User:MichaelGasser/draft2
Verbs
An Oromo verb consists minimally of a stem, representing the lexical meaning of the verb, and a suffix, representing tense or aspect and subject agreement. For example, in dhufne 'we came', dhuf- is the stem ('come') and -ne indicates that the tense is past and that the subject of the verb is first person plural.
As in many other Afro-Asiatic languages, Oromo makes a basic two-way distinction in its verb system between the two tensed forms, past (or "perfect") and present (or "imperfect" or "non-past"). Each of these has its own set of tense/agreement suffixes. There is a third conjugation based on the present which has three functions: it is used in place of the present in subordinate clauses, for the jussive ('let me/us/him, etc. V', together with the particle haa), and for the negative of the present (together with the particle hin). For example, deemne 'we went', deemna 'we go', akka deemnu 'that we go', haa deemnu 'let's go', hin deemnu 'we don't go'. There is also a separate imperative form: deemi 'go (sg.)!'.
Conjugation
The table below shows the conjugation in the affirmative and negative of the verb beek- 'know'. The first person singular present and past affirmative forms require the suffix -n to appear on the word preceding the verb or the word nan before the verb. The negative particle hin, shown as a separate word in the table, is sometimes written as a prefix on the verb.
| Past | Present | Jussive, Imperative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main clause | Subordinate clause | |||||||
| Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | Affirmative | Negative | |
| I | -n beeke | hin beekne | -n beeka | hin beeku | -n beeku | hin beekne | haa beeku | hin beekin |
| you (sg.) | beekte | beekta | hin beektu | beektu | beeki | hin beek(i)in | ||
| he | beeke | beeka | hin beeku | beeku | haa beeku | hin beekin | ||
| she | beekte | beekti | hin beektu | beektu | haa beektu | |||
| we | beekne | beekna | hin beeknu | beeknu | haa beeknu | |||
| you (pl.) | beektani | beektu, beektan(i) | hin beektan | beektani | beekaa | hin beek(i)inaa | ||
| they | beekani | beeku, beekan(i) | hin beekan | beekani | haa beekanu | hin beekin | ||
For verbs with stems ending in certain consonants and suffixes beginning with consonants (that is, t or n), there are predictable changes to one or the other of the consonants. The dialects vary a lot in the details, but the following changes are common.
| b- + -t → bd | qabda 'you (sg.) have' |
| g- + -t → gd | dhugda 'you (sg.) drink' |
| r- + -n → rr | barra 'we learn' |
| l- + -n → ll | galla 'we enter' |
| q- + -t → qx | dhaqxa 'you (sg.) go' |
| s- + -t → ft | baas- 'take out', baafta 'you (sg.) take out' |
| s- + -n → fn | baas- 'take out', baafna 'we take out' |
| t-/d-/dh-/x- + -n → nn | bit- 'buy', binna 'we buy', nyaadh- 'eat', nyaanna 'we eat' |
| d- + -t → dd | fid- 'bring', fidda 'you (sg.) bring' |
| dh- + -t → tt | taphadh- 'play', taphatta 'you (sg.) play' |
| x- + -t → xx | fix- 'finish', fixxa 'you (sg.) finish' |
Verbs whose stems end in the consonant ' (which may appear as h, w, or y in some words, depending on the dialect) belong to three different conjugation classes; the class is not predictable from the verb stem.
The common verbs fedh- 'want' and godh- 'do' deviate from the basic conjugation pattern in that long vowels replace the geminated consonants that would result when suffixes beginning with t or n are added: fedha 'he wants', feeta 'you (sg.) want', feena 'we want', feetu 'you (pl.) want', hin feene 'didn't want', etc.