The Verb

Crimean Gothic has retained the basic structure of the old Germanic verb and its distinction between strong and weak verbs. It is in that matter more conservative than most modern Germanic tongues - including Icelandic - as it has kept the old tense pattern and the strong verb classes more or less intact.

Persons and numbers

Crimean Gothic verbs have three distinct persons (I, thou and it/she/he) and three numbers (singular, plural, and dual). At the contrary of what is usually found in every other Germanic tongue, dual is still in use.

Tenses and modes

Crimean Gothic has a much simpler temporal system than English or German (not to say French or Spanish). There is only two tenses :present and preterit and three impersonal forms : past participle, present participle and infinitive. True irregular verbs (aside from strong verbs) are few and roughly the same as in other Germanic languages.

Weak verbs

Weak verbs do form the bulk of Crimean Gothic verbs, and as strong verbs are mostly a no longer productive fossil class, their part in the language increases everyday.

Present :

Class I : Frijen : to love

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	frije	frijes	frijem
2nd	frijes	frijet	frijež
3rd	frijež	frijendsch	frijendsch

Class II : Haven : to have

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	have	haves	havem
2nd	haves	havet	havež
3rd	havež	havendsch	havendsch

Preterit


Class I : Frijen : to love

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	frijede	fride	fridem
2nd	frijedes	fridet	fridež
3rd	frijede	friden	friden

Class II : Haven : to have

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	havede	havedede	havedem
2nd	havedes	havedet	havedež
3rd	havede	haveden	haveden

Literary weak preterit

An archaic weak plural preterit is found in literary writing. It is never used in colloquial speech

Class I : Frijen : to love

	Plural
1st	fridedem
2nd	fridedež
3rd	frideden

Class II : Haven : to have

	Plural
1st	havededem
2nd	havededež
3rd	havededen

Infinitive

The infinitive is always formed by adding a -n ending to the first person of the present : frijen : to love

Present participle

The present participle is formed by adding a -endsch ending to the radical of the infinitive. It is considered as an adjective and always follows the weak declension :
ža frijendsche musch : the loving husband
žo frijendsche schen : the loving wife
Ajsche havež enen friejendschen liever : Aisha has a loving boyfriend
Fųjl havež enes friendschen drukes : Fųjl has loving friends (female)

Past participle

The past participle is formed by adding a -ž ending to the radical. It is considered as an adjective and follows the same declension as regular adjectives
enes poches gemelježes mež gutiske : books written in Gothic
žos mež gutiske gemelježen poches : the books written in Gothic

Imperative

Imperative is formed by using the naked stem of the verb :kųp ! : buy !
There is, however numerous irregularities :
        a) : verbs whose radical ends with a -j lose it : geschapjen (to create) / geschap : create
        b) : verbs whose radical ends with a voiced consonant do change it into its voiceless counterpart : liven (to live) / lif : live
        c) : a number of verbs have no imperative, they use optative instead : liwen (to lend) / i liwes : lend

Optative
        Optative is formed by putting the particle i before a conjugated verb. It is mostly used in indirect clause or to express vow, order, condition or doubt.
        si qižež i ratež ires musch in Ruslandet : she says her husband is traveling to Russia.
        Ive ich wesje gevich,i ich gelieche ije : If I was rich, I would marry her

Future

Crimean Gothic forms its future by using the auxiliary verbs schulen(to have to) : ich schal kųpen leves : I'll buy some bread
Present is however often used instead of formal future whenever the context allows it.
Ires sun spilež in eklesjere in sunentage : his son will speak at Church on sunday

Irregular weak verbs

A number of weak verbs with a nasal infix have irregular preterits on the model of
pringen :to bring

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	praz	prarede	praredem
2nd	prares	praredet	praredež
3rd	praz	prareden	prareden

žunkjan : to seem

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	žuz	žurede	žuredem
2nd	žures	žuret	žuredež
3rd	žuz	žureden	žureden

Strong verbs


Strong verbs are a particular class of verbs which make their preterit and their past participle through ablaut rather than through suffixing. They are not really irregular, but rather the remnant of an old, no longer productive, verbal system. They are conjugated the same way as weak verbs at the present or at the future and optative.
The preterit, however is quite different

lisen : to gather

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	las	lese	lesem
2nd	last	leset	lesež
3rd	las	lesen	lesen

Due to phonetic reasons, this schem is sometimes confused :
a) a verb the radical of which ends with a voiced consonant does change it into an unvoiced one : given (to give) / ich gaf : I gave
b) a verb whose radical ends with a dental (d, t or ž) does insert an euphonic e before the mark of the second person singular :qižan (to say) : žu qažet

        The past participle is formed by adding the -en desinence upon the radical of the third person of the plural of the preterit :geven :given. It is considered as an adjective and follows the same declension as the weak verbs' past participles.

Strong verb classes

There is no less than six classes of strong verbs, each one characterized by a different pattern of ablaut

Class I : infinitive in i, singular preterit in e, plural preterit and participle in -i


stichen (to go up) / Ich stech / is stichen / stichen

liwen (to lend) / ich lew / is liwen /liwen


Class II : infinitive in ie / singular preterit in ų / plural preterit and participle in u


anpieden (to order) / ich anpųt / is anpuden / anpuden

tien (to lead) / ich tų / is tuen/ tuen


Class III : infinitive in i or e , singular preterit in a , plural preterit and participle in u


pinden (to bind), / ich pand/ is punden / punden

werpen (to launch) / ich warp / is wurpen/ wurpen



Class IV : infinitive in i or e, singular preterit in a, plural preterit in e, participle in u



nimen (to take) / ich nam /is nemen / numen

Peren (to bear) / ich par / is peren /puren


Class V : infinitive in i or e , singular preterit in a ,plural preterit in e, participle in i


given (to give) / ich gaf /is geven / given

sewen (to see) / ich saw / is sewen /sewen


Class VI : infintive in a , singular preterit in o , plural preterit in o , participle in a



faren (to go) / ich for / is foren / faren


Irregular verbs

 
Aside from strong verbs, there are in Crimean Gothic a number of irregular verbs. They are mostly old Indo-European perfects which acquired a present meaning. These verbs are called modal verbs. There are also a few verbs which are utterly irregular due to historical or phonetic reasons.

Modal verbs

As old perfects, they follow the conjugation of the preterit. Their number is however quite restricted.

witen (to know) : ich wet (I know), žu wetet (you know), wis witem (we know), ich wise (I knew), žu wist (you knew), wis wisedem (we knew).

Tiechen (to be useful) : ich tųch (I am useful), žu tųcht (you are useful), wis tuchen (we are useful), ich tuchede (I was useful), žu tuchedes (you were useful), wis tuchedem (we were useful)

Kunen (to know) : ich kan (I know),žu kant (you know), wis kunen (we know), ich kunže (I knew), žu kunžes (you knew), wis kunžedem (we knew), participle kunž

žųrben (to need) : ich žarf (I need), žu žarft (you need), wis žųrbem (we know), ich žųrfte (I needed), žu žųrftes (you needed), žųrben (needed)

Gedųrsen (to dare) : ich gedars (I dare), žu gedarst (you dare), wis gedųrsem (we dare),ich gedųrste (I dared), žu gedųrstes (you dared), wis gedųrstedem (we dared), gedųrsež (dared)

Munen (to think, to believe) : ich man (I think), žu mant (you think), wis munen (we think), ich munde (I thought), žu mundes (you thought), wis mundem (we thought),mundsch (thought)

Schulen (to have to), ich schal (Ishall), žu schalt (you shall), wis schulem (we shall), ich schulde (I had to), žu schuldes (you had to), wis schuldem (we had to), past participle schult

Ochen (I am afraid), ich och (I am afraid of), žu ocht (you are afraid of), wis ochem (we are afraid of),ich ochte (I was afraid of), wis ochtedem ( we were afraid of), ocht (past participle)

Machen (To be able), ich mach (I can),žu macht (you can), wis machen (we can), ich maze (I was ableto), žu mazes (you were able), we mazedem (we were able to),past participle : maz

True irregular verbs.

We find there a number of verbs which do not fall into other categories.

Wisan : to be

As in most Indo-european tongues, the verb to be is highly irregular. It has retained a special conjugation at the optative and use a different stem for the present and the past

Present



 

	Indicative	optative
first singular	im	i sie
second singular	is	i sies
third singular	ist	i sie
first dual	sie	i siewe
second dual	siet	i siet
first plural	siem	i sieme
second plural	siež	i siež
third plural	sindsch	i siene

Past

	Indicative	optative
first singular	was	i wesje
second singular	wast	i wesjes
third singular	was	i wese
first dual	wese	i wesewe
second dual	weset	i weset
first plural	wesem	i weseme
second plural	wesež	i wesež
third plural	wesen	i wesene

Wiljen : to want

This verb has retained an optative ending, with an indicative value. Its preterit is regular wiljede

	Indicative
first singular	wilje
second singular	wiljes
third singular	wilje
first dual	wiljewe
second dual	wiljet
first plural	wiljeme
second plural	wiljež
third plural	wiljene

Qimen : to come

this verb forms its present on the root kom : is komež : he comes. Other tenses and forms are regular

Haven : to have

this verb has a special third person form haf which is used only in the idiom is haf tu +infinitive (he is to)

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