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unchanged	changed
a	e
i	e
o	we
aa	ayaa
e	aye
ii	aa
oo	waa

• Initial change is an inflectional process that typically substitutes a vowel or vowel combination for the first vowel in a word, which may be in a preverb, or if there are no preverbs, in the basic verb stem itself. Each vowel has a characteristic changed form, as outlined in the chart above. In a few cases involving the relative roots /daSw/, 'so many,' and /daN/, 'place, location,' initial change is accomplished by prefixing /en/, e.g., the changed form of dasobiboonagizi, 'be so many years old,' is endasobiboonagizi(d). A few preverbs have irregular initial change forms as well (for example, the changed form of bi-, 'here, towards speaker' is ba-).
• Initial change only applies in the conjunct order (so not the independent or imperative orders), under well-defined grammatical conditions. Verb forms which have undergone initial change are sometimes said to be in the "changed conjunct." What is meant by "changed" in such usage is that the verb shows initial change.
• The following examples illustrate a typical usage of initial change, to make what are called participles, that is, forms that mean "the one(s) who..." Participles obligatorily have initial change. All of the verbs below belong to the class of VAI verbs.

unchanged	changed	gloss
anokii	enokiid	working one
ikido	ekidod	speaking one
odamino	wedaminod	playing one
aakozi	ayaakozid	sick one
zegizi	zayegizid	fearful one
biinizi	baanizid	clean one
boodawe	bwaadawed	fire-making one