Vissard verbs
This is probably gonna end up being quite a big post, cause there's quite a few irregular verbs in Vissard. However, most verbs only have five forms, and the one with the most forms (as you'd probably expect that's
esre "to be") has nine. Thankfully for the many aspiring learners of Vissard, regular conjugations are very simple; for example the subjunctive is always predictable based on the present 3pl form.
Person and number
Vissard is distinct from the major Romance languages in having only vestigial person/number marking on verbs. All verbs except for
esre have one form for the singular (in all persons) and the first person plural, and another form for the second and third person plurals.
esre has a distinct first person singular form as well. For regular verbs in conjugations 1, 1b and 2, this distinction is mostly orthographical and is only phonologically evident in liaison conditions. In the synthetic past tense, person and number are not distinguished at all except in the three verbs where the past tense form is distinct from the past participle, namely
esre,
ir "to have" and
fare "to do" (these all have the same distinction as normal verbs do in the present).
Tense (and aspect)
Verbs distinguish only two synthetic tenses; present and past. The present is equivalent to the general Romance present, while the past is a merger (incomplete in the three verbs mentioned above) of the past participle with the perfect (i.e. the Oïl past historic). As such, person and number aren't distinguished in the past tense; this is almost certainly down to Germanic influence. The past tense has also extended, downplaying its originally perfect aspect; now it's a more general past like in English. All other tenses were lost at quite an early point in Vissard history, and were replaced by compound tenses.
Mood
Despite the loss of distinct tenses, the indicative/subjunctive distinction is still important, more so than in French even. The subjunctive is synchronically derived from the second/third person plural of the present tense for all verbs (yes, even
esre), as mentioned in the post on the n-subjunctive. However, the subjunctive is only formally distinct from the indicative in conjugations 3 and 4 and many irregular verbs; in all cases, it's identical in the 2/3pl forms.
Conjugations
There are four regular conjugations in Vissard, distinguished (mostly) by their infinitives:
1 : Infinitive in -
ar /a/ (from Latin -
ĀRE)
1b : -
er /e/ (-
ĀRE following a palatal)¹
2 : -
ir /i/ (-
ĒRE, as well as -
ĪRE without -
ĒSC-)
3 : -
ir /i/ (-
ĪRE with -
ĒSC-)
4 : -
re /∅/ (-
ERE)
There's also a large number of irregular verbs which I'll also address partially.
The first conjugation
This is the default conjugation; most borrowings end up in here, and it's the largest single conjugation by quite a lot. Also, there are almost no irregular verbs (possibly none in fact) in this conjugation. Here's the verb
kantar "to sing" as an example:
kantar "to sing", ger.
kantant, p.ppl.
kantit
Pres. indic.:
i kante,
li kantet² etc.
Pres. subj.:
i kante,
li kantet
Past:
i kantit
Note that until pretty recently the past participle was
kantat <
CANTĀTUS, although
kantit spread by analogy from c2 and c3. Adjectives or nouns ending in -
at(e) are still pretty common (e.g.
pensate "thought" <
pensar, modern p.ppl
pensit). Also the subjunctive is always identical to the indicative for c1.
The 1b conjugation
A sizeable number of verbs are in this conjugation, including all verbs in -
izer, equivalent to English -
ise.
aséger "to recite", ger.
aségeant, p.ppl.
aségét³
Pres. indic.:
je asége,
li aséget etc.
Pres. subj.:
je asége,
li aséget
Past:
je aségét
Note that for the gerund, the -
e- is only included for stems ending in
c or
g to retain the soft pronunciation; cf.
manzant "eating". The reason for c1b arising is because of
Bartsch's law, by which tonic /a/ following a palatal became /je/, with the /j/ later being later regularly reabsorbed into the palatal (this was a sub-conjugation in Old French, and is a full conjugation in Arpitan). Incidentally, the stems of these verbs always end in one of
c,
z,
ch,
g,
j,
s,
n,
l,
i or
r.
The second conjugation
These verbs are a combination of all those verbs which ended in -
ĒRE, and those verbs which ended in -
ĪRE but irregularly failed to take the inchoative infix -
ĒSC- like other -
ĪRE verbs. These two classes just happened to formally merge.
mourir "to die", ger.
mourant, p.ppl.
mourit
Pres. indic.:
i moure,
li mouret etc.
Pres. subj.:
i moure,
li mouret
Past:
i mourit
There are a
lot of verbs which are traditionally placed in c2 but have some irregularities, either in the subjunctive, the past or both. Often these are n-subjunctives, most of which were mentioned in that post. A few verbs have a past in -
ut, such as
tenir (and its many derivatives like
kontenir) and
venir (and
its derivatives like
resvenir). Other irregulars include
wir "see" and
wir "hear", all verbs ending in -
chepir like
perchepir "perceive";
keir "fall",
venir "come",
sapir "know",
potir "be able to",
divir "have to",
volir "want to". Currently it's likely that there's more irregulars than regulars in this conjugation.
The third conjugation
These are a smaller number of verbs distinguished by having an infix -
is- in their present, subjunctive and gerund forms.
diskir "to say", ger.
diskisant, p.ppl.
diskit
Pres. indic.:
i diskis,
li diskiset etc.
Pres. subj.:
i diskise,
li diskiset
Past:
i diskit
Notably, the subjunctive is distinct for the 1/2/3sg + 1pl forms, both phonologically and orthographically;
i diskis /i diˈkiː/ vs.
i diskise /i diˈki/. Quite a few of these verbs, especially those in
-skir, were originally -
ERE verbs with perfect forms in -
XĪ in Latin; this often metathesised *
-ski in proto-Vissard and then shifted over to c3.⁴ Examples include
naskir "be born",
diskir,
viskir "live"; and from -
ĀRE laskir "allow".
The fourth conjugation
These are an even smaller number of verbs, although they're more of a real group than
-re verbs in French.
perdre "to lose", ger.
perdant, p.ppl.
perdut
Pres. indic.:
i perd,
li perdet etc.
Pres. subj.:
i perde,
li perdet
Past:
i perdut
Note how the subjunctive is again distinguished (
i perd /i ˈpe/,
i perde /i ˈped/). A number of verbs are notably irregular in the past tense department, like
metre "put" (
i mis),
strire "write" (
i strit),
prendre "put" (
i pris),
etinre "attain" (
je etint).
Irregular verbs
According to Vissard grammarians (i.e. me), only a limited number of verbs are considered outside any category; although there's lots more irregular verbs, they mostly conform at least a little bit to one of the classes (usually c2 or c4). Some major highly irregular verbs include:
esre "to be", ger.
stant, p.ppl.
stut
Pres. indic.:
i sus,
til ist,
li sonnet etc.
Pres. subj.:
i sonne,
li sonnet
Past:
i fut,
li fuyet⁵
ir "to have", ger.
ant, p.ppl.
ut
Pres. indic.:
je a,
li onnet etc.
Pres. subj.:
je onne,
li onnet
Past:
i ut,
li uyet
There's also three verbs which by analogy have formed a kind of monosyllabic -
are class;
fare "do/make",
dare "give" and
lare "tack"⁶. Here's
dare as an example:
dare, ger.
donnant, p.ppl.
dit
Pres. indic.:
i da,
li donnet etc.
Pres. subj.:
i donne,
li donnet
Past:
i dat
fare has a separate past tense with singular
i fache, pl.
li fachet.
¹ The only reason it's labelled as "1b" rather than as a separate conjugation is because of its shared origin with c1; functionally they're relatively dissimilar.
² Note that final 2/3pl. -et is treated as if it were singleton -e, i.e. it is silent and unstressed like French -ent. Otherwise -et is read as /e/.
³ In this case the past form is written with -ét rather than expected -et to distinguish it from the 2/3pl. present in silent -et.
⁴ Compare how VL *NASCERE, *NĀXĪ gives Norman nâquir, and CL VĪVERE, VĪXĪ > Walloon viker; also SFr past historic je vécus. There may be other examples I'm not aware of.
⁵ Some speakers have analogised a "past subjunctive" ?i fuye although this is proscribed.
⁶ As in, tack against the wind. It's from Old Norse slá "beat". Why is this random verb so irregular? What can I say, the Vissards do a lot of sailing.