Basque verbs
It is sometimes represented as a difficult challenge for learners of the language, and many Basque grammars devote most of their pages to lists or tables of verb paradigms.
This article does not give a full list of verb forms; its purpose is to explain the nature and structure of the system.
One of the remarkable characteristics of the Basque verb is the fact that only a very few verbs can be conjugated synthetically (i.e. have morphological finite forms); the rest only have non-finite forms, which can enter into a wide variety of compound tense structures (consisting of a non-finite verb form combined with a finite auxiliary) and are conjugated in this way (periphrastically).
Traditionally Basque verbs are cited using a non-finite form conventionally referred to as the participle (although not all its uses are really participial).
The verbal noun stem, another non-finite form, is obtained by replacing the suffixes -i and -n (and also -tu or -du, see below) of the participle by either -tze or -te.
Some grammarians treat these as different defective verbs, while others consider them a single word with stem allomorphy.
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!
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 verb 'to be' (izan) is irregular but in extremely frequent use, because it also serves as an important auxiliary.
(I am) (I go about) (has me) (brings me) (I was) (if I were) 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).
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).
Singular and plural forms of some finite verb stems are shown in the following table.
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.
The absence of an ergative suffix in transitive verbs (except those discussed in the next section) implies a third-person subject.
The dative-argument marker, whose regular form is -ki-, is added to basic verb stems to indicate that these are taking a dative argument.
Nevertheless, the following table serves to clarify the morphological structure of dative-argument verb forms.
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).
Depending on the verb in question, there may also be some other changes: 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.
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.
By combining the four compound tense stems with various auxiliaries, one obtains four groups of compound tense, sometimes referred to in Basque grammar as "aspects", which we shall call Imperfect, Perfect, Future and Aorist (= "aspect"-less) respectively.
The following two tables lay out synoptically the possible auxiliary/tense combinations for intransitive and transitive auxiliaries respectively.
Some other constructions that commonly express a range of aspectual or modal notions show a greater degree of periphrasis than those considered so far.
A brief selection of some of the most important of these are shown in the following table: Basque verbs have a fairly wide range of non-finite forms.
Morphologically these can all be derived via suffixation from the three non-finite forms presented at the beginning of this article: the participle, the verbal noun and the short stem.
Apart from the short stem (which has a rather limited set of functions), all other forms are built on either the participle or the verbal noun.
To avoid repetition, mention will not be made of the use of the participle as a perfect stem in the formation of periphrastic tenses (see above).
Again, to avoid repetition, mention will not be made of the use of the -t(z)en form as an imperfect stem in the formation of periphrastic tenses (see above).
The second is a common verb which contributes less semantic content to the construction but is the part that is conjugated, thus lending to the whole its verbal character.
A small set of modal particles, including al, ote and omen only occur immediately preceding finite forms (i.e. in front of a synthetic finite form or the synthetic part of an auxiliary verb).
'I wonder if it's true' is easily recognised by speakers to be an ellipsis of Egia ote da?
