A.Andronov

NB! NOT TRADITIONAL LATVIAN ORTHOGRAPHY IS USED!

All conjugational forms in Latvian are formed from the three main verbal stems: Infinitive, Present and Past.

Forms of the Present tense are made from the Present stem by adding personal endings. It is convenient to construct these forms on the basis of the 3-rd person form. The endings of the 3-rd person form show the conjugational paradigm: -¨ / -as - the Short and -a / -ās - the Long.

It would be useful to indicate this form in the dictionary together with the infinitive. Still usually the 1Sg form is given. This 1Sg form does not differentiate the Short and the Long conjugation (all the verbs have ending -u here). Thus, while using traditional dictionaries one should take into account the following additional rule: to the Long conjugation belong the verbs with infinitives in -ināt and those verbs with infinitive in -īt, which has no suffix in the present. Non-reflexive secondary verbs (they belong to the Short conjugation) lose j in the end of the stem of the third person.

The usage of closed e, ē or open ¿, ¿- in the Present tense depends on the last consonant of the stem: in front of a "closing" consonant (j (in consonant clusters pj, bj, mj, vj as well), ļ, r < º (palatal º earlier was in the present stem of all primary verbs with r), š, ž) closed e, ē are used, whareas in front of a "non-closing" consonant - open ¿, ¿-.

While conjugating the stem leaves the same in all the forms, but for the 2Sg, where an alternation of the last consonant of the stem may take place and always are used closed e, ē. The 2Sg form of the verbs of the Short conjugation (in the Present) needs some additional commentary. Its construction is described by the following rules:

• k, g in the end of the stem change to c, dz (an exception is the verb mācēt: māku, māki, māk);
• in the end of the stem of non-reflexive verbs j disppears (except used after a vowel in a primary verb stem);
• "narrowing" consonants change to the respective "non-narrowing": ļ > l, º > r, š > s or t, ž > z or d (the original consonant can be seen in the Past stem of the verb, cf. plest - plešu, plet, pleš - pleta (or plēta) and plēst - plēšu, plēs, plēš - plēsa);
• the ending -i is present in the 2Sg of the following non-reflexive verbs:
• with the suffix -st-,
• with the following vowel alternation in the stem of the Infinitive and Present a - uo, i - ī, u - ū, if the last root consonant is d, t or p,
• with the infinitive in -ēt, if there is no suffix in the present stem,
• būt: es-i.

If this rule is too complicated, then the 2Sg form should be given in the dictionaries together with the infinitive, and the student must learn all these forms.

Forms of the Past tense are made from the Past stem by adding personal endings. All verbs have the same paradigm of endings in the Past tense (it coinside with the paradigm of the Long conjugation). In the last sillable of the stem closed e, ē are used.

Forms of the Future tense are made from the stem of the Infinitive by adding the suffix -s- an the personal endings of the Future tense. In the1Sg form the suffix appears as -š-. In the last sillable of the stem closed e, ē are used. If in the end of the Infinitive stem is -st, -zt, then in the form of the Future tense the original stem consonant is reconstructed (it can be seen in the Past stem) and in between this consonant and the suffix -s- appears connecting vowel ī (e.g., nest - n¿s - nesa > nesīs, lauzt - lauž - lauza > lauzīs, spiest - spiež - spieda > spiedīs, mest - m¿t - meta > metīs). In the 2Pl form according to the norm of the literary language the ending -it should be, but in fact the ending -iet is used more often.

The forms of the Subjunctive mood are made from the stem of the Infinitive with the help of the suffix -tu (in reflexive verbs -tuo-s). Subjunctive mood has no personal endings - for all persons are used the same forms. In the last sillable of the stem open ¿, ¿- are used.

There is only one peculiar form in the Imperative mood - 2Pl: it is made from the Present stem with the help of the formant -iet, in front of which the same stem alternations as in the 2Sg Present take place, but j in the stem of the secondary verbs is preserved. (The verbs of the Long conjugation may have old forms with formant -ait: ziniet! and zinait!) In the function of the other forms of the Imperative the corresponding forms of the Indicative are used (with a particle lai in the 3-rd person) - see the table.

For more detailed description see:

Andronov A. Pārdomas par verba locīšanu latviešu valodā. - Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas Vēstis, Rīga, 1997. - N 3 (to be published).

Your comments, please, send to andronov@cclu.lv or andronov@niif.spb.su