Elvish
lesson thirteen : verbs III
Tangado ech sen a anno den mae enni! (Make that spear firm and give it to me good!)
Now, at last, we come to the wild bunch, the outsiders, the freaks of the Sindarin verb world. These are the rebels who refuse to follow the rules, a veritable underworld of semantic misdemeanors. (Yes, I have been watching far too much "Law & Order" recently, why do you ask?) These verbs fall into four categories: mixed conjugation verbs, impersonal verbs, surviving -u- verbs, and the truly irregular verbs.
mixed conjugation
This class of verbs is called "mixed" conjugation because they look like A-stem verbs, but they don't always act like A-stem verbs. In some cases, they act more like I-stem verbs. This group seems to include most verbs that end in a single consonant followed by an -a (as long as that consonant isn't 'th' or 'ch' -- which count as one letter, if you'll remember). Let's take a look at a few examples and examine their particular brand of premeditated malice. (Sorry, sorry...)
| Stem | brona | gala | nara | rada |
| Meaning | "survive" | "grow" | "tell" | "make a way" |
| Infinitive | brono | galo | naro | rado |
| Imperative | brono | galo | naro | rado |
| Present | brona | gala | nara | rada |
| Past | bronn | gall | narn | rant |
| Future | bronatha | galatha | naratha | radatha |
| Present Part. | bronol | galol | narol | radol |
| Past Part. | bronnen | gallen | narnen | rannen |
| Perfect Part. | brúniel | góliel | nóriel | ródiel |
| Gerund | bronad | galad | narad | radad |
| Stem | gannada | limmida | tangada |
| Meaning | "play a harp" | "moisten" | "make firm" |
| Infinitive | gannado | limmido | tangado |
| Imperative | gannado | limmido | tangado |
| Present | gannada | limmida | tangada |
| Past | gannant | limmint | tangant |
| Future | gannadatha | limmidatha | tangadatha |
| Present Part. | gannadol | limmidol | tangadol |
| Past Part. | gannannen | limminnen | tangannen |
| Perfect Part. | gennediel | limmidiel | tengediel |
| Gerund | gannadad | limmidad | tangadad |
In other words, the imperative, infinitive, present, future, present participle, and gerund forms all conjugate as normal A-stem verbs. Example:
Imperative: Aníro "desire!"
Infinitive: Aníro "to desire"
Present: Aníra "desires"
Future: Aníratha "will desire"
Present Participle: Anírol "desiring" (as an adjective)
Gerund: Anírad "desiring" (as a noun)
However, the past tense, past participle, and perfect participle forms conjugate as though the verb were an I-stem without that final 'a'. (In this case, as though the verb stem were anír- instead of aníra-)
Past: Anirn "desired"
Past Participle: Anírnen "desired" (as an adjective)
Perfect Participle: Aníriel "having desired"
The important thing to note about the above (and the reason that I chose this verb as an example) is that when the verb stem has a long vowel, that vowel becomes short in the past tense (but nowhere else). Another distinction between the mixed conjugation verbs and the normal I-stem is that when adding a pronomial ending to the past tense, the connecting vowel is -e-, not -i-. This means that the i-umlaut effect does not happen with these verbs. (The consonant mutation to the ending cluster still occurs just as with I-stems, though.)
impersonal verbs
These verbs are called 'impersonal' because they cannot accept a subject. There are currently only two verbs in this group that we know about.
The first of these is the verb 'elia-', "to rain". You can see why this verb is considered impersonal. You would never, for instance, say "I rain" or "he rained". Now, in most forms, this verb acts just like a normal A-stem. However, the past and present tenses go a little pear-shaped. The present tense ("it is raining") appears to be 'ail' and the past tense ("it rained") shows up as 'aul'.
The other impersonal verb that we know of is 'boe'. This roughly translates to "it is necessary". 'Boe' is really a Noldorin verb that was updated and adapted into Sindarin. There is no attested use of it in the corpus, but we can guess that it might look something like:
Boe beriad i garas! "It is necessary to protect the city!"
Boe anim breithad chen. "It is necessary for me to break you." (Could also be translated as "I must break you" -- although it's much more intimidating when Dolph Lundgren says it.)
Notice that we use the gerund form here instead of the infinitive as you might expect. If it helps you to keep this oddity in mind, consider that the translation "Protecting the city is necessary" is also an acceptable translation of the first example. It's easy to see that "protecting" is operating as a noun in this sentence, hence the gerund form.
"Boe" does not appear to have any other forms, nor can it accept pronomial endings. (Meaning that, at this time, we really have no way to say 'it was necessary' or 'it will be necessary' using this verb.)
surviving -u- verbs
This class of irregular verbs includes the following:
groga- "feel terror"
loda- "float"
soga- "drink"
toba- "cover, roof over"
nod- "tie, bind"
tog- "lead, bring"
These verbs all derived from primitive root stems that contained the vowel 'u'. Over time, the primitive 'u' mutated to 'o' in standard Sindarin. For the most part, these verbs will conjugate just like mixed conjugation verbs. However, when these verbs go into the past tense, that primitive 'u' makes a comeback. So, for the past tenses, we get:
stem > past tense > past tense with ending
groga- > grunc > grunge- + pronomial ending
loda- > lunt > lunne- + pronomial ending
soga > sunc > sunge- + pronomial ending
toba > tump > tumme- + pronomial ending
nod > nunt > nynni- + pronomial ending
tog > tunc > tyngi- + pronomial ending
truly irregular verbs
The following verbs cannot be grouped in any other way. Each is unique in its own way because of the various ways that they evolved from their primitive roots. I'm not going to go into detail about these individual histories, because it's not really necessary to understand. The details are available in several places for those wanting an in-depth explanation. For the casual user, though, these oddities should just be memorized.
Anna- "give"
This verb conjugates just like a normal A-stem verb, except for the past tense and past participle. The past tense is 'aun', which becomes 'one-' before a pronomial ending. The past participle is 'onen', with plural form 'onin'. (The 'o' does not change due to the i-umlaut in this case because the 'o' derives from 'au'.)
Drava- "hew"
The past tense of 'drava' is the irregular form 'dramp'. In all other respects, this conjugates like a normal A-stem.
Gwedh- "bind"
Tolkien indicated in his writings that the irregular past tense 'gwedhant' came into use. It is likely that the past participle was also replaced by 'gwedhannen'. ('Redh-' "sow" probably alters the same way.)
Thora- "fence"
Most forms of 'thora' are consistent with A-stem verbs. However, the past tense is 'thaur' ('thore-' before a pronomial ending). The past participle is, correctly, 'thoren', but the plural form is 'thorin'. This is for the same reason as 'anna-' above. Additionally, the perfect participle of 'thora-' becomes 'thóriel' (instead of the expected 'thúriel').
Trenar- "recount, tell to the end"
'Trenar-' is identical to an I-stem verb except in the past, past participle, and perfect participle. (This is a recurrent pattern, you may have noticed.) In the past, we end up with 'trenor', yielding a past participle 'trenoren' with plural 'trenorin', and a perfect participle 'trenóriel'.
Banga- "trade"
Although it is not confirmed, the past tense of this verb appears to be 'banc'. If that is the case, then this verb probably conjugates via the rules of mixed conjugation, despite having two consonants before the final '-a'.
conclusion
- Mixed conjugation verbs include most verbs with a single consonant before a final '-a'.
- They conjugate like A-stem verbs except in the past, past participle, and perfect participle, where they behave like I-stem verbs
- Long vowels in the verb stem are shortened in the past tense of mixed conjugation verbs
- Irregular verbs tend to fall into three categories: impersonal verbs, those with a surviving primitive '-u-', and those with individual quirks due to developmental history
- These irregular forms are best memorized or written down and kept as a reference.
