Learning Yurok: An Outline of Yurok Grammar

4.3. Verbs

Most words in Yurok are verbs; in fact, most Yurok verbs can make up full sentences all by themselves. Yurok verbs come in many different shapes and sizes. Usually the endings of the verbs make them different from each other, and tell you who is involved. So nepek' with an -ek' ending means "I am eating", nepe'm with an -e'm ending means "you (singular) are eating", and simple nep' with glottalization of the p means "she/he/it is eating". These different endings are called suffixes.

Verbs can also change at the beginning, by adding prefixes, or in the middle, by inserting an infix. For example, to say "I want to eat" in Yurok, you say Skewok ki 'ne-nepek', where the verb nepek' now has the 'ne- prefix added to it. Or, if you want to say "I always eat salmon", you can say negepek' nepuy, where you use the verb form negepek' with the infix -eg- instead of simple nepek'. Together, all these different words created by adding suffixes, prefixes, and infixes to the same verb stem (for example, the stem nep- "eat") make up the paradigm of a verb.

In the online Yurok Dictionary and elsewhere, verbs are usually cited in their first person singular forms, meaning "I ..." (for example, nepek' "I eat"), or their third person singular forms, meaning "he, she, or it ..." (for example, nep' "he/she/it eats"). Sometimes other forms are cited in the dictionary, if they are very common or have an unexpected meaning, but more often they are not. However, most Yurok verbs come in regular patterns, and once you know how verbs work, if you know one form of a verb and its verb class, it is usually easy to figure out its other forms. For example, if you know a verb is an e-class verb, you can figure out most of its forms by looking at the paradigms of e-class verbs.

In what follows, several important types of verbs will be briefly described.

Imperatives

These are special verb forms (both singular and plural) used for commands; examples are Soot'os! "Go!" (addressed to one person) and Sootekw! "Go!" (addressed to more than one person). Note that imperative verbs are only one way to make commands in Yurok; a more polite alternative way of telling someone to do something is to use cho' plus an indicative form, for example, Cho' sooto'm! "Please go!" (addressed to one person) or Cho' sooto'w! "Please go!" (addressed to more than one person).

Collectives

Many verbs have two kinds of plurals: an ordinary plural and a collective plural. The collective plural refers to group action; it indicates that the verbal action is being done by a group (of people, or whatever). For example, the ordinary plural nepehl "they eat" might mean that they are eating, but not necessarily together, while the collective plural nepi'mehl might mean that they are eating together (in the same place, or at the same time). For some verbs, collective plurals are more common and natural than ordinary plurals; for other verbs, collective plurals might seem a bit unnatural.

Subjunctives

Also called pronominal-prefix verbs, subjunctive verb forms are used in subordinate or dependent sentences — for example when preceded by "I want to ..." — and in certain other contexts. You can recognize subjunctive verbs by the fact that they usually have the prefixes that are otherwise used to express noun possession ('ne- "my/our", k'e- "your", 'we-/'u- "her/his/its/their"); they also have a slightly different pattern of endings from other verbs. For a full discussion of the form and usage of subjunctive verbs see Robins, The Yurok language, pp. 50-58.

Attributives

These verb forms function very much like adjectives in English, and they are often best translated as English adjectives. For example, the word cheykeni "small" is the 3 sg attributive form of the Yurok verb cheyke'n "he/she is small", and the word skuyeni "good" is the 3 sg attributive form of the verb skuye'n "it is good". Many attributives also have first and second person forms — for example, nepek' "I eat" has attributive forms 1 sg nepoh, 2 sg nepom, 3 sg nepin — and they can be used in some contexts that are unlike English adjectives. For a full discussion of the form and usage of attributive verbs see Robins, The Yurok language, pp. 59-69.

Iteratives

These verbs, also called intensive, can usually be recognized by the infix -eg-. Their basic meaning is that the action of the verb happens repeatedly — for example, because one person does the same thing repeatedly or habitually, or because many people do it. For example, negepek' nepuy might mean "I always eat salmon".

Repetitives

These are verbs in which the initial syllable (sometimes two syllables) is repeated, usually signifying that the action of the verb is repeated quickly at one time — for example, with many knocks or chopping motions. (Some nouns are also made in this way, usually signifying plurality.) Here are two examples:

	Basic verb	Repetitive verb
	tikwohsok' "I break (it)"	tikwtikwohsok' "I break (it) into pieces"
	sito'n "it cracks"	sitsito'n "it cracks several times"