Download Amharic (Afro

Amharic (Afro-Asiatic)
Past
Present
Imperative Infinitive
1) ‘take’
wәsәdә
yiwәsidal
wisәd
mәwsәd
2) ‘join’
gәt’әmә
yigәt’imal
git’әm
mәgt’әm
3) ‘trade’
nәgәdә.
yinәgidal
nigәd
mәngәd
4) ‘repeat’
dәgәmә
yidәgimal
digәm
mәdgәm
5) ‘resemble’
mәsәlә
yimәsilal
misәl
mәmsәl
6) ‘get down’
wәrәdә
yiwәridal
wirәd
mәwrәd
Hints for this puzzle.
Instead of numbered examples with glosses, this problem presents a paradigm,
consisting of four forms of six verbs, arrayed in a six-by-four matrix.
The glosses are given for each verb root, but not for each verb form. Your job
is to figure out how each form is made, such that, given one form of a different
verb, you could say what all the other forms are.
1) The past tense and present tense forms shouldn’t be a problem in understanding,
but “imperative” means the form you use when you’re giving an order, and
“infinitive” means a special form of the verb that gets used in a number of ways.
We often put to in front of the infinitive form of a verb in English, but then
English doesn’t have much morphology, and there’s only one verb that has a
special form for the infinitive that’s different from the present tense.
2) Strong hint: notice the vowel patterns in the columns and the consonant patterns
in the rows.