Verbs are arguably the most important part of any language (See: some variants of syntax trees), but are specifically designed as the central element in Eolai.
Conjugation
The basics of verbs
Infinitive verbs consist of only consonants with “blanks” in between. The infinitive will never be used in actual language, it will always be conjugated and the blanks will be filled. Here refers to one consonant, rarely to a consonant cluster. stands for one (or two) vowels. It follows that verbs always start with vowels. indicates the verb class as seen in the table below. indicates the subject and the tense. Because of palatalization of for plural forms, .
Verb classes
State
A State verb is a verb that contains information about the state of a subject.
e.g.: being, living, burning, being dead (as one word)
Cognition
Every verb representing the gain, loss, possession or propagation of knowledge/information is classified as part of the Cognition class.
e.g.: knowing, believing, saying, loving
Transfer
Verbs that describe a transition between states are Transfer verbs
e.g.: walking, becoming (general verb for transitioning into), hitting, jumping, building, dying
By changing the verb class of an existing verb, its meaning may be changed:
For example, “hurting” as a Transfer verb means to transition someone into the state of being hurt, while “hurting” as a State verb simply states that the subject is currently suffering from harm.
Conjugation
Subject
| Form | |
|---|---|
| 1sg | ɥ (→y) |
| 2sg | ä |
| 3sg.m.anim | ei |
| 3sg.f.anim | eu |
| 3sg.n.anim | e |
| 3sg.inanim | ɔ |
| 1pl.incl | ʲɥ |
| 1pl.excl | ʲw |
| 2pl | ʲä |
| 3pl.anim | ʲe |
| 3pl.inanim | ʲɔ |
| PASS | ə |
| all vowels are short vowels |
Tense
Suffixes
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Affix Meaning Example
If a suffix occurs, the phoneme /ʔ/ will be added between the verb and the suffix.
(In)transitive verbs
Transitive verbs require a direct object, while intransitive verbs can exist without any nouns. TODO classification