The Timekeeper Chronicles

This is going to be a fairly long post, but it will cover the basics of Borelian verbs, what you need to know as we get into each part individually.

We'll start with the easy stuff.

Part One: Classes

Class I: Single Letter Verbs

This is a very small classification of verbs and is sometimes referred to as the Exception Class rather than a class of its own.

Verbs in this class are:

a | die

e | see

i | see, understand

o | is, be

u | hear

Class II: Monosyllabic Vowel-Stem

These are verbs that have more than one letter but a single syllable and end in a vowel.

Regular verbs in this class include:

ra | kill, murder

zi | win

Class III: Monosyllabic Consonant-Stem

These are verbs that have more than one letter but a single syllable and end in a consonant.

Regular verbs in this class include:

mod | give

mor | worship

nol | do

Class IV: Multisyllabic Vowel-Stem

These are verbs with two or more syllables and end in a vowel.

Regular verbs in this class include:

aji | poison

dani | grieve, mourn

ibli | eat

lethni | question, interrogate

Class V: Multisyllabic Consonant-Stem

These are verbs with two or more syllables and end in a consonant.

Regular verbs in this class include:

carlin | run

thelis | walk

tindar | instruct

Class VI: Honor Verbs [archaic]

While most verbs have been condensed down into the five main classes, a few are still conjugated according to an older style of class and fall into the Honor Verb classification.

Mod zel Tujor con / Mod zik Tujor con (lit. give oneself/victory to Tujor)

This idiomatic verb refers to committing ritual suicide, that is, honoring the Borelian god of death, Tujor, rather than face shame and dishonor. While the root verb is “mod,” this particular idiom sees the otherwise Class III verb conjugated according to the old rules.

Class VII: Bone Verbs [archaic]

Like Honor Verbs, Bone Verbs are part of the old style of classification and conjugation.

Rakzel (lit. cause the death of oneself)

This verb also refers to the act of suicide, though this is the dishonorable side of things. While it would normally be considered a Class V verb, it is instead conjugated according to the old rules.

Part Two: Affixes Overview

Borelian verbs rely on four different types of affixes to relay complete, coherent meaning.

Circumfixes relay temporal information, when the action occurred.  While they are not attached directly to the verb most times, they are part of the complete thought.  You have already encountered circumfixes in basic sentences using "O ... o."

Prefixes contain everything about the verb's aspect, from first-hand knowledge, conditionals, intent, ability, completeness, to repetition and relativity.  They are the most important part of the verb.

Suffixes deal with subject, object, and even a tangential third person.

There is only one infix in use today and it takes an active verb and turns it passive.

It can be summed up sort of like this:

Each part of the affixes will be covered individually.

And that's the conclusion to the introduction.