Dalecarlian verb passives
From UniLang Wiki
Dalecarlian has three passives: active, medio-passive and passive.
Active
The active tells about, what someone is doing, or what condition something is in:
Krippen spilær (='The child plays'),
Bljommin blikner (='The flower withers')
Medio-Passive
To shed light on the medio-passive, we use these examples:
Þeir bítas (='They are biting'),
Kalln og kellingiñ heilses (='The man and the woman were greeting')
Generally, an extra s with respect to the active tells you that one deals with the medio-passive. The rules how to add the s are not trivial and have to be explained:<p>
- One always forms the medio-passive of an infinitive by just adding -s to the active. Example: til drågå (active) (='to pull') gives til drågås (medio-passive).
- For strong verbs, one forms the medio-passive of singular, first and third persons plural in present and past tenses by just adding -s to the active. Examples: ig kumb (active) (='I come') gives ig kumbs (medio-passive); vįð kumum (active) (='we come') gives vįð kumums; þeir kamu (active) (='they came') gives þeir kamus (medio-passive).
- For strong verbs, one forms the medio-passive of second person plural in present and past tenses by exchanging the -ð to an -s. Example: ið tagið (active) (='you take', pl.) gives ið tagis.
- For weak verbs, the rules for present tense are the same as for the strong verbs. Example: ið fýgið (active) (='you follow', pl.) gives ið fýgis (medio-passive).
- For weak verbs, the rules for singular and third person plural in past tense are the same as for the strong verbs (one has to remove the -ð, if there is one, though). Examples: ig/þeir fygði (active) (='I/they followed') gives ig/þeir fygðis (medio-passive); han spilæð (active) (='it played') gives han spilæs (medio-passive).
- For weak verbs, one forms the medio passive of first and second persons plural in past tense by adding -[i]s- before the active -um or -ið endings. Examples: vįð fygðum (active) (='we followed') gives vįð fygðisum (medio-passive); ið venteðið (active) (='you expected', pl.) gives ið ventesið (medio-passive).
- The medio-passive of participle of strong verbs is formed by replacing the -ð ending with -s. Example: ið hafið lesið (active) (='you have read') gives ið hafið lesis (medio-passive).
- The medio-passive of participle of weak verbs is formed by adding the infinitive passive ending to the past tense stem of the verb. Example: ið hafið fygt/spilåð (active) (='you have followed/played', pl.) gives ið hafið fygðas/spilås (medio-passive) (corresponding singular past tenses: fygði/spilæð, where the stems have been emphasized).<p>
Passive
The passive tells about something that is done to something/someone, or when someone or something has to put up with something.
One constructs the passive by either use the medio-passive s above or, preferrably, by using an auxilliary verb:
Sangen verð kveðin (='The song is being sung'),
Húsið vart mâlað (='The house was painted'),
Tein leggs inum skjórtuña (='The needle is put inside the shirt')
