The verb has X principal parts: minor, major, future, and augmented.
The minor stem is the default.
The major stem is used for a great variety of things in the Vengic languages, but What, where minor-major pairs have fossilized into synchronically suppletive pairs of verbs distinguished by the absence vs. presence of a recipient, beneficiary, or purpose, may be assumed to be to some extent conservative:
tymbaudnbook=NOM ex1SG ligive.MIN
[təmbæwn ʔɛʔ lɪç]
I gave the book away
MytsuâMytsuâ ex1SG liùgive.MAJ tymbaudnbook=NOM
[mətswɔː ʔɛʔ lɪw təmbæwn]
I gave the book to Mytsuâ
The future stem is actually an obligative, but it often develops into a future tense (and an imperative) in the descendants. There are several different future formatives, representing both variation in accreted prefixal morphemes and perhaps subtle gradations of meaning preserved in Vynyi and... maybe Whatic.
The augmented stem, being suffixal, preserves coda consonants that were lost otherwise - at least in verbs with mono- or disyllabic minor forms. In many trisyllabic verbs, the augmented stem underwent irregular syncope (usually of high vowels) followed by cluster reduction, due to the restriction that stems be trisyllabic; in others, however, the affix was simply lost, and the augmented stem was merged with the minor. This stem was used for various periphrastic forms, and presumably represented a verbal noun; in Zotic and Narngic, however, it has replaced the minor form and come to be the semantically unmarked present tense.
Future markers: co-,
Augment markers: -Ce
The minor stem is the default.
The major stem is used for a great variety of things in the Vengic languages, but What, where minor-major pairs have fossilized into synchronically suppletive pairs of verbs distinguished by the absence vs. presence of a recipient, beneficiary, or purpose, may be assumed to be to some extent conservative:
tymbaudnbook=NOM ex1SG ligive.MIN
[təmbæwn ʔɛʔ lɪç]
I gave the book away
MytsuâMytsuâ ex1SG liùgive.MAJ tymbaudnbook=NOM
[mətswɔː ʔɛʔ lɪw təmbæwn]
I gave the book to Mytsuâ
The future stem is actually an obligative, but it often develops into a future tense (and an imperative) in the descendants. There are several different future formatives, representing both variation in accreted prefixal morphemes and perhaps subtle gradations of meaning preserved in Vynyi and... maybe Whatic.
The augmented stem, being suffixal, preserves coda consonants that were lost otherwise - at least in verbs with mono- or disyllabic minor forms. In many trisyllabic verbs, the augmented stem underwent irregular syncope (usually of high vowels) followed by cluster reduction, due to the restriction that stems be trisyllabic; in others, however, the affix was simply lost, and the augmented stem was merged with the minor. This stem was used for various periphrastic forms, and presumably represented a verbal noun; in Zotic and Narngic, however, it has replaced the minor form and come to be the semantically unmarked present tense.
Future markers: co-,
Augment markers: -Ce