Appendix:Livonian conjugation

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LEL lists 61 verb conjugation types (together with three verbs that don't have an infinitive – 64.) These 61 types can then be divided in 5 "clusters." It can be said that Livonian verb conjugation is significantly more regular than its nominal declension. There are three verb conjugation templates serving the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-5th clusters respectively. Those are {{liv-conj-1}}, {{liv-conj-jellõ}} and {{liv-conj-luggõ}}.

The clusters with an example entry are listed below:

1-12

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13-28

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29-48

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49-57

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58-61

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Full conjugation example – luggõ

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Shown below is the conjugation of luggõ "to read" in all tenses and moods and (almost) all combinations thereof. Most compound tenses can be realized by simply conjugating the auxiliary verb plus the participle in either singular or plural thus they are not shown in verb entries. However, there are a couple of exceptions. One of them is quotative perfect where unlike in the (genetically unrelated but areally close) Latvian language the verb remains in quotative (instead of being in a participle form as could be expected from a compound tense) and auxiliary remains in indicative. This is also shown below.

Another exception is that plural 3rd person ("they") negative mirrors plural 2nd person negative and not plural 3rd person positive although most of the literature suggests that verbs in plural negative retain plural positive endings (this is of interest since other Finnic languages have a specific short form with the negation verb in both singular and plural, Latvian influence where negation (typically for an Ide. language) is expressed simply by adding ne- to regularly conjugated verb is speculated.) Thus "they read" is ne luggõbõd, "you (pl.) read" – tēg luggõt while "they don't read" is ne äb luggõt (not ne äb luggõbõd.) This can be corroborated with examples from Livonian corpora, such as Lapst at umbizt – äb kūldõt "children are stubborn – [they] don't listen" (LĒL).

Mostly based on an article in Kersti Boiko's compilation Lībieši: rakstu krājums transliterating the phonetic transcription back to standard Livonian orthography, cross-referencing with Renāte Blumberga, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Karl Pajusalu (2013), Lībieši: vēsture, valoda un kultūra, Rīga: Līvõ Kultūr sidām, →ISBN. Note: inconsistencies in the former's use of the negative verb have been changed in accordance with the various examples given in the latter: tēg ät instead of tēg äd and ne izt instead of ne iz (the first case might be simply a phonetic representation of lenis.)

In compound tenses conjugated forms of the auxiliary vȱlda in the first source have been changed where they don't follow the basic Livonian phonotactics to a documented form that does. Livonian phonotactics mandates one long/heavy syllable (a long vowel or a long consonant) per foot (usually 2 syllables), thus at, ātõ and attõ are valid variants (the 1st is too short to form a foot – thus exempt, the 2nd has a long vowel and the 3rd a long consonant.) Variants such as ūottõ (both a long vowel and a long consonant) that can be encountered in the first source are not in accordance with this rule and are impossible to find in Livonian corpora, they are substituted with the shortest possible documented alternative, e.g., ūot for ūottõ. Just like with noncompound tenses in negative 3rd pers. pl. the auxiliary mirrors negative 2nd. pers. and not positive 3rd pers. as evident in sentences such as tämmõn äb ūot pūdõd sūormõd (not äb at/attõ/ātõ also not äb ūottõ) (LĒL) – "he doesn't have clean fingers" literally "clean fingers are not to him". In plusquamperfect negative there was no need to change the 2nd pl. and 3rd pl. auxiliary since they were already given as ūot. Potential auxiliary (līdõ) 2nd pl. and 3rd pl. negative forms indicated in the first source as līttõ were changed to līt(õ) as previously with ūottõūot.

In noncompound conditional present negative 2nd sg. the typical 2nd sg. ending wasn't indicated – sa äd lugūks instead of sa äd lugūkst, however, in conditional perfect it was present for the auxiliary – sa äd vȯlkst luggõn for this reason it was readded as sa äd lugūkst for simple present conditional negative.

In 2nd pers. pl. imperative the form indicated in LEL and LVVK (luggõgid) is given instead of the form present in Boiko's compilation (luggigid) (since ⟨õ⟩ is a schwa in an unstressed position this might be simply an error). In 1st pers. pl. imperative negative the form provided algõ mēg luggõd has been replaced with one mirroring the positive – laz mēg luggõgõdalgõd mēg luggõgõd (negation verb (algõd) has been corrected to the form it should be in jussive plural according to LVVK.)

Livonian verbs have six moods: indicative, potential (~ future perfect), conditional, imperative, debitive and quotative. (Note: what does and doesn't count as a mood depends on author, the classification mentioned, for example, leaves out jussive (it, however, can be seen as part of imperative for persons (1st and 3rd) for which imperative is not usually used, a reported request is one of jussive's main functions.)) There are two infinitives: infinitive I (with suffixes -dõ, -tõ, ) and infinitive II (with suffix -m). (Note: infinitive I is treated as infinitive and lemma form by most dictionaries, the so called infinitive II is classified as supine by said dictionaries unlike in Estonian where the -ma form is considered the lemma form.)

Indicative present (I read)

person singular person plural
ma lugūb mēg luggõm
sa lugūd tēg luggõt
ta lugūb ne luggõbõd

Indicative present negative (I don't read)

person singular person plural
ma äb lug mēg äb luggõm
sa äd lug tēg ät luggõt
ta äb lug ne äb luggõt

Indicative past (I read)

person singular person plural
ma lugīz mēg lugīzmõ
sa lugīzt tēg lugīztõ
ta lugīz ne lugīztõ

Indicative past negative (I didn't read)

person singular person plural
ma iz lug mēg iz luggõm
sa izt lug tēg izt luggõt
ta iz lug ne izt luggõt

Indicative perfect (I have read)

person singular person plural
ma um luggõn mēg ūom luggõnd
sa ūod luggõn tēg ūot luggõnd
ta um luggõn ne at luggõnd

Indicative perfect negative (I haven't read)

person singular person plural
ma äb ūo luggõn mēg äb ūom luggõnd
sa äd ūo luggõn tēg ät ūot luggõnd
ta äb ūo luggõn ne äb ūot luggõnd

Plusquamperfect (I had read)

person singular person plural
ma vȯļ luggõn mēg vȯļmõ luggõnd
sa vȯļd luggõn tēg vȯļt(õ) luggõnd
ta vȯļ luggõn ne vȯļt(õ) luggõnd

Plusquamperfect negative (I hadn't read)

person singular person plural
ma iz ūo luggõn mēg iz ūom luggõnd
sa izt ūo luggõn tēg izt ūot luggõnd
ta iz ūo luggõn ne izt ūot luggõnd

Potential (I'm going to...)

person singular person plural
ma līb mēg līm(õ)
sa līd tēg līt(õ)
ta līb ne lībõd

Potential negative (I'm not going to...)

person singular person plural
ma äb mēg äb līm(õ)
sa äd tēg ät līt(õ)
ta äb ne äb līt(õ)

Conditional (I would read)

person singular person plural
ma lugūks mēg lugūksmõ
sa lugūkst tēg lugūkstõ
ta lugūks ne lugūkstõ

Conditional negative (I wouldn't read)

person singular person plural
ma äb lugūks mēg äb lugūksmõ
sa äd lugūkst tēg ät lugūkstõ
ta äb lugūks ne äb lugūkstõ

Conditional perfect (I would have read)

person singular person plural
ma vȯlks luggõn mēg vȯlksmõ luggõnd
sa vȯlkst luggõn tēg vȯlkst(õ) luggõnd
ta vȯlks luggõn ne vȯlkst(õ) luggõnd

Conditional perfect negative (I wouldn't have read)

person singular person plural
ma äb vȯlks luggõn mēg äb vȯlksmõ luggõnd
sa äd vȯlkst luggõn tēg ät vȯlkst(õ) luggõnd
ta äb vȯlks luggõn ne äb vȯlkst(õ) luggõnd

Imperative ([he/she said] that I read)

person singular person plural
laz ma luggõg laz mēg luggõgõd
sa lug[n 1] tēg luggõgid[n 1]
laz ta luggõg laz ne luggõgõd

Imperative negative ([he/she said] that I not read)

person singular person plural
algõ ma luggõg algõd mēg luggõgõd
alā lug algid tēg luggõgid[n 1]
algõ ta luggõg algõd ne luggõgõd

Debitive present (I need to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn um luggõmõst mäddõn um luggõmõst
sinnõn um luggõmõst täddõn um luggõmõst
tämmõn um luggõmõst näntõn um luggõmõst

Debitive present negative (I don't need to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn äb ūo luggõmõst mäddõn äb ūo luggõmõst
sinnõn äb[n 2] ūo luggõmõst täddõn äb ūo luggõmõst
tämmõn äb ūo luggõmõst näntõn äb ūo luggõmõst

Debitive past (I needed to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn vȯļ luggõmõst mäddõn vȯļ luggõmõst
sinnõn vȯļ luggõmõst täddõn vȯļ luggõmõst
tämmõn vȯļ luggõmõst näntõn vȯļ luggõmõst

Debitive past negative (I didn't need to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn iz ūo luggõmõst mäddõn iz ūo luggõmõst
sinnõn iz ūo luggõmõst täddõn iz ūo luggõmõst
tämmõn iz ūo luggõmõst näntõn iz ūo luggõmõst

Debitive perfect (I have needed to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn um vȯnd luggõmõst mäddõn um vȯnd luggõmõst
sinnõn um vȯnd luggõmõst täddõn um vȯnd luggõmõst
tämmõn um vȯnd luggõmõst näntõn um vȯnd luggõmõst

Debitive perfect negative (I have not needed to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst mäddõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst
sinnõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst täddõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst
tämmõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst näntõn äb ūo vȯnd luggõmõst

Debitive plusquamperfect (I had needed to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst mäddõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst
sinnõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst täddõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst
tämmõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst näntõn vȯļ vȯnd luggõmõst

Debitive plusquamperfect negative (I had not needed to read)

person singular person plural
minnõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst mäddõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst
sinnõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst täddõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst
tämmõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst näntõn iz ūo vȯnd luggõmõst

Quotative (I supposedly read)

person singular person plural
ma luggiji mēg luggijid
sa luggiji tēg luggijid
ta luggiji ne luggijid

Quotative negative (I supposedly don't read)

person singular person plural
ma äb luggiji mēg äb luggijid
sa äd luggiji tēg ät luggijid
ta äb luggiji ne äb luggijid

Quotative perfect[n 3] (I supposedly have read)

person singular person plural
ma vȯļ luggiji mēg vȯļmõ luggijid
sa vȯļd luggiji tēg vȯļt(õ) luggijid
ta vȯļ luggiji ne vȯļt(õ) luggijid

Quotative perfect negative (I supposedly haven't read)

person singular person plural
ma iz ūo luggiji mēg iz ūom luggijid
sa izt ūo luggiji tēg izt ūot luggijid
ta iz ūo luggiji ne izt ūot luggijid

Notes

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 In the "real" imperatives, that is, 2nd pers. sg. and pl., sa/tēg ("you/you all") the pronoun would probably be always dropped, the article in Boiko's compilation, however, keeps the 2nd pl. tēg in imperatives perhaps to aid the readability of the tables.
  2. ^ Debitive is an impersonal construction with pronoun as the object, literally "to me is of reading," thus the negative verb is only in its 3rd person singular form as well.
  3. ^ Judging by auxiliary in past this perhaps should be classified plusquamperfect ("I supposedly had read"), however, this might also be a consequence of quotative being formed from a grammaticalized agentive noun (-iji – "-er"). Vȱlda in present could be too ambiguous as ma um luggiji can be taken to mean "I am a reader" as well. The Latvian translation for ma vȯļ luggiji is given as es esot lasījis which translates as "I supposedly have read (been reading)." Latvian quotative is also limited due to using a reappropriated gerund. A plusquamperfect could be implied only with an extra perfective prefix es esot izlasījis "~ I supposedly have/had read."

Sources

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A comprehensive overview of all moods is offered in Renāte Blumberga, Tapio Mäkeläinen, Karl Pajusalu (2013), Lībieši: vēsture, valoda un kultūra, Rīga: Līvõ Kultūr sidām, →ISBN

LEL, is of course used to find the necessary stems for a verb of a particular cluster.

Livonian has two "genuine" tenses non-past (present) and past, however, a future perfect-like construction is offered in the conjugation tables. Other compound tenses are not offered as they can be easily inferred from the already mention future perfect-like construction.