Synthetic conjugation
Tense structure and stem forms
Synthetic (single-word) conjugation involves the following finite "tenses":
| (Non-potential) | Potential | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Present | Present potential | Imperative |
| Past | Past | Past potential | |
| Hypothetic | Hypothetic | Hypothetic potential |
Finite verbs have a basic finite stem that is either an unanalysable lexical root (e.g. -bil- 'go about, move (intr.)') or such a root preceded by the causative/intensive prefix -ra- (e.g. -rabil- 'cause to move, use'). From regular basic stems two tense stems are derived as follows: the present stem with prefix -a- and the non-present stem with prefix -e-, e.g. -abil- and -ebil- are the regular present and non-present stems of -bil-, -arabil- and -erabil- are the corresponding tense stems of -rabil-, and so on. The present stem is used in the present tense, the present potential tense and the non-third-person imperative, e.g. present d-abil 'he/she/it goes about', present potential d-abil-ke 'he/she/it may go about', second-person imperative h-abil! 'go about!'. The non-present stem is used in the past and hypothetic tenses (non-potential and potential), and in third-person imperative forms, e.g. z-ebil-en 'he/she/it went about', ba-l-ebil 'if he/she/it went about', z-ebil-ke-en 'he/she/it might or would have gone about', l-ebil-ke 'he/she/it might or would go about', b-ebil! 'let him/her/it go about!' (not in common use).
Non-present stems are further characterised by prefixes containing an n whenever the primary index (defined below) is non-third-person, e.g. z-ebil-en 'he went about' but n-enbil-en 'I went about', h-enbil-en 'you went about'; l-erabil-ke 'he would use it' but n-inderabil-ke 'he would use me'.
The suffix -(e)n is a marker of the past tenses, and -ke of the potential tenses (the past potential has both: -ke-en). The hypothetic non-potential tense usually occurs with the subordinator prefix ba- 'if', which will therefore be shown in examples; use of ba- is not restricted to the hypothetic, however (e.g. ba-dabil 'if he goes about', etc.). Apart from the tense markers mentioned, third-person prefixes distinguish between present, past, hypothetic and imperative tenses, as will be seen below.
Synopses of two verbs are given in the following table as illustrations. The verb 'to be' (izan) is irregular but in extremely frequent use, because it also serves as an important auxiliary. The verb ibili 'go about, move, etc.' (root -bil-) is regularly conjugated, although not all its synthetic forms are in widespread use. This synoptic table shows third-person forms.
| izan 'to be' | ibili 'to go about' | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-potential | Potential | Imperative | Non-potential | Potential | Imperative | |
| Present | da 'is' | dateke 'may be' | biz (archaic) 'let (it) be!' | dabil 'goes about' | dabilke 'may go about' | bebil 'let (it) go about!' |
| Past | zen 'was' | zatekeen 'would have been' | zebilen 'went about' | zebilkeen 'would have gone about' | ||
| Hypothetic | ba-litz 'if X were' | litzateke 'would be' | ba-lebil 'if X went about' | lebilke 'would go about' | ||
Primary person indices
All conjugating verb stems (unless defective) can take the following set of person-indexing prefixes: n- (first-person singular), h- (second-person singular informal), g- (first-person plural), z- (second-person singular formal and second-person plural). With intransitive verbs, these prefixes index the subject; with transitives, they index the direct object. For convenience, we shall refer to this as the set of 'primary person indices'.
| Person | Pronoun | Prefix |
|---|---|---|
| 1 singular | ni | n- |
| 2 singular informal | hi | h- |
| 1 plural | gu | g- |
| 2 singular polite/plural | zu/zuek | z- |
The following table shows some examples of how these prefixes combine with verb stems to produce a wide range of finite verb forms.
| Intransitive | Transitive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'to be' | ibili 'to go about' | 'to have' | ekarri 'to bring' | ||
| Present | ni | n-aiz (I am) | n-abil (I go about) | n-au (has me) | n-akar (brings me) |
| hi | h-aiz | h-abil | h-au | h-akar | |
| gu | g-ara | g-abiltza | g-aitu | g-akartza | |
| zu | z-ara | z-abiltza | z-aitu | z-akartza | |
| Past | ni | n-intz-en (I was) | n-enbil-en | n-indu-en | n-indekarr-en |
| hi | h-intz-en | h-enbil-en | h-indu-en | h-indekarr-en | |
| gu | g-in-en | g-enbiltza-n | g-intu-en | g-indekartza-n | |
| zu | z-in-en | z-enbiltza-n | z-intu-en | z-indekartza-n | |
| Hypothetic | ni | ba-n-intz (if I were) | ba-n-enbil | ba-n-indu | ba-n-indekar |
| hi | ba-h-intz | ba-h-enbil | ba-h-indu | ba-h-indekar | |
| gu | ba-g-ina | ba-g-enbiltza | ba-g-intu | ba-g-indekartza | |
| zu | ba-z-ina | ba-z-enbiltza | ba-z-intu | ba-z-indekartza | |
Third-person forms
Third-person verbs (here the 'person' again refers to the subject in intransitive verbs but the object in transitives) also take a prefix, which is invariable for number (singular or plural) but varies for tense, as follows: d- is used in the present tense, z- in the past, l- in the hypothetic and b- in third-person imperative forms (generally archaic or literary).
| Tense | Affix |
|---|---|
| Present | d- |
| Past | z- |
| Hypothetic | l- |
| Imperative | b- |
Some illustrative examples follow.
| Intransitive | Transitive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'to be' | ibili 'to go about' | 'to have' | ekarri 'to bring' | ||
| Present | Singular | d-a (is) | d-abil (goes about) | d-u (has him/her/it) | d-akar (brings him/her/it) |
| Plural | d-ira (are) | d-abiltza | d-itu (has them) | d-akartza | |
| Past | Singular | z-en (was) | z-ebil-en | z-uen | z-ekarr-en |
| Plural | z-ir-en | z-ebiltza-n | z-itu-en | z-ekartza-n | |
| Hypothetic | Singular | ba-l-itz | ba-l-ebil | ba-l-u | ba-l-ekar |
| Plural | ba-l-ira | ba-l-ebiltza | ba-l-itu | ba-l-ekartza | |
| Imperative | Singular | b-iz (archaic) (let him/her/it be) | b-ebil (rare) | b-eu (obsolete) | b-ekar (literary) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plural | b-ira (obsolete) (let them be) | b-ebiltza (rare) | b-ekartza (literary) |
Plural marking
Plural number is marked in finite verbs in various ways, depending on the arguments whose plurality is being indexed. One set of plural forms are 'primary', that is, once again they refer to either the 'intransitive subject' or the 'transitive object' (the absolutive case agreement). The form of primary plural marking varies irregularly according to the verb stem, and may involve miscellaneous stem changes or the placement of a plural marker immediately adjacent to the singular stem (-z, -zki, -tza, it-, -te). Singular and plural forms of some finite verb stems are shown in the following table.
| Intransitive | Transitive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular subject | Plural subject | Meaning | Singular object | Plural object | Meaning |
| -a-iz, -a-∅ | -a-ra (< *-a-ira), -∅-ira (verbal root change) | 'be' | -a-u, -∅-u | -a-it-u, -∅-it-u | 'have' |
| -a-go | -a-u-de (< *-a-go-te) | 'stay, be' | -a-u-ka | -a-u-z-ka | 'hold, have' |
| -a-bil | -a-bil-tza | 'go about, move' | -a-kar | -a-kar-tza | 'bring' |
| -oa | -oa-z | 'go' | -a-ra-ma / -a-r-oa (both from *-a-ra-oa, with causative infix -ra-) | -a-ra-ma-tza / -a-r-oa-z | 'take' |
| -a-tor | -a-to-z (< *-a-tor-z) | 'come' | -a-ki | -a-ki-zki | 'know' |
Primary plural marking occurs whenever the indexed argument (subject or direct object) is plural. The second-person singular polite (pronoun zu) is also treated as plural for this purpose (because originally it was a second-person plural), although syntactically and semantically singular. To index the second-person plural (pronoun zuek), in addition to the markers corresponding to zu a further ('secondary') plural marker -te is suffixed.
| (PRESENT) | Intransitive | Transitive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'to be' | i-bil-i 'to go about' | 'to have' | e-karr-i 'to bring' | ||
| Singular | ni | n-a-iz | n-a-bil | n-a-u | n-a-kar |
| hi | h-a-iz | h-a-bil | h-a-u | h-a-kar | |
| hura | d-a-∅ | d-a-bil | d-∅-u | d-a-kar | |
| Plural | gu | g-a-ra (< *g-a-ira) | g-a-bil-tza | g-a-it-u | g-a-kar-tza |
| zu | z-a-ra (< *z-a-ira) | z-a-bil-tza | z-a-it-u | z-a-kar-tza | |
| zuek | z-a-re-te (< *z-a-ira-te) | z-a-bil-tza-te | z-a-it-u-z-te (*) | z-a-kar-tza-te | |
| haiek | d-∅-ira | d-a-bil-tza | d-∅-it-u | d-a-kar-tza | |
Note: The second -z- in zaituzte is not here a plural marker, but merely an epenthetic sound inserted where the sequence tute would otherwise occur; this happens in other similar cases as well, such as dituzte for *ditute.
Ergative person and number suffixes
The ergative case is the case of subjects of transitive verbs. Such arguments are indexed in a different way from 'primary' arguments. Person of the ergative marker may be indexed in one of two ways: using suffixes or prefixes. The ergative-index plural marker is always a suffix (-te). The ergative person suffixes are as follows; those for the first- and second-person singular end in -a whenever another suffix morpheme follows them. The absence of an ergative suffix in transitive verbs (except those discussed in the next section) implies a third-person subject.
| PERSON | PRONOUN | SUFFIX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (word-final) | (non-word-final) | ||
| 1 singular | nik | -t | -da- |
| 2 singular informal masculine | hik | -k | -a- |
| 2 singular informal feminine | -n(a) | -na- | |
| 3 singular | hark | — | |
| 1 plural | guk | -gu(-) | |
| 2 singular polite | zuk | -zu(-) | |
| 2 plural | zuek | -zue(-) | |
| 3 plural | haiek | -te(-) | |
A few sample paradigms follow.
| 'to have' | ekarri 'to bring' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '(I ... ) have him/her/it' | '(I ... ) have them' | '(you ... ) have me' | '(I ... ) bring him/her/it' | ||
| Present | nik | d-u-t | d-itu-t | — | d-akar-t |
| hik male | d-u-k | d-itu-k | n-au-k | d-akar-k | |
| hik female | d-u-n | d-itu-n | n-au-n | d-akar-na | |
| hark | d-u | d-itu | n-au | d-akar | |
| guk | d-u-gu | d-itu-gu | — | d-akar-gu | |
| zuk | d-u-zu | d-itu-zu | n-au-zu | d-akar-zu | |
| zuek | d-u-zu-e | d-itu-zu-e | n-au-zu-e | d-akar-zu-e | |
| haiek | d-u-te | d-ituz-te | n-au-te | d-akar-te | |
| Past | nik | (See following section) | — | (See following section) | |
| hik male | n-indu-a-n | ||||
| hik female | n-indu-na-n | ||||
| hark | z-u-en | z-itu-en | n-indu-en | z-ekarr-en | |
| guk | (See following section) | — | (See following section) | ||
| zuk | n-indu-zu-n | ||||
| zuek | n-indu-zu-e-n | ||||
| haiek | z-u-te-n | z-ituz-te-n | n-indu-te-n | z-ekar-te-n | |
Ergative person prefixes
Instead of the ergative suffixes, ergative prefixes are used to index first- or second-person ergative arguments if the tense is non-present and the direct object is third person (see the gaps in the previous table). The ergative prefixes are identical to the primary prefixes in the singular, but in the plural -en- is added to the primary prefix forms:
| Person | Pronoun | Prefix |
|---|---|---|
| 1 singular | nik | n- |
| 2 singular informal | hik | h- |
| 1 plural | guk | gen- |
| 2 singular polite/plural | zuk/zuek | zen- |
The ergative plural suffix -te only occurs when required (a) to indicate the third person plural, or (b) to indicate the (real) second-person plural.
| 'to have' | ekarri 'to bring' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '(I) had him/her/it' (past) | '(I) had them' (past) | 'if (I) had him/her/it' (hypothetic) | '(I) would have him/her/it' (hypothetic potential) | '(I) brought him/her/it' (past) | |
| nik | n-u-en | n-itu-en | ba-n-u | n-u-ke | n-ekarr-en |
| hik | h-u-en | h-itu-en | ba-h-u | h-u-ke | h-ekarr-en |
| hark | z-u-en | z-itu-en | ba-l-u | l-u-ke | z-ekarr-en |
| guk | gen-u-en | gen-itu-en | ba-gen-u | gen-u-ke | gen-ekarr-en |
| zuk | zen-u-en | zen-itu-en | ba-zen-u | zen-u-ke | zen-ekarr-en |
| zuek | zen-u-te-n | zen-ituz-te-n | ba-zen-u-te | zen-u-ke-te | zen-ekar-te-n |
| haiek | z-u-te-n | z-ituz-te-n | ba-l-u-te | l-u-ke-te | z-ekar-te-n |
Dative argument indices
Finite verbs that have an argument in the dative case also index the dative argument using the following set of dative suffixes (which are identical in form to the ergative suffixes except in the third person):
| PERSON | PRONOUN | SUFFIX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (word-final) | (non-word-final) | ||
| 1 singular | niri | -t | -da- |
| 2 singular informal masculine | hiri | -k | -a- |
| 2 singular informal feminine | -n (-na) | -na- | |
| 3 singular | hari | -o(-) | |
| 1 plural | guri | -gu(-) | |
| 2 singular polite | zuri | -zu(-) | |
| 2 plural | zuei | -zue(-) | |
| 3 plural | haiei | -e(-) | |
Both intransitive and transitive verbs may take dative indices, and the mechanism for incorporating these is the same in either case. Dative suffixes immediately follow the verb stem, preceding other suffixes such as the ergative suffixes (thus in d-i-da-zu 'you have it to me', -da- is the dative suffix and -zu is the ergative suffix) or the potential suffix -ke (as well as the past suffix -(e)n, which is always word-final).
Only the primary plural marker, if present, and the dative-argument marker precede the dative suffix. The dative-argument marker, whose regular form is -ki-, is added to basic verb stems to indicate that these are taking a dative argument. With -ki-, the primary plural marker always takes the form of -z- immediately preceding -ki-. A few verb stems have an irregular dative-argument form.
| Intransitive | Transitive | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic stem (present) | Dative stem | Meaning | Basic stem | Dative stem | Meaning | ||
| Sing. subject | Plur. subject | Sing. dir. obj. | Plur. dir. obj. | ||||
| -aiz, -a | zai- | zaizki- | 'be' | -au, -u | -i- | -izki- | 'have' |
| -ago | -agoki- | -agozki- | 'stay, be' | -akar | -akarki- | -akarzki- | 'bring' |
| -abil | -abilki- | -abilzki- | 'go about, move' | -arama | -aramaki- | -aramazki- | 'take' |
| -oa | -oaki- | -oazki- | 'go' | ||||
| -ator | -atorki- | -atozki- | 'come' | ||||
The most commonly used dative verb forms are those of the irregular verbs 'to be' and 'to have', which are in constant use as tense auxiliaries, when these verbs have no lexical meaning of their own. This is the reason why many of the glosses given below sound odd (e.g. dit 'he has it to me'); an example of a more natural-sounding use of this form as an auxiliary would be eman dit 'he has given it to me'. Nevertheless, the following table serves to clarify the morphological structure of dative-argument verb forms.
| INTRANSITIVE VERBS | 'to be' | etorri 'to come' | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'he/she/it is to (me ... )' | 'they are to (me ... )' | 'he/she/it was to (me ... )' | 'he/she/it comes to (me ... )' | 'I come to (him/her/it ... )' | |
| niri | zai-t | zaizki-t | z-itzai-da-n | d-atorki-t | — |
| hari | zai-o | zaizki-o | z-itzai-o-n | d-atorki-o | n-atorki-o |
| guri | zai-gu | zaizki-gu | z-itzai-gu-n | d-atorki-gu | — |
| haiei | zai-e | zaizki-e | z-itzai-e-n | d-atorki-e | n-atorki-e |
| TRANSITIVE VERBS | 'to have' | ekarri 'to bring' | |||
| 'he/she/it has him/her/it to (me ... )' | 'you have him/her/it to (me ... )' | 'he/she/it has them to (me ... )' | 'he/she/it had him/her/it to (me ... )' | 'he/she/it brings him/her/it to (me ... )' | |
| niri | d-i-t | d-i-da-zu | d-izki-t | z-i-da-n | d-akarki-t |
| hari | d-i-o | d-i-o-zu | d-izki-o | z-i-o-n | d-akarki-o |
| guri | d-i-gu | d-i-gu-zu | d-izki-gu | z-i-gu-n | d-akarki-gu |
| haiei | d-i-e | d-i-e-zu | d-izki-e | z-i-e-n | d-akarki-e |
Familiar forms and allocutive indices (hika)
![2019 Argia
magazine cover about the loss of noka
(feminine hika
). Hi, aizan!
means "Thou [female], hear!". Hi aizan.png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Hi_aizan.png/220px-Hi_aizan.png)
In colloquial Basque, an informal relationship and social solidarity between the speaker and a single interlocutor may be expressed by employing a special mode of speech often referred to in Basque as either hika or hitano (both derived from hi, the informal second-person pronoun; in other places the same phenomenon is named noka and toka for female and male interlocutors respectively). The obligatory grammatical characteristics of this mode are:
- The personal pronoun hi is used (rather than the polite second-person singular pronoun zu).
- All finite verb forms that index a second-person argument take (as one would expect) the corresponding hi forms, e.g. haiz "you are" (rather than zara), dun or duk "you have it" (rather than duzu), etc.:
| Meaning | Polite | Familiar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| female | male | ||
| "you are" | zara | haiz | |
| "you were" | zinen | hintzen | |
| "you come" | zatoz | hator | |
| "you have it" | duzu | dun | duk |
| "you have them" | dituzu | ditun | dituk |
| "you had it" | zenuen | huen | |
| "you know it" | dakizu | dakin | dakik |
| "it is to you" | zaizu | zain | zaik |
| "(s)he has it to you" | dizu | din | dik |
| "(s)he has them to you" | dizkizu | dizkin | dizkik |
| "I have it to you" | dizut | dinat | diat |
| "(s)he had it to you" | zizun | zinan | zian |
| "I had it to you" | nizun | ninan | nian |
- Obligatorily in independent declarative clauses with finite verb forms not indexing a true second-person argument, an additional second-person index is incorporated. This is known as the allocutive construction, and we may refer to these second-person indices that do not refer to a syntactic argument of the verb as "allocutive indices".
The allocutive suffixes are identical in form to the ergative and dative suffixes.
| PERSON | SUFFIX | |
|---|---|---|
| (word-final) | (non-word-final) | |
| 2 singular informal masculine | -k | -a- |
| 2 singular informal feminine | -n (-na) | -na- |
Allocutive suffixes follow the dative suffixes, the potential -ke- and ergative third-person plural -te-, and precedes other ergative suffixes (except for the synthetic forms of the verb esan with plural object). Depending on the verb in question, there may also be some other changes:
- The allocutive forms of the verb "to be" (izan) without a dative argument use the root -(it)u-. They are identical to the forms of the verb "to have", except for third-person in non-present tenses:
| Meaning | Polite | Familiar | Also means ... | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| female | male | ||||
| "(s)he/it is" | da | dun | duk | 'you have him/her/it' | |
| "(s)he/it was" | zen | zunan | zuan | cf. huen "you had it/her/him" | |
| "(s)he/it would be" | litzateke | luken | lukek | cf. huke "you would have it/her/him" | |
| "I am" | naiz | naun | nauk | "you have me" | |
| "I was" | nintzen | nindunan | ninduan | "you had me" | |
| "I would be" | nintzateke | ninduken | nindukek | "you would have me" | |
| "we are" | gara | gaitun | gaituk | "you have us" | |
| "they are" | dira | ditun | dituk | "you have them" | |
- In the allocutive forms of the verb "to have" (izan) without a dative argument the -u- in the root changes to -i- (so the root becomes -(it)i). Some form are identical to the forms of the verb "to have" with dative argument
| Meaning | Polite | Familiar | Also means ... | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| female | male | ||||
| "(s)he/it has it" | du | din | dik | "he/she/it has it to you" | |
| "I have it" | dut | dinat | diat | "I have it to you" | |
| "we have it" | dugu | dinagu | diagu | "we have it to you" | |
| "they have it" | dute | diten | ditek | and not *di(n)ate | |
| "(s)he/it has them" | ditu | ditun | dituk | "(s)he/it has them to you" | |
| "I have them" | ditut | ditinat | ditiat | cf. dizki(n)at "I have them to you" | |
| "(s)he/it had it" | zuen | zinan | zian | "(s)he/it had it to you" | |
| "I had it" | nuen | ninan | nian | "I had it to you" | |
| "(s)he/it has me" | nau | nain | naik | ||
| "they had us" | gintuzten | gintiztenan | gintiztean | and not *ginti(n)aten or anything like *gindizki(n)aten | |
- In all other verb forms, the procedure is as follows, sometimes (there is considerable dialectal variation on this point), the third-person present-tense primary prefix d- changes to z- and/or the present-tense stem formant -a- changes to -ia- or -e- in the allocutive forms.
- In standard Basque, d- changes to z- in transitive aorist auxiliaries (*ezan) and all non-auxiliary verbs. The present-tense format may or may not change to -e-. If the allocutive suffix immediately follows the verb stem ending in a consonant, a vowel is inserted (-a- after -z- pluralizer, -e- otherwise).
- In the synthetic forms of the verb esan with plural object, the allocutive suffix is placed after the pluralizer -z- (which, as an exception, is placed after an ergative suffix). In the singular forms of this verb the allocutive suffix is placed as usual (i.e. before ergative suffix).
| Meaning | Polite | Familiar | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| female | male | |||
| "(s)he/it comes" | dator | zatorren, zetorren | zatorrek, zetorrek | |
| "I come" | nator | natorren | natorrek | |
| "We come" | gatoz | gatozan | gatozak | |
| "(s)he/it knows" | daki | zakin, zekin | zakik, zekik | cf. dakin/k "You know" |
| "I know it" | dakit | zakinat, zekinat | zakiat, zekiat | |
| "(S)he/it brings me" | nakar | nakarren | nakarrek | cf. nakarna/k "You bring me" |
| "I can be" | izan naiteke | izan naiteken | izan naitekek | and not nazaken/k |
| "I can see it" | ikus dezaket | ikus zezakenat | ikus zezakeat | |
| "I say these" | diodaz | ziodazan | ziodazak | |
| "I say it" | diot | zionat | zioat | |
| "it/(s)he is to it/her/him" | zaio | zaion | zaiok | |
| "it/(s)he is to me" | zait | zaidan | zaidak | |
| "it/(s)he has it to it/her/him" | dio | zion | ziok | cf. dion/k "You have it to it/her/him" |
| "it/(s)he has it to me" | dit | zidan | zidak | cf. didan/k "You have it to me" |
Eastern Basque dialects extend the allocutive system to the more polite form of address, zu (known as zuka or zutano), or the affectionate variant xu. The rules are similar.
Such dialects have three levels of address:
- allocutive hi (with a female/male distinction) is the most intimate
- allocutive zu or xu is polite but friendly
- the absence of allocutive constructions is the most neutral or formal
But most dialects lack the middle level.
The use of hika forms is diminishing being perceived as more direct and close, but also rural and impolite. Even among who use them, the masculine forms are more frequently used than the feminine ones, sometimes even using masculine forms for women. An explanation is that, in the rural exodus of Basque peasants, men would end up working in a factory with people of their same town, while women became maids, shop clerks or waitresses where informal Basque would be felt improper. [1]
