How to Identify Them

Maþal verbs are divided into five verb classes.

The class of a verb is not random. It is determined by the shape of the root.

To identify the verb class, look at two things:

The verb class matters because each class forms its basic tenses differently.

This article only explains how to identify the classes. The tense forms are explained in the separate articles for each verb class.

What to look at

To identify the class of a verb, look at the root, not the whole infinitive.

The infinitive has this structure:

If there is a voice prefix, ignore it for class identification.

So in a form like:

The voice prefix does not change the verb class.

The infinitive particle ym does not change the verb class.

The verbal ending -a does not change the verb class.

Only the root determines the class.

Step-by-step identification

To identify a verb class:

Example:

Short, long, and overlong vowels

The first major feature is the vowel type of the root.

Maþal distinguishes short, long, and overlong vowels.

Short vowels

A root with one of these vowels belongs to Class I or Class II, depending on the final setting.

Long vowels

A root with one of these vowels belongs to Class III or Class IV, depending on the final setting.

Overlong vowels

A root with one of these vowels belongs to Class V.

One consonant or consonant cluster

The second major feature is the final setting of the root.

A root may end in one consonant:

A root may also end in a consonant cluster:

This distinction is important because roots with one final consonant and roots with final clusters belong to different classes.

Dictionary roots and surface forms

Verb class is identified from the dictionary root, not from every surface form.

Maþal roots cannot end in voiced obstruents. This means roots do not end in sounds like b, d, g, v, ð.

However, a root-final consonant may mutate before the infinitive ending -a, because -a begins with a vowel.

So the dictionary root may look different from the infinitive stem:

For verb-class identification, this mutation does not change the class. The root still has the same vowel type and the same final structure.

So:

The mutated form belongs to morphophonology. The verb class is still determined from the underlying dictionary root.

The five verb classes

Class I

Class I verbs have:

These are Class I because the root has a short vowel and ends in one consonant.

Class II

Class II verbs have:

These are Class II because the root has a short vowel and ends in a consonant cluster.

Class III

Class III verbs have:

These are Class III because the root has a long vowel and ends in one consonant.

Class IV

Class IV verbs have:

These are Class IV because the root has a long vowel and ends in a consonant cluster.

For Class IV, remember that the infinitive form may show the verbal ending after a root-final cluster. The class is still identified from the root: long vowel + consonant cluster.

Class V

Class V verbs have:

These are Class V because the root has an overlong vowel and ends in one consonant.

Overlong vowels are treated as single vowel units in Maþal. So ai, ui, and yi count as one overlong vowel, not as two separate vowels.

Voice does not change verb class

Voice prefixes do not affect the verb class.

The class is still determined by the root.

A prefixed verb keeps the class of its root.

Complex roots

Some roots are longer than a simple one-syllable form.

This does not change the basic method.

For verb class, identify the main root vowel and the final setting of the root.

A root does not have to be short in spelling to belong to Class I or Class III. The class depends on the relevant root vowel type and final setting, not on how many letters the whole word has.