The Yakut Verbal Voice System

In English, there are two voices, active and passive, and a given verb may occur in either of these two. For example, “He ate” and “He was eaten” both employ the verb “to eat” in one of its forms. In Yakut, by contrast, there are five principal voices, as well as other voice-like verb forms, and in general a given verb is used in only one of the voices. A verb in a given voice is identified by characteristic endings, and is usually related in meaning to, though different from, similar verbs with different characteristic endings belonging to different voices. Related verbs in different voices, in other words, have a relation less like that between “to eat” and “to be eaten”, and more like that between, say, “to respond” and “to correspond”, or between “to speak” and “to bespeak”.

1. The fundamental voice (основной залог) or “zero form” (нульевая форма)

2. The incentive voice (побудительный залог / дьаһайар туһаайыы)

This voice signifies that the real action expressed by the verb in question “is conceived as being effected not by the grammatical subject, but by another agent, in relation to which the former is the person impelling or inciting the action, or is its reason”. Two subjects are thus assumed, e.g.: аах = to read (zero form) : аахтар = to make read; тик = to sew : тиктэр = to make sew; бас = to scoop (e.g., water, soil) : бастар = to make scoop.

Compare the middle verb in English: to fall (zero form): to fell (i.e., to cause to fall).

Учуутал оҕолорго кинигэ аахтарар - “The teacher is having the children read.”

Харахпын эмтэтэбин - “I am healing my eyes” (compare the French, which follows the form of the Yakut more closely: “Je me fais guérir les yeux”).

Like the middle verb in English, the incentive voice also has a passive-incentive sense (consider, e.g., the verb “to eat” in the middle form: “This soup eats like a meal”):

Куобах айаҕа таптарбыт - “The hare got itself trapped.”

Бу киһи харчытын уордарбыт. - “That man got himself robbed.”

In Yakut the incentive voice is formed by means of the affixes -т, -тар, -ар, -нар: санат = to cause to think; кэпсэт = to make talk; холбот = to cause to unify; балыктат = to cause to catch fish, to make someone go fishing; төкүнүт = to cause to spin; сүүрт = to cause to run; буллар = to cause to find; кырыттар = to cause to cut.

The particular structure of the sentence that is characteristic for the incentive voice corresponds to the semantic particularities of this voice. The persons in the sentence who incite and who are the focus of incitement may be expressed by distinct words or may be implied by context:

Эн бу кыыска уута бастар - “You, scoop some water for that girl!”

Аккын тургэннык хаамтар - “Get your horse to walk faster.”

3. The reflexive voice (возвратный залог)

The reflexive voice indicates the return of the action upon the person or thing who produced the action, signifying the concentration or confinement of the action in the subject itself.

In Yakut reflexive verbs are formed by means of the affix -н (-ын): анан = to nominate oneself; дэн = to speak of oneself; ылын/ылылын = to take upon oneself; кырын = to cut oneself; and so on.

The object of the action is the grammatical subject in the fundamental (i.e., nominative) case:

Мин тымныы уунан суунабын - “I wash (myself) with cold water.”

Мин бэйэбин көмүскэнэбин - “I'm defending myself.”

With the help of the affix -н (-ын) one may also form verbs in the reflexive voice from verbs in the impelent voice: буһарын = to cook for oneself; оргутун = to boil (something) for oneself; сойутун = to cool (something) for oneself; and so on.

4. The passive voice (страдательный залог / атынтан туохтур)

Verbs in the passive voice indicate that the action is directed at the subject. The verb indicates that its subject undergoes an action of another agent:

Ынах ыанар - “The cow is being milked”.

Кинигэ аагыллыбыт - “The book has been read”.

The Yakut passive voice is formed with the help of the affix -н, -ылын: сабылын, тигилин, сотулун, баайылын, тэрилин.

A verb in the passive voice indicates an action that is conceived to be directed at the grammatical subject from outside. To this extent the logical subject of the external action remaines unspecified: Сурук сурулунна - “The letter was written”. Here it remains unknown who wrote the letter.

5. The mutual-reciprocal (совместно-взаимный залог / холбуу туһаайыы)

An action is called mutual when it is realized collectively through the participation of two or more persons, who are the subjects. The relationship of such an action to all of the subjects is conceived as being identical with respect to its orientation and its general character:

Фирмаҕа үлэлэһэбин - “I'm working with a company”.

Кини уолун кытта оттоһор - “He is preparing the grain with his son”.

A reciprocal action is one that is realized by its subjects together:

Оҕолор хаарынан бырахсаллар - “The children throw snow at one another”.

The meaning of mutuality is conveyed with the affix -с (-ыс): Сууйсабын - “I am helping with the wash”; Хаамсаллар - “They are walking together”; быһыс - to help cut; бииргэ үлэһэлэр - “He works on an equal basis [with the others]”.

The meaning of reciprocity of action (realized by two or more subjects) is conveyed in the third-person plural: Билистилэр - “They got acquainted”; Суруйсаллар - “They are corresponding”; Бэристилэр - “They exchanged gifts”.

A significant number of verbs involving reciprocal action are formed with the help of the affixes -лас (-тас, -дас): доҕордос = to make friends; эйэлэс = to make peace, to reconcile.

In Yakut, depending on the character of the lexical meaning and conditions of its use, this general meaning of the voice in question may be realised in one or both of the following two basic meanings:

The object-reflexive meaning - when the action realised by the grammatical subject is conceived as directed immediately or mediately toward the person who, or the thing that, produced the action. This meaning of the verb is considered the more productive and widely used. In this meaning we may distinguish two nuances of the voice: the directly reflexive and the indirectly reflexive.

A. In the directly reflexive meaning the person who is himself immediately acting, or the thing that is itself immediately acting, is conceived as the object of a reciprocal action: холбон = to unite; хайҕан = to boast; суун = to wash (oneself); көрүн = to look, to appear. In fact it is formed from a limited number of verbs, the meaning of which is conceived as an action realized by the subject in relation to himself, herself, or itself.

B. In the indirectly reflexive meaning of the verb, it is not the person who himself is acting, or the thing that itself is acting, that appears as the direct object of a given action, but rather another object clsely connected with it in meaning, but gramatically formed in a distinct way: От тиэнэллэр - “They are bringing in some grain for themselves”. The reciprocal form of the verb remains semantically derived from the acting person. These verbs are much more widely used in the contemporary language.

Verbs in the objectless-reflexive meaning signify primarily the various transformations in the external or internal condition of the grammatical subject: сиргэн = to abhor; махтан = to thank; өһүргэн = to get angry; айгыһын = to act important, to linger; кыбыһын = to get shy, to grow confused; and so on.

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In addition, there are what may be informally called the various verbal “forms”, which give a particular meaning to a verb stem by means of an affix, but which are not considered grammatical voices. For example:

1. The repetitive form (многократная форма)

тэп = to kick (zero form): тэбиэлээ = to kick repeatedly

сүүр = to run: сүүрэкэлээ = to run around

2. Equal-multiple form (?) (равная-кратная форма (?))

ыгдаҥнаа = to shrug (zero form): ыгдай = to shrug and shake the head

ньолой = to have a very long, narrow head: ньолоҥноо = to display a very long, narrow head

лэппэй = to be thickset: лэппэҥнээ = to move sluggishly

Note: I am not sure I have correctly deciphered the Russian abbreviation (равн.-кратн.) identifying this form in the few occurrences I have found of it, and so also cannot be sure I am giving the correct name for it in English. The meanings of the few verbs I have found of this sort do not help us solve the question, as they do not significantly differ in meaning from the zero form. Help in resolving this question will be appreciated.

3. Accelerating form (ускорительная форма)

See examples in table below.

Sometimes the difference in meaning from one voice or form of a verb to another voice or form of the related zero-form verb is very subtle, with the result that verbs in different voices or forms will require translation by one and the same word or phrase when translating into English (or, e.g., Russian or French).

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In learning Yakut verbs it is useful to identify the zero form of a verb, and then to chart all the different occurrences of the same verbal stem in different voices and roots. The following table presents some paradigmatic examples, some of which are common and some of which are quite rare, of the various voices and forms.

Zero form	үлэлээ - to work	кэпсээ - to speak	сүүр - to run	суруй - to write	оҥор - to do
Incentive voice	үлэлэт - to make work	кэпсэт - to make speak	сүүрт - to cause to run	суруйтар - to cause to write	оҥортор - to cause to do
Reflexive voice	үлэлэн - to work, to function	кэпсэн - to boast, to talk oneself up, to be spoken of			оҥоһун - to do oneself up, to transform, to prepare
Passive voice				сурулун - to be written	оҥоһулун - to get done up
Mutual-reciprocal voice	үлэлэс - to collaborate	кэпсэтис- to enter into conversation		суруйус - to correspond	оҥорус - to do together
Repetitive form			сүүрэкэлээ - to run around habitually	суруйталаа - to write repeatedly	оҥортоо / оҥортолоо - to do the same thing several times
Accelerating form			сүүрбэхтээ - to start running faster	суруйбахтаа - to start writing faster