TENSE/ASPECT/MOOD FORMS IN BOLE–TANGALE LANGUAGES

Completive (Perfective), Subjunctive, Future

The movie below shows verb forms in four relatively closely Yobe languages, all of the Bole-Tangale group:

Karekare	Yaya Ngamo	Gudi Ngamo	Bole

The speakers of each language pronounce full paradigms of verbs in four forms:

• Completive (Perfective) with no extensions
• Completive (Perfective) with totality extension (roughly a form that focuses on the completedness of the action or state)
• Subjunctive
• Future (incompletive, imperfective)
• Completive (Perfective) of an intransitive verb bearing the Intransitive Copy Pronoun (this is the intransitive counterpart of the totality extension use with transitive verbs, consisting of a reflex of the totality extension plus a pronoun copying features of the subject)

Each of these sets of Tense/Aspect/Mood forms is presented with verbs of two lexical classes:

• Class A1 verb: CVC- root with -u or Ø completive stem vowel (for the transitive verb, the illustrative verb is 'put, place', with the orignal completive stem *zabu-)
• Class B verb: CVC-root with -a completive stem vowel (the illustrative verb is 'shoot', with the original completive stem *basa-)
• Class A1 verb with the Intransitive Copy Pronoun: the illustrative verb is 'come to a stop, stand still', with the original completive stem *'yoru-