Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Thoughts on simplifying verbs

So verbs will no longer require conjugations, instead preceded by simple subject markers:

me, te, e, nos, vos, illos - habe, habui, ama, amavi, dice, dixi, vide, vidi

Verbs will have two forms - a progressive and a perfect. Somehow, verbs derived from Greek will have the aorist from as their 'perfect.'

But i'll keep a simple conjugation schema to be used at times:

1st singular: For progressive verb forms, replace last syllable with -o if verb ends with -a or -e or add -o if the word ends in -i. For perfect forms, just leave alone (why so, though? would amavio instead of amavi be such an odd form? Habuio? Rexio?)
2nd sing.: Just add -s
3rd sing.: Just add -t
1st plural.: Just add -mus
2nd plural.: Just add -tis
3rd plural.: Just add -nt or -ent if the verb ends in -i.

Imperative: Just use progressive form alone
Infinitive: Just add -re
Progressive participle: Just add -nte or -ente if the verb ends in -i
Gerund: Just add -nda or -endo if the verb ends in -i (I'm not sure about the function of the gerund form yet though)

The 1st singular rule is a bit confusing I guess. It would change some verb forms: "I have" will be "habo" rather than "habeo," and "I must" will be "debo" rather than "debeo." Hopefully though this simplification will obscure a few verbs of the second conjugation, it won't entirely get it the way of comprehension of classical latin.

As for the verb "es" and that verb alone, I still suggest irregular forms: sum, es, est, sumus, estis, and sunt. But only if necessary.

The only nominative pronoun forms I would suggest are "ego" and "tu" if necessary, otherwise "me" and "te" work well, I think.

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