Re: What have I done???!!!!

>I'm in the middle of restructuring Aredos (using Piotr Gasiorowski's
>useful little guide to PIE verbs) and have discovered that, when
>finished, the Aredos verb will have no less than 286 forms, and
>that's only if the participles aren't declined (when fully declined
>across three numbers, eight cases and three genders, the participles
>alone amount to 72 forms each. Four participles = 288 extra forms).
>In total, a single Aredos verb can have 570 different forms! AND
>I've got five verbal conjugations!
Vivent les formes!

I've never sat down and done a full paradigm, but if I've done the
math correctly, a Ge'arthnuns verb has 343 *potential* forms; that
is, a paradigm has 343 slots in it, but many would be blank depending
on the constraints of any given verb (the verb "push" couldn't take a
dative passive, for example, knocking out seven forms right there).
I've never thought about participles. I don't think the Ge'arthc,ins
would lump participles in with a conjugation, though, but with the
declension of an adjective. Hmm, let's see:

7*3*2*7=294 (that's for a garden variety adjective, I think)

By rights, then, the third person possesive adjective would be:

294*7=2058  (hoo, baby!)

and a particple would be (fasten your seatbelts):

294*49=14,406 potential forms!!

If those numbers look daunting, they really aren't. It all has to do
with noun-adjective agreement, and the rules on agreement are
mind-bogglingly simple.

In point of fact, in everday conversation, I get by with about 50
verb forms, with about another 40 standing by for special occasions.
And I don't even use a *fraction* of those participles regularly. One
suspects I'd be seeing more forms come into play if I translated some
highfalutin literature.

Kou