Elvish
lesson twelve : verbs II
Thelin levi thrawech vain a tiri girich! (I intend to lick your beautiful body and watch you shudder!)
In the first verb lesson, we dealt with the largest class of verbs in Sindarin, the A-stem verb. This lesson will focus on the smaller, but not insignificant, group of verbs known as I-stems. Unlike the A-stems, which always end in '-a', the I-stems all end with consonants. (Why are they called I-stems, then? We'll get to that.) However, like the A-stems, just because a verb ends in a consonant doesn't mean it is an I-stem verb -- a few of them are irregular verbs, which we'll cover next time.
The list of attested I-stem verbs is relatively small, so I will include here the entire list as a handy reference.
| blab- | to beat, to flap | cab- | to leap | |
| can- | to cry out loud, to shout | car- | to do | |
| cen- | to see | dag- | to slay | |
| dar- | to stay, to wait, to stop, to remain | echad- | to fashion, to make | |
| edledh- | to go into exile | fir- | to fade, die | |
| gad- | to catch | gar- | to hold, to have | |
| gir- | to shudder | glir- | to sing a song or recite a poem | |
| gonod- | to count, to reckon, to sum up | govad- | to meet | |
| hab- | to clothe | had- | to hurl, to throw forcefully | |
| heb- | to keep, do not give something away | lav- | to lick | |
| mad- | to eat | nag- | to bite | |
| neledh- | to go in, enter | nestag- | to insert, to stick in | |
| nor- | to run | orthor- | to conquer | |
| osgar- | to cut round, to amputate | ped- | to speak, to say | |
| pel- | to wither | redh- | to sow | |
| rib- | to flow | thel- | to intend | |
| tir- | to watch, to gaze | tol- | to come | |
| trevad- | to travel across, to traverse |
Now, on to how to actually use these verbs.
infinitive form
As before, we'll start with the infinitive. The infinitive of I-stem verbs is formed by adding '-i' to the stem. (Aha! There's that 'i'!) So...
ped- "speak" : pedi "to speak"
gir- "shudder" : giri "to shudder"
But! The addition of the '-i' causes a vowel shift in the stem, specifically, an 'i-umlaut'. You may remember from the previous lesson than an i-umlaut causes all lone (not in diphthongs) instances of 'a' and 'o' to shift to 'e'. Examples:
tol- "come" : teli "to come"
hab- "clothe" : hebi "to clothe"
imperative form
With A-stem verbs, the infinitive and imperative forms were the same. Not so, for I-stems. Interestingly, though, the imperative form of an I-stem verb is created in exactly the same way as the A-stems: by adding 'o' to the stem. Thus:
Pedo! "Speak!"
Lavo! "Lick!"
Tolo! "Come!"
present, past, and future tenses
The present tense of a one-syllable I-stem verb is formed simply by lengthening the stem vowel. Multi-syllable I-stem verbs have present tenses identical to their stems.
Erestor cên "Erestor sees."
Glorfindel mâd "Glorfindel eats."
Elrond travad "Elrond travels."
To form the future tense of an I-stem verb, just add '-tha' to the infinitive. (Yes, I'm skipping past for now; you'll see why in a second.)
Haldir telitha "Haldir will come."
Celeborn derita "Celeborn will stay."
I orch degitha "The orc will slay."
Now, the past tense. The past tense of I-stem verbs depends on the final consonant of the stem. (See why I waited?) The chart below illustrates the various ways that I-stem verbs form the past tense.
| Ending | Becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -b | -mp | cab- --> camp "leapt" |
| -d | -nt | had- --> hant "hurled" |
| -dh (1 syl) | -nd | redh- --> rend "sowed" |
| -dh (2 syl) | -nn | neledh- --> nelenn "entered" |
| -g | -nc | dag- --> danc "slew" |
| -l | -ll | pel- --> pell "withered" |
| -n | -nn | cen- --> cenn "saw" |
| -r | -rn | fir- --> firn "faded, died" |
| -v | -m | lav- --> lam "licked" |
pronomial endings
As with A-stem verbs, the pronominal endings can be appended to I-stem verbs to create phrases such as "I see", "They died", and "We will travel". As you might expect, it's never actually that simple.
When adding pronominal endings to the present tense, the ending is actually added to the infinitive, not the present tense we formed above. That form is only used for sentences with explicit subjects or in the third-person singular case. So:
Erestor cên "Erestor sees" -- but -- Cenin "I see" -- and -- Cenir "They see"
Glorfindel mâd "Glorfindel eats" -- but -- Medich "You eat" -- and -- Medim "We eat"
Elrond travad "Elrond travels" -- but -- Trevedig "You travel" -- but -- E travad "He travels"
The future tense is a little more straightforward. The ending is simply appended to the future tense verb. However, in the case of '-n', this causes (as we're used to from A-stem verbs) the 'a' to mutate to 'o'.
Cebithon "I will leap"
Glirithar "They will sing"
Cenithach "You will cry out" (and, interestingly, "You will see")
Pronomial endings with the past tense are, naturally, just as irritating as the past tense itself. The general rule is that the pronominal ending is appended to the past tense of the verb with an '-i-' inserted between the consonants (which triggers our old friend, the i-umlaut).
Girnin "I shuddered"
Pellich "You withered"
However, some of the past tense endings will mutate (again!) when the ending is applied.
| Ending | Becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -m | -mm- | lam --> lemmin "I licked" |
| -mp | -mm- | camp --> cemmich "You leapt" |
| -nc | -ng- | danc --> dengim "We slew" |
| -nd | -nn- | rend --> rennir "They sowed" |
| -nt | -nn- | hant --> hennig "You hurled" |
Still with me, I hope? Take a break before moving on. You've earned it!
No, really... go do something else for a few minutes. I'll wait.
Ready? Okay, let's keep going.
participles and gerunds
The participles, if you'll remember, are verb forms that are used as adjectives. The ones we're looking at are the present, past, and perfect participles.
The present participle of an I-stem verb is made by adding '-el' to the end of the verb stem. Unless the stem contains the vowel 'i', in which case, '-iel' is added.
nag- --> nagel "biting" --> helch nagel "a biting wind"
gir- --> giriel "shuddering" --> hwest 'iriel "a shuddering breath"
(Note the lenition. Also, like the present participle of A-stem verbs, there appears to be no distinct plural form.)
To form the past participle, add '-en' to the past tense of the verb. If the past tense ends in one of the endings in the chart for adding pronominal endings, make the indicated change before adding the suffix.
tir- --> tirn --> tirnen "guarded" --> gûr dirnen "a guarded heart"
dag- --> danc --> dangen "slain" --> coth dhangen "a slain enemy"
The past participle does have a plural form, just as it does with A-stems. The plural form is made by adding '-in' instead of '-en'. As is typical when we add '-i' to things, this too triggers the i-umlaut. Which means:
coth dhangen "a slain enemy" --> cyth dhengin "slain enemies"
The last of the adjectival forms is the perfect participle. Make this form by first adding "-iel" to the verb stem. Then, alter the initial stem vowel back to its primitive root, according to the list below.
a > ó | e > í | i > í | o > ú | u > ú
Examples:
fir- --> fíriel "having faded, having died"
mad- --> módiel "having eaten"
govad- --> gúvadiel "having met"
Lastly, we have the gerund, which is the noun form of the verb. Luckily, after all the vowel shuffling we've done so far, forming the gerund is as plain as can be. Just throw '-ed' to the end of the stem, and you're done. Yay for gerunds!
lav- --> laved "licking"
tol- --> toled "coming"
ped- --> peded "speaking"
conclusion
- I-stems are much less common than A-stems.
- The infinitive is formed by adding '-i' to the stem and performing an i-umlaut.
- The imperative is formed by adding '-o' to the stem.
- The present tense for third person and explicit subjects is formed by lengthening the stem vowel.
- The future tense is formed by adding '-tha' to the infinitive.
- The past tense is formed depending on the final consonant.
- Past, present, and future tenses can take pronominal endings.
- The present participle is formed by adding '-(i)el' to the stem.
- The past participle is formed by adding '-en' to the past tense.
- The plural form of the past participle is formed by adding '-in' to the past tense and performing an i-umlaut.
- The perfect participle is formed by adding '-iel' to the verb stem and shifting the vowel to the primitive root.
- The gerund is formed by adding '-ed' to the verb stem.
