"A Guide to Haakish Verbs and Tenses"
by GM Cadaya

The following document contains information on the verbs and verb tenses of Haakish, the language of Elanthian Dwarves in Dragonrealms. We hope this information will help to enrich your roleplaying.

A. All verbs in Dwarven end in vowels. All are like "strong" verbs in English (e.g. sing, sang, sung), except that the pattern of the principle parts is more predictable. What vowel they end in is determined by the next to last vowel. They follow these patterns:

A verbs: flage, flege, flagen ["skin, skinned, skinned"]
E verbs: felae, faele, felen ["hide, hid, hidden"]
I verbs: hviska, hvaska, hvusken ["sweep, swept, swept"]
O verbs: gorva, garva, gorven ["do, did, done"]
U verbs: drusa, drasa, drosen ["fall, fell, fallen"]
AE verbs: svaera, svara, svoren ["swear, swore, sworn"]

B. Vowel variants work the same way, so if there were a verb *flawge, it would go: flawge, flewge, flawgen. Likewise something like *flaage would produce flaage, fleege, flaagen.

C. Tense and voice. There are two voices, as in English, active and passive. The tense system in Haakish is, however, much more limited.

D. Active system. There are two true tenses in the active system. Older grammarians called them "Non-past" and "Past" or "Incomplete" and "Complete." Today they are usually termed "Present" and "Past." There are also three periphrastic tenses in the active: the Perfect and Pluperfect (formed with hafe or hefe + 3rd principle part) and the Future (formed with duthra + 1st principle part). In the following charts we'll be using the sample verb "muna, mana, monen," ["kiss, kissed, kissed"]):

Dwarven tense Dwarven Example English equivalent(s) notes
Present Ag muna til. I kiss her.I am kissing her.I do kiss her.I will kiss her.
Past Ag mana til. I kissed her.I was kissing her.I have kissed her.I had kissed her.
Perfect Ag hafe til monen. (1st)Ag hafe monen til. (2nd) I have kissed her. The Past tense is usually used for this meaning, but the 1st form of the Perfect is sometimes seen, especially when there is a direct object present. The 2nd form of the Perfect is very rare, but growing more popular under the influence of Common.
Pluperfect Ag hefe til monen. (1st)Ag hefe monen til. (2nd) I had kissed her. The Past tense is usually used for this meaning but the 1st form of the Pluperfect is sometimes seen, especially when there is a direct object present. The 2nd form of the Pluperfect is very rare, but growing more popular under the influence of Common.
Future Ag duthra muna til. I will kiss her.I will be kissing her.I will have kissed her. The Present is the usual tense used for the simple future (esp. when there is an adverb that makes the future idea clear), but this so-called "compound future" is acceptable. For the continuous future ("will be kissing") and future perfect ("will have kissed"), the compound future must be used.

To put it another way:

English Tense English Example Dwarven equivalent notes
PRESENT TENSES
Simple present I kiss her. Ag muna til.
Continuous present I am kissing her. Ag muna til. use present
Emphatic present I do kiss her. Ag muna til. use present

PAST TENSES
Simple past I kissed her. Ag mana til.
Continuous past I was kissing her. Ag mana til. use past
Perfect I have kissed her. Ag mana til. use past
OR Ag hafe til monen. (rare)
OR Ag hafe monen til. (rarest)
Pluperfect I had kissed her. Ag mana til. use past
OR Ag hefe til monen. (rare)
OR Ag hefe monen til . (rarest)

FUTURE TENSES
Simple future I will kiss her. Ag muna til. use simple presentespecially with adverbs of time that show futurity ("soon," "tomorrow," etc.)
OR Ag duthra muna til. (less common)
Continuous future I will be kissing her. Ag duthra muna til. use compound future
Future Perfect I will have kissed her. Ag duthra muna til. use compound future

E. Passive system. Dwarven stylists tend to avoid the passive voice wherever possible and as a consequence those learning Dwarven tend to use it far more than native speakers. There are no simple tense forms in the passive voice, but there are four periphrastic ones: Present, Past, Future and Future Perfect. All of these are formed with a form of the verb "va" ["be"] + 3rd principle part (see below, 7f).

Dwarven tense Dwarven Example English equivalent notes
Present Ag va monen. I am kissed.I am being kissed.
Past Ag ve monen. I was kissed.I was being kissed.I have been kissed.I had been kissed.
Future Ag duthra va monen. I will be kissed.I will be being kissed.
Future Perfect Ag duthra ve monen. I will have been kissed. Almost never used.

To put it another way:

English tenses English Example Dwarven equivalent notes
Present tenses
Simple present I am kissed. Ag va monen.
Continuous present I am being kissed. Ag va monen. use present

Past tenses
Simple past I was kissed. Ag ve monen.
Continuous past I was being kissed. Ag ve monen. use past
Perfect I have been kissed. Ag ve monen. use past
Pluperfect I had been kissed. Ag ve monen. use past

Future tenses
Simple future I will be kissed. Ag duthra va monen.
Continuous future I will be being kissed. Ag duthra va monen.
Future perfect I will have been kissed. Ag duthra ve monen. Exceedingly rare in Haakish.

F. In poetic texts the verb "vaarthe" ["to become"] often replaces va/vare in passive constructions.

G. There is only one "irregular" verb in Haakish, namely "vare" ["to be"]. In fact it is not irregular, but simply has an alternate short form "va." So "vare, vere, varen" stand next to "va, ve, van." They are interchangeable in all cases except one: the shorter forms always stand in the passive tenses (see above, 7e). So one will not normally see "Ag vare monen" or "Ag vere monen." There are exceptions to this rule in poetry.

H. Many constructions in Common that use auxiliaries do not necessarily do so in Dwarven. So ideas of potential, probability, conditionality or general unreality, mainly expressed in Common with "would," "might" or "could," are represented in Dwarven by appending the particle hla to the verb. "Ag skunda hla, hvin ag vare hla darg" ["I would hurry, if I were you."]. "Ag gana hla en" ["I would have killed him."]. The verb mota in Haakish can also be used for ability or permission. "Ag mota gorva aal" ["I can do it." "I am able to do it."]. "Ag gorva hla aal," ["I could do it."]. One should carefully distinguish in Common between "I could do it" when it means "I was able to do it (in the past)" and when it means "I could do it (now)." The former would be "Ag mata gorva aal." The latter would be "Ag gorva hla aal" (though there is overlap between the latter and "Ag mota gorva aal").

I. Propriety and obligation ("should, must") is signaled in Haakish with the particle dwer following the verb. "Ag vande dwer," ["I should go." "I must go."].

J. The present participle (verbal adjective) and gerund (verbal noun) are both formed by adding to a verb the suffix -lar, which is comparable, therefore, to Common -ing.