Manchu/Lesson 6 - Verbs 1
Dialogue edit
| .............................................................................................................................................. | .............................................................................................................................................. |
| Dialogue 1 | Dialogue 1 |
| udu goro jugvn be yabuha manggi | After walking such a long road |
| suwembe arkan ucaraha | I finally met you all |
| mini mujilen de bisire tondo sain andasa. | my faithful (in my heart) friends |
| udu mudan kurtun be yabuha manggi | After going and coming so many times |
| muse arkan falinduha | We finally became friends |
| muse ere anda i guculen be hairacina. | Let us cherish this friendship |
| tarhvn sain ba na orho be ujihe | Fertile land brings (raises) grass |
| alin deyere gasha be baktaha | The mountain ridge accommodates the flying bird |
| andasa i mujilen tala i adali mimbe sidarbutei | The thoughts/feelings of my friends, just like the wilderness makes me relaxed |
| edulere de muse nukcime yabucaha | When facing the wind, we advance bravely together |
| eten i forgon de urgulecehe | together we celebrate in victory |
| jalan de suwe akvci ergen de jurgan akv ni. | If this world did not have you all, then life would have no meaning |
- Note: This dialogue is actually a modern song in Manchu by the Manchu singer 宋熙东. The song's title is andasa i mujilen [Click here to listen to/download the song]
| .............................................................................................................................................. | .............................................................................................................................................. |
| Dialogue 2 | Dialogue 2 |
| bi manju gisun be tacimbi | I study the Manchu language |
| i inu manju gisun be tacimbi | he also studies the Manchu language |
| Xiao Wang minde manju gisun be tacibuha | Xiao Wang taught me the Manchu language |
| bi simbe manju gisun be tacibura | I will teach you the Manchu language |
| Xiao Wang ya erinde isinjimbi? | When does xiao Wang arrive? |
| bi sarkv | I don't know |
Vocab edit
| ............................................................ | ............................................................ | ............................................................ | ............................................................ |
| Manchu Vocabulary | English Translation | Manchu Vocabulary | English Translation |
| adali | The same | anda | Friend |
| andasa | Friends | arkan | Not easy |
| ba | Land | baktambi | To accommodate, to absorb |
| bimbi | To be/at | bisire | To be/at (imperfect of bimbi) |
| deyembi | To fly | edulembi | To be hit by the wind, to go crazy |
| ergen | Life | eten | Victory |
| falimbi | To make contact with, to come together | falindumbi | To make contact with each other,(reciprocal voice) |
| forgon | Season, time | gasha | Bird |
| goro | Far | guculen | Friendship |
| hairacina | I hope we will love (Optative form of 'hairambi') | hairambi | To love |
| jalan | World, generation | jugvn | Road |
| jurgan | Meaning, purpose | kurtun | Round, turn, wheel |
| manggi | After… | mudan | times |
| mujilen | Heart | na | Land |
| nukcime yabumbi | To bravely march forward | nukimbi | Bravely |
| sidarambi | Relaxed | sidarbumbi | To make somebody relaxed, not worried |
| sidarbutei | To make s'body relaxed (instrumental convrb - lesson 8) | tala | Wilderness |
| tarhvn | Fat | tarhvn sain | Fertile |
| tondo | Fair, respectable, true | ucarambi | To meet |
| ujimbi | To raise | urgulecembi | To celebrate together (to celebrate - co-operative voice) |
| urgulembi | To celebrate, be happy | yabuha | To have gone (past tense of yabumbi) |
| yabumbi | To go, to do something |
Grammar edit
Verbs (Part 1) edit
Introduction edit
Manchu verbs (except for three non-changing verbs) all consist of a stem and a final. The dictionary form of a Manchu verb is the present tense form, which includes the verb stem and the suffix ‘-mbi’. E.g.: Arambi (to write) consists of ara + -mbi. All changes for mood or tense in Manchu verbs are done by removing the suffix ‘-mbi’ and by adding another suffix to indicate the tense or mood of the verb (more on this later).
Manchu verbs can be divided into:
- Original verbs (固有动词) – These are verbs that are not derived from nouns, adjectives or other verbs and include verbs such as ‘arambi’ (to write) etc.
- Verbs derived from other words (派生动词) – These are verbs that are derived from either nouns, adjectives or other verbs (see voice of Manchu verbs).
Verbs derived from nouns and adjectives are usually formed by adding one of the following suffixes (see table for list of common suffixes) to the end of a noun or an adjective (note the final ‘n’ of the noun or adjective being turned into a verb is usually dropped):
| ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... |
| Suffix | Noun or adjective | Verb formed by adding suffix |
| ‘-ta’ (te, to) | dasan (politics, management) | dasatambi (to put in order) |
| ‘-da’ (de, do) | jali (crafy) | jalidambi (to cheat) |
| ‘-na’ (ne, no) | acan (a union) | acanambi (to meet) |
| ‘-la’ (le) | aba (a hunt) | abalambi (to hunt) |
| ‘-ra’ (re, ro) | gisun (language) | gisurembi (to speak) |
| ‘-xa’ (xe, xo) | adali (similar) | adalixambi (to be similar) |
| ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... |
Regular, irregular and non-changing verbs edit
Verbs can also be divided into three categories depending on the change in the verb suffix:
Regular verbs – These are verbs that follow regular suffix change patterns.
Irregular verbs – These are verbs that don’t follow regular suffix change patterns (see irregular verb table 8.3 for full list).
Non-changing verbs – These are three verbs that only have one fixed form. These verbs consist of only a verb stem, although grammatically, they feature all the same properties as regular and irregular verbs. The three non-changing verbs are:
- ‘bi’ – To have (有).
- ‘akv’ – To not have (没有).
- ‘joo’ – To forget about it, not worry about it (算了)
Tense (时) in Manchu verbs edit
Unlike say French, the conjugation of Manchu verbs is constant regardless of the person doing the action. I.e. the conjugation for you went and I went would both be 'genehe'. This means only one suffix has to be learnt for each of the tenses. It is convenient to split Manchu tenses into simple tenses (of which there are three) and complex tenses all of which are formed from the simple tenses with the addition of either converbs (such as -me or -fi) or auxiliary verbs (such as bi). See table:
| ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... |
| Tense (时) | Suffix | Example | Translation |
| Simple Tenses | |||
| Present/Future | -mbi | arambi | I write / I shall write |
| Present/Future | -ra (-re, -ro) | arara | I shall write / I write |
| Past | -ha (-he, -ho, -ka, -ke, -ko) | araha | I wrote |
| Past tenses | |||
| Indefinite Past | -habi (-hebi, -hobi) | arahabi | I have written |
| Pluperfect | -ha bihe, -ha bihebi | araha bihe | I had written |
| Imperfect 1 | -mbihe, -mbihebi | arambihe | I was writing |
| Imperfect 2 | -me bihe, -me bihebi | arame bihebi | I was writing |
| Present tenses | |||
| Present Continuous 1 | -me bi, -me bimbi | arame bi | I am writing |
| Present Continuous 2 | -me ilihabi | arame ilihabi | I am writing |
| Present Continuous 3 | -mahabi | aramahabi | I am writing |
| Present Continuous 4 | -me bisire + noun | obome bisire jui | The child who is washing |
| Present Continuous 5 | -me bisire + postpostn | obome bisire de | While in the process of washing |
| Past Continuous 1 | -ha bi | araha bi | Still writing (仍然在写) |
| Past Continuous 2 | -fi bi | arafi bi | Still writing (还在写) |
| Past Continuous 3 | -hai bi (-hei bi, hoi bi) | arahai bi | I’ve been continuously writing 一直写 |
| ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... | ......................................... |
Some examples of the different tenses include:
Present/future tense 1
- bi niyengniyeri forgon be cihalambi - I love spring
- te absi genembi? - Where are you going now?
- suwayan bira mederi de eyeme dosimbi - The yellow river flows into the sea
Present/future tense 2
- mini ama Harbin de ere manju gisun tacire bithe be udaha - In Harbin my father bought this book to learn Manchu
- cimari ilire ilirakv be sarkv - I don't know if we can stop tomorrow or not
Past tense
- Beijing de niyengniyeri isinaha - In Beijing spring has arrived
- birai juhe emgeri weme deribuha - The river ice has already started to melt
- ilha yafan de hacin hacin i ilha gemu ilaka - In the gardens all types of flowers are flowering
Indefinite past
- sini hendurengge inu, mini mujilen de inu uttu gvnihabi - What you said is true, in my heart I had thought that too
Pluperfect
Imperfect
Present Continuous
- bi te manju gisun be tacime ilihabi - I am currently studying Manchu
Past Continuous
Lesson 5 (Adjectives) ---- Contents ---- Lesson 7 (Verbs 2)