Wenja Grammar: Verbs

Here’s how verbs work in Wenja:

In many languages, verbs have conjugations that indicate who the subject is. We also have grammatical person which describes the different kinds of subjects as first person (I, we), second person (you, y’all), and third person (he, she, it, they, the dog, horses, traveling salesmen, beer). When we put all the different conjugations of verbs for each person together in a table so we can compare them, we call it a paradigm.

Wenja is a language which marks its verbs in different ways depending on the subject in question. We do this somewhat in English:

1^st person singular:	I kill.	1^st person plural:	We kill.
2^nd person singular:	You kill.	2^nd person plural:	Y’all kill.
3^rd person singular:	He kills.	3^rd person plural:	They kill.

However, in Wenja, there are different markers for each verb AND Wenja sentences don’t use the pronoun like we do in English. Compare the above table with the ones below.

1^st person singular:	Gwanam. ‘I kill’	1^st person plural:	Gwanmas. ‘We kill’
2^nd person singular:	Gwanta. ‘You kill’	2^nd person plural:	Gwantan. ‘Y’all kill’
3^rd person singular:	Gwana. ‘He kills’	3^rd person plural:	Gwanarsh. ‘They kill’

1^st person singular:	Sasam. ‘I sleep’	1^st person plural:	Sasmas. ‘We sleep’
2^nd person singular:	Sasta. ‘You sleep’	2^nd person plural:	Sastan. ‘Y’all sleep’
3^rd person singular:	Sasa. ‘He sleeps’	3^rd person plural:	Sasarsh. ‘They sleep’

1^st person singular:	Sakwim. ‘I help’	1^st person plural:	Sakwimas. ‘We help’
2^nd person singular:	Sakwita. ‘You help’	2^nd person plural:	Sakwitan. ‘Y’all help’
3^rd person singular:	Sakwi. ‘He helps’	3^rd person plural:	Sakwirsh. ‘They help’

You’ll notice that there is only one word in Wenja for the corresponding two words in English. The ending on the verb functions the same as a pronoun by indicating who is doing the action, so a separate pronoun is not needed.

In the above tables, you can see that each verb has a root form that has endings added to it. The root forms of the above verbs are: gwana- ‘to kill’; sasa- ‘to sleep’; sakwi- ‘to help’. So the ending in the 3rd person singular is not a vowel – it is nothing (which we write as –ø).

The basic verb endings are:

	singular	plural
1^st person	-m	-mas
2^nd person	-ta	-tan
3^rd person	-ø	-rsh

Sometimes the final vowel in the root is deleted before the verb ending. Don’t worry about why the vowels disappear sometimes. Usually in Wenja, if a vowel can be deleted, it is.

Wenja Grammar: Verbs

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