[[PIE conjugation]]
# PIE verb stem formation
In PIE inflectional and derivational processes produced verb stems,
which were then combined with [[PIE verb endings|verb endings]] to produce an ultimate word.
A verb stem tended to reflect [[PIE aspect|aspect]], and later in Core IE the subjunctive and optative [[PIE mood|moods]].
## Early PIE
The differences between early PIE's verbal inflection (i.e. that seen in the Anatolian branch)
and Nuclear IE are striking,
and many problems remain unresolved.
PIE's derivational system for the most part was reorganised into an inflectional one in Nuclear IE,
often with very different meanings of cognate affixes.
| PIE affix | meaning | Nuclear IE affix | meaning |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| _<span class="ling">-ni(n)-</span>_ (infix) | causative | <em class="recon">-n(é)-</em> (infix) | imperfective |
| _<span class="ling">-nu-</span>_ | causative, factitive | <em class="recon">-n(é)w-</em> | imperfective |
| _<span class="ling">-ske/a-</span>_ | imperfective | <em class="recon">-sḱé/ó</em> | imperfective (thematic?) |
| _<span class="ling">-e-</span>_ | stative, fientive | <em class="recon">-éh₁-</em> | stative imperfective |
| _<span class="ling">-ahh-</span>_ | factitive | <em class="recon">-(a)h₂-</em> | factitive imperfective |
| _<span class="ling">-āi</span>_ < <em class="recon">-ah₂-yé-</em> | denominative | <em class="recon">-yé/ó-</em> | [[Denominative]] imperfective (thematic?) |
The first latter three remained derivational in Nuclear IE whereas the former three became inflectional.
For further discussion see Ringe (2017), whence the above table.[^early]
Verb stems were arbitrarily classed as either [[PIE thematic vowel|thematic or athematic]],
where thematic stems end in ablauting <em class="recon">-é/ó-</em>
and athematic stems always ended non-syllabically.
[^early]: 2017, [[@ringeProtoIndoEuropeanProtoGermanic2017|From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic]], pp. 30–32.
## Core IE
### Aspect
Core IE [[PIE aspect#Nuclear IE|aspect]] was either encoded in the ==root, inflectional affixes, or derivational suffixes==.[^aspect]
The most extensive system by far was that of the [[#imperfective]],
which was also the only aspect that could be formed derivationally.
See [[PIE conjugation#Core IE paradigm architecture]] for the distribution of aspect stems.
Naturally thematic stems are always inflected. <!--SR:!2023-11-14,10,150-->
[^aspect]: 2017, [[@ringeProtoIndoEuropeanProtoGermanic2017|From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic]], pp. 33–35.
#### Imperfective
- **Suffixless stem**
- Root imperfective. %% fold %%
Some roots were intrinsically imperfective and bore no inflectional affix.
- <em class="recon">h₁(é)s-</em> ‘be’
- <em class="recon">h₁ḗ/éd-</em> ‘be eating’
- Reduplicated imperfective with <em class="recon">Ce-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">dʰé-dʰ(e)h₁</em> ‘be putting’
- Reduplicated imperfective with <em class="recon">Ci-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">stí-st(a)h₂-</em> ‘be getting up’
- **Inflectional athematic**
- Nasal infixed imperfectives with <em class="recon">-n(é)-</em>. %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">li-n(é)-kʷ-</em> ‘be leaving behind’
- <em class="recon">tḷ-n(á)-h₂</em> ‘be lifting’
- Imperfective with <em class="recon">-n(é)w-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">tṇ-n(é)w-</em> ‘be stretching’
- **Inflectional thematic**
- Simple thematic imperfective with a plain thematic vowel suffix %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">bʰér-e/o-</em> ‘carry’
- <em class="recon">su(H)-é/ó-</em> ‘push’[^accent]
- Reduplicated thematic imperfectives with <em class="recon">Ci-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">sí-sd-é/ó-</em> ‘be (in the process of) sitting down’
- Thematic imperfectives in <em class="recon">sḱé/ó-</em> (durative, possibly ∅-grade root?) %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">pṛsḱé/ó-</em> ‘keep asking’
- Thematic imperfectives in <em class="recon">-yé/ó-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">wṛǵ-yé/ó-</em> ‘be working’
- Thematic imperfectives in <em class="recon">-ye/o-</em> with root accent %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">gʷʰédʰ-ye/o-</em> ‘keep asking for’
- Thematic imperfectives in <em class="recon">-se/o-</em> which were possibly originally [[desiderative]]. %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₂lék-se/o-</em> ‘protect’
- **Derivational athematic**
- ∅-grade adjective + <em class="recon">-éh₁-</em> → stative (formed a [[Caland root]]) %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁rudʰ-éh₁-</em> ‘be red’ ← <em class="recon">h₁rewdʰ-</em> ‘red’
- adjective + <em class="recon">-h₂-</em> → [[Factitive verb|factitive]] %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">néwa-h₂-</em> ‘renew’ ← <em class="recon">néwo-</em> ‘new’
- **Derivational thematic**
- o-grade verb + <em class="recon">-éye/o-</em> → transitives, sometimes causative or iterative %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">sod-éye/o-</em> ‘seat (someone)’ ← <em class="recon">sed-</em> ‘sit down’
- <em class="recon">bʰor-éye/o-</em> ‘be carrying around’ ← <em class="recon">bʰer-</em> ‘carry’
- basic verb or reduplicated verb + <em class="recon">-(h₁)se/o-</em> → [[desiderative]] %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">wéyd-se/o-</em> ‘want to see’ ← <em class="recon">wéyd-</em> ‘catch sight of’
- <em class="recon">kí-kḷ-h₁se/o-</em> ‘try to conceal’ ← <em class="recon">ḱel-</em> ‘hide’
- basic verb + <em class="recon">-syé/ó</em> → desiderative %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">bʰuH-syé/ó-</em> ‘want to become’ ← <em class="recon">bʰuH-</em> ‘become’
- unaccented nominal with e-grade ending + <em class="recon">-yé/ó-</em> → [[Denominative]] %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁regʷes-yé/ó-</em> ‘get dark’ ← <em class="recon">h₁régʷes-</em> ‘darkness’
- <em class="recon">somHe-yé/ó-</em> ‘make (things) the same’ ← <em class="recon">somHó-</em> ‘same’
- unaccented adjective with o-grade ending + <em class="recon">-yé/ó-</em> → factitive %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁lewdʰero-yé/ó-</em> ‘make free’ ← <em class="recon">h₁léwdʰero-</em> ‘free’
[^accent]: Principles of [[PIE accent]] name visible here. We can see the [[PIE thematic vowel]] is accented by default, but if an accent is further left then that one surfaces.
#### Perfective
It is entirely possible that all perfective were root perfective,
as every other class is at least slightly controversial and may be explained away.
See Ringe (2017) for discussion.
- **Suffixless stem**
- Root perfective, by far the most common (see above) %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">gʷ(é)m-</em> ‘step’
- <em class="recon">bʰuH-</em> ‘become‘ (alternately <em class="recon">bʰ(e)wh₂-</em>)
- **Inflected athematic**
- <em class="recon">-s-</em>perfective (called sigmatic aorist), constant root emphasis typically with long/short alternation %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">dḗ/éyḱ-s-</em> ‘point out’
- <em class="recon">wḗ/éǵʰ-s-</em> ‘transport in a vehicle’
- **Inflected thematic**
- Simple thematic perfective %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁ludʰ-é/ó-</em> ‘arrive’
- Reduplicated thematic perfective %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">wé-wk-é/ó-</em> ‘say’
#### Stative
- **Suffixless stem**
- Root stative, of which only one has been reconstructed: %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">w(ó)yd-</em> ‘know’
- Reduplicated stative, which were all other statives. Alternating emphasis on ablauting reduplicated syllable. %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">me-m(ó)n-</em> ‘have in mind’
### Mood
[[Tocharian mood inflection]] differed from that of Core IE in a number of ways,
but the Core IE daughters tend to agree:[^mood]
- **[[PIE mood#Nuclear IE|Subjunctive]]** stems were formed from an aspect stem with the addition of the thematic suffix <em class="recon">-e/o-</em>, called the [[Core IE thematic subjunctive]].
- Athematic ablauting aspect stem: e-grade + <em class="recon">-e/o-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁(é)s-</em> → <em class="recon">h₁és-e/o-</em>
- <em class="recon">h₁ḗ/éd-</em> → <em class="recon">h₁éd-e/o-</em>[^ab]
- Athematic non-ablauting aspect stem: invariant stem + <em class="recon">-e/o-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">néwa-h₂-</em> → <em class="recon">néwa-h₂-e/o-</em>
- <em class="recon">bʰuH-</em> → <em class="recon">bʰuH-e/o-</em>
- Thematic aspect stem: thematic vowels contract to <em class="recon">-ē/ō-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">bʰér-e/o-</em> → <em class="recon">bʰer-ē/ō-</em>
- <em class="recon">pṛsḱé/ó-</em> → <em class="recon">pṛ-skē/ō-</em>
- **[[PIE mood#Nuclear IE|Optative]]** stems were formed from the the aspect stem with the suffix <em class="recon">-y(é)h₁-</em>.
- Fixed left-accent athematic aspect stem: ∅-grade aspect stem + ∅-grade <em class="recon">-yh₁-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁ḗ/éd-</em> → <em class="recon">h₁éd-ih₁-</em>
- <em class="recon">néwa-h₂</em> → <em class="recon">néwa-h₂-ih₁-</em>
- Other athematic aspect stem: ∅-grade aspect stem + <em class="recon">-y(é)h₁-</em> %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">h₁(é)s-</em> → <em class="recon">h₁s-i(é)h₁-</em>
- <em class="recon">bʰuH-</em> → <em class="recon">bʰuH-y(é)h₁</em>
- Thematic stem: o-grade thematic aspect stem + ∅-grade <em class="recon">-yh₁-</em>[^del][^it] %% fold %%
- <em class="recon">bʰér-e/o-</em> → <em class="recon">bʰér-o-yh₁-</em>
- <em class="recon">pṛsḱé/ó-</em> → <em class="recon">pṛ-skó-yh₁-</em>
[^mood]: 2017, [[@ringeProtoIndoEuropeanProtoGermanic2017|From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic]], pp. 37–38.
[^ab]: This demonstrate [[Ablaut|ablauting]] <em class="recon">ē/e</em> is not the same as <em class="recon">e(e)</em>
[^del]: This underwent [[PIE laryngeal deletion]] when followed by a non-syllabic due to the first rule.
[^it]: Italo-Celtic disagrees, for thematic stems the unanalysable <em class="recon">-ā-</em> appears. See Ringe for further sources.
The optative of the 3pl. had a few peculiarities worth noting
- In the active voice, it appears to always have taken the full-grade ending <em class="recon">-ént</em>, even when the stem bore accent.
- In the passive voice, it appears to have retained the archaic <em class="recon">-ró</em> ending
These are my own observations based on the conjugations to be observed in Ringe.
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