Posted by Joey on 12:45 10/27/01
In reply to: (none)
I'm puzzled by one of the examples in the Kebreni grammar. In the explanation of the volitional inflection, it says:
Pucso mabu. I kicked the dog (perhaps accidentally).
Obucse mabu. I kicked the dog (on purpose).
But by my understanding, "pucso" would inflect by adding an initial e and voicing the first consonant (ebucso), and then switching the first two vowels (ubecso), ending up with "Ubecso mabu" for "I kicked the dog on purpose." Where am I getting lost?
Joey
You're taking pucso as the infinitive, which it's not: it's a perfective. (The telltale is that it doesn't end in -u.)
The verb is pocsu. So the volitional is formed by adding an e (epocsu), voicing the consonant (ebocsu), and switching the first two vowels (obecsu).
But what we have so far is an imperfective form. We need another step to form the perfective we switch the last two vowels: obucse.