Tenses

Verb tenses fall into two categories: dūṃra 'sorted', and dūmiṃra 'unsorted'.

Dūṃra

There are eight Dūṃra tenses, called so because they neatly fall into the combination two aspects; Yāyāma 'perfective' and Ṣrāla 'imperfective', with four specifications.

Ṣrāla is communicated with the simple root, whereas Yāyāma is communicated with a reduplicated stem. Upon these roots, various suffixes are added to further narrow tense and aspect.

Vyalū Ṣrāla

Vyalū Ṣrāla communicates actions that occur at a singular point in the present moment. It is not used for actions that occur habitually, and only occasionally used for actions that are still in the process of being completed in the present.

Vyalū Ṣrāla is communicated with the isolated simple root.

daḷ 'he/she sleeps'

Vyalū Yāyāma

Vyalū Yāyāma communicates the present results of past actions. It carries the implication that the result of the event lingers in the present moment.

Moreover, especially in written works dating after the Jarṭṭuhiṣ, Vyalū Yāyāma was used as to indicate an oblique source of the discussed information, having been received from inference or another individual, as opposed to direct observation. This form of Vyalū Yāyāma and its similar form in Aṣachyalū Yāyāma were strongly condemned by grammarian Jyarvimrṣṇaṃ, who wrote the following concerning it.

It is a love affair for many writers to use these Yāyāma tenses to indicate that the topic of their speech is brought from an unspecified external source, rather than from their own experience. This use is inherently fallacious; any truly respectable and noble speaker is to speak on this context explicitly, rather than vaguely implying it through the choice of one tense over another. Yāyāma is explicitly for actions which are completed; it would be ridiculous to have a second meaning indicating it as being received secondhand, or not happening at all!

In spite of Jyarvimrṣṇaṃ's usual influence on the nature of the language, his critique of this interpretation of Yāyāma tenses seems to have been ignored by both the common folk (most descendents of Ighālyar have explicit evidentials derived from Yāyāma morphology) and even the upper class, where the rules outlined previously are entirely ignored.

Vyalū Yāyāma is told with the reduplicated Yāyāma root.

dedaḷ 'he/she has slept (he/she is still sleeping); clearly/apparently he/she has slept'

Vebhuṃlū Ṣrāla

Vebhuṃlū Ṣrāla communicates actions that are to occur in the future. It is indicated with the suffix -uṣ(i) on the simple stem.

daḷuṣ 'he/she will sleep'

Vebhuṃlū Yāyāma

Vebhuṃlū Yāyāma seems entirely distinct from its Ṣrāla equivalent. It indicates the action as hypothetically or theoretically occurring.

dedaḷuṣ 'he/she would sleep'

Aṣachyalū Ṣrāla

Aṣachyalū Ṣrāla is used to for events that have occurred in the past, often with the implicit assumption that the event described is discontiguous with the present state, having been terminated. As other past tenses, namely Vyalū Yāyāma but also Aṣachyalū Yāyāma, have begun to transition in meaning to bear increased information on the assumption of the event, Aṣachyalū Ṣrāla has emerged as a general stable past tense, communicating events without any evidential implications.

Aṣachyalū Ṣrāla is communicated using the simple root with the suffix -etta.

daḷetta 'he/she slept (he/she has finished sleeping and has since awoken)'

Aṣachyalū Yāyāma

Aṣachyalū Yāyāma indicates many different but related comments. Most predominantly, it indicates the past result of a past event. In addition however, Aṣachyalū Yāyāma can be used to indicate events that occurred in a distant era of the past, and other times to cast doubt on the information presented.

Aṣachyalū Yāyāma is communicated using the Yāyāma root with the suffix -etta.

dedaḷetta 'he/she had slept; apparently he/she had slept, but I doubt it'

Tī́yalū Ṣrāla

Tī́ya Ṣrāla is used for actions that are performed customarily or habitually by the speaker. It can also transcribe the action as a general truth, or that the action is simply done multiple times.

daḷaṃgi 'he/she sleeps (habitually, or many times)'

Tī́yalū Yāyāma

Tī́ya Yāyāma indicates the action as either occuring multiple times or customarily in the past, or as being started in the past and unfinished in the present moment. In this way, it differs from its Ṣrāla counterpart, which cannot indicate the action as being in progress.

daḷaṃgi 'he/she was sleeping/used to sleep'

Dūmiṃra

Dūmiṃra are named as such because they do not fit into the derivational pattern of other tenses. Also unlike other tenses, which are much older, Dūmiṃra are newer constructions with evident derivations from auxiliary constructions.

Ṭṛṇha

Ṭṛṇha indicates that the event has ended, presumably having been continued for some time. It is marked with the suffix -lyāṃ onto the participle, evidently derived from the combination of the verb yā́mau 'to stop' and the imperfective converb.

daḷalyāṃ 'he/she stopped sleeping'

Ṭṛṇhēma

Ṭṛṇhēma indicates the action as continuing or progressing in the present moment. In spite of what its name may imply, Ṭṛṇhēma is unrelated both in meaning and largely in etymology to Ṭṛṇha; although both descend from the use of an auxiliary and the imperfective converb, Ṭṛṇhēma is marked with the suffix -lachi, derived from the verb áchyau 'to go, walk'.

daḷalachi 'he/she is (currently) sleeping'

Ejhaḷra

Ejhaḷra is a unique tense. It is indicated with the lone infinitive, with no auxiliary. As a result, it is the only tense which demands pronouns to be used.

Ejhaḷra communicates the action as being deemed neccessary by the speaker, either required for some other purpose or politely demanded from another. As compared to the imperative mood, Ejhaḷra is considered much more formal and polite, though the imperative is not impolite perse.

ṣraṃ daḷau 'he must sleep'