Appendix:Livonian conjugation

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

• līdõ

13-28

• jellõ

29-48

• likkõ

49-57

• kūlõ

58-61

• mǟdlõ

Full conjugation example – luggõ

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 ūottõ – ūot.

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 luggõgõd – algõd 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, -õ) 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 lī	mēg	äb līm(õ)
sa	äd lī	tēg	ät līt(õ)
ta	äb lī	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	tēg	luggõgid
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
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 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 (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

Sources

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.