Saturday 24 April 2010

Verb tenses

There are 9 tenses in Lurion, combining 2 elements, time and state.

Praesens, Aorist and Futurum (Present, Past and Future)
Simple, Imperfect and Perfect

The time-part is very easy; praesens is used for actions in the present, aorist in the past and futurum for actions that will (or might) happen in the future.

The state-part is a bit more complicated. Simple is used for describing (consecutive) actions, imperfect for continuous actions and perfect for completed actions.

Praesens and Simple have no affices.
Aorist adds the prefix e-, futurum the suffix -εc.
Imperfect adds the suffix -εн, perfect a reduplication of the first syllable (e.g. δω > δεδω).

E.g.:
eδεδω - "I had given" (past perfect)
οιοιcιc - "You (sg) will have thought" (future perfect)
eοιδαнιтε - "You (pl) were knowing" (past imperfect)
It must be noted that the latter is highly unusual, because it is quite odd to 'know continuously'. Something like "although you knew" would be translated as цαᴧтε eοιδιтε.

Lets look at the semantical differences between the tenses:

Λeгω, δω e φεᴧιω. - "I speak, I give and I (make) love."; these are all habits.
Eᴧeгω, eδω e eφεᴧιω. - "I spoke, I gave and I loved."; these are 3 actions in chronological order.
Λeгω e οιнω. - "I speak and I am thinking"; i.e. 'I speak while I am thinking'.
Δεδωмι ᴧυβрεн e ᴧeгω. - "I have been given a book and I speak"; i.e. 'I speak, (while) having/owning a book'.

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