1. Overview

Verbs in Blaken do not encode time directly. Instead, they encode whether a concept (morpheme) manifests as an event, and how that event unfolds (aspect). Temporal interpretation arises from context, not from obligatory tense marking.

Any free morpheme is a root. By itself, it can express a concept and may function nominally or verbally depending on context. When speakers wish to profile that concept as an event, they attach an event modifier to the root.

• Root alone: concept, quality, capacity, state
• Root + event modifier: event, process, functioning

This distinction is ontological, not temporal.

There is no person agreement on the verb. All participant roles are expressed externally through alignment markers (_blum_ / _prum_), which follow the event predicate. However, verbs can also be zero-valency and lack an explicit subject. In such cases, _blum_ / _prum_ indicate whether the event is construed as volitional or non-volitional. With perception and acquisition roots, the same contrast also marks attentional stance: _blum_ profiles directed awareness, while _prum_ profiles receptive or accidental contact.

2. Event Modifiers

Blaken does not encode time directly. Instead, it encodes how an event unfolds and its evidentiality. Event modifiers are monosyllabic morphemes that are attached to lexical morphemes. Orthographically, verbs and event modifiers form a single unit, a word. There are two main aspects: perfective and imperfective, each of which can take one evidential form: direct evidential or inferential evidential. Event modifiers are mutually exclusive within a single morpheme.

2.1. Imperfective

This is the base form for imperfective events. It is built by attaching the _ken_ suffix to a morpheme. This form commonly covers:

• General statements
• Present events
• Ongoing actions
• Timeless truths

Absence of further marking implies present relevance.

2.1.1. Direct Evidential: Root + _ken_

This form denotes direct evidence (obtained through the senses). It constitutes the highest commitment: events accepted as true by both the community and the speaker.

2.1.2. Inferential Evidential: Root + bu

This is an indirect abductive evidential. It conveys the assumed possibility of an event; the speaker is unsure about the event. It is formed by attaching the bu suffix to any root:

2.2. Perfective

2.2.1. Direct Evidential: Root + _tan_

This is the base form for perfective events. It conveys completion: the event is construed as closed. Past interpretation arises pragmatically. It is formed by attaching the -tan suffix to verbs.

Temporal past interpretation arises pragmatically.

2.2.2. Inferential Evidential: Root + tu

It is formed in the same way it is in the imperfective aspect.

2.3. Reportative: Root + bla

In ancient times, there existed a reportative evidential that was formed by attaching the bla morpheme to a root. This form has almost fallen out of oral use and nowadays is not used as systematically as the other evidential markers. It is mainly used in verse and formal texts.

2.4. Exhortative: root + blum

Imperative meaning is expressed by attaching the volitional morpheme blum directly to the bare root, without -ken. In this use, imperative -blum is a verbal form and should not be confused with the noun-phrase-level volitional subject marker written after nouns.

2.5. Prospective / Interrogative Uncertainty: Root + ra

It is used to express doubt about the development of an action. Since it encodes uncertainty, it can also support interrogative readings. This is the bound verbal use of the same morpheme that appears as free clause-scope ra in interrogatives.

3. Existential and Appearance Predicates

To declare that a thing exists or appears in a state, Blaken uses two core predicates depending on how transitory or inherent that state is construed.

3.1. Existential Predicate for Transitory States

Location and transitory states are expressed using the dom root. This root can function as an existential predicate whose state is anchored by other phrases in the clause.

3.2. Appearance Predicate for Inherent States

For more inherent and inalienable states, the root om can be used. It essentially expresses how something appears. When used in the imperfective aspect with a direct evidential (-ken), this form represents the highest possible assertion in Blaken. Usually it refers to inanimate entities and has a fairly limited use.

4. Negation: pu

To negate a verb or series of verbs, the particle pu is placed immediately after the verb or event series. The particle scopes over the verbal predicate and denies that the event took place; it does not negate properties, results, or inherent states.

5. Additional Event Modifiers

5.1. Agent-Oriented Ability: blø

The morpheme blø is used here in its verbal, agent-oriented sense to express ability or the physical possibility of performing an action. This use should be kept distinct from adjectival -blø, which marks patient-oriented potential or affordance.

5.2. Epistemic Possibility: root + bu

Meaning: may / might / possibly. This construction may also convey a possible future.

5.3. Inceptive Event: root + draf-

To express the “growth" or "beginning” of an action, draf- can be used.

5.4. Cessative Event: root + srjɑχ

To express “emptiness / cessation”.

6. Voice

In Blaken, impersonal events affecting an object may be expressed with the impersonal morpheme o.

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Sydom blaken oprum Blaken _Here one speaks Blaken._

A morphologically more complex construction can be formed by adjectivizing an event with the perfective modifier. In this construction, the agent may be mentioned using eχ and the object may be promoted to subject by attaching prum or blum (usually prum for inanimate objects):

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Blablom frablaprum (fraɸøn eχ) _French is spoken by the French._ _Lit. spoken French (by the French)._