[Multilingual Monday] Unique Verb Forms, Vol. 7572

[aadroma]

Like several Amerind languages, the basis of the Cherokee language is the verb, which takes a number of elements in order to convey a very specific meaning as to what's going on, when, to whom, and many other elements that are either not thought of as necessary to explain in English, or are explained with words completely separate from the verb in

Comments

does this count?

[bitterlawngnome]

beszéltem - I spoke (completed action)

beszélhettem - I could have spoken (at any time)

beszélgettem - I chatted (casual, past, ongoing)
elbeszélgettem - I chatted away an amount of time, or talked frivolously

Re: does this count?

[aadroma]

Do these apply to all verbs, or only a certain set? I mean, could the additions found in "I chatted" vs. "I spoke" be put in "eat", "walk," etc.?

I ask as Hungarian is a language I have QUITE a bit of unfamiliarity with.

Re: does this count?

[bitterlawngnome]

Let's see ... the conditional could be anything, it could have rained, she could have visited, the tree could have grown.

The last two it would be odd to hear them about something that doesn't traditionally have agency ... you could use it poetically but you would then be making a point of attributing agency to the weather or the tree - like saying "the weather rained itself empty".

Re: does this count?

[aadroma]

Well then they certainly count, so long as you can apply it to any kind verbs even if the end result is somewhat nonsensical or comedic.

Re: does this count?

[bitterlawngnome]

An interesting ambiguity, that conditional construction means "it could have" but can also mean "it would be nice if it had ...", same as in English, like "you could have called".