Manchu/Lesson 6 - Verbs 1

Dialogue

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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


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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

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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

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Verbs (Part 1)

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Introduction

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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):

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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)
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Regular, irregular and non-changing verbs

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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

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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:

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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
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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)