Appendix:Upper Sorbian conjugation

Verbs

Upper Sorbian verbs are inflected number (singular, dual, plural), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), tense (present, future, past simple (different forms of which are traditionally considered to be aorist tense and imperfect tense), past compound (traditionally called perfectum tense), past perfect) and mood (indicative, imperatative, conjunctive). The forms that use the so called ˮŁ-participeˮ (future, past compound, conjuctive) decline also for gender (masculine, feminine and neuter in singular and facultatively virile and nonvirile in dual and plural).

Each verb is inherently eather perfective or imperfective. It is important to know to which of these two groups a given verb belongs as it affects not only its meaning but also the inventory of its grammatical forms and the way some of these forms are created.

Two stems of verbs

Every verb has two stems on the base of which its inflectional forms are made. These are the infinitive stem and the present stem. Both of them have to be remembered when learning a verb and are usually shown in the dictionary entries.

Individual forms are made always using only one of the stems, for instance the past compound uses only the infinitive stem, whereas the imperative uses only the present stem.

Present stem

Present stems are identical to the 3 sing. pres. forms and are divided into four classes according to their last vowel:

I -e- stems, ex.: njese carries, present stem: njese-;

II -i-/-y- stems (-y- only after s and z), ex.: spi sleeps, present stem: spi-;

III -a- stems, ex.: čita reads, present stem: čita-;

IV irregular verbs: je is, da gives, ma has, dźe goes (on foot), jě eats, wě knows, chce wants, smě may.

Infinitive stem

Most of the verbs have the infinitive form ending in -ć (ex.: widźeć to see, spać to sleep). The infinitive stem of those verbs is the part of the infinitive form that remains after cutting the final -ć (eg.: widźe-, spa-).

Some verbs have the infinitive form ending in -c (eg. pjec to bake, móc can, to be able to). The infinitive stem of these verbs is made by replacing the final -c with -k- or -h- (ex.: pjek-, móh-).

Infinitive stems are divided into two groups:

1

stems ending with a consonant, ex.: njes- (njesć) to carry, přas- (přasć) to spin, pjek- (pjec) to bake, móh- (móc) can, to be able to. When the last consonant of an infinitive stem is -s- it may in other forms that are made out of the stem:

a) not to change, ex. njesć – je njesł to carry – has carried, as the present stem has -s- here: njese carries

b) change into -t- or -d-, ex. přasć – je přadł to spin – has spun, as the present stem has -d- here: přadu I spin (the -t- and -d- can furtherly alternate with -ć- and -dź- respectively: předźe spins).

2

stems ending with one of the following vowels: -i- -y- -ě- -e- -a-, ex.: wuči- (wučić) to teach, nosy- (nosyć) to carry, widźe- (widźeć) to see, kćě- (kćěć) to bloom, woła- (wołać) to call.

A dictionary entry of the verb wzać would look like this:

„wzać wozmje perf. to take”

which means that the infinitive stem of this verb is wza- and the present stem is wozmje-.

Imperfective and perfective verbs

Almost every Upper Sorbian verb is inherently eather imperfective (impf.) or perfective (perf.) (there are few verbs that are ambiguous in this respect, ie. may be both impf. and perf.). The verbs' quality of being perfective or imperfective is called verb aspect and is alaways shown in dictionary entries.

Perfective and imperfective verbs referring to the same kind of action are not two different forms of the same word. They are two different words. For instance, both impf. brać and perf. wzać translate to English as to take but it is clearly visible they are not the same verb. However, most of the impf.–perf. verb pairs share the same root modified with different additional morphemes, ex. impf. pisać vs. perf. napisać to write, impf. zapaleć vs. perf. zapalić to set on fire.

Imperfective verbs

An imperfective verb describes an ongoing, incomplete action that lasted, lasts or will last for some period or an action that recured, recures or will recure (a habitual action). It puts focus on the process itself rather than its result.

Imperfective verbs are used to describe past, present and future actions.

Perfective verbs

A perfective verb describes an accomplished action that doesn't recure. It puts focus on the result of a process.

Perfective verbs are used to describe past and future actions only but not the present ones.

The present tense

To put a verb into the present tense, we use the present stem of a nonperfective verb. Perfective verbs are not used in the present tense.

The following table shows the endings used to make the present tense forms:

The palatalising -’e-, -”u- and -”a- endings

A single apostrophe before an ending indicates that some of the final consonants of the verb stems before such an ending alternate according to the following table:

A double apostrophe before an ending indicates that some of the final consonants of the verb stems before such an ending alternate according to the following table:

The 2nd and 3rd person dual ending

In the 2nd and 3rd person dual forms, when an action is performed by two male persons (ie. when a virile noun in dual is used as the subject of a sentence) we can facultatively use an eniding containing -taj instead of -tej, for instance:

Dwaj bratraj čitatej/čitataj knihu.

Two brothers are reading a book.

In any other case only the endings with the -tej element may be used:

Dwě sotře čitatej knihu.

Two sisters are reading a book.

Exemples

• An -e- stem verb

• njesć njese impf. to carry (while walking)

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• kónčić kónči impf. to finish

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• prosyć prosy impf. to ask

• An -a- stem verb

• pisać pisa impf. to write

Irregular verbs

• być je impf. to be

• hić dźe impf. to go (on foot)

• jěć jědźe impf. to go (by vehicle), to ride

The future tense

The way the future tense forms are built depends on the aspect (perfectiveness vs. imperfectiveness) of a given verb.

Perfective verbs have simple future forms (made of the main verb only) and the imperfective verbs have compound future forms (made of the main verb and an auxiliary verb).

The verbs być to be and měć to have, although both imperfective, have simple future forms that are created in an irregular way.

Perfective verbs in the future

Perfective verbs make their future tense forms using the present stem and the exact same endings that are used with imperfective verbs to form the present tense:

Before the -’e-, -”u- and -”a- endings the same consonant changes apply as in the present tense.

Although these endings are the very same as in the present tense, there is no ambiguity in terms of tense when a particular verb form is considered. A perfective verb used with the above endings is always in future, since these verbs are not used for present at all. On the other hand, an imperfective verb with these endings attached is always in present as imperfective verbs make their future tense in a fully different way.

Consider the impf.-perf. verb pair pisać impf. and napisać perf., both of which mean to write. When we attach a 1st pers. sing. ending to their present stems we get pisam, which means I write / I am writing, and napisam, which means I will write / I will have vritten.

Exemples

• An -e- stem verb

• přinjesć přinjese perf. to bring (while walking)

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• skónčić skónči perf. to finish

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• přeprosyć přeprosy perf. to invite

• An -a- stem verb

• napisać napisa perf. to write

Future forms of “być” and “měć”

• być je impf. to be

• měć ma impf. to have

Imperfective verbs in the future

The future tense of imperfective verbs is fairy simple as all we need to do is to take the basic infinitive form of a werb and put the according future form of the być to bee auxiliary verb in front of it.

Exemples

• An -e- stem verb

• njesć njese impf. to carry (while walking)

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• kónčić kónči impf. to finish

• An -i-/-y- stem verb

• prosyć prosy impf. to ask

• An -a- stem verb

• pisać pisa impf. to write

In a sentence, the two parts of a compound future form may be separated by other words, ex. budu tam čakać I will wait there. The order of the two parts may also be reversed, ex. spěwać budu přeco I will always sing.

The Ł-participe

Some Upper Sorbian compound tenses and moods make use of a special verb form called Ł-participe.

Formation

The Ł-participe is formed using the infinitive stem of a verb by adding to it the endings shown below. The Ł-participe agrees in number and gender with the subject of a sentence.

Example: pisać pisa impf. to write

Non-virile plural

As can be seen from the above tables, the non-virile plural form has two variants. The variant with the -li ending (eg. pisali) coincides with the virile plural form and is neutral in terms of style. Nowadays it is the dominant form in both written literary and colloquial spoken langage. The variant with the -łe ending (ex. pisałe) is stylistically marked as archaic. Currently it is rarily used although it frequently occurs in older written texts.

Usage

The Ł-participe is used to make compound past, past perfect and conditional forms.

compound past

sym pisał I wrote / I have written (masc.)

je pisała she wrote / she has written

sće pisali you wrote / you have written (vir. and non-vir. plur.)

past perfect

běch pisał I had been writting (masc.)

bě pisała she had been writting

běšće pisali you had been writting (vir. and non-vir. plur.)

conditional

bych pisał I would write (masc.)

by pisała she would write

bysće pisali you would write (vir. and non-vir. plur.)

a || e alteration

In verbs with infinitive stems ending in -e- preceeded by a soft consonant (ex. widźeć to see), the stem-final -e- originates from an earlier -a- that was altered according to a phonetic rule that states that any -a- between two soft consonants turns into -e-. As the infinitive ending -ć is a soft consonant the rule applies to the infinitive form of a verb. But when we replace the infinitive ending with -ł, -ła, -ło or -łe to form a Ł-participe, the a > e change does not take place as ł is a hard consonant. Then again, if we use the plural -li edning the alteration takes place because l is a soft consonant.

Example: widźeć widźi impf. to see

The compound past tense

Usage

The compound past is the most commonly used Upper Sorbian past tense. In the colloquial language it may describe any past action and for some speakers it may be the only past tense ever used in conversational speech.

On the other hand, in the written literary language and in some dialects it is primarily used to describe a (recently) past action the consequences of which exist in the present. In this case it roughly corresponds to the English present perfect (for perfective verbs) or present perfect continuous (for imperfective verbs).

Compare the use of the compound past and the simple past tenses in the written literary language:

Upper Sorbian compound past:

• perfective verb

Wona je napisała list.

She has written a letter

(till the end, the letter is now written).

• imperfective verb

Wona je pisała list.

She has been writting a letter

(it may not be finished yet).

Upper Sorbian simple past:

• perfective verb

Wona napisa list.

She wrote a letter

(till the end).

• imperfective verb

Wona pisaše list.

She was writing a letter.

Formation

The compound past forms are made out of the present tense form of the być je to be auxiliary verb and the so-called Ł-participe.

As the auxiliary być je verb agrees with the subject in person and number and the Ł-participe agrees with the subject in number and gender, the whole form of compound past has to be agreed with the subject in all these three grammatical categories.

čitać čita impf. to read

přinjesć přinjese perf. to bring (while walking)

The Simple past

Usage

Simple past is widely used in the written language. In the spoken colloquial Upper Sorbian its usage largely depends on the dialectal background of a speaker. Speakers of northern and central dialects preserve simple past in their speech whereas southern dialects speakers tend to use compound past in all contexts instead.

The Upper Sorbian simple past tense used with imperfective verbs roughly correspond to the English past simple continuous tense. Perfective verbs in this tense roughly translate to the English past simple tense.

Compare the use of the simple past and the coumpound past tenses in the written literary language:

Upper Sorbian simple past:

perfective verb

Wona napisa list.

She wrote a letter (till the end).

imperfective verb

Wona pisaše list.

She was writing a letter.

Upper Sorbian compound past:

perfective verb

Wona je napisała list.

She has written a letter (till the end).

imperfective verb

Wona je pisała list.

She has been writting a letter.

Formation

Simple past forms are made of the infinitive stem (for all perfective verbs and most of imperfective verbs) or the present stem (for some imperfective verbs with present stem ending in -e-) by adding the following endings:

The additional -e- shown in parenteses is only used when the simple past tense forms are made of an infinitive stem ending in a consonant.

Imperfective verbs with present stem in -e-

A majority of verbs in this group use the present stem to form the simple past tense:

brać bjerje impf. to take (infinitive stem bra-, present stem bjerje-):

bjerjech I was taking; bjerješe you were taking etc.

Verbs with monosyllabic infinitive change the stem vowel -e- into -a- in the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural:

pić pije impf. to drink (infinitive stem pi-, present stem pije-):

pijach I was drinking; piješe you were drinking etc.

• Mind that the corresponding perfective verbs use the infinitive stem rahter than the present stem:

• zabrać zabjerje perf. to take away (infinitive stem zabra-, present stem zabjerje-):

• zabrach I took away; zabra you took away etc.

• wupić wupije perf. to drink (infinitive stem wupi-, present stem wupije-):

• wupich I drank; wupi you drank etc.

Verbs with infinitive stem in -owa- and present stem in -uje- make an exception among the verbs with the -e- present stem and use the infinitive stem to form the simple past tense forms:

kupować kupuje impf. to buy (infinitive stem kupowa-, present stem kupuje-):

kupowach I was buying; kupowaše you were buying etc.

Vowel stems

Verbs whose infinitive stems end in a vowel take these endings without the additional -e- shown in parenteses in the table above:

• pisać pisa impf. to write (infinitive stem pisa-):

• pisach I was writing; pisaše you were writing etc.

• napisać napisa perf. to write (infinitive stem napisa-):

• napisach I wrote; napisa you wrote etc.

The imperfective verbs whose infinitive stems end in -i-/-y- change the final vowel of their stems into -a- before the above endings. If the last consonant of the verb stem is a soft consonant the stem -a- furtherly changes into -e- before endings beginning with -š- (according to a general phonetical rule that any -a- changes into -e- when between two soft consonants):

• wučić wuči impf. to teach (infinitive stem wuči-):

• wučach I was teaching; wučeše you were teaching etc.

The corresponding perfective verbs do not undergo such a change:

• nawučić nawuči perf. to teach (infinitive stem nawuči-):

• nawučich I taught; nawuči you taught etc.

Consonantal stems

Verbs with infinitive stems ending in a consonant insert the additional -e- between the stem and the usual ending:

• wjezć wjeze impf. to carry (by wehicle) (infinitive stem wjez-):

• wjezech I was carryig; wjezeše you were carrying etc.

• přiwjezć přiwjeze perf. to bring (by wehicle) (infinitive stem přiwjez-):

• přiwjezech I brought; přiwjeze you brought etc.

If the final consonant of a consonantal infinitive stem is -s- it may be preserved in the simple past tense or it may change into either -ć- or -dź-. This depends on the last consonant of the present stem of the verb:

• njesć njese impf. to carry (while walking) (infinitive stem njes-, present stem njes-):

• njesech I was carryig; njeseše you were carrying etc.

• kłasć kładźe impf. to put down (infinitive stem kłas-, present stem kładź-):

• kładźech I was putting down; kładźeše you were putting down etc.

• mjesć mjeće impf. to sweep (infinitive stem mjes-, present stem mjeć-):

• mjećech I was sweeping; mjećeše you were sweeping etc.

2nd and 3rd person dual

In the 2nd and 3rd person dual a verb may facultatively take the -štaj ending if the subject of a sentence are two male persons, compare:

• Studentce pisaštej.
• (Two) female students were writing.

• Studentaj pisaštej/pisaštaj.
• (Two) male students were writing.

Examples:

Notice the difference in the 2nd and 3rd person singular between the imperfective (-še ending) and perfective (zero ending) verbs.

• A consonantal stem verb:

• njesć njese impf. to carry

• A consonantal stem verb:

• přinjesć přinjese perf. to bring

• An -a- stem verb:

• wołać woła impf. to call

• An -a- stem verb:

• zawołać zawoła perf. to call

• An -i-/-y- stem verb:

• wučić wuči impf. to teach

• An -i-/-y- stem verb:

• nawučić nawuči perf. to teach

The Condicional

The conditional is used first of all to express a condition under which an action described by the sentence's verb that stands in the indicative could be realised, for example:

• Ja njeby měł wjele pjenjezy, hdyž by był wučer.

• I wouldn't have a lot of money if I were a teacher.

The conditional is also used in other functions, for instance it may express a purpose of an action, for instance:

• Póńdu do Budyšina zo bych kupił całtu.

• I will go to Budyšin to buy a bun.

The conditional is made out of the auxiliary conditional form of the być je verb followed by the Ł-participe.

A vocal stem verb: wzać wozmje pf. to take

The Imperative

The imperative is used to express an order or a wish.

The imperative forms use the present stem of a verb. In the 1st and the 2nd person the imperative has special forms, but in the 3rd person it uses the present forms preceeded by the njech word.

The 1st pers. sing. imperat form doesn't exist.

The table shows the imperative endings:

As one can see, these endings are identical as the present tense endings. What differs the present and the imperative forms is that there are no alternations in a verb's stem in the present and some alternations exist in imperative.

In the imperative the -a- stem verbs lenghten their stem with an extra -j-. The -e- and -i-/-y- stem verbs loss the last vovel of their stems.

Compare the following pairs of the present and imperative 1 plur. forms:

• wołamy - wołajmy; wučimy - wučmy; bjerjemy - bjermy.

Here you have some examples of the imperative paradigms:

An -a- stem verb: wołać woła impf. to call

An -i-/-y- stem verb: wučić wuči impf. to teach

An -e- stem verb: brać bjerje npf. to take

If there is a pair of same-meaning perfective and nonperfective verb, the perfective one is used mainly in positive sentences, whereas the nonperfective one appeares much more often in negative sentences (this is not a hard rule and opposite situation is also possible).

References