| Sindarin -> Classes -> Class 11 - Verb in A-Stem Part 2 |
| Class 11 - Verb in A-Stem Part 2
This is a bite complicated to understand this part. We have to refer often to the primitive root (etymology) of the verb. Myself I have trouble, The active participle (Also called present participle) is an adjective derived from a verb, describing the condition one is in when carrying out the action denoted by the verb (if you sing, you are singing; therefore, singing is the participle of the verb "to sing"). In Sindarin, the active participle of derived verbs is formed by the ending -ol bronia- "endure" > broniol "enduring" Perfective active participle There is also another active participle that may be termed the perfective active it describes the state of someone already having carried out this action. It is formed by the ending -iel, esta- "call, name" > estiel "having named" In the case of the numerous verbs in -ia, parallel forms suggest that the stem-vowel should be lengthened, as in hwíniel from hwinia-. (The verbs siria- "flow", thilia- "glister" and tiria- "watch" would presumably behave in the same way: síriel, thíliel, tíriel.) Some Exception beria- (protect) (stem Bar) > bóriel (having protected) Past participle The last of the participle forms we know anything about is the passive participle (or past participle), an adjective describing the condition of something or someone that is (or has been) exposed to the action of the corresponding verb: English forms its passive participles by means of the ending -ed (e.g. killed from kill). In sindarin we forms its past participles with the adjectival ending -en added to the (3rd person singular) past tense. Since derived verbs form their past tenses in -nt, the corresponding passive participles end in -nnen representing -nten (Sindarin phonology demanding that the cluster nt becomes nn between vowels): egleria- (glorify, praise) > egleriannen (glorified)
As the past participle of linna- "sing" we might expect linnannen ("sung"), but as in other cases where "double nn" would occur, the form is usually simply contracted: linnen. The past participles coincide with the 1st person past tense: gostannen could also mean "I feared", egleriannen is also "I glorified" etc. The context must decide how the form is to be understood. In some cases, when the verb cannot normally take a direct object, e.g. "go", the past participle may describe the state that the one performing the verbal action is in having completed it. For instance, one who goes will thereafter be gone ("gone" is the past participle of "go"). In a similar manner, the past participle of an intransitive verb like lacha- "flame" (lachannen) may perhaps be used to describe a fire having flamed. But in Sindarin, it may be better to use the perfective active participle instead (like lechiel in this case); see above. The past or passive participle has a distinct plural form (used when the participle describes a plural word). This is formed by altering the ending -nnen to -nnin, combined with I-umlaut throughout the word. As usual, the effect of this is that the vowels a and o, where they occur, are altered to e (see plural prestanneth) harnannen (wounded) > pl. Hernennin Notice that the ending -a in the verbal stem itself, here the final -a of harna and gosta-, is also umlauted to e: In the plural, -annen always becomes -ennin. linnen (sung) > pl. linnin For a similar reason, it may be that the plural past participle of the verb boda- "ban, prohibit" should be bodennin, not bedennin with umlaut o > e, since this o represents an older diphthong au (plural prestanneth diphthong) The gerund Actually a derived noun, the verbal action considered as a "thing". In English, gerunds are derived by means of the ending -ing, e.g. thinking from the verb think. In English, the gerund and the active participle cannot be distinguished by their form; both end in -ing. However, while the participle has an adjectival function, the gerund is a noun, and in Sindarin, the two are distinct also in form. All derived verbs, or A-stems form their gerunds by means of the ending -d: bronia- (endure) > broniad (enduring) (= the act of enduring, endurance) (Cf. the Mereth Aderthad, Feast of Reunion, mentioned in the Silmarillion.) It seems that gerunds are often used where English would have an infinitive instead. In the King's Letter (SD: 129), Aragorn writes that he aníra...suilannad mhellyn în = "wishes...to greet his friends", literally "wishes greeting (of) his friends". It is indeed possible that Tolkien had decided to drop the infinitives replacing them with gerunds. I would generally use gerunds for English infinitives when writing in Sindarin.
Exercises Do the: The active participle glavra- (babble) = _______________ Perfective active participle be careful there is exception esta- (call, name) =_______________ Past participle gosta- (fear exceedingly) =_________________ The Gerund Bronia (endure) = ________________
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