User:Meuser2/Storage/Mattish/Irregular Verbs

Mattish contains a small number of irregular verbs. They shall be documented here.

Irregular verbs
In stark contrast to the situation in many languages, the irregular verbs tend not to be the basic ones (the exception being the copula, documented below).

In Speech
About 20 irregular verbs besides the copula are used in spoken language. Of these, 12 are d-class verbs. They simply take an extra d(e)- prefix in the past tense (some classify the copula as one). The other 8 are slightly more complicated in their origins.

The Copula
The copula ('to be') is extremely irregular. It should be noted that it also means 'to do' and 'to go'.

The Past Root
The root in the present, as mentioned in the main article, is 0-. This, however, changes in the past. Here it becomes d-. This is used in all except the 3rd person. 'He/she/it/they was/were/did/went' translates as te.

Alterations due to infixes
The interplay between the copula and infixes is extremely difficult. Firstly, all roots revert back to the standard 0- if there is an infix (mood suffixes do not cause this, though te does change back to d- with such suffixes). The infix -uk- becomes -w- with the copula, and the standard -eb- is reduced to -b-. Note that there is a merger between 'he was' and 'he must have been (imperative)'.