Gales acknowledging and in front of the accented ending -o. The dual variations are only imperfectly observed in the Gales, while two morphs of the act 1pl are only marginally associated with ablaut patterns.
| Primary active | Primary middle | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | |||||
| trans | intrans | trans | intrans | trans | intrans | |||||
| 1p | -mi | -wəni ~ uwəni lg -ūni |
-máŋhi, -maʸhi | 1p | -ā | -wōδi ~ uwōδi | -mōihi lg -māhi | |||
| 2p | -si ~ hi ~ ši | -tā | -te, -e | 2p | -tā | -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi | -ϑūwə ~ ϑuwə ~ huwə lg -ϑū ~ hū | |||
| 3p | -ti ~ si | -tā, -zā | -əṇti, -ā̆si lg -ənti, -ā̆si |
3p | -tō | -ó | -(i)ϑā | -ā | -ā̆zrō lg -ārē |
-ro, -rō |
| Secondary active | Secondary middle | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | |||||
| trans | intrans | trans | intrans | trans | intrans | |||||
| 1p | -ā̆ ~ m | -wə ~ uwə lg -ū |
-me | 1p | -a | -wohi ~ uwohi | -maʸhi | |||
| 2p | -h ~ š | -tõm | -te, -e | 2p | -ta | -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi | -ϑuwə ~ huwə lg -ϑū ~ hū | |||
| 3p | -t ~ s | -tā̊ | -ən, -ā̆ṯ, -r lg -ən, -as |
3p | -to | -o | -āϑā, -(i)ϑā | -ā, -i | -ā̆zro lg -ā̆zro |
-ro |
1 sing The primary and secondary active endings differ with the hic et nunc particle *-i in the proro-language, for the singular active. The element m is accepted in mainstream reconstructions of Proto-Erani-Eracuran to signify the first person. As -m is a resonant, the ending -i in the primary conjugation can trigger mutation in the preceding syllable, particularly apparently in a syllable generated by an interconsonantal laryngeal. In the secondary conjugation, final -m can vocalize to -ā̆ if following a stop. But if the verb stem ended in a full- or long-grade vowel plus resonant, the final -m triggers Stang's law resulting in a lengthened vowel that subsequently loses the final -m. In late texts, this -m is usually restored following the long vowel.
In the middle voice, the ending evolves from *-h₂ey > -ay. This ending is agnostic as to any preceding laryngeal. The secondary middle ending loses the hic et nunc particle, as with the rest of the singular middle.
2 sing In the primary conjugation, the signifying element of the active second singular *s can become [h] or [š] depending on the phonetic context; if the latter, epenthetic [t] is introduced to separate it from the following -i. In secondary sequence it usually triggers compensatory lengthening in resonant stems. In the case of *-H or semivowel stems, it usually becomes identical to the 1 sg form, but in contrast thereto, final -s is never restored.
The middle ending here is *-th₂ey > -tai. If there is a preceding laryngeal, it appears as -itai.
3 sing This -ti ending is usually retained in the primary conjugation. If the stem ended in a dental, the ending was liable to mutate in several ways. In the secondary, -t can displace preceding stops or be dropped in some contexts.
The middle ending of the third singular depends on the meaning of the word and the stem used, which is peculiar. In root verbs and many stem-classes, a middle verb with intransitive menaing will take the ending -o, and those with transitive meaning, -toi. In other cases, such as the -naō ~ nu- stems, the ending -toi is always used, regardless of meaning. If a laryngeal preceded the ending, it appears as -itoi. Where the ending is not accented, it appears as trans. -itai or intrans. -a.
1 du The primary active ending is from *-wen-i and appears as accented -uuóni and unaccented -uuiñi. If a laryngean preceded the ending, it became *-u-weni, whereupon nasalization induced -u-mβóni.
In the middle, the form -wṓδa < *-wesdʰh₂ is found.
2 du Here the active ending -tāḫ is for *-th₂es. An epenthentic -s- is sometimes found if the stem ended in a dental to avoid a sequence of two dentals together, and the resulting combination is sometimes resolved to prehistoric *-ss-. But this was not a universal phenomenon, and sometimes the geminate dental either drops or evne surfaces. Such examples are often interpreted by analogical restoration. Secondary -tõm is found in the middle for *-tom.
The middle ending is -ātiϑayi, which is structurally complex and the subject of much debate. First, the final -i must have been added only after the final laryngeal vocalized; otherwise, the monosyllabic ending *-ϑi would be expected for *-dʰH-i; indeed, it is often omitted in Galic. The element -ϑa- is often considered identical to that found in the 1 pl mid ending -mōi-δa, with the initial dental devoiced following a laryngeal reflected as -i-. That this element should be deemed a particle is clarified by the development of 1 pl mid -mōi-δa < *-mes-dʰH, which is only regular word-finally, and also that it is shared with the 1 du mid ending. The distinct part of the ending is thus -āti-, which has the zero-grade variant -(i)ti that appears after roots with persistent accent. The element -ti- < *-tH- has been identified as a zero-grade variant of the Kankrit 2 pl act ending -tha < *-tHe.
Curiously, Northian presents both parallel and contradictory information to Kankrit comparanda, which has 2 du mid primary athematic -āthai̯ and thematic -a-i̯thai̯. Kankrit has distinct secondary -ātham, while Northian attests no distinct secondary form. If the particle -ϑa- were to be omitted in Northian, the resulting sequence *-ātiyi would be very similar in structure to the Kankrit, especially if a full-grade vowel can be posited in the second syllable and superficially deleted in unaccented position. Disputes cloud the identification of the first part of the ending, which behaves differently in both languages. In Kankrit, the variant appearing after the thematic vowel cannot be identified as a laryngeal, but that is nearly required in Northian.
3 du -tāʰ reflects *-tes. As with all endings which begin with /t/, it is liable to an epenthetic -s- following another dental. There is thus a superficial identity between the 2 du and 3 du primary endings; this identity was often extended to the secondary where it is not a regular outcome in later materials, usually at the expense of the 2 du ending, which was apparently less frequently used.
The secondary ending is -tā̊ < *tām < *teh₂m. The -m ending is confirmed by the co-ordinating imperative ending, which shows the particle -u attached, producing *-tā́mū.
In the middle, this personal form is also sensitive to the transitivity of the verb stem. Where the 3 sg & pl forms require transitive endings, this form will canonically take the ending -ātā, and the intransitive ending is -ā, with the particle -i added in the primary sequence. But in the received text, -ātā is often seen in place of expected -ā; considering they have a differing number of syllables, this could hardly be a metrical alteration.
1 pl In the primary active one finds -məŋhi < *-mensi. This is usually explained as a concactenation of the 1 pl. suffix *-men plus the (redundant) plural marker *-s, with the hic et nunc particle *-i. For verbs with recessive accent, a different form -maʸhi is used; this would be from *-mesi. The secondary form is always -mo.
The subjunctive does not take the normal primary ending of -máŋhi but rather the ending -omōhi, which is best explained as the thematic ending -omō plus the segment -hi extracted from the athematic.
In the primary middle, the ending -mōyδi is encountered, usually thought to be for *-mesdʰh₂. The expected phonetic outcome is *-mezδi > *-mēδi, but it seems the *z was elided in such a way that it caused the preceding vowel to lengthen, which then resolved as though it were at the end of a word *-ē > -ōy. Alternatively, the ending could have been -meh₁dʰh₂, which would produce the same result. In either event, it indicates the *-dʰh₂ could have been considered an independent particle, thus triggering the word-final phonetic change for the long vowel. While *-mes is preferred in the interest of comparison to archaic Syaran -μέσθα, *-meh₁ would compare very well with the 1 pl perf ending -mōy < *-meH.
In the secondary, the ending was -máha is used.
2 pl The allomorphs are -te or -se after vowels. About half of the time the primary ending shows -te even after vowels, which has been interpreted as a sign that the primary ending shared the same of *-tHe as in Kankrit, but as it only occurs as an alternative, the Northian readings permits but does not require it as the ending proper to the primary. The secondary endings are identical except for the xaŋzat-aorists, where it is merely -e and subjec to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
The middle endings primary -dūvó and secondary -duvó has caused some controversy amongst academics as its provenance is open to many interpretations. No other Erani-Eracuran language attests a difference between primary and secondary endings in this position, and much Galic material also does not distinguish between them. But in the Early Galic, -dūvó is clearly preferred as the primary ending, being attested ten times over the two times of -duvó. In secondary sequence, -dūvó never appears at all. Some prefer to see the length difference as militated by that found in the 1 pl, where the elision of *-z created a long vowel in the primary but not the secondary. But the quantitative difference did not disappear in that form, while the putatively connected contrast disappeared rapidly.
The general shape of these two endings also require some comment. The u-vocalism itself could have two origins. First, as in Kankrit, it could be attributed to a form of Sievers's law that created a syllabic *u before non-syllabic *w following a heavy syllable, but this variety of Sievers's law did not operate generally in Northian. Second, the pre-form *-dʰh₂wé would regularly vocalize as *-δiwó > -δuwó, since /i/ before /u/ is always assimilated to it. Because *w always follows two consonants and thus a heavy syllable, the Sievers's form *-dʰh₂uwé is generated, which has been argued as the source of primary -dūwó by way of metathesis to *-dʰuh₂wé, though this hypothesis creates the absence of the metathesis restricted to secondary -duwó.
3 pl In the active, the ending -ən(ti) is used, which is -ant(i) if following h- or *h₂-. Note that final -t seems to be regularly dropped after -ən. In verbs with persistent accent, this ending takes the zero-grade form of *-n̥t > -ā̆t(i); some preceding vowels are altered by the vocalized nasal. There is a specialized form -r that appears in the aorist injunctive and optative of xaŋzat verbs, a special class of root aorist verbs that have full-grade root throughout, and the present indicative of most i- and u-stem verbs, i.e. 3 pl -ir and -ur. Where -r does not follow a semivowel, it is vocalic and written <arə> word-finally, i.e. <xáŋhiyarə> xáŋhiˀr̥ (the optative suffix ended in a laryngeal, not -i).
For the middle voice, there are several endings that share (what is usually interpreted as) a morpheme *-r. Most present, and all derivative, stems show -ntro, but a few merely -ro. This -r in -ro is thought to be connected in some wise to the active ending -r mentioned above. The ending is furthermore found in the same place in the perfect. It is thus unclear in which direction the borrowing occurred.
Thematic I and II
The primary and secondary thematic endings include a theme vowel between the stem and the ending-proper, varying between *e ~ o. The thematic endings formally differ in the 1 & 2 sing from the athematic ones but are transparently the same, with the addition of the theme vowel, in others. It is still a matter of active debate what the contrast between athematic and thematic endings was in the proto-language. The primary and secondary thematic endings are used in present and aorist stems in the same manner as the athematic ones, with the addition of the same thematic vowel.
| Thematic active endings | Thematic middle endings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | ||
| 1p | -ō | -owō | -əmōhi | 1p | -oHā | -owōδi | -əmōihi |
| 2p | -ā | -etā | -ete | 2p | -etā | -etiϑi | -eδuwə |
| 3p | -esi | -əṇti | 3p | -etō | -etā | -əṇtō | |
1 sg The first singular active ending is -ō. The middle ending is -oay for *o-h₂e-y—the ending is always disyllabic in Galic.
2 sg The ending for the second active singular is -aꜤi. The middle ending is the same as the athematic one, with the theme vowel /e/ inserted.
3 sg In the third singular one finds the ending -eyi; note that this ending is disyllabic, unlike that of the second singular; ditto for the middle.
1 - 3 du and 1, 2 pl For all these items the thematic forms are the same as the athematic ones, with thematic /e ~ o/ added.
1 pl Ending -omōhi does not show -s, in contrast to the 1 du.
3 pl The endings here are active -o and middle -ō.
Thematic secondary endings, active or middle, are all the same as athematic ones, with thematic vowel inserted in like manner as the primary.
Imperative
The imperative in Northian does not have opposition between primary and secondary. It is observed that the imperative usually implies immediacy, while the stem has aspectual value regarding the action required. The first person imperative is always defective: a speaker expressing a requirement for oneself would use the future tense. For all dual forms, the imperative is the same as the indicative, there being no sign that these ever had distinct imperative endings in Northian.
| Athematic imperative active endings | Athematic imperative middle endings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | |||||
| trans | intrans | trans | intrans | trans | intrans | |||||
| 2p | -δi ~ ϑi ~ zi, -Ø | -tā | -te, -se, -s | 2p | -(s)wə | -ātiϑi | -duwə | |||
| 3p | -tū | -tāmū, -(s)mū | -əṇtū, -ā̆tū | 3p | -te | -e | -tā | -ātā | -əṇtro | -ro |
2 sg either endingless or *-dʰí, which normally yielded -δí. A preceding laryngeal devoices the voiced stop and disappears, giving -ϑí. All nasal-suffix verbs (but not the nasal infix) have the endingless form.
2 du & pl endings mimic the indicative endings; suffixed verbs drop the suffix.
3 sg & du appear to be the corresponding secondary ending plus the particle *-u, which is used in all 3p forms. The act 3du in some verbs was recessively accented, and this formation -smū must reflect a zero-grade morph *-th₂m-u.
3 pl has the variable vowel quality as in the secondary ending, which is -antū if the stem ended in *-h₂, and the zero-grade form -ā̆tū if the accent was in the stem.
The imperative forms for thematic verbs are as follows:
| Thematic imperative active endings | Thematic imperative middle endings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | sing | du | pl | ||
| 2p | -Ø | -etā | -esi | 2p | -ēwə | -ātiθi | -ezwə |
| 3p | -etū | -etāmū | -əṇtū | 3p | -eta | -ā̊tā | -əṇtro |
Only a few forms require comment due to the homogeneity to the athematic forms.
2 pl has the active ending -esi, which shows *t fricativized before *i.
3 pl does not have the variable vowel or ablaut as the ending reflects invariant *-onto, which is not susceptible to laryngeal influence. Nevertheless, some thematic verbs do secondarily display -aṇtrō, particularly if they are thematizations of pre-existing athematic stems that have -aṇtrō in this position.
Perfect
The perfect was an athematic formation, irrespective of the thematicity of the present or aorist stems. For the relatively tame verbal system of Northian that tends to agree with the Tennite and Syaran evidence, the evolution of the Northian prefect has been the subject of most attention.
The perfect system is structurally different to the present and aorist as far as the modal forms are concerned. Whereas the present and aorist stems use the same set primary and secondary indicative endings to form its subjunctive and optative moods, the endings of the perfect indicative do not reprise in the perfect subjunctive and optative. Thus, the perfect subjunctive and perfect optative are regarded as analogous formations on the model of the present/aorist subjunctives and optatives.
Some scholars argue for the existence of two parallel conjugations in the perfect system, representing roots of present or aorist origins. The two conjugations would be diagnosed by their ablaut patterns and their endings in the dual and plural, with the present-origin verbs having the o-grade stem in the singular and the zero-grade elsewhere, and the aorist-origin ones having the o-grade stem everywhere other than the 3 pl. Should it have been true at some point, such a situation is necessarily a Pre-Galic one, though it does explain the indeterminacy of the vocalism of the 1 & 2 pl in early Galic with considerable success. But since this theory requires the perfect to be (at least in part) a derivative strategy, it is not accepted by those who maintain a tripartite aspectual system of the Erani-Eracuran verb.
| Perfect endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | |
| 1p | -a | -wōi | -mōi |
| 2p | -ta | -Hōt, -ātō | -ōi, -ā, -ō |
| 3p | -e | -Htō, -ātō | -ṓ |
1 & 2 sg of the perfect are the same as secondary forms of the middle voice.
3 sg has *-e as opposed to middle *-o, which makes it very probable they are ablaut variants of each other. This ending is susceptible to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
1 du has -wōi in attested texts, but this cannot lead back to *-weH in the same way that 1 pl -mōy leads to *-meH, because in this environment the *e always becomes *o and would give *-wō. The ending also cannot reflect an unmotivated *-wōi, since this would also regularly become *-wō. The final long vowel is best thought as contamination from the 1 pl, and not a very early one.
2 du has two forms, -ātō which is seen everywhere and -Hōt which is only seen in G1. The former is not sensitive to the weight of the previous syllable, which means the long vowel must contain -eh₂. The latter is archaic but unfortunately opaque; some have interpreted it as *-h₃eH-t, but in this position it cannot be confirmed. There is also disagreement whether the two alloforms have any connection with each other, particularly around the element -t-.
3 du also has two forms, -ātō and -Htō in the same distribution. While the former is superficially the same as with the corresponding 2 du form, this need not be the underlying situation, in principle.
2 pl is usually reconstructed as *-e-H, the first segment apparently being the same as the 3 sg ending. The additional laryngeal is of uncertain origin and has spread to the 1 pl and possibly 1 du. In this regard, Kankrit retains the original state of affairs, while Northian introduced alterations. As it contains an exposed *e, this ending is also subject to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
Perfect and pluperfect imperative
Uniquely, Northian has specialized perfect imperative forms, all of which are poorly attested. The perfect stem is also used with conventional imperative endings, termed the pluperfect imperative because some of its forms resemble those of the pluperfect. There appears to be little difference between the meaning of the two formations, and there is no obvious distinction between stems that take the perfect or pluperfect imperatives.
| Perfect imperative endings | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| sing | du | pl | |
| 2p | -ti | ? | -s |
| 3p | ? | ? | -ō |
Very little has been firmly adduced from these forms, and they depart greatly from analogous forms in the present and aorist. At the very least, it is clear that prehistoric Northian placed the perfect in its own category and not in parallel to the present and aorist; its re-characterization as a parallel category was a process already complete by the Late Galic period, when perfect imperatives exhibited the regular endings found in the present and aorist, that is to say the pluperfect imperative has become dominant.
The 2 sg ending -ti could in principle represent *-ti just as the athematic present indicative, though there is no motivation for the ending here. It could also represent *-tH, or more specifically *-th₂, as seen in the perfect ending *-th₂e. The 2 pl ending -s is connected to a variety of forms in the most archaic daughter languages and is sure to be a relic of great antiquity. Unfortunately, much of the paradigm of the perfect imperative is missing.
There are a handful of instances of strangely-placed perfect participles that have been often interpreted as periphrastic forms of the imperative. One such is ēwā̊ < *h₁eh₁swōs.
Moods
Subjunctive
| Mood | % |
|---|---|
| Indicative | 32 |
| Injunctive | 29 |
| Imperative | 20 |
| Subjunctive | 15 |
| Optative | 4 |
The subjunctive mood had a variety of functions in Galic. In direct discourse, the subjunctive most often expresses "neutral potentiality" without indicating the speaker's personal wish, standing in contrast to the optative that does so. In subordinate clauses, the subjunctive often expresses futurity rather than mere potentiality.
It is agreed the sine qua non of the subjunctive, across the Erani-Eracuran languages, is the thematic vowel, which in most daughter languages was added directly to the full-grade stem. In Early Galic, there is more diversity. In the past, it was often thought the modal stem was an innovation tending towards abbreviation from the indicative, but more recent scholarship has preferred to view the indicative stem as more innovative and the subjunctive stem, which is frequently the same as the injunctive, as more basal. Differences in modal stems were levelled out in the transition from the Galic language to the Epic language by 650 BCE, always in favour of the indicative, and so a distinct subjunctive stem is also called the "Galic subjunctive".
A curious phenomenon in Galic is that some aorist verbs have the accented o-grade of the root, followed by the thematic vowel and primary endings. This is called a type-III subjunctive. Most xaŋzat-aorists have this kind of subjunctive, which is understandable if it is understood the ancestral paradigm of this class had o-grade in all positions other than the 3 pl. But some root aorists of the m-type also unpredictably have this subjunctive. The perfect subjunctive, where it appears, never has the o-grade of the root, even though the o-grade is compulsorily present in the perfect indicative. Thus, the quality of the strong grade of the root vowel cannot be firmly associated with that of the subjunctive.
A type-IV subjunctive also existed, binding the thematic endings to the zero-grade of the root. The origin of this class is unresolved, as nowhere in the family is anything comparable; some take it as a formation based on the optative, though motivation thither is unclear.
In the Tennite languages, primary and secondary endings are applied to the subjunctive stem without discrimination or an obvious difference in meaning, while the other daughters exclusively apply the primary endings. This anomaly of the Tennite languages reminisces of the subjunctive endings used in Galic Northian, which are primary only by the addition of the hic et nunc particle *-i to the secondary thematic endings. "Genuine" primary endings are associated with the athematic indicative, partiuclarly 1 du ending -woiñi and 1 pl -məŋhi, contra subjunctive -owōhi and -əmōhi.
The subjunctive was a reasonably frequent formation in Galic text, particularly in Late Galic, where around 15% of all verbs are subjunctive, compared to around 4% or so that are optatives. They are both dwarfed by the injunctive, which occupies 29% of all finite forms in Galic. The mode receded in importance after the Galic period, seemingly together with the injunctive, being replaced by the optative in most contexts.
Optative
The optative is the other principal modality apart from the subjunctive. In terms of functionality, it expresses the wish of the speaker: if in the first person, the speaker wishes themself do something, and in the third, the speaker wishes the named or implied person do so. It is usually translated into Shalumite as "I wish..." or "would that...", e.g. iyā̊ "I wish you would go".
The optative is signified by the suffix -ī-, which ablauts to -yā- under the accent, and to which are added secondary endings. The accent of the optative is as follows: if the root took mobile accent, the modal suffix takes the accent from the root in the singular active, while the ending takes it in all other forms; if it took persistent accent, the accent remains persistent. The correspondence between the accent and the full grade form is totally predictable. Thus, for verbs with persistent accent, the suffix is always -ī-. While this morpheme looks somewhat like the feminizing suffix, they contain a different prehistoric laryngeal and are, as far as conventional linguistics is aware, not related.
Within the present system, the optative has the same stem as the present indicative. In the aorist system, it is formed from the root exclusively in Galic, though later texts may have the optative suffix added to the sigmatic stem. The perfect optative, like other modal forms of the perfect, is rare in Early Galic but becomes reasonably common in Late Galic and continues to be productive into Epic times. From whichever stem the optative is made, the secondary endings are always used, even in the perfect.
The behaviour of the optative in the present system thus differs from that of the subjunctive but is like it in the aorist. The significance of this divergence is still debated by researchers. At any rate, derivative verbs (that is, the desiderative, future, passive, future perfect, perfect passive, and causative) did not form corresponding optatives until the very end of the Epic period.
Imperative
The imperative mood encodes the speaker's demands. The difference from the optative, which encompasses the speaker's mere wish (which the speaker may or may not intend to be fulfilled), is encapsulated in the following timeless quote by Himinastainas:
mōt hāyō ak nē hāhí kweþaną.
(It is permitted to say "I wish you would kill..." but not to say "kill!")
The Northian imperative is a fairly straightforward continuation of the parent language's largely-agreed imperative structure, where there are second and third person forms in the singular, dual, and plural numbers. The first person imperative is defective, even though it seems at least putatively cogent to use an imperative for the dual and plural numbers, i.e. "let us..."; for this function, the subjunctive is generally used in the singular and the optative in the dual and plural. The imperative is always positive in tone: a negative demand, i.e. "do not...", is expressed by the injunctive with the particle mōy "do not".
As the imperative is built to aspectual stems, it generally expresses aspectual meaning in consort with the co-ordinating indicative; the contrast between present and aorist imperatives is particularly salient when the action differs between a punctual or repetitive nature, such as between "plough" (push the plough once) and "plough" (continuously, as a profession, i.e. to farm). The grammatical nuance of the perfect imperative depends on the particular verb and often expresses an intense meaning. Contrast pf imp ānoxzi "arrive!" (i.e. "be having come!"), pres imp āzi "be coming!", and aor imp naxš "come!"
The perfect imperative is infrequent in any part of the Galic corpus but consistently formed, particularly for the verb woyd- "know" in 3p. It has two paradigms, one with 2 sg -ti, 2 pl -s, 3 pl -ō, and another that is the same as the present and aorist imperatives. The perfect imperative has o- and zero grades of the stem, but the accent recedes onto the reduplication syllable (if there is one) even in the singular. The 2 pl vacillates between the o- and zero grades, with earlier texts preferring the o-grade. The 3 pl ending is thus always the zero-grade form -ātū, e.g. xázaˀātū < *ǵéǵn̥h₁n̥tu "let ... exist".
There is a particle -tót that is appended to regular imperative forms to create the "future imperative". This particle is consistently accented and apparently cancels the recessive accent that characterizes the imperative.
Injunctive
The injunctive covers a number of different functions that appear not to have much connection amongst them, and so their exact meanings must often be gleamed from context. There are the following cases that medieval grammarians have named:
- Resultative: in a conditional construction, the injunctive may alternately appear as the protasis or apodosis, occupying the place of the subjunctive in later texts.
- Adpositive: when an injunctive follows another finite verb or a conjunction that implies connection, it usually takes on the same tense and aspect as the finite verb it follows.
- Oppositive: when used after a conjunction that implies contrast, the injunctive usually negates the tense and aspect that is separated by the conjunction.
- Prohibitive: following the particle mōy "do not", the injunctive has the meaning of the imperative.
- Jussive: the first person imperative is expressed using the bare injunctive.
- Affirmative: specifically used as a positive answer to a yes-no question.
- Gnomic: when the injunctive does not follow any construction, it is agnostic as to the proper tense and aspect and usually states facts that are always, usually, assumed to be, or in the nature of something to be one way or another; the sense of its current reality is suppressed in comparison to the indicative.
Understanding the various uses of the injunctive is of prime importance to Galic studies, as it is the second most common mood after the indicative, representing 29% of all finite verb forms (the indicative has 42%). But outside of the Gales, it is actually quite rare and disappears by the middle of the Epic period. There may be some connection to the genre of the Galic hymns that explains such a large share of injunctives.
One of the more notable instances of the injunctive is in G.Nr. 42:
zyā ptər, panti zyā̊ təršt, āmōy βā dədəršti.
(Father Sky, Sky sees all things, and it sees me.)
Here, the first "see" is injunctive, and the second "see" is indicative. This passage is nearly always consulted in essays seeking to explain the usage of the injunctive.
While than the prohibitive and gnomic uses survive, the adpositive and oppositive injunctive uses generally disappeared before the Epics, and their functions are captured by the participles and infinitives agreeing with the subject of the finite verb. The syntax of the injunctive, other than one introduced by "do not", is a murky area of historical Northian literature and, from medieval times, has generated much comment about what their instances in the Gales exactly mean. Yet because much content of the Galic religion has been lost to history, this context upon which the injunctives are employed is also nearly completely lost, in turn hampering a more precise description of the uses of the injunctive, particularly against a co-ordinating indicative.
Formally, the injunctive is like the modal forms in that it is obligatorily built from the root, except in the present where it optionally takes the present stem if it is reduplicated. If the root is conjugated with lengthened vowel in the present, the injunctive formation loses the length. For root present stems, therefore, the injunctive appears merely an unaugmented imperfect; for suffixed verbs, the injunctive loses the suffix. To the injunctive stem the secondary endings are attached. The injunctive sometimes irregularly shows full grade throughout the active and middle, where full and zero grades alterate in the indicative; in this shape it thus appears like a subjunctive with secondary, athematic endings.
It has been noted that a "motley of different formations" are classified as "injunctive", and more than a few scholars consider it imprudent to assign a modal label to forms that share nothing but "an absence of diverse characters". Yet as there is yet to be a root that indubitably attests multiple injunctive stems, most manuals describe them as injunctive and assign a standard injunctive form to roots.
Primary stems
Present stems
The present stems, with imperfective or durative aspect, appears to have largely continued the system of reconstructed Proto-Erani-Eracuran. With regard to the history of Northian, the imperfective stem was the most productive, buttressed by many derivational strategies that specified this aspect. Each strategy designates either athematic or thematic endings be used, which are synchronically arbitrary.
After the influential grammarian Praetorianius (fl. 1200s), the present stems in Northian are classified by the length of their endings, with unenlarged ones listed first (-mi, -ō) and most enlarged ones last (-nawmi); amongst the stems taking the plain ending, the most complex stems appear first (fully-reduplicated intensives), to the simplest stems (root stems). For the convenience of perusal, a more etymological classification that fully distinguishes between suffix and ending is also presented.
At the heart of Praetorianius's understanding of the verbal system is his analysis of all finite verb into a combination of a xaput "head" (giving meaning) and a ϑənū "body" (giving function). On the one hand, this gave him the insight that some roots, superficially different, are really varieties of each other, differing only by a vowel; this insight peers into the same phenomenon as that termed the guṇa and vṛddhi by Kankrit grammarians. On the other hand, Praetorianius did not segment his "bodies" into suffixes and simpler personal endings, resulting in many co-equal sets of "bodies" that not only blended the suffix and ending but sometimes even part of the etymological root itself; that is, to Praetorianius, the 1 sg endings -āmi and -mi were equivalents, as much as -mi and -ō were.
Phonetic opaqueness and the loss of semantic difference in suffixes are responsible for his inability to analyze his "bodies" further. As an example of this mis-segmentation, Praetorianius analyzed the word nawāsi "renews" as naw-āsi but also hānāsi "swims" as hān-āsi. In the former case, the suffix (now known to be descended from the factitive suffix *-eh₂-) along with the ending is understood to constitute the "body"; yet in the latter case, the ā is actually part of the etymological root *sneh₂-, via its reduplicated stem *sesneh₂- > *haznā- > hānā-. The pattern of singular -āsi and plural -ité is strengthened by other "bodies" that have similar shapes. There is circumstantial evidence that Praetorianius may have been aware of the etymological issues with his analysis, but he may have been constrained by previous tradition in his description.
Many athematic stems display ablaut, and in Northian it is customary to give the first person singular active to show the form of the strong stem and the second person plural, the weak stem. Where a stem does not display ablaut, only the first person singular active is given. These forms, that is 1 sg and 2 pl, are chosen with the view they might exemplify the more frequent superficial forms in the received texts. Aside from them, the 3 pl is regularly irregular owing to the vowel-initial shape of the ending, and the 1 du triggers some (at least) orthographic variations that are, for the most part, well-described by simple rules.
| P# | Class | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Intensives | These are now classified as derivatives and are discussed in the following section. | |
| II | Reduplicated | hišāmi, hiškte, házgati "hold" Reduplication made present stems from aorist roots. They always show root ablaut, varying between *e ~ Ø. The 3 pl form is recessively accented on the reduplication syllable, regardless of the other forms. The accent presents unpredictable variations, evidently attributable to the intrusion of aorist ablaut patterns to the present system. The reduplicated vowel is /é/ or /i/. |
|
| III | hugawšmi, hugušte, hágužati "taste" Like the athematic verbs in class III, these are present stems formed from aorist roots, but with thematic endings. The root syllable is in zero-grade. The accent is consistently on the reduplication syllable. Some athematic verbs were transferred into this class during the historical period. |
||
| IV | Nasal infix | ϑunekmi, ϑunkte, ϑunkənti "cause" Associated with root aorists, the infix *-né ~ n- is inserted between the vowel and final consonant of the root. The root itself is always in the zero-grade, while the infix undergoes ablaut, which likewise has a full-grade vowel in the singular active and zero-grade elsewhere. Roots which take this infix obligatorily have a resonant before the infix, and the resonant vocalizes but never the infix itself in zero grade. Praetorianius classified roots ending in laryngeals with this formation with the -nā́mi class, as to him the long vowel generated was part of the ending and not the root. |
|
| V | Root | ēbmi, epše, ebāti "drink" These roots show a lengthened root vowel in the singular active and the full grade in all other forms. The accent persists over the root syllable in all forms, at least in the indicative. |
ēs- "to sit, stay" |
| VI | hanmi, zāte, znənti "strike" These roots, the commonest, show a full-grade vowel in the root in the singular active and a zero-grade root in the other forms; the accent is over the root where it is in full grade, and over the ending when the root is in zero grade. |
es- "to be" | |
| VII | ikoay, ikeduwe, ikəntro "possess" This marginally-attested class binds the thematic endings to the zero-grade root, which have aorist origin. Praetorianius called them "like-subjunctives" after subjunctive forms of other verbs, which could also take the zero-grade root. |
||
| VIII | i-stem | taHimi, tité, syanti "distribute" A number of present stems have a non-ablauting -i- or -u- added between root and ending, of no discernable function. In the 3 pl act the endings are -ánti and -ónti respectively. All verbs of this class that have active forms have mobile accent, but some deponents in this class have persistent accent on the root instead. Before endings that begin with vowels, the suffixes become consonants. Moreover, for the formation of subjunctive, the suffixal -i and -u, as non-ablauting suffixes, do not drop in Galic, e.g. tāyate "you (pl.) may distribute". |
taH-i- "distribute" |
| u-stem | tərumi, taruté, taruwənti "fend off" | štaH-u- "stand up" | |
| -yō | házyō, házyati, házyənti "sit down" Under Sievers's law, this suffix has the allomorph -iy- after heavy syllables. In the example provided, the second consonant, *h₃, was lost after the operation of the sound law, though the extra syllable generated remains. |
ház-y-o "sit down" | |
| CØC-y-ṓ Similar to the above, but this type had a zero-grade root and consistently accented endings. Together with this fact is observed that the root aorists from which these stems derive most often lack an active voice, even though their meanings may be active; the zero-grade root characterizing root aorists middle voice is held to explain the presence of the zero-grade root in the derived present stem, even if it acquires an active voice there. |
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| IX | s-stem | fāmi, pište, pšənti "protect" Only a few examples are known from this class, with suffix -s- of unclear function. The suffix accompanies the same long-short vowel ablaut contrast that is also known in the aorist. |
|
| X | k-stem | fərahmi, fəršte, fərzati |
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| XI | -ā́mi | CVC-éH- / CVC-ØH- This class is a combination of multiple types of verbs that ended in an ablauting vowel and laryngeal. They descend from suffixed factitives in *-h₂-, statives in *-eh₁-, and any non-suffixed roots that merely happened to end in the same sequence of sounds. Praetorianius wistfully notes the same vowel of the singular active "haunts" the 3 pl and subjunctive. *-h₂- attached to e-, u-, and i-stems created stems in -ā́mi, -ūmi, and -īmi. *-h₂- also caused a following -t to become aspirated (thus 2 du act -āhā), but -h₁ did not. [CéH- / CØH-] For purely phonological reasons, Praetorianius considered root vowel-stems to be in this class, though etymologically they are not. |
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| XII | -nā́mi | xr̥βnā́ʸmi, xr̥βnite, xr̥βnanti These behave in exactly the same way as XI, except with an extra -n-. |
xr̥β-naH- "seize" nanti |
| XIII | -nammi | xr̥nammi, xr̥nute, xrawənti "make" |
Aorist stems
The aorist stems are a relic class in Epic Northian, and there they generally expressed a simple past tense; their modal forms were rarely used except as part of fixed constructions. Aorists were more copious and flexible in the Galic language and commensurately showed more formations. The present system opposes the singular active to the other persons and the middle, generally with e-grade in the former and zero in the latter. Aorists showed a greater degree of productive variation in their ablaut dispositions, with 1) all full grade except the 3 pl, 2) long grade in the singular active and short elsewhere, and 3) the same as the present. While most indicative stems in the present also underlie the modal forms, this is unusual in the aorist, whose modal forms are more often than not made from the root, i.e. much as the present stems with ablauting suffixes.
| # | Class | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | Root | hazā, hašte, zən "sit down" Contains native aorist roots. Most aorists in the parent language appear to have been of this type, and the Gales also attest hundreds. The root syllable regularly shows ablaut between *e ~ Ø, but with the 3 pl being the sole member of the paradigm that showed the zero grade. This type had strong correspondences with present stems with ablauting suffixes. |
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| 1b | xəŋka, xəŋkte, xəŋzaṯ "hang up" A particular subtype of root aorists that otherwise are the same as the 1a type are the xəŋzāt-verbs ("they hang [something] up"), which take an anomalous e-grade in the root and therefore a zero-grade ending in the 3 pl. |
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| 2 | Thematic | ruδõm, ruδete, ruδən "arrive, leave" This non-ablauting type took thematic secondary endings, combined with a zero-grade root. The type was very rare in Northian. |
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| 3 | Reduplicated | wawtõm, wawtete, wawtən "say" This pattern is known from only one root, though it is widely-attested in other Erani-Eracuran languages. |
və̄d- "say" |
| 4a | s- | ϑāygža, ϑaykšte, ϑaykən "show" The s-suffix creates aorist stems from roots of present origin. The singular has the long grade of the root, and elsewhere the short grade appears. |
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| 4b | hwə̄niža, hwənište, hwənžat "sound" This has the same prehistoric structure as the above, but a root-final laryngeal in interconsonantal position would always vocalize before the s-suffix plus consonant-initial ending, creating distinct endings. |
Perfect stems
The features of the perfect stem in the parent language were reduplication and the o-vocalism in the perfect indicative. This is generally true of Northian as well. In general, the classes of perfect stems are not numbered, as there is only a normal and a root type.
| Class | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| root | woyda, widōy, widō This type is known from only eleven verbs, but amongst which the only to be traced back to the parent language with certainty is woyd- "know". The ten other perfect stems that show no reduplication are all of aorist origin, and seven are xaŋzat-aorists. Accent is on the root syllable for strong forms, and endings for weak forms. The participle of this formation is amphikinetic rather than the hysterokinetic formation that is common to all other perfect stems. |
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| reduplicated | hahóga, hazgōy, házzr̥ Creates stative stems from perfective and imperfective roots. An extra syllable is prefixed, consisting of the consonant immediately preceding the next vowel and the vowel *e. Due to phonetic change, this vowel can appear as o following a labialized consonant or become more obscure if a lost consonant such as a laryngeal is reduplicated, cf. aˀōha "am desiccated" < PEE *h₂e-h₂oh₂s-h₂e. The strong forms have characteristic accented o-grade in the root syllable and zero-grade there in the weak forms with accented endings. |
Derivative stems
The Northian verb knows many standard derivations, called "adjunct verbs" by Praetorianius. Derivative stems could be divided into several groups: some are formed from the verbal root directly, others to already-derived stems (deverbal), and still others to nouns and adjectives (denominal). Other than the future and inchoative, most of these derivatives had a -y- element in them.
While many of these derivatives did not exist or were very rare in Galic text, their number greatly increased after the Didaskalic period and come to flower in the Epics of the 7th through 4th centuries BCE. After Epic times, derivative verbs completely ecclipsed and replaced athematic primary verbs. Thus, while athematic verbs were some 70% of all verbs stems and 92% of verb instances in the Gales, in medieval literature only a few athematic remained in use, amongst which the verb ešti "is" has the lion's share. In fact, the yod or -y- verbs are the dominant group in modern Northian, to be traced to secondary verbs in the parent language.
The present and aorist passive forms, which took middle endings, often back-formed a thematic active that replaced the original athematic active. Doubtlessly such forms were invented in the wake of the flourishing of denominative and causative verbs based on a -y- element, formally similar to the passive, but which had active forms.
| Class | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -išō future | Consists of the root in full grade and the suffix -s, to which is added thematic endings. | |
| -išyō desiderative | Stems of this class have root syllables in the o-grade. | |
| -šyō inchoative | This formed a secondary inchoative stem to verb stems. | |
| -áyō causative | This derivative stem required the root syllable in o-grade. | |
| -yṓi passive | The -y- element was used here to create a specialized passive voice that is separate from the middle. The suffix embraces any stem, even if it has an existing primary or secondary suffix. Thus, causatives, inchoatives, desideratives, and future stems could appear before this suffix derivation, all with a very standard passive meaning. | |
| -yṓ denominative | These three classes originate with a simple -y- suffix, added to athematic, o-stem, and ā-stem nouns respectively. Their characteristic was an accented thematic vowel. | |
| -ayṓ denominative | ||
| -āyṓ denominative |
Participles
Each verbal stem is usually capable of forming a corresponding participle or verbal adjective.
For all present and aorist active stems, the participle utilized the affix -nt- and followed the accentual pattern of the verb. Athematic verbs with mobile accent had participles with mobile accent, with accent over the -nt- syllable in the strong cases and the ending in others. Verbs with static accent and reduplicated verbs in the present or aorist had participles consistently accented on the root syllable.
- m həs, zatō; f həntī, zasiiā̊
- m xrbaHas, xrbaHatō; f xrbaHantī, xrbaHāsiiā̊
- m wēnas, wēnatō; f wēnasī, wēnasī
- m krnuuəs, krnuntō; f krnuuəntī, krnunsiiā̊
The perfect stem formed its own participle using the ablauting suffix -us-. Unlike the present/aorist active participle, the perfect participle had an amphikinetic pattern.
- m βeβoiduš, βeβidušō and nom pl βeβizuuoHā
Syntax
Copula
In Early Galic, nominal sentences were the normal construction to express the sense of equivalence or identity as found in the word "is", e.g. GNr 112 maxrō tu-at "but thou art tall". The finite verb ešti is only rarely used for this function. When it does appear, it often connotes contrast with a previous statement.
Notes