Verbal morphology

Copula

Unsurprisingly, the most common verb in the corpus by far is the copula. However, its analysis poses significant problems. Despite only being attested in 3sg present, it presents a bewildering variety of forms that make reconstruction of the underlying system very difficult.

The verb appears as /ɛs/,^1,11 /ɪn/,²⁷ /ɪz/,²⁸ /ɪs/,⁴⁷ /ist/,³⁹ /ɪʃt/,³⁰ and /arsən/.⁴⁴ This is no less than seven discernible forms! Nevertheless, some order (however speculative) can be brought to the chaos, especially if we entertain the possibility that the language may have two copulas similar to Old English or Modern Spanish.

1. The form /ist/ may represent more permanent characteristics, like Spanish es. The form /ɪʃt/ has already been described as a likely dialect variant, and /ɪs/ is probably a form of this word as well. It may be the case that /ɪz/ is part of this construction too, though the nature of the variation is unclear.
   
2. The form /ɛs/ may represent temporary states, like Spanish estar.
   
3. The form /arsən/ is likely a subjunctive: /arsən dust ain mit/ = "could this be a meat?"

This leaves only /ɪn/ unaccounted for; its ending /-n/ is inexplicable in the context of Germanic linguistics.

A possible explanation for the variation in the /ist/ forms is that the word may change depending on what word follows it. /ist/ and /ɪʃt/ are both followed by the indefinite article /ain/, /ɪz/ is followed by the indefinite article /in/, and /ɪs/ is followed by the bare noun /biftɪk/. Could it be possible that these influence the form of the verb in some way?

Other verbs

Beyond the copula, only a very few words are clearly interpretable as verbs. The host's questions /torks də flɚ/⁹ and /hɔrz də manzi filijat?/^20,22,24 almost certainly begin with verb stems /tork-/ and /hɔr-/ with a 2sg ending /s~z/ (likely /-s/ after voiceless consonants and /-z/ otherwise), though the meanings of these roots is unclear. The word /fili/ "feel" appears in the question /wʌts du fili/,^38,43 and would also seem to be 2sg, so there may be multiple verb conjugations with starkly different endings for 2sg singular. Alternatively, the word /wʌts/ could be a contraction of a pronoun and a conjugated 2sg verb (perhaps a copula), and /fili/ could be a participle of some kind (e.g. "what are you feeling?"). Lastly, the word /lats/^13,26 is likely a 1pl imperative; it may be a simple conjugation, or a contraction of a verb and pronoun as in the English word "let's" which it closely resembles.

The news anchor's /rəpitən/³⁶ is most immediately interpretable as an infinitive, but it could be a gerund or participle of some kind. When the host asks the announcer to introduce the contestants, the request begins /kan saga/,¹⁴ which it is very tempting to interpret as cognate to "can say". If this is the case, then the infinitive would seem to end with /-a/, similar to most of the North Germanic languages, which in turn would cast doubt on the argument that /rəpitən/ is an infinitive.

While exact interpretation is difficult, the phrase /vos ˈpasɛn/⁵¹ certainly appears to be a verb followed by a participle, perhaps "has won", "is winning", or "will receive". If this analysis is correct, and especially if the preceding speculation about /kan saga/ is also correct, this language would seem to place infinitives and participles after the conjugated verb as in English, rather than at the end of the clause as in German.