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Let's Make a Language: Day 10, Verb Classes and Tense

Verbs in Munya are split into classes based upon their transitivity. This means a single verb may belong to multiple verb classes depending on the context.

Kau kaassyi.
[kau kaːs5.sʲi]
3SG.NOM kick-NEG
They don't kick.

Kau kaasmi dun so.
[kau kaːs5.mi tʰun so]
3SG.NOM kick-NEG rock ACC
They don't kick the rock.

I've decided on three verb classes, one for impersonal verbs ("(it's) raining"), intransitive verbs ("he sleeps"), and one for transitive and ditransitive verbs ("he kicks the ball").

Verbs in Munya do not need to agree in person or number. The only differences between the verb classes are how they mark the imperative, negative, potential, interrogative, and subjunctive differently, all in the form of infixes.

All other grammatical information is encoded in particles that follow the verb. So far I only have the particle [wa] for the past tense, so lets make some more.

Kau kaasmi wa dun so.
[kau kaːs5.mi wa tʰun so]
3SG.NOM kick-NEG PST rock ACC
They did not kick the rock.

We'll use the word [lʲa5lo] "later" as the future tense marker.

Kau kaasmi lyalo dun so.
[kau kaːs5.mi lʲa5lo tʰun so]
3SG.NOM kick-NEG FUT rock ACC
They will not kick the rock.

And I'll leave the present unmarked. So now we have a full set of past, present, and future tense markers, which I'm pretty happy with.

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