5.2.3. What is the `i' verb ending?

I will assume we are talking about the bare -i form. In fact, that form, known variously as the ren'yookei, the "continuative form," the "infinitive," and even more incredibly as the "masu form," is also used for attaching things such as -nagara and -masu. More importantly here, it is the underlying form to which "-te" is attached, although in modern Japanese funny sound changes take place there to disguise it.

You can think of the bare -i form as the -te form minus the -te. The meaning is very similar, except that where "-te" often corresponds well with English "-ing" better than "and," the bare -i form doesn't match "ing" all that well. It is usually "and."

Writing differences

In rōmaji, the -i form will often look like a noun derived from the same verb. For example, hanashi might be "speaks/turns loose and" or it might be "speech" (so far as I know, there is no noun hanashi = "turning loose").

In kanamajiri writing (kanji-kana mixture), such words are often distinct. Hanashi = "talk and" is written with a tailing shi, 話し, while hanashi = "speech" is written with just the one kanji, 話.

Pronunciation differences

In speech, if the verb is an accented verb, the -i form and the noun are normally distinguished by accent. E.g. "speak and" has a LHL pitch contour, with a drop of pitch between the "na" the "shi." "Speech" has a LHH contour, with no drop in pitch until after the "shi."

With unaccented verbs, one cannot distinguish the noun from the bare -i form in speech. Thus asobi (LHH) may be either "plays and" or "game." (They are still distinct in writing, though.)

Contributed by Bart Mathias.

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