Author Topic: The verb "elat" and its conjugation  (Read 11322 times)

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Nhizo

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The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« on: October 12, 2013, 10:18:53 am »
Hey guys,
How do I conjugate "elat"? Like the other -lat verbs or are there any irregularities?

ingsve

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2013, 10:10:16 pm »
Just like other -lat verbs.

Anha ek
Yer ee
Me ee
Kisha eki
Yeri ee
Mori ee
"I just need to rest, that’s all, to rest and sleep some, and maybe die a little" – Samwell Tarly

Qvaak

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2013, 11:09:12 pm »
Ya. It's kinda special because in some conjugations the vowel changes (in a regular way) in negative grade, so in a way nothing of the original stem is left:

Anha (vos) ok
Yer (vos) eo
Me (vos) eo
Kisha (vos) oki
Yeri (vos) eo
Mori (vos) eo

The past negative singular is just o, eg. Me vos o. - She didn't go.
We have even nice example from the show's dialogue:
Drogo: Ohos! Os! - Be Still. Don't move.
The words are in infinite oholat - to be still (conjugated to positive grade imperative (though the word is itself probably a semantic extension from negative comparison declension of holat)) and elat (conjugated to negative grade imperative and dropping the vos because it's kinda sorta superfluous).

To contrast the amazingly, deceptively regular elat, Dothraki's other super short word, tat, actually has slightly irregular conjugation, but as usual, this only affects the past singular.
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Nhizo

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2013, 12:31:56 am »
Thanks, that was useful!  :D What das "tat" look like then?

ingsve

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2013, 02:13:35 am »
Tat is a little bit irregular.

In the present tense it's regular
Anha tak
Yer ti
Me ta
Kisha taki
Yeri ti
Mori ti

In the past tense the regular would be /t/ but that's not a word so it becomes /et/ instead.
"I just need to rest, that’s all, to rest and sleep some, and maybe die a little" – Samwell Tarly

Hrakkar

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2013, 12:49:57 pm »
Very interesting!
By what rule does the /e/ come from in /et/?
Don't tell Khal Drogo I am here ;)

ingsve

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2013, 01:13:16 pm »
Very interesting!
By what rule does the /e/ come from in /et/?

It's just epenthetic but it's not really according to any specific rule other than it makes it pronounceable.
"I just need to rest, that’s all, to rest and sleep some, and maybe die a little" – Samwell Tarly

Hrakkar

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2013, 01:00:49 pm »
Very interesting!
By what rule does the /e/ come from in /et/?

It's just epenthetic but it's not really according to any specific rule other than it makes it pronounceable.

That's kind of what I thought. But its an interesting place to put the /e/. This unusual case is worth a note in the wiki/dictionary.
Don't tell Khal Drogo I am here ;)

Ifak

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2014, 11:26:46 am »
But how can you tell that the root of the word is not "el" and that the word doesn't end with -at (and is conjugated the -at way)?

Qvaak

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Re: The verb "elat" and its conjugation
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2014, 12:07:32 pm »
On the vocab page (http://wiki.dothraki.org/Vocabulary) you'll see "past SG: e" at the end of the entry. That means that past singular conjugation is e, and knowing past singular and infinitive should be always enough to figure out the rest. Normally in verbs that have nothing special in their conjugation and do not end in -lat we don't give the past singular, but if there is a reason to be uncertain, we should always provide it (if we don't, that's either because the word is not well understood or because we are sloppy). On the wiki, that is. We offer the pdf dictionary, that still lacks some niceties like the supporting declinations. If you use that, you better just know, though some times if you are really clever, you can search for derivations, like verat or athezar to give you supporting evidence of the correct root.
Game of Thrones is not The Song of Ice and Fire, sweetling. You'll learn that one day to your sorrow.