All that Tolkien indicated concerning continuative-past is that it exists but did not elaborate further. However, he left multiple sentences with what can only be but the continuative present, so the information is fairly reliable.[1]
A-fortify the base vowel[2], suffix -i. |
|
|
Change variable vowel to -u, suffix -i. |
|
|
Break up consonant clusters with additional base vowels, A-fortify last main vowel, replace final -â with -i. |
*azgarâ- “to wage war” > azagâri “waging war” | abrazâ- “to endure” > abarâzi “enduring” |
[1]. There is no attested continuative present tense for derived verbs (in fact, there is not much attested material concerning them at all). As a result, any inflections for them has been derived from observation of the other two verb types, and so is essentially an educated guess.
[2]. Alternatively, the base vowel can be lengthened. Currently, there is no clear consensus on which is more in line with Tolkien’s idea, vowel-lengthening or a-fortification.