Verbal chains All Hachijō verbals (verbs and verbal adjectives) make use of a variety of suffixes to indicate the verb's grammatical and semantic function. Suffixes attach to a phonological base form called the
stem, occasionally triggering minor allophony; this combination of a stem and various suffixes creates a
verb chain, which is one
polymorphemic word. Verbal suffixes can be broadly classified into derivations, endings, auxiliaries, extensions, and postfixes: Verb
derivations attach to the stem and create a longer verb stem to which further suffixes can attach. They can combine with each other, in the order (Stem →) Causative → Passive or Potential → Stative → Retrospective or Past Subjunctive. Verbal
endings are always mandatory, with each verb using one. Endings generally end verb chains, but there are certain suffixes (auxiliaries and extensions) that can restart the verb chain. Depending on the exact function of the ending, the resulting verb can be
finite or
non-finite. Verbal
auxiliaries are verbs or verblike forms that attach to the infinitive, forming
serial verb constructions. Being verbals, they themselves take endings of their own, restarting the verb chain. Verbal
extensions are similar to auxiliaries, but attaching to the final form (or a Japanese-style tense) instead. Verbal
postfixes are like auxiliaries and verbal extensions in that they attach verb endings to extend the verb chain, but are also like verbal endings in that they conclude a verb chain. While most suffixes follow the above categories and combination rules, there are exceptions, such as
nomiziisi "won't not drink," which contains two endings in a row: the negative infinitive
-izu and the dubitative
-isi. Lastly, there are several particles that can attach to certain verb forms, usually the attributive, infinitive, or participle. These are considered to be
clitics that attach themselves to verb chains, not part of the chain themselves: • declarative particles
-wa, -zja • question particles
-ka, -kaN, -ĭ, etc. • conjunctional particles
-Nte, -karanja, -ni, -de, -ga, -to, etc. • case particles
-i, -ni, -kara, -o, etc.
Conjugation classes Due to sound changes and other historical developments, the conjugation patterns found in Eastern Old Japanese have separated into several more distinct patterns in Hachijō. The following list of conjugation classes is derived from Kaneda (2001): ; Class 1.1A verbs — strong consonant-stem, participle
Qte: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a light syllable followed by
k,
t,
r, or a strong
w. It also includes the verb
jowa "to say," whose stem is nominally *
iw- but becomes
j- when followed by a vowel. Class 1.1A verbs with stems in
w all have only a single short syllable before the
w; other
w-stem verbs are of Class 1.1A.Examples:
kakowa "write,"
katowa "win,"
torowa "take,"
kawowa "buy,"
macikowa "curse,"
jowowa "get drunk,"
butowa "hit,"
jowa "say." ; Class 1.1A-uw verbs — strong uw-stem, participle
Qte: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in
u followed by a mostly-strong
w. They differ from Class 1.1A
w-stem verbs only in the attributive and final forms (and derived forms), where
uw-o and
uw-u contract to
uu. Like
w-stem Class 1.1A verbs, this class consists of verbs that have only a single syllable before the
w. Kaneda classifies these verbs as a special subclass of 1.1A verbs (subclass 1.1Aa), but they are separated here for clarity.Examples:
nuuwa "sew,"
kuuwa "eat,"
suuwa "suck,"
juuwa "tie up." ; Class 1.1A verbs — Weak w-stem, participle
Qte: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a light syllable followed by a weak
w. They can be subclassified into 1.1Ab (stem-final
uw-), 1.1Ac (stem-final
ow-), and 1.1Ad (stem-final
aw-). For some speakers, particularly in Downhill dialects, verbs that once followed this conjugation have been partly or completely converted to Class 1.1B by treating the stative stem (with
-ar-) as a new base stem.Examples:
(b) huruuwa "shake,"
sukuuwa "scoop";
(c) omouwa "think,"
irouwa "bully";
(d) cukouwa "use,"
warouwa "laugh,"
juwouwa "celebrate,"
-nouwa "(conjectural suffix)." ; Class 1.1B verbs — strong consonant-stem, participle
te: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a heavy syllable followed by
k,
t, or
r.Examples:
kourowa "freeze,"
keerowa "go home,"
koorowa "change,"
kookowa "dry,"
cjoorowa "touch." ; Class 1.1C verbs — semi-strong r-stem, participle
Qte: Consonant-stem verbs created from the stative suffix
-ar- or another combination with the existence verb
ar-, like the copula
dara (from
de +
arowa). Non-verbal adjectives such as
heta "unskilled, crude" also can be said to follow this conjugation, as they use the copula
dara in order to describe nouns, e.g.,
hetadoo sito "an unskilled person." Kaneda classifies these verbs as a special class of 1.1A verbs, but they are separated here for clarity.Examples:
dara "be (copula),"
oora "be, exist,"
-(t)ara "(stative suffix),"
-Nzjara "(Old-Type negative)." ; Class 1.2A verbs — strong consonant-stem, participle
Nde: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a light syllable followed by
m,
b,
g, or
n.Examples:
kamowa "eat,"
nomowa "drink,"
jemowa "smile,"
asubowa "play,"
marubowa "die,"
ojogowa "swim,"
kasjagowa "slant,"
cinowa "die." ; Class 1.2B verbs — strong consonant-stem, participle
de: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a heavy syllable followed by
m,
b, or
g.Examples:
houmowa "contain,"
eemowa "walk,"
soogowa "clamor." ; Class 1.3A verbs — weak s-stem, short-euphonic: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a light syllable followed by a weak
s; this
s becomes a coalescing
i in certain inflections. For some speakers, particularly in Uphill dialects, verbs that once followed this conjugation are now conjugated as class 1.3B partly or completely instead.Examples:
dasowa "take out,"
watasowa "send across,"
modosowa "put back,"
nabusowa "hide." ; Class 1.3A verbs — weak s-stem, long-euphonic: Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a heavy syllable followed by a weak
s; this
s becomes (non-coalescing)
ii in certain inflections. For some speakers, particularly in Uphill dialects, verbs that once followed this conjugation are now conjugated as class 1.3B partly or completely instead.Examples:
tousowa "put through,"
keesowa "give back,"
mousowa "say,"
moosowa "spin." ; Class 1.3B verbs — strong s-stem (non-euphonic): Consonant-stem verbs whose stem ends in a light syllable followed by a strong
s. It is unclear whether these verbs derive from regularization of Class 1.3A and 1.3A verbs by eliminating their euphony, or if they never had euphony to begin with.Examples:
hesowa "push,"
kesowa "erase,"
kasowa "lend,"
josowa "quit." ; Class 2 verbs — vowel-stem: Vowel-stem verbs. They can be subclassified into Class 2a (ending in
i-), Class 2b (ending in
e-), Class 2c (ending in
ee-), and Class 2d (ending in
ei-).Examples:
kirowa "wear,"
jerowa "insert,"
keerowa "mix,"
jamerowa "suffer,"
meirowa "burn,"
oseirowa "teach,"
irowa "sit." ; Class 3 verbs — irregular: Irregular verbs, which share a mix of features from Classes 1 and 2, as well as other irregularities.Examples:
sjowa "do,"
(de)kurowa "come." ; Verbal adjectives (VA): One of the two types of adjectives in Hachijō. Verbal adjectives follow an idiosyncratic conjugation pattern that is supplemented with forms in
-kar- (conjugated as Class 1.1C).Examples:
boukja "big,"
sjokja "known,"
hajakja "fast,"
toukja "far,"
takakja "high,"
nagakja "long." ; New-type negative: A hybrid between the Class 1.1C and verbal adjective classes that is used to conjugate the New-Type Negative auxiliary verb. It has a highly variable stem form of
-Nnak- ~ -Nnar- ~ -Nnakar-; how it inflects will be noted in the following subsections. It is used in the Downhill Dialects instead of the Old-Type Negative, which instead consists of the regular Class 1.1C auxiliary
-Nzjara.Sole example:
-Nnaka "(New-Type negative)." A table summarizing some of the basic forms of each conjugation class is shown below:
Verbal affixes Attributive -o The is made by adding the suffix
-o to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
-ro to those of Class 2, and
-ke to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sjo, and
kurowa becomes
kuro. This form descends from the Eastern Old Japanese attributive form
-o1 ~ *-uro1. On its own, the attributive serves a similar function to an English
relative clause, for defining or classifying nominals: Unlike in Modern Japanese, clauses in Hachijō also can be nominalized directly using the attributive form of a verb (glossed as ''''
). When nominalized in this way, the clause becomes a noun meaning "the act of ~ing", "the fact of ~ happening", "one who ~s", "that which is ~ed," etc., depending on context. Compare these near-identical constructions in Hachijō and Japanese, where Japanese requires the nominalization particle の no'', but Hachijō does not: This function of the attributive was also a feature of Japanese up until the
early modern period, during which の
no became used as a nominalization particle. See also the section on
mermaid constructions, which make ample use of the attributive form.
Declarative particles -wa and -zja The default form of the in Hachijō is formed by adding the declarative particle
-wa to the of verbs. For a slightly assertive or emphatic statement, the particle
-zja can replace
-wa. The particles
wa and
zja come from Old Japanese は
pa and にては
nite pa → dewa, respectively. The
wa-declarative form serves as the
dictionary form of verbals. Originally, these particles followed the Old Japanese attributive in its nominalized form, creating a topicalized nominal; in Hachijō, they have become markers of independent clauses, almost completely supplanting the original final form in this particular use: With verbal adjectives, the attributive
-ke merges with
-wa to become
-kja: Verbs of Class 1.1C also merge their attributive with
-wa, contracting
-owa irregularly to
-a. For instance, the copula
dara has the attributive form *
dar-o →
doo, but this is blocked by the addition of
-wa, as
-owa contracts to
-a instead, viz., *
dar-o-wa →
dara. A similar variation can be seen in the New Negative, which has the attributive form *
-Nnako →
-Nnoo but a declarative form *
-Nnakowa →
-Nnaka. The declarative particle
zja has no special contracted forms, always attaching directly to the attributive, e.g.,
nomozja "drinks,"
doozja "is." It has also been noted to take the form
-zjaN in the Sueyoshi dialect.
Other particles used with the attributive Because of its nominalization function, the attributive form can be followed by any particle that can follow a noun, such as case particles. However, in addition, there are several other particles can also attach particularly to the attributive forms of verbals: The clitic
-Nte is a shortened form of
-joNte, itself an extreme contraction and metathesis of
-ni joQte, related to Japanese ～によって
ni yotte "due to, by means of." This clitic has significant variance between dialects when it occurs after long vowels, shown here on
ikowa "to go" as an example: } Some speakers of the Nakanogō and Kashitate dialects were also noted to have used the older form
-joNte after both long and short vowels as late as 1950.
Infinitive -i The is made by adding the suffix
-i to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
nothing to those of Class 2, and
-ku to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
si, and
kurowa becomes
ki. This form descends from the Old Japanese infinitive
-i1. Negative verbs also have a suppletive infinitive form where the whole negative auxiliary
-Nnaka or
-Nzjara is replaced by
-zu, from Old Japanese
-zu ←
-ni su (possibly reborrowed through Japanese). This is a non-finite form used similarly to Japanese's infinitive: to link several verbs in a clause, for
serial verb constructions, attaching auxiliary verbs, as a method of nominalizing verbs, etc.
Infinitive as an independent predicate Certain independent predicates can make use of the infinitive form instead of an ordinary finite predicate. Simple infinitive predicates can be used to refer to actions in the immediate past, or to indicate that the speaker is
speaking to themself, or both: In a reduplicated form with
-mo "also, even," specifically of the form
nomimo nomi (for
nomowa "to drink"), infinitive predicates are used to assert of the truth of the speaker's statement. This kind of statement is used without regard to time: Another use of an infinitive predicate can be found in certain types of questions, as discussed in
a section below.
Infinitive-derived expressions A number of auxiliary verbs can be used with the infinitive, all of which are derived from grammaticalized verbs: The negative verbal auxiliaries
-Nnaka and
-Nzjara, discussed in
a later subsection, are also attached to the infinitive. Similarly, there are a number of derived adjectives or adjective-like expressions built on the infinitive form: And several conjunctional forms as well: •
reduplicated (e.g.,
nominomi) — Indicates that an action is
iterative. Used by itself, it serves as an adverbial phrase indicating that the iterative action was performed simultaneously with another, whereas when used with
sjowa "to do" (e.g.,
nominomi sjowa), it simply indicates repeated action. Reduplicated verbs do not undergo vowel coalescence, e.g.,
okoriokori "happening again and again," not **
okorjokori. •
-nagara ~ -nagaa — Indicates that an action is performed simultaneously with another, e.g.
nominagara "while drinking." This formation is synonymous with the simultaneous
gerund in
-outei. Cognate with Japanese ～ながら
-nagara. •
-gacu ~ -gacura — Indicates that an action is performed simultaneously with another, often coincidentally or through the exact same action, e.g.
nomigacu "while one happens to be drinking." This form is limited to verbs that involve agency on the subject's part, and is also not usually used with motion verbs without an implicit endpoint (e.g.,
eemowa "walk,"
hasirowa "run"), intransitive bodily activities or functions (e.g.
tatowa "stand"), or transitive verbs where an action is performed only once to one object (e.g.,
sasagowa "put on one's head"). Related to Japanese ～がてら
-gatera. •
-i (allative) or
-ni (dative) — Indicates the purpose for which another action was performed, e.g.
nomii or
nomini "in order to drink." Using the allative
-i is the more common than the dative
-ni for this purpose, but both can be found.
Negative infinitive -zu The negative infinitive (''''
) can be made in two different ways. The first way is by simply appending -zu
to the regular infinitive form, e.g., nomizu
"not drinking" (but is treated here as its own suffix). The second way is by adding -azu
to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and -zu
to those of Class 2. In this latter way, for irregular verbs, sjowa
becomes sazu
, sjazu
, or sezu
; and kurowa
becomes kozu''. The negative infinitive is used in many of the same situations that the regular infinitive is used word-finally (that is, without any suffixes). However, there are some specialized constructions used with
-zu: •
-zuN ~ -zuni (
-zu-ni, ''''
), which acts as an adverbial phrase meaning "without ~ing," e.g., nomazuN'' "without drinking." It can also be used with a similar meaning to a negative participle. •
-zunja (
-zu-nja, ''''
), which acts as an adjectival noun and expresses necessity, e.g., nomazunjadara
"must drink, have to drink." This form likely originally meant "if one does not ~," to be followed by a phrase such as damedara
"it would not be good," but only the copula dara
has remained. Compare Japanese ～なきゃ -nakya
, ～なくちゃ -nakucha
, and ～ないと -nai to'', which literally mean "if one does not," but can express a necessitative meaning even without a following clause. In addition, there are a handful of derived forms from
-zu: • Negative Participle
-zuto (''''
), used for conjunctive constructions with the particle -mo
"even," e.g., nomazutomo'' "even not drinking, even if he doesn't drink." In general, this competes as the negative participle with
-Nsjade and the dative-marked
-zuN ~ -zuni. • Negative Dubitative
-ziisi (
-zu-isi, ''''
), used as a kind of double negative to show what is not
doubted, etc. (e.g., nomiziisi'' "won't not drink"). This competes with the regularly-formed
-Nnakaroosi and
Nzjaroosi, formed from the negative auxiliaries
-Nnaka and
-Nzjara. • Non-Intentional
-ziimadouwa (
-zu-imadow-,
-try), a derived Class 1.1Ac verb that expresses a lack of trying to do something, or seeming not to do something, e.g.,
nomaziimadouwa "doesn't try to drink." This appears to be a compound involving the verb 惑う
madouwa "to get lost, to be perplexed."
Participle -te The is made by adding the suffix
-te or
-de to the stems of Class 1 (with some allomorphy),
-te to those of Class 2, and
-kute to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
site, and
kurowa becomes
kite. This grammatical form and its cognates across the
Japonic languages are known by many names, including "participle," "gerund," "continuative," "subordinating," and simply "
te-form"; the term "participle" will be used here. This form descends from the Old Japanese subordinating suffix
-te, which was historically added to the infinitive but has gained a great degree of allomorphy due to historical sound changes, so it is treated as its own suffix here. The participle is a non-finite form that serves a coordinating or subordinating role in sentences, indicating the realization (at the very least, the beginning) of the marked action. Therefore, the clause following a participle must necessarily refer to either the same time or a later time: Due to the temporal ordering implied by the participle, it can be used to imply a causal relationship: Lastly, the participle can also be used to mark mirativity or emphasis in verbs of sensation or emotion:
Participle-derived expressions The participle has a few specialized uses when combined with certain particles: Several verbs are also used in common constructions with the participle:
Anterior -toQtei The can be made by replacing the
-te or
-de of the participle with
-totei ~ -toQtei or
-dotei ~ -doQtei, respectively. The form
-toQtei ~ doQtei is older, and is now generally used after verbs without euphonic participles (mostly Class 2 and 3 verbs, as well as verbal adjectives), whereas
-totei ~ -dotei is used with other verbs (like Class 1 verbs). The copula
dara has the anterior gerund
doQtei. There are two likely candidates for this form's etymology: • participle
-te + participle
oQte of
or- "to be" + accusative
-o (in mirative usage) • participle
-te + participle
oQte of
ok- "to put" + accusative
-o (in mirative usage) This form denotes an action that occurs strictly before another action that occurs in the following clause. It is similar but not exactly equivalent to the construction
-tekara ~ -dekara, using the participle
-te ~ -de and the ablative
-kara.
Requisitional -tou The form can be made by replacing the
-te or
-de of the participle with
-tou or
-dou, respectively. This suffix is often thought to etymologically derive from the participle
-te followed by the accusative
-o, but as that would have been expected to yield **
-tei rather than
-tou, this form's ultimate origin is unclear; it likely derives from a more complex contraction. The requisitional is used for asking favors and requests of others. Like the imperative, it can be softened by adding
mii afterward:
Imperative -e ~ -ro The is made by adding the suffix
-e to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and
-ro to those of Class 2. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
se or
sje, and
kurowa becomes
ko. These forms descend from the Eastern Old Japanese imperative forms
-e(1) ~
ro2. The imperative is used for commands, and can be softened by adding
mii afterward: The imperative can also be used to warn others about imminent events that would have a negative effect on them: For negative imperatives, the prohibitive postfix
-na (attaching to the final form) is used instead.
Final form -u The is made by adding the suffix
-u to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
nothing or
-ru to those of Class 2, and
-ke or underlying *
-karu to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
su, and
kurowa becomes
ku or
kuru. However, for Class 1.1C verbs, the underlying *
-aru typically contracts to
aQ,
aN, or
oo depending on the following morpheme; the same can be said for verbal adjectives, whose underlying 1.1C *
-karu contracts to
-kaQ,
-kaN, or
-koo. This form descends from the Old Japanese final form
-u, as well as in some constructions borrowed from Japanese using
its attributive form -u ~ -ru. Despite its name, this suffix's use in concluding declarative sentences has mostly been supplanted in Hachijō by the declarative
-owa form. It mainly only exists as a predicative form in quotative and reportative speech: However, the final form still remains fossilized in the formation of several verbal extensions:
Prohibitive -na The is made by adding the suffix
-na to the final form (with or without the extra
-ru on Class 2 verbs and
kurowa). This form is either inherited from the Old Japanese prohibitive
-(u)na or reborrowed from Japanese. This form serves as the negative counterpart to the imperative, commanding the addressee not to do something:
Conjectural extension -naw- The extension is made by adding
-naw- (Class 1.1A) to the final forms of verbals. On Class 2 verbs and
kurowa, the extra
ru is optional; for verbal adjectives, the combined result is
-kaNnaw-. This extension descends from the Eastern Old Japanese tentative-conjectural suffix
-unam- (contrast Western Old Japanese
-uram-), with /m/ elided to /w/. This extension denotes various conjectural meanings such as guessing, expectation, prediction, hypotheticality, and other such
irrealis situations.
Focalizing extension -naw- The extension is made by adding
-naw- (Class 1.1A) to the final forms of verbals, identical in all forms to the conjectural. This extension was borrowed from a Middle Japanese mermaid construction
-(r)u nari, consisting of the Middle Japanese nominalized attributive form in
-(r)u followed by the copula なり
nari, an exact parallel to Hachijō's native
-(r)odara mermaid construction. Because the Middle Japanese attributive is
-(r)u rather than
-(r)o, this construction was borrowed to use the Hachijō final form in
-(r)u instead. In addition, the borrowed copula
nar- has been reduced to
-naw-, merging in form with the conjectural
-naw-. The Japanese-style present form
-nou (←
-naw-u) is used sentence-finally for emphasis (example 1) and sentence-medially express cause and effect (example 2): The exclamatory form
-nee (←
-naw-e) is used in
kakari-musubi with the focus particle
koo (see the section on
focalized exclamatory kakari-musubi for details and examples). The provisional form
-neeja (←
-naw-eba) is used to express two types of conditionals or cause-and-effect statements. When not following the stative extension, it is an
imperfect conditional, indicating that the condition was met repeatedly or many times at once: When
-neeja does follow the stative extension, the clauses expresses a completed action, and the following clause indicates a result that occurred upon its completion: Lastly, this extension appears to be somehow fossilized in the optative ending
-osunou.
Jussive Adjective -beki The is made by adding the postfix
-beki to the final forms of verbs, creating an adjectival noun. This form is borrowed from the Japanese form
-beki, descended from Western Old Japanese
-(u)be2-ki1. This form acts as an adjectival noun that, when used with the copula
dara, expresses a meaning like "ought to do," "should do," or "needs to do": A verbal adjective form
-bekja of this
affix has also been attested.
Suppositional adjective -rasikja The form is made by adding the extension
-rasi- to the final forms of verbs, creating a verbal adjective. This form is either inherited from Eastern Old Japanese
-(u)rasi or borrowed from its Japanese cognate form ～らしい
-rashi-i. This form is a verbal adjective with the meaning "seeming":
Conditional gerund -aba The is made by adding the suffix
-aba to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
-ba or
-raba to those of Class 2, and
-kaba or
-kaaba ~ -karaba to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
saba, and
kurowa becomes
koba or
kuraba. This form descends from the Old Japanese conditional gerund
-aba. This form introduces a condition or prerequisite that, if it is (or were) true, the following clause occurs (or would occur). For conditions without a stative, the consequence occurs
before the condition (in anticipation of it): For past conditions (usually marked with a stative), the consequence occurs
after the achievement of the condition: Finally, if the consequence refers to past time, the sentence is always counterfactual, where the condition was not actually met:
Futile-hypothetical gerund -jaatei The is made by adding the suffix
-jaatei to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
-rjaatei to those of Class 2, and
-kjaatei or
-karjaatei to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sjaatei, and
kurowa becomes
kurjaatei. This form is believed to descend from the Class 1 infinitive
-i followed by the phrase
aQte mo "even if it is": *
-iaQtemo → *
-jaQtewo → *
-jaatei; the other verb classes' forms must have been formed by analogy. This form expresses
futility: the clause marked by
-jaatei introduces a condition that is known to be false or impossible, and the following clause expresses an action or state that would remain true even if the condition were met.
Exclamatory -e The is made by adding the suffix
-e to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
-re to those of Class 2, and
-ke to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
se or
sje, and
kurowa becomes
kure. This form descends from the Old Japanese exclamatory form
-e2 ~ -ure. The exclamatory form used as a predicative form in constructions with the focus particles
ka and
koo; these constructions are detailed further in
the section on kakari-musubi. The exclamatory form is also used etymologically as the base for forming the provisional and concessive gerunds, detailed in the following subsection:
Provisional -eba ~ -ja The is generally formed by adding by the suffix
-ba or
-a to the exclamatory form of verbals (but is treated as its own suffix). For the
-a variant, this contracts with a preceding
e to become
ja, or if the verb's exclamatory form ends in a long vowel,
-a becomes
-ja instead (e.g.,
wareeba →
wareeja "when he laughs"). For verbal adjectives, the
-ba forms are
-keba and
-kereba, while the
-a form is
-kerja. For the irregular verb
sjowa, the
-ba forms are
sureba and
s(j)eba, and the
-a forms are
surja and
sja. For the irregular verb
kurowa, the
-ba form is
kureba, and the
-a form is
-kurja. All of these forms descend from the Old Japanese conjunctive gerund
-e2ba ~ -ureba with or without the /b/ elided. Although the variants in
-eba and
-ja have identical etymologies, they have slightly diverged in usage. The principal function of the provisional gerund is to mark a subordinate clause that is causally or temporally related to the main clause, describing the circumstance in which the main clause occurs: Both
-eba and
-ja can also be used to mark future conditions, whether they are expected to be actualized or not: However, for conditions or circumstances that are or were met repeatedly, with the same result in each case,
-ja is preferred for both present and past results: When used with a focus-marking particle
ka or
koo, a provisional in
-ja marks a precise reason, with more emphasis than the common phrasing using
-Nte "because." Naturally, such sentences with
ka or
koo use exclamatory
kakari-musubi:
Concessive -edou The is formed by adding by the suffix
-dou to the exclamatory form of verbals (but is treated as its own suffix). For Class 1.1C verbs, the resulting sequence
-aredou can contract to
-aĭdou. This form descends from the Old Japanese concessive gerund
-e2do2mo2 ~ -uredo2mo2 →
-edowo ~ -redowo →
-edou ~ -redou, cognate to the Japanese conjunctions けども
kedomo and けれども
keredomo "although." The forms
-doumo and
-douni are also attested. The concessive gerund introduces adverse information despite which the main clause still nevertheless occurs or occurred:
Volitional -ou The is made by adding the suffix
-ou to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and
-rou to those of Class 2. Alternative formations also exist, where Class 1.1A verbs use their declarative or final form,
-i (possibly underlying *o or *u) is attached to the stems of Class 2b verbs, and nothing is added to the stems of Classes 2c and 2d. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sjou, and
kurowa becomes
kurou or
kou. (Verbal adjectives have no volitional form.) The volitional seems to have some relationship to the Old Japanese tentative-conjectural form
-am-, and thereby the Japanese volitional
-ō ~ -yō, but the exact path between the Old Japanese and Modern Hachijō forms is not clear. The volitional indicates a personal intent or a cohortative suggestion: Statements of intent can be emphasized by adding the postfix
-bei, as in
nomoubei "I'll drink!" Similarly, cohortative suggestions can be emphasized by adding the declarative particle
-zja, as in
ikouzja "Let's go!" The volitional can also be used as an attributive form in the construction
-ou houdara and its negative equivalent
-ou hou nakja, which indicate ability or possibility:
Simultaneous -outei The can be made by appending
-tei to the end of the volitional form. There are two likely candidates for this form's etymology: • volitional
-ou + quotative
te + accusative
-o (in mirative usage) • volitional
-ou + quotative
to + allative
-i This form denotes an action that occurs simultaneously with another action, similar to English "while ~ing," and equivalent in meaning to adding
-nagara "while" to the infinitive. This sense of simultaneity can also be used to indicate an action that was interrupted by another: It can also be used to emphasize a contradictory yet simultaneous event:
Dubitative-related forms Several verbal forms appear to be related to the
dubitative (formerly
optative) form listed below, which seems to be related in some way to the
Classical Japanese optative constructions ～ま欲しき
-mafosi-ki or ～ま欲りする
-mafori suru.
Dubitative -oosi The form is made by adding the suffix
-oosi to the stems of Class 1 verbs (or
-aroosi for Class 1.1A),
-isi or
-roosi to those of Class 2a and 2b,
-si or
-roosi to those of Class 2c and 2d, and
-karoosi to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
seisi or
sjoosi, and
kurowa becomes
kousi or
kuroosi. The Sueyoshi and Aogashima dialects are an exception, where
-iisi is used for Class 1 verbs (
-ariisi for Class 1.1A), only
-isi ~ -si is used for Class 2,
sjowa becomes
siisi, and
kurowa becomes
kiisi. As attested in older records, this form once expressed an optative meaning, often (but not necessarily) regarding a wish or hope that the speaker thinks might not come true: However, due to semantic shift emphasizing the non-realization of the wish, this form has changed to have an ironic, doubting, or generally negative meaning in modern speech. When used with a first-person subject, it expresses what the speaker does not want to do, cannot do, or does not believe he or she can do. When used with non-first-person subjects, it expresses what the speaker expects is not the case or will not happen. The dubitative can also attach to the negative infinitive
-zu to form
-ziisi, which—due to its double negative-like meaning—indicates what the speaker thinks should be possible or doesn't doubt will happen. This is identical in meaning to the forms
-Nnakaroosi and
Nzjaroosi, which use the negative auxiliaries
-Nnaka and
-Nzjara.
Optative -oosunou The form is made by replacing the
-si of the dubitative form with
-sunou (but is treated as its own suffix). This form appears to consist of the dubitative followed by the focalizing extension
-naw- in its Japanese-style present form
-nou. Like the older use of
-osi,
-osunou expresses an optative meaning, often regarding a wish or hope that the speaker thinks might not come true. Kaneda (2001) notes that the older meaning of optative
-osi and the modern meaning of
-osunou are largely the same with subtle differences, but does not elaborate further.
Intentional -oosjaate The gerund is made by replacing the
-si of the dubitative form with
-sjaate (but is treated as its own suffix). This form is generally indicate that an action is attempted, considered, to planned to be done: The intentional is often used in conjunction with the verb
sjowa "to do." With agentive verbs, this construction means "to attempt to, to plan to," etc., whereas with non-agentive verbs, it instead means "to seem to be about to":
Past subjunctive -oositar- The is made by replacing the
-si of the dubitative form with
-sitara (but is treated as its own suffix), which is conjugated as a Class 1.1C verb (stem
-sitar-). This form appears to etymologically consist of the dubitative followed by the stative suffix
-tar-. This form is used to mark actions that would have occurred in different circumstances, but were not (or could not be) actualized:
Japanese-style forms All of these forms have been borrowed directly from Modern or Late Middle Japanese, but are nativized to lesser or greater extent. In many constructions, Japanese-style tenses are capable of replacing final and/or attributive forms. Generally, the Japanese-style present and Japanese-style past are equivalent to Hachijō-style forms with and without the stative suffix
-(t)ar-, respectively.
Present -u The affirmative is made by adding the suffix
-u to the stems of Class 1 verbs,
-ru to those of Class 2, and a coalescing
-i to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
su or
suru, and
kurowa becomes
ku or
kuru. The copula
dara also has the irregular form
da.The negative Japanese-style present has two forms; the first is made by changing the New-Type Negative auxiliary
-Nnaka to
-Nnee, while the second is formed by changing the
-ba of the conditional gerund
-aba to
-nee.
Past -ta The affirmative is made by changing the
-te or
-de of verbs' participles to
-ta or
-da, respectively, and by adding
-kaQta to verbal adjectives' stems. For verbs, this can be further extended by adding another
-Qta to the end, with a meaning akin to adding a second past
-(t)ar- to a verb.The negative Japanese-style past is made by changing the New-Type Negative auxiliary
-Nnaka of the negative Japanese-style present tense to
-NnaQta. Despite being a Japanese-borrowed form, Class 1 verbs still exhibit Hachijō-style euphony as in the participle form; for example, the Japanese-style past form of
togowa "to grind, polish" (stem
tog-) is
toNda, not **
toida.
Presumptive -darou ~ -rou The Japanese-style forms are made by appending
-darou to Japanese-style present tense verbals, or
-rou to Japanese-style past tense verbals. On verbs, the negative present presumptive also has a suppletive form where
-mee is appended to the final form. These forms were borrowed from the Japanese presumptive particle だろう
darō (a combination of the copula だ
da and suffix ～ろう
-rō) and the suffixes ～ろう
-rō and ～まい
-mai. The latter are descended from the Early Middle Japanese suffixes ～らむ
-ramu ~ -raũ and ～まじ
-mazi. This form is generally equivalent in meaning to the native Hachijō conjectural extension
-naw-.
Representative -tari The Japanese-style gerund is made by adding
-ri or
-ĭ to the Japanese-style past tense (but is treated as its own suffix). This creates a gerund meaning "activities such as ~ing," and it is often used in non-exhaustive lists of activities. These forms were borrowed from the equivalent Japanese forms
-tari ~ -dari. This gerund is usually paired with a verb of doing usually
sjowa "to do" (but also occasionally, others, such as
simouwa "to finish doing"): The auxiliary verb
-mik- differs in that it cannot mark lists of activities, only a single activity.
Verbal adjective nominalizers -sa and -mi Two unique ways to change verbal adjectives into nouns is by using the affixes
-sa and
-mi (both ''''
), both of which are attached directly to the verbal adjective stem. Unlike in Japanese, Hachijō -mi
is synonymous with -sa
and indicates a noun of extent or quantity, comparable to English -ness'': The suffix
-mi can only be used with a select number of verbal adjectives, whereas
-sa can be used with all verbal adjectives.
Negative There are a variety of ways to form verbs—that is, verbs with the meaning "not" included—in Hachijō. The primary ways are with auxiliary verbs, of which Hachijō has two: the "Old-Type"
-Nzjara and the "New-Type"
-Nnaka. It has been said that the Old-Type is typical of the Uphill region of
Hachijō-jima (in the Kashitate, Nakanogō, and Sueyoshi dialects), whereas the New-Type is typical of the Downhill region (Mitsune and Ōkagō dialects); however, the New-Type has spread to be used among all younger generations of speakers. Verbal adjectives and the copula do not use either of these negative auxiliaries. Instead, verbal adjectives use their infinitive form in
-ku followed by the verbal adjective
nakja "not"; similarly, the copula uses
zja nakja—the participle form
de fused with the topic marker
-wa, followed by
nakja.
Old-type negative -Nzjara The is formed by adding the auxiliary verb
-Nzjara (stem
-Nzjar-, Class 1.1C) to a verb's infinitive form. If the verb's infinitive ends in a long vowel, the first
N of this auxiliary is dropped. It is speculated that
-Nzjar- may come from an unattested Eastern Old Japanese construction *
-ni si ar- "is not doing," composed the negative infinitive
-(a)ni, infinitive
si of
s- "to do," and
ar- "to be." This would be akin to how early Old Japanese
-ni su yielded later
-zu "does not."
New-type negative -Nnaka The is formed by adding the auxiliary verb
-Nnaka (stem
-Nnak- ~
-Nnar- ~
-Nnakar-, special conjugation class) to a verb's infinitive form. If the verb's infinitive ends in a long vowel, the first
N of this auxiliary is dropped. It is speculated that the New-Type negative is based on replacing the
zjara of the Old-Type negative
-Nzjara with the adjective
nakja "not," then reanalyzing it as something akin to a Class 1.1C verb. This would explain the alternating verb stems: •
-Nnakar- would be the regular derived Class 1.1C verb stem of *
-Nnakja: *
-Nna-ku ar- →
-Nnakar-. •
-Nnak- would be from changing *
-Nnakja to a verb *
-Nnakowa →
-Nnaka. •
-Nnar- would be from replacing the
zj of
-Nzjara with
n by analogy:
-Nzjar- →
-Nnar-. As this auxiliary is highly irregular, a sample of conjugated forms is given in the table below:
Other negative forms In addition to the negative auxiliaries, there are also several other verbal affixes that indicate negative meaning: • Negative infinitive
-zu (''''''), and all of its derived forms. • Prohibitive
-na (''''''), a postfix following the final form, which serves as the negative counterpart to the imperative. • Japanese-style negative present
-anee (''''
), which is one of the Japanese-style counterparts to the normal present tense. It can be formed by replacing the -zu
of the -azu
form of the negative infinitive with -nee
, e.g., nomanee'' "doesn't drink." • Japanese-style negative present presumptive
-mee (''''
), a postfix following the final form, which serves as the negative counterpart to -darou''.
Stative -ar- ~ -tar- The derivation is made by adding
-ar- to the stems of Class 1.1 and 1.2 verbs,
-(i)tar- to those of Class 1.3 (with some allomorphy),
-tar- to those of Class 2, and
-karar- to verbal adjectives'. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sitar-, and
kurowa becomes
kitar-. All stative forms are conjugated as Class 1.1C verbs. The allomorph
-ar- descends from the Eastern Old Japanese stative-progressive
-ar-, itself a construction from the Pre-Old Japanese infinitive *
-i +
ar- "to be"; it is therefore cognate to Western Old Japanese
-e1r- and Middle Japanese
-er- of the same original meaning (extinct in Modern Japanese). The allomorphs containing
-tar- instead descend from the Old Japanese stative-progressive
-tar-, consisting of participle
-te +
ar- "to be"; it is therefore cognate to the Modern Japanese past tense
-ta. Although originally indicating stative-like meaning, and continuing to do so in some situations, this extension has changed to a meaning close to a past tense in modern Hachijō, supplanting the former past tense (now retrospective)
-ci in most cases. Due to heavy influence from Japanese, for some speakers, forms with the morph
-ar- are in the process of being replaced with forms in
-tar- ~ -dar- (formed in the same way as the participle
-te ~ -de):
nomara → noNdara "drank,"
ikara → iQtara "went,"
curara → cuQtara "fished."
Retrospective -ci The is made by replacing the
-te or
-de of the participle with
-ci or
-zi, respectively. It is often used in combination with the stative
-(t)ar-, as
-(t)aQci, to express more or less the same meaning. The retrospective can also combine with the Japanese-style past
-ta to form
-taQci, or with both the Japanese-style past
-ta and the stative
-ar- to form
-taraQci. This form descends from the attributive form
-si of the Old Japanese past tense auxiliary
-ki1. It is believed to have been changed from
-si to
-ci by morphological leveling due to Class 1.1A verbs' stem-final
Q, as per the phonological process
Q-s →
Qc. This extension indicates past tense, as well as often indicating a modal meaning of retrospection or recollection. Although it does not inflect per se,
-ci can be treated as an attributive, exclamatory, or final form. As an attributive form, it can be used in all normal attributive-form functions: However, the declarative form with
-wa is irregular, becoming
-cii ~
-zii: As a final form,
-ci combines with the focalized exclamatory
-nee for
kakari-musubi with the focus particle
koo. Such sentences are used to emphatically remind others of past events that they have forgotten: Lastly, as an exclamatory-type form,
-ci can serve as the base for the concessive gerund
-dou: This affix is falling out of use, having mostly been supplanted in meaning by the stative, which has transitioned into a past-like meaning. However, it still contrasts with the stative in that the retrospective requires an action to have occurred significantly in the past. For example, sentence 8 is acceptable, whereas sentence 9 is not: Because the person in the above examples still remains present in when the sentence is uttered, the action of "arriving" is not significantly past enough for the retrospective (in 9) to be appropriate, but the simple stative (in 8) is acceptable.
Passive -(r)are- The extension is made by adding the suffix
-are- to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and
-rare- to those of Class 2. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sare-, and
kurowa becomes
korare-. All passive forms are conjugated as Class 2b verbs. The primary function of the passive is to denote an action that occurs without the intent or volition of the subject of the sentence. In this usage, the recipient or "affected party" of the action becomes the subject (marked as a topic or in nominative case, or omitted), and any agent is marked in the dative case with
N~ni: A specialized use of this is to form passive sentences. In some situations, these can be interpreted as a direct passive similar to English's, where the former direct object becomes the new subject of the sentence as the "affected party": In other situations, the "affected party" is not the former direct object, creating passive sentences that often cannot be directly translated with the English passive voice. Such usages are sometimes termed the , as the Hachijō subject is often a person who suffers as a result of the action. As Hachijō is a
pro-drop language, the "sufferer" can also be omitted: Another use of the passive extension is to express potentiality, that is, meanings such as an individual's ability, a general ability for anyone, a possible state, and past achievement: In a negative sentence, this potential meaning can also be used
deontically to indicate a necessity:
Potential -e- The extension is a specialized alternative to the passive extension that exists for Class 1 verbs and the irregular verb
kurowa. It is made by adding the suffix
-e- to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and
kurowa becomes
kore-. Like the passive, all potential forms are conjugated as Class 2b verbs. Like the passive, the potential can also denote certain kinds of spontaneous actions (but not the passive): However, the potential extension's primary function is to indicate potentiality, much like one of the functions of the passive extension:
Causative -(s)ase- The extension is made by adding the suffix
-ase- to the stems of Class 1 verbs, and
-sase- to those of Class 2. For irregular verbs,
sjowa becomes
sase-, and
kurowa becomes
kosase-. In these forms, causatives are conjugated as Class 2b verbs. Especially in the Downhill Dialects, the
ase found in this form can be reduced to
ee by dropping of the
s; in these forms, causatives are conjugated as Class 2c verbs. This extension is used to form causative constructions, increasing a verb's
valency by 1 to include a causer agent. The old subject becomes a new indirect object (in dative case), and the causer becomes the new subject (as a topic or in nominative case). This function can indicate direct causation (such as by a command) or indirect causation (such as by giving permission, or by allowing something to happen through inaction). In forms where
ase is elided to
ee and then inflected into its participle form, the
-te that marks the participle can be dropped, much like Class 1.3A and 1.3A verbs: ==Syntax==