• INTRODUCTION
  • About the project
  • Participating researchers
• ENCYCLOPEDIC SECTION
  • Mongolic languages
  • Khalkha
  • Buryat
  • Kalmyk
  • Useful links
• LINGUISTIC SECTION
  • Adverbial Corpus
  • Concordance
  • Transliteration
  • Grammar Notes
  • Noun
  • Verb
  • Negation
  • Particles
  • Differential object and subject marking
  • Mirativity
  • Bibliography
  • Downloads

Converbs in Buryat

Twenty five converbial forms have been differentiated for Buryat in different grammars, but their use is not equally frequent; many of them are rare or dialectally restricted. The core of the main converbs used in the standard language comprises less than fifteen converbs, with denotations differing in the existing grammars.

Buryat has the Proto-Mongolic core consisting of three coordinating converbs:

• -žA imperfective,
• -n modal
• -AAd perfective
• -ngüi negative converb

The subordinating converbs mentioned in the Buryat grammars are listed below (denotations taken from Skribnik 2003: 116-7).

1. Specialized temporal:
• -xAlAAr successive
• -tAr terminal
• -msAAr contemporal
• -hAAr abtemporal
• -hAn-poss unexpected temporal sequence
2. Non-temporal converbs expressing different adverbial relations:
• -bAl conditional
• -xAA/-xAyAA intentional
• -xAAr final
• -ngxAAr comparative
• -bAšye concessive
• -sA manner: so (intensive), that...
• -xysA manner: so (intensive), that...

All converbs discussed above are summarized in the following table.

Table: Buryat converbs

Personal marking		VS	only DS	only SS
no possessive markers**		-žA* -AAd * -n* -ngüi* -bAšye	−	-ngAA -nxAAr -xAA -xAyAA
only one type: refl. or pers. poss	only refl. poss.	−	−	-xysA
	only pers. poss.	−	-sA	−
two types depending on DS or SS	∅ in SS, pers. poss. in DS	-bAl -xAAr
	refl. poss. in SS, pers. poss. in DS	-tAr -msAAr -xAlAAr -hAn-poss

* mostly SS
** Some SS-converbs (e.g. -xAA) include reflexive possessive suffixes etymologically.