In Northern Mansi there are two converbs, the -ke and the -ima converbs. The -k converb also appears in Eastern Mansi but is quite seldom used. Instead, Eastern Mansi has developed two new types of converbs, the -ʃʲt and -mɘː converbs. The -ʃʲt type was earlier a postposition construction, and other postposition constructions are still used in adverbial functions or in a manner similar to converbs.
The -ʃʲt converb consists historically of a non-finite verb form, a possessive suffix and the ending -ʃʲt, which was shortened from the postposition ʃʲywt ‘during’. The most common form of the converb suffix is 3SG suffix -næːʃʲt or -mæːʃʲt, e.g. læːkʷəltæːmæːʃʲt ‘while leaving (3SG)’, pymtnæːʃʲt ‘while beginning (3SG). Both -n and -m variants of this suffix occur and have no differences in their usage, but stem historically from different verb forms. The -æː- is the personal suffix for 3SG and is a shortened form of -æːt. The -ʃʲt converb type is used in all persons and the personal marker is always in the middle of the suffix: mənəmənʃʲt ‘while going (2SG)’, pymtnəwʃʲət ‘while beginning (1PL)’.
The -mɘː type is historically a compound word form of a nomen actionis and a possessive locative of the word mɘː ‘land’, e.g. mənnə-mɘːmt ‘while I go’. The possessive form of mɘː has grammaticalized to the nominalizer of the nomen actionis and the possessive locative has continued grammaticalization to adverbalizer.
The agent of the converb is usually marked with a personal suffix in the converb. Sometimes, especially in transitive clauses, the agent is in the lative case and the converb acquires the personal suffix of the patient or the recipient, e.g.
tæxʷsəng-pøæl koməng kotələl jæɣ-nə koːtəltøælməmʃʲət æːkʷə ləɣən øæt uusəm
‘When I was given (lightened) a manly autumn day by father, I saw no squirrel’,
søæt-nə towləm
‘after the course of a week’.