Verbs are undoubtedly the most important word class in 'Iipay Aa, Tiipay Aa, and all varieties of Kumeyaay. If you took out all the other words from the language and left only verbs, it would probably still work. That is because Kumeyaay is exceptional in both the multitude and versatility of its verbs. Kumeyaay uses verbs to express not only actions, but time, state, feeling, appearance, direction, manner, number, causation, and much more. Therefore, the most fundamental skill a learner of Kumeyaay needs is to know how to properly conjugate verbs. Fortunately, as you will see, Kumeyaay makes that very easy!
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What is a verb?
Forget what they told you in Elementary school. For the purposes of Kumeyaay, a verb is not just an "action word". A verb is any word that syntactically and morphologically does what a Kumeyaay verb does: It can agree with a subject, it can take morphemes that affix to verbs, and it can be nominalized, and probably some other stuff. In other words, Kumeyaay has a whole lot of verbs, and some of them come up where you would least expect them to.
What is verb conjugation?
Verb conjugation is the process of changing a verb's form to match its intended subject and, in some languages, the intended object. In languages like Spanish, the form of the verb conveys at least the following information:
Tense, or time, shows when an action happened, as in walks vs. walked. In English, the -s shows present time and -ed shows past time. Some languages do not have tense, but indicate time with other words like "yesterday" or "long ago". Kumeyaay happens to be one of those languages.
Person refers to who is the subject of the verb, i.e. who is performing the action expressed by the verb. Ask, "who is doing that action?", e.g. "who is snoring?", and you come up with one of three answers:
Compare this with the following English examples using the verb "to walk":
Number means the number of people performing the action stated by the verb. In English and Kumeyaay, the only distinction we have to worry about is singular or plural: whether one person is doing the action or more than one person is doing it. To clarify, the English singular pronouns are "I", "you", "he", "she", and "it". The plural pronouns are "we", "you", and "they". As you can see, "you" was repeated, so English must not understand this distinction too well. Anyway, when you combine person and number, all the verb forms of a given tense fall into a chart like this:
- Person
- Number
- Tense
Tense, or time, shows when an action happened, as in walks vs. walked. In English, the -s shows present time and -ed shows past time. Some languages do not have tense, but indicate time with other words like "yesterday" or "long ago". Kumeyaay happens to be one of those languages.
Person refers to who is the subject of the verb, i.e. who is performing the action expressed by the verb. Ask, "who is doing that action?", e.g. "who is snoring?", and you come up with one of three answers:
- First person: the person or people speaking, i.e. physically saying and doing the verb
- Second person: the person or people being addressed or spoken to
- Third person: a separate person, group, or entity that is neither the speaker nor the audience of the speech
Compare this with the following English examples using the verb "to walk":
- 1st Person: I walk, we walk (the speaker, the one who says the verb, is doing the walking)
- 2nd Person: You walk (the listener, the person being deliberately addressed, is doing the walking)
- 3rd Person: He/She/It walks, They walk (someone who is neither the speaker nor the listener is doing the walking)
Number means the number of people performing the action stated by the verb. In English and Kumeyaay, the only distinction we have to worry about is singular or plural: whether one person is doing the action or more than one person is doing it. To clarify, the English singular pronouns are "I", "you", "he", "she", and "it". The plural pronouns are "we", "you", and "they". As you can see, "you" was repeated, so English must not understand this distinction too well. Anyway, when you combine person and number, all the verb forms of a given tense fall into a chart like this:
To conjugate is to make a verb into a form that correctly matches the person and number of the subject as you are trying to say it. "Conjugate" comes from Latin conjungere, "to join together", so conjugating is effectively joining a verb with its corresponding noun subject. Now let's discuss how this process is done in Kumeyaay.
How conjugation works in Kumeyaay
In English, the person and number of a verb is expressed largely with pronouns: words like "I", "you", and "it", that stand in for a subject that is already known to the interlocutors. Kumeyaay has pronouns too, which you can read about here. However, just like in Spanish and other inflected languages, in Kumeyaay the verb morphology alone can tell you the person and number, and no pronouns are needed. Here's how it breaks down:
Person, or who is doing the action, is indicated with a prefix before the verb root:
If the subject of the verb is explicitly stated in the sentence, i.e. it is not a pronoun like "he" or "she", but a named thing like "the medicine man", the verb still needs to be conjugated appropriately to match in person and number.
Something peculiar about Kumeyaay verbs is that there is no bare infinitive form (e.g. to do, to make, etc.). Instead, the bare form of the verb, which is as close to the root as you can get in natural speech, is the third person singular form. That's why if you look up a verb like wenyay in the dictionary, it won't say "to hunt", but will say "hunts" or "he hunts". (In English definitions, "He" is used as a default subject for simplicity, but that verb form will agree with any 3rd person singular noun, not just "he".)
Number, or whether the action is done by a single or multiple actors, is indicated by a change in the verb root itself. Here is an example:
Person, or who is doing the action, is indicated with a prefix before the verb root:
- '- or 'e- (glottal stop) for 1st person, "I", "we"
- m- or me- for 2nd person, "you", "you all"
- w- or no prefix for 3rd person, "he", "she", etc.
If the subject of the verb is explicitly stated in the sentence, i.e. it is not a pronoun like "he" or "she", but a named thing like "the medicine man", the verb still needs to be conjugated appropriately to match in person and number.
Something peculiar about Kumeyaay verbs is that there is no bare infinitive form (e.g. to do, to make, etc.). Instead, the bare form of the verb, which is as close to the root as you can get in natural speech, is the third person singular form. That's why if you look up a verb like wenyay in the dictionary, it won't say "to hunt", but will say "hunts" or "he hunts". (In English definitions, "He" is used as a default subject for simplicity, but that verb form will agree with any 3rd person singular noun, not just "he".)
Number, or whether the action is done by a single or multiple actors, is indicated by a change in the verb root itself. Here is an example:
See how the same root is used in each column, and how the same prefix is used in each of the first two rows?
It's nice, isn't it?
Unfortunately, the process of transforming a root word from singular to plural is highly irregular, and there is no single systematic, let alone easy way to do it. This means you will have to individually memorize the plural root of each verb you want to say. While this may be one of, if not the most frustrating and idiosyncratic aspects of Kumeyaay, the language more than makes up for it with its stunningly elegant simplicity in almost all other areas.
For a full explanation of how to correctly prefix verbs, read: How to Conjugate Regular Verbs
Inflecting verbs with objects
The system described above, where '(e)- is for first person, m(e)- for second person, and w- or nothing for third person, works for when the verb is intransitive and has no object (a noun it acts upon), or when it has a third-person object (someone or something that is not you or the person you're speaking to). If the verb acts on yourself or the person you're speaking to, it might take a different prefix, as shown below, to indicate that.
Study the following example with the verb ewuuw, "sees":
Study the following example with the verb ewuuw, "sees":
The same prefixes apply when the subject of the verb is plural:
As you can see, we have new prefixes, and some new meanings to the old:
ny- or nye-: "I do it to you" or "He does it to me"
m- or me-: "You do it to him" or "He does it to you"
'enyem(e)-: "You do it to me"
'enyek(e)-: "Do it to me!"
As seen above, these prefixes can go on both singular and plural verb stems, and the prefixes stay the same regardless of whether the object is singular or plural.
Yes, some of these prefixes are shared between two different meanings: nyeyip can mean "I hear you" or "He hears me". If you need to clarify who is acting on whom, simply add either a nominative subject (a noun or pronoun marked with -ch) or an accusative object (a noun or pronoun with no suffix or -vu) to the sentence:
ny- or nye-: "I do it to you" or "He does it to me"
m- or me-: "You do it to him" or "He does it to you"
'enyem(e)-: "You do it to me"
'enyek(e)-: "Do it to me!"
As seen above, these prefixes can go on both singular and plural verb stems, and the prefixes stay the same regardless of whether the object is singular or plural.
Yes, some of these prefixes are shared between two different meanings: nyeyip can mean "I hear you" or "He hears me". If you need to clarify who is acting on whom, simply add either a nominative subject (a noun or pronoun marked with -ch) or an accusative object (a noun or pronoun with no suffix or -vu) to the sentence:
Yip.
Nyeyip. 'Enyaach nyeyip. Maa nyeyip. Puuch nyeyip. 'Enyaa nyeyip. Carlosch nyeyip. Meyip. Maach meyip. Puuch meyip. Maa meyip. Carlos meyip. Carlosch meyip. 'Enyemeyip. 'Enyekeyip! |
He hears him/her/it/them.
I hear you or He hears me. I hear you/you all (number of subjects is unspecified). I hear you (maa is specifically singular). He hears me/us. He hears me. Carlos hears me/us. (In practice, you would probably leave -ch out) You hear it or He hears you. You hear it/him/her/them. He hears you/you all. He hears you. You hear Carlos (Carlos is bare, accusative). Carlos hears you. You hear me/us (no noun or pronoun needed). Listen to me! (to one person) |
You can choose which noun or pronoun to use based on what you want to emphasize, or what is needed to make the sentence the most clear. If you find it necessary, you can even explicitly state both the subject and object in the sentence, but still use the correct prefix on the verb based on who they are.
Acting on Oneself
If the subject of a verb happens to be acting on him/herself, you will use the regular verbal prefixes for a third-person object, but with the word mat "himself" before the verb. This word is very similar to Spanish se in that it can mean "oneself" or "each other".
Mat 'esehwan. I scratch myself.
Mat mesehwan. You scratch yourself.
Mat sehwan. He scratches himself.
Mat 'esetehwaan. We scratch ourselves (or We scratch each other).
Mat mesetehwaan. You scratch yourselves (or You scratch each other).
Mat setehwaan. They scratch themselves (or They scratch each other).
Make sure to check the links at the top of the page for more details on how to conjugate verbs.