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<td><img src="illo/oskusni.gif" alt="Kusni Maind" title="Kusni Maind"> </td>
<td><h2>Old Skourene</h2></td>
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<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></b></td>
<td><a href="#family">Lenani-Littoral</a> —
<a href="#os">Old Skourene</a></td></tr>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#phono">Phonology</a></b></td>
</tr>
<tr><td rowspan=7 bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#vmorph">Verbal Morphology</a></b></td>
<td><a href="#gender">Gender</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#root">A tour of the root</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#ergative">Ergativity</a> —
<a href="#lexical"><i>Lexical effects</i></a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#paradigms">The four paradigms</a> —
<a href="#abs"><i>Absolutive</a>
<a href="#erg"><i>Ergative</a>
<a href="#ergabs"><i>Ergative/Absolutive</a>
<a href="#refl"><i>Reflexive/Reciprocal</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#mood">Mood</a> —
<a href="#aspect">Aspect</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#prefix">Verb prefixes</a> —
<a href="#nominal">Nominalizations</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#bicons">Biconsonantal verbs</a></td></tr>
<tr><td rowspan=2 bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#nouns">Nominal morphology</a></b></td>
<td><a href="#affixing">Affixing</a> —
<a href="#changing">Vowel-changing</a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#def">Definite forms</a> —
<a href="#dimin">Diminutives</a></td></tr>
<tr><td rowspan=3 bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#other">Other word types</a></b></td>
<td><a href="#adjish">Adjectivish things</a> —
<i>
<a href="#descrip"><i>Affixes</a>
<a href="#assoc">Associative nouns</a>
<a href="#participle">Participles</a>
<a href="#desverb">Descriptive verbs</a>
<a href="#possessive">Possessives/Pronouns</a>
<a href="#nocop">Avoiding copulation</a>
</i></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#quant">Quantifiers</a> —
<a href="#numbers">Numbers</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#names">Names</a></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan=5><b><a href="#syntax">Syntax</a></b></td>
<td><a href="#order">Word order</a> </td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#tense">Tense</a> —
<i>
<a href="#perfect">The perfect</a>
<a href="#othermoods">Other moods</a>
<a href="#special">Specialized aspects</a>
</i></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#sequence">Verb sequencing</a> —
<i>
<a href="#changearg">Changing arguments</a>
<a href="#anti">Antipassive</a>
<a href="#loosen">Other options</a>
<a href="#logic">Logical connectors</a>
<a href="#report">Reported speech</a>
<a href="#compare">Comparatives</a>
</i></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#locate">Locatives</a> —
<a href="#instru">Instrumentals</a> —
<a href="#time">Time</a>
<tr><td><a href="#questions">Questions</a> —
<a href="#negatives">Negatives</a> </td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan=3><b><a href="#examples">Examples</a></h2></b></td>
<td><a href="#ex1">1. Usṭişum Paurṭuti -- Lazybones’s Puzzle</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#ex2">2. Ṭisutrand -- The Ṭisutran</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="#ex3">3. Agedor Skourandul -- Protector of the Skourenes</a></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="#writing">Writing </a> </b></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><b><a href="oslex.htm">Lexicon</a></b></td></tr>
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<a name="intro"><hr></a>
<h3><a name="family">Lenani-Littoral</a></h3>
<b>Lenani-Littoral</b> is one of the major language families of eastern Ereláe. Originally restricted to the Lenani steppe, its speakers invaded Skouras twice, two milennia apart, generating three subfamilies.
<p>The first invasion took place around -50 Z.E., displacing the Mei peoples. The invaders gave the country its name, <b>Skouras</b>, and spread first to the littoral, then to the Mnau peninsula, and then across the southern sea to <b>Gurdago</b>.
<p>(All the letters in <i>Skouras</i> have their IPA values; so the first syllable rhymes with <i>stow</i>, not with <i>scow</i> or <i>sue</i>.)
<p>For more on the history and culture of the Skourenes, see the
<a href="Skouras.swf"><i>Historical Atlas of Skouras</i></a>, or on a lighter note,
<a href="skourenetest.htm">the Skourene Culture Test</a>.
<p>The second invasion was that of the <b>Tžuro</b>, who originally lived in the eastern half of the Lenani plateau. On fire with the new religion of Jippirasti, they invaded Skouras in the 1600s. Around 3000, the Tžuro state of Jaešim colonized the southwestern portion of Arcél, creating the nation of <b>Fananak</b>.
<p>The invasions serve to classify the languages of the family:
<br>
<ul>
<li>the first invasion produced the <b>Littoral</b> subfamily;
<li>the second produced the <b>Tžuro</b>;
<li>those who stayed on the Plateau became the <b>Lenani</b> subfamily.
<br>
</ul>
The Littoral speakers left in Skouras after the Jippirasti conquest slowly abandoned their old language for Tžuro; but those who were displaced and the southern regions that were never conquered still called themselves Skourenes, and for centuries maintained the dream of liberating their homeland. The closest they came was under the Čisre Empire in the 2600s; they discovered that the people of the homeland had no wish to be liberated.
<p>The exiles also called themselves the <b>Uṭandal</b> (‘the Strong’), and it’s convenient to use this name rather than Skourenes for the post-Jippirasti Littoral peoples.
<p>The <b>major languages</b> in the family are these; there are also half a dozen minor languages.
<p>LENANI
<br> Old Lenani+, Lenani, Karimi, Lumbani
<br>TŽURO
<br>
Babureni+, Šureni, Jaešeni, Fananaki
<br>LITTORAL
<br>
Old Skourene+
<br> EASTERN
<br>
Gelihurendi, Šijinti, Uṭandal, Barmundi
<br> WESTERN
<br>
Gurdagor, Didburir
<h3><a name="os">Old Skourene</a></h3>
In Almean studies, the language of Skouras in ancient times (fl. 300-900) is conventionally named Old Skourene (OS), V. <i>bomë šurë</i>. Its own speakers called it <b>kusni maind</b> ‘the language of the people’ or <b>kusnidor </b>‘our language’ when contrasting it to the languages of other peoples. (More often they referred to city dialects— e.g. <b>(kusni) Iṭiliki </b>‘the language of Iṭili’.)
<p>Skouras and the littoral were never united under one government— though this was the aspiration of one group or another throughout the period— and the language was thus subject to great regional variation. This document describes the most prestigious variety, the language spoken in the great cities of the <b>Šinour delta</b>— Engidori, Iṭili, and Imuṭeli— in the classical period, Z.E. 300-900.
<p>(The names and areas of the major OS dialects are the same as those of the variants of the writing system, and can be seen on map 827 in the <i>Historical Atlas of Skouras</i>.)
<p>It can be taken as the ancestor of all the modern Littoral languages, east and west, including Gurdagor— though the remoter areas (Rudeŋ, Jecuor, Šiji) preserve some oddities and vocabulary that must date back to sister languages. An example is the name <i>Barmund</i>; it was the equivalent of OS <b>Ṭarmand</b><i> </i>‘southern people’.)
<p>Old Skourene has several distinctive features:
<ul>
<li>Verbs are declined largely by changing the vowels within an unchanging triconsonantal root.
<li>Most nouns, including everyday words, are derived from verbs; there are standalone nouns, but these form a small closed class.
<li>The case structure is ergative/absolutive rather than nominative/accusative.
<li>There is no subordination per se; instead, OS uses a wide array of conjunctions.
<li>Its writing system is a mixture of morphemographs (there is a glyph per root) and a very stripped-down syllabary.
<br>
</ul>
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="phono">Phonology</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
<center><img src="illo/osphono.gif"></center>
<i>Note: This document makes heavy use of Unicode. These characters </i><b>ṭ ḍ ş ḷ r</b><i> should match the "retroflex" column in the diagram, while the velar nasal is </i><b>ŋ</b>. <i>
<ul>
<li>On a Mac, I’ve found that Safari but not IE displays it OK. You want to use Safari anyway; it’s better.
<li>On Windows, the presently distributed Windows fonts don’t include the right code points. One that does is <a href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium">Gentium</a>, from SIL. This page will use Gentium if it’s available.
</ul></i>
<p>The phonology is somewhat idealized, being based on reconstruction from modern dialects, borrowing behavior, infuriatingly vague comments from OS grammarians, and the OS writing system. The only really problematic aspect is the exact nature of the third column of consonants. <b>Retroflex</b> is the best guess, but palatal and even aspirated stops are remoter possibilities.
<p>To produce retroflex stops, start with the tongue on the alveolar ridge behind the teeth, and slip it upwards. The tip may end up curled backwards (which is what ‘retroflex’ means). However, it shouldn’t end up on the top of the palate (that’s the place for palatals). If you’re American, your <b>r</b> may be retroflex. If your tongue points upward from its rest position, you’re in business— just move it forward a bit and you’ve got OS <b>ṭ</b> and <b>ḍ</b>. If your tongue points downward and is pulled into the back of the mouth, you have a bunched r instead.
<p>OS <b>r</b> in the delta dialect was an approximant, but seems to have been a flap in other areas (e.g., it ended up as a flap in Gurdagor).
<p>English <i>t/d/n/s/l</i><b> </b>are alveolar, with the tongue touching the ridge behind the teeth; make sure you pronounce the OS <b>t</b>/<b>d</b>/<b>n</b>/<b>s</b>/<b>l </b>as <b>dental</b>, with the tongue touching the teeth, for maximum contrast with the retroflexes.
<p>OS had some formidable clusters (e.g. <i>kpasriukka, ŋoknlun</i>). Some of these were subject to assimilation consistently enough that it can be assigned to the OS period:
<br>
<ul>
<li>combinations of dental and retroflex stops assmilate: *ḍadḍu → <b>ḍaḍḍu</b>
<li>inital stops agree in voicing: *kḍeba → <b>kṭepa</b>, *gtira → <b>gdira
<br></b><li>a velar nasal assimilates after a dental stop: *udŋa → <b>udna</b>
<br>
</ul>
Other assimilations and dissimilations can be deduced from sound changes in the daughter languages, but their timing is unclear, and it’s best not to assume they were present in OS. On the other hand, it should be recognized that the language as presented here is somewhat idealized, and would probably sound archaic or simply strange in many places to a Skourene.
<p>There is no phonemic retroflex nasal, but <b>n</b> next to a retroflex consonant was very likely retroflexed.
<p><b>N</b> before <b>g</b> was <i>not</i> velarized; don’t pronounce <i>Engidori</i> as *<i>Eŋgidori</i>.
<p>Any two distinct vowels can be concatenated; but two identical vowels are separated by an inserted <b>r</b>— e.g. <b>a + a = ara</b>.
<p>The general <b>stress</b> rule is that it comes after the first consonant in the root. As this requires identifying what the root is, this will be discussed in <a href="#stress">more detail below</a>.
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="vmorph">Verbal Morphology</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
OS verbs have several dimensions of variation:
<ul>
<li>four <b>case paradigms</b>: absolutive, ergative, ergative/absolutive, and reflexive
<li><b>subject/object</b> information: person, gender, and number
<li>five <b>moods</b>: perfect, intentive, desiderative, metutive, and imperative
<li>four <b>aspects</b>: unmarked, inceptive, durative, and cyclical
<li>Meanings can be modified by over two dozen <b>verb prefixes</b>.
<br>
</ul>
Excluding the verb prefixes, a single verb can easily have over 1100 different verbal forms— with one prefix, over 30,000.
<p>The system is complicated enough that a <a href="lenanicj.html">conjugation utility</a> can be useful.
<p>There are also nominal derivations; indeed, the vast majority of OS nouns are derived from verbs; the non-derived nouns are a small closed class.
<h4><a name="gender">Gender</a></h4>
We will encounter gender in a few miscellaneous areas: verb affixes, derivational morphology, the possessive suffixes, interrogative pronouns; it’s convenient to explain it beforehand.
<p>OS doesn’t have lexical gender, as in French or Verdurian; it has natural gender, like English. That is, gender isn’t a fact about words, but a fact about referents.
<p>There are <b>four genders</b>, which can be divided into two overall categories, sentients and non-sentients.
<ul>
<li><b>Sentients</b> (or <b>persons</b>) include humans, other intelligent species such as the iliu and elcari, gods and supernatural beings. These are divided into
<ul>
<li><b>masculine</b>, for adult males in these categories, or for mixed groups
<li><b>feminine</b>, for females and children
</ul>
<li><b>Non-sentients</b> include everything else. These can be divided into
<ul>
<li><b>animate</b>, for animals, and more broadly, for anything conceived of as able to act on its own— notably including bodily organs, fire, running water, cities and countries, and the weather. Abstractions regarded as active (e.g. <i>epuneka</i> ‘fate’) work as animates.
<li><b>inanimate</b>, for things that are not regarded as acting on their own.
</ul>
</ul>
Human institutions may vary in gender by context. If they’re being used as shorthand for the people involved, they’re masculine (e.g. <i>gşarali </i>‘the court’, <i>nladali </i>‘the school as an institution’). If only the location is referred to, they’re animate (e.g. <i>gşarali </i>‘the throne room’, <i>nladali </i>‘the school building’). Cities and countries, however, are always animate.
<p>By our standards, the Skourenes were fairly generous about assigning sentiency or animacy. From their perspective, of course, we are extremely narrow about these things!
<p>Gender is not always expressed; when it is, the distinction made is not always fourfold. Sometimes only sentients and non-sentients are distinguished; sometimes masculine/feminine/non-sentient.
<h4><a name="root">A tour of the root</a></h4>
As in the Semitic languages, most verb roots are <b>triconsonantal</b>, e.g. <b>b-k-ş</b> ‘break’. Different verb forms (as well as derived nouns) are created by placing vowels before, between, or after these consonants, or by adding affixes. For instance, <b>ṭ-l-p</b>- ‘write’ has forms such as these:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ṭelpum</td>
<td></b>it was written</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭelup</td>
<td></b>I wrote</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭuloup</td>
<td></b>we will write</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>aiṭlope</td>
<td></b>they made me write</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭeilop</td>
<td></b>he was always writing</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>inṭulup</td>
<td></b>I may try to write</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭlepa</td>
<td></b>document</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>aṭelop</td>
<td></b>writer</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭilap</td>
<td></b>pen</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>uṭalpas</td>
<td></b>the art of writing</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>aṭalpi</td>
<td></b>written</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>gauṭulip</td>
<td></b>you write clumsily</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>nilṭulrap</td>
<td></b>she can write</td>
<td></td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
Though these look and sound very different to us, they are all standard derivations, easily recognized by an OS speaker as belonging to a single root, and in fact they are all written using the same glyph.
<p>For ease in discussion, it’s convenient to name the positions within the root; we will refer to the three consonants as <b>C1, C2, C3</b>, and the positions adjacent to them as <b>P0, P12, P23, P4</b>. Thus instead of saying “an -<b>a</b>- inserted between the second and third consonants signals a noun” we can say “an -<b>a</b>- in P23 signals a noun”.
<p>Some examples:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td>P0</td>
<td>C1</td>
<td>P12</td>
<td>C2</td>
<td>P23</td>
<td>C3</td>
<td>P4</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
<td><b>ṭ</td>
<td></b>e</td>
<td><b>l</td>
<td></b></td>
<td><b>p</td>
<td></b>u</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td>ai</td>
<td><b>ṭ</td>
<td></b></td>
<td><b>l</td>
<td></b>o</td>
<td><b>p</td>
<td></b>e</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
<td><b>ṭ</td>
<td></b></td>
<td><b>l</td>
<td></b>e</td>
<td><b>p</td>
<td></b>a</td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
<td><b>ṭ</td>
<td></b>i</td>
<td><b>l</td>
<td></b>a</td>
<td><b>p</td>
<td></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td>u</td>
<td><b>ṭ</td>
<td></b>a</td>
<td><b>l</td>
<td></b></td>
<td><b>p</td>
<td></b>as</td>
<td></td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
Though Skourene grammarians consider the root to consist of the consonants only, each verb has a characteristic vowel or <b>stem vowel</b> which usually appears in P12— for instance <b>e</b> in <b>ṭ-l-p</b>- ‘write’ or <b>i</b> in <b>k-s-n</b>- ‘hear’. The stem vowel is always one of <b>i e a</b>. It doesn’t always appear, but when it does it’s not predictable from the consonants; it must be learned along with them and is thus best considered part of the root. The citation form of ‘write’ is thus <b>ṭelp</b>-, and ‘hear’ is <b>kisn-</b>.
<p>There are a small number of <b>biconsonantal</b> roots, which will be <a href="#bicons">discussed later</a>.
<p><a name="stress">Now that</a> we’ve defined the positions we can state the <b>stress</b> rule:
<ul>
<li>Stress is placed at P12.
<li>If there’s nothing there it moves to P23 instead.
<li>Prefixes are never stressed.
<br>
</ul>
Thus <b>ṭélpu, aiṭlópe, ṭlépa, ṭílap, uṭálpas, nilṭúlrap</b>.
<h4><a name="ergative">Ergativity</a></h4>
OS is an ergative/absolutive language. To understand what this means, let’s look at a pair of related sentences:
<blockquote>
<i><font color="#0000ff">The window</font> broke.<br><font color="#ff0000">The boys</font> broke <font color="#008000">the window</font>.</i>
</blockquote>
Syntactically, we say that the first sentence is <i>intransitive</i>, meaning that it has a subject and no object, and the second is <i>transitive</i>, meaning that it has both. Semantically, we can talk about three possible case roles:
<ul>
<li><i><font color="#0000ff">experiencer</i></font> (subject of intransitive)
<li><i><font color="#ff0000">actor</i></font><i> </i>(subject of transitive)
<li><i><font color="#008000">patient</i></font><i> </i>(object of transitive)
<br>
</ul>
English is a <b>nominative/accusative</b> language:
<ul>
<li><font color="#ff0000">Actors</font> and <font color="#0000ff">experiencers</font> have the same case, <b><i>nominative</b></i>. This is easiest to see with pronouns: compare <i><font color="#0000ff">I</i></font><i> danced </i>with <i><font color="#ff0000">I</i></font><i> hit my brother</i>. However, it affects syntax as well: both appear before the verb, as <i>subjects</i>, and both trigger 3s verb agreement (compare <i><font color="#0000ff">The window</i></font><i> breaks</i> vs. <i><font color="#ff0000">The man</i></font><i> breaks </i><i><font color="#0000ff">the windows</i></font>).
<li><font color="#008000">Patients</font> have their own case, the <b><i>accusative</b></i>— compare <i>My brother hit </i><i><font color="#008000">me</i></font><i>. </i>Syntactically, they appear after the verb, as <i>objects</i>.
<br>
</ul>
Verdurian is also nominative/accusative, with case marked on the noun and verb agreement with the subject; compare
<blockquote>
<i><font color="#0000ff">So aknó</font> brisr<font color="#0000ff">e</font>.<br><font color="#ff0000">Soî sefoi</font> brisr<font color="#ff0000">ü</font> <font color="#008000">so aknám</font>.</i>
</blockquote>
In an <b>ergative/absolutive</b> language like OS:
<ul>
<li><font color="#0000ff">Experiencers</font> and <font color="#008000">patients</font> have the same case, the <b><i>absolutive</b></i><i>. </i>Semantically, this is more sensible than our system: the window, for instance, obviously has the same role in both sentences.
<li><font color="#ff0000">Actors</font> have their own case, the <b><i>ergative</b></i><i>. </i>(As a mnemonic: the name comes from the Greek <i>ergon</i> ‘work’, as in ‘ergonomic’. The ergative is the one who’s doing the work.)<i>
<br></i>
</ul>
Terrestrial ergative/absolutive languages include Basque, Tibetan, Chukchi, Dyirbal, and the Northwest Caucasian languages.
<p>Some sample OS sentences:
<blockquote>
<b>Bakş<font color="#008000">u</font> <font color="#008000">tostim</font>.</b> <i>The window broke.</i>
<br><b>Bak<font color="#ff0000">o</font>ş<font color="#008000">u</font> <font color="#008000">tostim</font> <font color="#ff0000">immolnimi</font>.</b> <i>The boys broke the window.</i>
<br><b>Bak<font color="#ff0000">o</font>ş <font color="#ff0000">immolnimi</font>.</b> <i>The boys broke something.</i><br>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The syntactic <b>case</b> always matches the semantic roles: the recipient of the action, <i><font color="#008000">tostim</i></font><i> </i>‘window’, always appears in the absolutive; the actor <i><font color="#ff0000">immolnimi</i></font><i> </i>‘boys’ always appears in the ergative.
<p><li><b>Both</b> nouns trigger <b>verb agreement</b>: the <font color="#008000">absolutive</font> argument appears on the verb as the ending -<b><font color="#008000">u</b></font>; the <font color="#ff0000">ergative</font> appears on the verb as the infix -<b><font color="#ff0000">o</b></font>-.
<p><li>Sentence order is typically V<font color="#008000">A</font><font color="#ff0000">E</font>, that is, verb-<font color="#008000">absolutive</font>-<font color="#ff0000">ergative</font>. When both arguments appear we can think of it as VOS.
<p><li>Either argument can be <b>omitted</b> in OS. In the third example the <font color="#008000">absolutive</font> is left out, something we can only do awkwardly in English, by supplying a dummy argument. Note that the missing argument no longer triggers verb argument: the absolutive -<b><font color="#008000">u</b></font> is omitted from the verb.
<br>
</ul>
For ease of understanding, and to simplify the glosses, the color scheme above (absolutives in <font color="#008000">green</font>, ergatives in <font color="#ff0000">red</font>) is used throughout this document.
<h5><a name="lexical">Lexical effects </a></h5>
Many of our verbs can be either transitive and intransitive— <i>break, roll, hang, close, stop, spin, grow, bend, bounce, burn, strengthen, form. </i>The corresponding verbs will not be difficult in OS.
<p>Often, though, we have a pair of verbs where OS has one: <i>rise / raise; fall / drop; die / kill, come / fetch. </i>These will be one verb and one concept in OS; this may take some getting used to. The transitive generally has a causative meaning, though as we’ll see OS has <a href="#cause">a causative</a> as well.
<p>We also have verb pairs which have about the same meaning, but differ in transitivity: <i>I listened </i>vs. <i>I heard the sound; I studied </i>vs. <i>I learned algebra. </i>These pairs are also single verbs in OS, with our subject expressed in the ergative; if a patient is present it’s as usual placed in the absolutive.
<p>If we have no separate intransitive verb, we use the passive. For instance, we can say <i>The mother nurtures the child</i> but there’s no simple verb for what the child is doing; we have to say <i>The child is nurtured</i>. In OS there is; the child <i>melnu</i>, which has none of the indirectness of our passive.
<h4><a name="paradigms">The four paradigms</a></h4>
In OS a verb can be declined according to one of four patterns:
<ul>
<li><b>Absolutive</b>, used when only an absolutive noun is present, as in <i>Bakşu </i><i><font color="#008000">tostim</i></font> ‘the window broke’.
<p><li><b>Ergative</b>, used when only an ergative noun is present, as in <i>Kisn </i><i><font color="#ff0000">immolnim</i></font><i> </i>‘the boy spoke’.
<p><li><b>Absolutive/ergative</b>, used when both absolutive and ergative arguments are present, as in <i>Bakoşu </i><i><font color="#008000">tostim</i></font><i> </i><i><font color="#ff0000">immolnimi</i></font>.
<p><li><b>Reflexive</b>, used for self-acting or reciprocal actions— in our terms, when the subject and object are identical.
<br>
</ul>
<h5><a name="abs">Absolutive paradigm</a></h5>
With transitive verbs, the absolutive refers to what we think of as the object; with intransitives, to what we call the subject. With verbs like <i>break </i>it’s easy to see that the semantic role is the same— the absolutive is the thing that’s acted upon. With verb pairs like <i>fall/drop </i>it’s easier to be confused; we don’t think of the subject of <i>fall </i>as something acted upon, though by comparison with <i>drop </i>it certainly is. When in doubt, consider whether the English verb can be followed by an object. If it can’t, it’s intransitive, and belongs to the absolutive paradigm in OS.
<p>The absolutive can always be used alone, with no ergative ‘subject’, even for transitive verbs. E.g. <b>Ṭelpum ṭlepa</b><i>, </i>which we have to translate more verbosely as ‘The document was written’ or ‘Someone wrote the document’.
<p>(This is the most basic verb tense in OS, but the glosses are <i>past tense</i>. Technically this is the <b>perfect mood</b>. We’ll see <a href="#tense">how to refer to present events</a> later on.)
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan=2></td>
<td><i>be heard</i></td>
<td><i>break</i></td>
<td><i>fall</i></td>
<td><i>be lit up</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>I</td>
<td></i><b>-e</td>
<td></b>kisne</td>
<td>bakşe</td>
<td>targe</td>
<td>şebre</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>I-f</td>
<td></i><b>-et</td>
<td></b>kisnet</td>
<td>bakşet</td>
<td>target</td>
<td>şebret</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-m</td>
<td></i><b>-a</td>
<td></b>kisna</td>
<td>bakşa</td>
<td>targa</td>
<td>şebra</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-f</td>
<td></i><b>-at</td>
<td></b>kisnat</td>
<td>bakşat</td>
<td>targat</td>
<td>şebrat</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-du</td>
<td></i><b>-as</td>
<td></b>kisnas</td>
<td>bakşas</td>
<td>targas</td>
<td>şebras</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>he</td>
<td></i><b>-u</td>
<td></b>kisnu</td>
<td>bakşu</td>
<td>targu</td>
<td>şebru</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>she</td>
<td></i><b>-ut</td>
<td></b>kisnut</td>
<td>bakşut</td>
<td>targut</td>
<td>şebrut</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>it</td>
<td></i><b>-um</td>
<td></b>kisnum</td>
<td>bakşum</td>
<td>targum</td>
<td>şebrum</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-excl</td>
<td></i><b>-ep</td>
<td></b>kisnep</td>
<td>bakşep</td>
<td>targep</td>
<td>şebrep</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-incl</td>
<td></i><b>-eg</td>
<td></b>kisneg</td>
<td>bakşeg</td>
<td>targeg</td>
<td>şebreg</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-pl</td>
<td></i><b>-ag</td>
<td></b>kisnag</td>
<td>bakşag</td>
<td>targag</td>
<td>şebrag</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they</td>
<td></i><b>-i</td>
<td></b>kisni</td>
<td>bakşi</td>
<td>targi</td>
<td>şebri</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-f</td>
<td></i><b>-it</td>
<td></b>kisnit</td>
<td>bakşit</td>
<td>targit</td>
<td>şebrit</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-ns</td>
<td></i><b>-im</td>
<td></b>kisnim</td>
<td>bakşim</td>
<td>targim</td>
<td>şebrim</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The absolutive endings are always placed in <b>P4</b>.
<li>The basic <b>endings</b> are <br>1st person -<b>e</b><br>2nd person -<b>a</b><br>3rd person s. -<b>u</b>, pl. -<b>i</b>
<li><b>Gender</b> can be distinguished by adding a suffix:
<ul>
<li>Add -<b>t</b> for feminine referents. Using the feminine in 1s and 2s is rare, generally restricted to writing where the gender of the speaker and listener is not obvious.
<li>Add -<b>m</b> for non-sentients, but only in the 3s and 3p. (In stories where animals talk, they use the first and second person forms as if they were human; but in the third person they require the -<b>m</b>.)
</ul>
<li>A <b>dual</b> is formed in the 2s by appending -<b>s</b>. A 3s dual -<b>us</b> is sometimes found.
<li>In the 1st and 2nd persons, <b>pluralization</b> is indicated by affixes -<b>p</b> or -<b>g</b>.
<ul>
<li>In the 1p, the first indicates <b>exclusive</b> we (‘I and others, not you’), the second <b>inclusive</b> we (‘I and you’).
<li>Think of the -<b>g</b> as implying ‘you’. Thus it’s used for the 2p, and for the inclusive ‘we’, which includes ‘you’.
</ul>
</ul>
<h5><a name="erg">Ergative paradigm</a></h5>
The ergative is used for what we consider the subject of transitive verbs— and those only; the subject of intransitives is put in the absolutive. Again, these forms can be used alone, with no absolutive referent.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan=2></td>
<td><i>listen</i></td>
<td><i>break</i></td>
<td><i>drop</i></td>
<td><i>light up</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>I</i></td>
<td><b>-u-</td>
<td></b>kisun</td>
<td>bakuş</td>
<td>tarug</td>
<td>şebur</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-m</i></td>
<td><b>-i-</td>
<td></b>kisin</td>
<td>bakiş</td>
<td>tarig</td>
<td>şebir</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-f</i></td>
<td><b>-ri-</td>
<td></b>kisrin</td>
<td>bakriş</td>
<td>tarrig</td>
<td>şebrir</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>he</i></td>
<td><b>--</td>
<td></b>kisn</td>
<td>bakş</td>
<td>targ</td>
<td>şebr</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>she</i></td>
<td><b>-ra-</td>
<td></b>kisran</td>
<td>bakraş</td>
<td>tarrag</td>
<td>şebrar</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>it</i></td>
<td><b>-ḷa-</td>
<td></b>kislan</td>
<td>bakḷaş</td>
<td>tarḷag</td>
<td>sebḷar</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-excl</i></td>
<td><b>-obu-</td>
<td></b>kisobun</td>
<td>bakobuş</td>
<td>tarobug</td>
<td>şebobur</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-incl</i></td>
<td><b>-ou-</td>
<td></b>kisoun</td>
<td>bakouş</td>
<td>taroug</td>
<td>şebour</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-pl</i></td>
<td><b>-oi-</td>
<td></b>kisoin</td>
<td>bakoiş</td>
<td>taroig</td>
<td>şeboir</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-mf</i></td>
<td><b>-o-</td>
<td></b>kison</td>
<td>bakoş</td>
<td>tarog</td>
<td>şebor</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-an</i></td>
<td><b>-ḷo-</td>
<td></b>kislon</td>
<td>bakḷoş</td>
<td>tarḷog</td>
<td>şebḷor</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The ergative infixes are always placed in <b>P23</b>.
<li>The basic <b>infixes</b> are<br>1st person -<b>u</b>-<br>2nd person -<b>i</b>-<br>3rd person none<br>These are <i>not</i> the same as the absolutive endings!
<li><b>Gender</b> is indicated in the 2s or 3s by infixing -<b>r</b>- for feminine and -<b>ḷ</b>- for animate referents immediately after C2. (In the 3s, insert -<b>ra</b>- / -<b>ḷa</b>.) Again, this is optional, and rare in the 2s. It is sometimes (but rarely) applied to the 1s: <i>kisrun </i>etc.
<br>Animate -<b>ḷ</b>- changes to -<b>l</b>- after a dental consonant (<b>t d s n l</b>).
<br>There’s no expression of inanimate gender: inanimates are precisely those things that can’t <i>do</i> anything. If you find yourself wanting to use the ergative for inanimates, you’re probably writing bad OS. E.g. an inanimate thing can’t “go” anywhere; it must be brought.
<li>There is no <b>dual</b>.
<li><b>Pluralization</b> is accomplished by infixing -<b>o</b>- immediately after C2. <b>Exclusive</b> we uses -<b>ob</b>- instead.
<li>Very rarely the feminine -<b>r</b>- is used in the plural— e.g. <i>kisroin </i>‘you (women) listened’. 3p animate -<b>ḷ</b>- is more common.
<br>
</ul>
A helpful hint: None of the infixes put a simple -<b>a</b>- or -<b>e</b>- in P23 (-<b>ra</b>- isn’t simple). Forms with either of these vowels in P23 can therefore be confidently identified as nouns, e.g. <i>kisan </i>‘ear’, <i>ksena </i>‘(process of) listening’, <i>kessen </i>‘listening device’.
<h5><a name="ergabs">Ergative/Absolutive paradigm</a></h5>
This pattern corresponds to our transitive verbs with both subject and object expressed. It’s formed simply by combining the two previous patterns: the absolutive endings (the ‘object’) in P4, and the ergative infixes (the ‘subject’) in P23.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td colspan=9><i>subject</i></td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>object</td>
<td><i>I</i></td>
<td><i>you-m</i></td>
<td><i>you-f</i></td>
<td><i>he</i></td>
<td><i>she</i></td>
<td><i>we-excl</i></td>
<td><i>we-incl</td>
<td>you-pl</i></td>
<td><i>they</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>me</i></td>
<td></td>
<td>kisine</td>
<td>kisrine</td>
<td>kisne</td>
<td>kisrane</td>
<td>kisobune</td>
<td>kisoune</td>
<td>kisoine</td>
<td>kisone</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>me-f</i></td>
<td></td>
<td>kisinet</td>
<td>kisrinet</td>
<td>kisnet</td>
<td>kisranet</td>
<td>kisobunet</td>
<td>kisounet</td>
<td>kisoinet</td>
<td>kisonet</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-m</i></td>
<td>kisuna</td>
<td></td>
<td>kisrina</td>
<td>kisna</td>
<td>kisrana</td>
<td>kisobuna</td>
<td>kisouna</td>
<td>kisoina</td>
<td>kisona</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-f</i></td>
<td>kisunat</td>
<td>kisinat</td>
<td></td>
<td>kisnat</td>
<td>kisranat</td>
<td>kisobunat</td>
<td>kisounat</td>
<td>kisoinat</td>
<td>kisonat</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-du</i></td>
<td>kisunas</td>
<td>kisinas</td>
<td>kisrinas</td>
<td>kisnas</td>
<td>kisranas</td>
<td>kisobunas</td>
<td>kisounas</td>
<td>kisoinas</td>
<td>kisonas</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>him</i></td>
<td>kisunu</td>
<td>kisinu</td>
<td>kisrinu</td>
<td>kisnu</td>
<td>kisranu</td>
<td>kisobunu</td>
<td>kisounu</td>
<td>kisoinu</td>
<td>kisonu</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>her</i></td>
<td>kisunut</td>
<td>kisinut</td>
<td>kisrinut</td>
<td>kisnut</td>
<td>kisranut</td>
<td>kisobunut</td>
<td>kisounut</td>
<td>kisoinut</td>
<td>kisonut</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>us-excl</i></td>
<td>kisunep</td>
<td>kisinep</td>
<td>kisrinep</td>
<td>kisnep</td>
<td>kisranep</td>
<td>kisobunep</td>
<td>kisounep</td>
<td>kisoinep</td>
<td>kisonep</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>us-incl</i></td>
<td>kisuneg</td>
<td>kisineg</td>
<td>kisrineg</td>
<td>kisneg</td>
<td>kisraneg</td>
<td></td>
<td>kisouneg</td>
<td>kisoineg</td>
<td>kisoneg</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-pl</i></td>
<td>kisunag</td>
<td>kisinag</td>
<td>kisrinag</td>
<td>kisnag</td>
<td>kisranag</td>
<td>kisobunag</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td>kisonag</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>them</i></td>
<td>kisuni</td>
<td>kisini</td>
<td>kisrini</td>
<td>kisni</td>
<td>kisrani</td>
<td>kisobuni</td>
<td>kisouni</td>
<td>kisoini</td>
<td>kisoni</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>them-f</i></td>
<td>kisunit</td>
<td>kisinit</td>
<td>kisrinit</td>
<td>kisnit</td>
<td>kisranit</td>
<td>kisobunit</td>
<td>kisounit</td>
<td>kisoinit</td>
<td>kisonit</td>
<td><i></td></tr>
</i>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The blank cells in the chart are those where subject and object are the same; you don’t use ergative/absolute forms for these, but <b>reflexives</b> (next section). Forms like <i>kisranut </i>‘she listened to her’ do exist, but their meaning is always non-reflexive; that is, it doesn’t mean ‘she listened to herself’.
<p><li>The <i>he </i>column is identical to the absolutive paradigm— that is, there’s no formal distinction between <i>kisne </i>‘he listened to me’ and <i>kisne </i>‘I was listened to’.
<p><li>To save space I’ve left out animate and inanimate referents. They’re simply combinations of the absolutive and ergative affixes we’ve seen, e.g. <i>kislanum </i>‘it (animate) listed to it (inanimate).
<br>
</ul>
It may help to have a few specific examples:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kisuna</td>
<td></b>I listened to you (m).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisobunas</td>
<td></b>We (excl) listened to the two of you.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bakşum</td>
<td></b>He broke it.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>şebḷareg</td>
<td></b>It lit us (incl).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>terilet</td>
<td></b>You (m) touched me (f).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>dirobuşi</td>
<td></b>We (excl) allied with them.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>geşorag</td>
<td></b>They ruled you people.</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<h5><a name="refl">Reflexive / Reciprocal paradigm</a></h5>
This paradigm is used when the subject and object are identical. That is, they express an individual’s action upon himself or herself, or a group’s mutual interaction.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan=2></td>
<td><i>hear oneself</i></td>
<td><i>break oneself</i></td>
<td><i>drop oneself</i></td>
<td><i>light oneself up</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>I</i></td>
<td><b>-ei</td>
<td></b>kisnei</td>
<td>bakşei</td>
<td>targei</td>
<td>şebrei</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>I-f</i></td>
<td><b>-eṭ</td>
<td></b>kisneṭ</td>
<td>bakşeṭ</td>
<td>targeṭ</td>
<td>şebreṭ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-m</i></td>
<td><b>-ai</td>
<td></b>kisnai</td>
<td>bakşai</td>
<td>targai</td>
<td>şebrai</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-f</i></td>
<td><b>-aṭ</td>
<td></b>kisnaṭ</td>
<td>bakşaṭ</td>
<td>targaṭ</td>
<td>şebraṭ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-du</i></td>
<td><b>-aş</td>
<td></b>kisnaş</td>
<td>bakşaş</td>
<td>targaş</td>
<td>şebraş</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>he</i></td>
<td><b>-ui</td>
<td></b>kisnui</td>
<td>bakşui</td>
<td>targui</td>
<td>şebrui</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>she</i></td>
<td><b>-uṭ</td>
<td></b>kisnuṭ</td>
<td>bakşuṭ</td>
<td>targuṭ</td>
<td>şebruṭ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>it</i></td>
<td><b>-uim</td>
<td></b>kisnuim</td>
<td>bakşuim</td>
<td>targuim</td>
<td>şebuim</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-du</i></td>
<td><b>-uş</td>
<td></b>kisnuş</td>
<td>bakşuş</td>
<td>targuş</td>
<td>şebruş</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-excl</i></td>
<td><b>-eip</td>
<td></b>kisneip</td>
<td>bakşeip</td>
<td>targeip</td>
<td>şebreip</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>we-incl</i></td>
<td><b>-eḍ</td>
<td></b>kisneḍ</td>
<td>bakşeḍ</td>
<td>targeḍ</td>
<td>şebreḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>you-pl</i></td>
<td><b>-aḍ</td>
<td></b>kisnaḍ</td>
<td>bakşaḍ</td>
<td>targaḍ</td>
<td>şebraḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they</i></td>
<td><b>-iri</td>
<td></b>kisniri</td>
<td>bakşiri</td>
<td>targiri</td>
<td>şebriri</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-f</i></td>
<td><b>-irit</td>
<td></b>kisnirit</td>
<td>bakşirit</td>
<td>targirit</td>
<td>şebririt</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>they-ns</i></td>
<td><b>-irim</td>
<td></b>kisnirim</td>
<td>bakşirim</td>
<td>targirim</td>
<td>şebririm</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Historically these were formed by adding -<b>i-</b> after the vowel of the absolutive endings; but this caused retroflexion of the following consonant, if any, with loss of the <b>i</b>.
<li>The third person dual is alive and well: <i>kisnuş </i>‘the two of them listened to each other’.
<li>Reflexive action is still an action, and thus unavailable to inanimates. The -<b>m</b> endings thus correspond to animates.
<li>The singular always has a reflexive meaning. The dual and plural are usually reciprocal, except for verbs of personal care (e.g. <i>slat- </i>‘wash’).
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kisnei</td>
<td></b>I heard myself.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisnai</td>
<td></b>You (m) heard yourself.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisnuṭ</td>
<td></b>She heard herself.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisnaş</td>
<td></b>The two of you listened to each other.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisneip</td>
<td></b>We (excl) listened to each other.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisneḍ</td>
<td></b>We (incl) listened to each other.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisnaḍ</td>
<td></b>You all listened to each other.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kisniri</td>
<td></b>They listened to each other.</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<h4><a name="mood">Mood</a></h4>
All the verb forms we’ve seen so far comprise the <b>perfect</b>, which is used for completed action. It generally corresponds to our past tense (e.g. <b>kisun</b><i> </i>‘I listened’) or present perfect (e.g. <b>gende</b><i> </i>‘I have come’).
<p>There are four other moods. The descriptions below are simply a first approximation; the full usage of the verb is best explained after all the forms have been presented, and I therefore discuss it farther on, under <i>Syntax</i>.
<ul>
<li>The <b>intentive</b> is formed by changing the stem vowel in P12 to <b>u</b>. Its base meaning is intention: someone intends to do something. As such it’s often used for the future tense, but it may correspond to our progressive, and even to our first-person imperatives. E.g. the second example below may also be glossed ‘I intended to listen’, ‘I’m listening’, ‘I was listening’, ‘Let me listen.’
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kusne</td>
<td></b>I intend to be heard</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kusun</td>
<td></b>I intend to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>turga</td>
<td></b>You intend to fall</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bukş</td>
<td></b>He intends to break (something)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>desiderative</b> is formed by changing the stem vowel to <b>a</b> (if it’s already <b>a</b>, to <b>au</b>). Its base meaning is that the action is desired: <i>gandu </i>‘may he come’, ‘I hope he’ll come’, ‘he wants to come.’
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kasne</td>
<td></b>I want to be heard</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kasun</td>
<td></b>I want to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>taurga</td>
<td></b>You want to fall</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>baukş</td>
<td></b>He wants to break (it)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>metutive</b> is formed by changing the stem vowel to <b>o</b>. It expresses a fear of a possible negative consequence: <i>moŋl! </i>‘(I’m afraid) he may speak!’ ; <i>bokşu </i>‘it may be broken’; <i>gonode </i>‘(with my luck) they’ll summon me.’
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kosne</td>
<td></b>I’m afraid of being heard</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kosun</td>
<td></b>I’m afraid to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>torga</td>
<td></b>You’re afraid to fall</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bokş</td>
<td></b>He’s afraid of breaking (it)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>negative</b> is formed by deleting the stem vowel. Negative verbs are thus shorter than positive ones, which is enough of a rarity on Earth that language universals have been proposed against it. It can be used to negate any of the other moods.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ksne</td>
<td></b>I don’t/didn’t/won’t hear</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ksun</td>
<td></b>I don’t/didn’t/won’t listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>trga</td>
<td></b>You don’t/didn’t/won’t fall</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>obkşu</td>
<td></b>He doesn’t/didn’t/won’t break it</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
The ‘regular’ form for the 3s ergative-paradigm negative would be C1C2C3— that is, a form with no vowels at all. By convention the absolutive 3sm -<b>u</b> is added— in effect we say ‘he didn’t break it’ rather than just ‘he didn’t break’— and normally <b>o</b>- is prefixed as well: thus <b>obkşu</b> above. <br>
<li>The <b>imperative</b> is used for direct orders. It’s formed with <b>u </b>in P0 and nothing in P12, and the appropriate ergative infix or absolutive ending: u<i>ksne </i>‘may I be heard!’ <i>uksoin </i>‘listen, all of you!’ <i>udntu</i> ‘let him go.’ Commands to oneself or to one’s group, however, are expressed as intentives.
<br>Some imperatives are unpronounceable even by the facile-tongued Skourenes; in this case an epenthetic -<b>u</b>- may be inserted in P12, as in the last two samples. (Technically, as we’ll see <a href="#incep">below</a>, this creates an inceptive imperative: ‘begin to fall!’)
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>uksne</td>
<td></b>hear me!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>uksinut</td>
<td></b>listen to her!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>uturga</td>
<td></b>Fall!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ubukş</td>
<td></b>Let him break it!</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
A negative imperative is formed using the particle <b>gba</b>: <b>gba uksinut</b> ‘don’t listen to her!’
<h4><a name="aspect">Aspect</a></h4>
There are three aspects, each dealing with the timing or duration of an event. They are marked by adding a vowel <b>a/u/i</b> just before C2. If the inserted vowel is the same as the stem vowel, insert -<b>r</b>- between them.
<ul>
<li>The <b>durative </b>is formed by adding <b>a</b>. Its basic meaning is that an action extends in a solid block of time: <i>dearke </i>‘I cried and cried’, <i>karalteg </i>‘we slept for hours’. <b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kiasne</td>
<td></b>I was heard for a long time</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kiasun</td>
<td></b>I listened for a long time</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>tararga</td>
<td></b>You kept falling</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a name="incep">The <b>inceptive </b></a>is formed by adding <b>u</b>. It focusses on the beginning of the action. As such, it often indicates a change of state, and this may replace separate verbs in English: <i>merṭu </i>‘he rode’, <i>meurṭu </i>‘he mounted’.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kiusne</td>
<td></b>I began to be heard</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kiusun</td>
<td></b>I began to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>tauga</td>
<td></b>You began to fall</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>baukş</td>
<td></b>He began to break (it)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>şeubru</td>
<td></b>It was lit (e.g. set aflame)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>cyclical </b>is formed by adding <b>i</b>. Its basic meaning is that an action was repeated or habitual. Unlike the durative, it implies that the action was not continuous, but recurred at intervals.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kirisne</td>
<td></b>I was heard over and over</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kirisun</td>
<td></b>I listened many times</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>tairga</td>
<td></b>You fell several times</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>baikş</td>
<td></b>He kept breaking it</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>şeibru</td>
<td></b>It was illuminated again and again</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<br>All of these may be combined with the moods as well, except for the negative:
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>mood</i></td>
<td><i>aspect</i></td>
<td><i>example</i></td>
<td><i>gloss</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="4"><i>perfect</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>unmarked</i></td>
<td><b>ṭelup</b></td>
<td>I wrote</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td><b>ṭealup</b></td>
<td>I wrote and wrote</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td><b>ṭeulup</b></td>
<td>I began to write</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td><b>ṭeilup</b></td>
<td>I often wrote </td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="4"><i>intentive</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>unmarked</i></td>
<td><b>ṭulup</b></td>
<td>I intend to write</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td><b>ṭualup</b></td>
<td>I intend to keep writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td><b>ṭurulup</b></td>
<td>I intend to start writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td><b>ṭuilup</b></td>
<td>I intend to write over and over</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="4"><i>desiderative</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>unmarked</i></td>
<td><b>ṭalup</b></td>
<td>I want to write</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td><b>ṭaralup</b></td>
<td>I want to keep writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td><b>ṭaulup</b></td>
<td>I want to start writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td><b>ṭailup</b></td>
<td>I want to write over and over</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="4"><i>metutive</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>unmarked</i></td>
<td><b>ṭolup</b></td>
<td>I’m afraid I’ll write</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td><b>ṭoalup</b></td>
<td>I’m afraid I’ll keep writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td><b>ṭoulup</b></td>
<td>I’m afraid I’ll start writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td><b>ṭoilup</b></td>
<td>I’m afraid I’ll write over and over</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="4"><i>imperative</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>unmarked</i></td>
<td><b>uṭlip</b></td>
<td>write!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td><b>uṭalip</b></td>
<td>keep writing!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td><b>uṭulip</b></td>
<td>start writing!</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td><b>uṭilip</b></td>
<td>write over and over!</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<h4><a name="prefix">Verb prefixes</a></h4>
The meaning of a verb can be altered, nuanced, or made more specific with a wide range of prefixes. In some cases these are identical to standalone verbs or nouns (<b>bol</b>- ‘hair’); sometimes they’re phonetic simplifications (<b>les</b>- ‘water’ / <b>leşṭ</b>- ‘be wet’; <b>mne</b>- ‘walk’ / <b>mend</b>- ‘walk’; <b>tim- </b>‘cut’ / <b>tins- </b>‘cut’); yet others are independent lexemes (<b>ŋok</b>- ‘finish’; <b>bau</b>- ‘speak’).
<p>These can be divided into several classes.
<h5><a name="cause">Causative</a></h5>
The causative <b>ai</b>- is in a class of its own. The ergative paradigm can already be considered a causative of the absolutive, so <b>ai</b>- involves making someone do the ergative action. Compare:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>bakşum</b></td>
<td>It broke</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bakuşum</b></td>
<td>I broke it</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>aibakşe</b></td>
<td>He made me break (it)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br><b>Aibakşi tostimi <font color="#008000">molnimil</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋagetorul</font>.
<br></b>caus-break-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> window-gen-def <font color="#008000">boys-def</font> <font color="#ff0000">potter-def</font>
<br><i>The potter made the boys break the window.</i>
</blockquote>
Note the chain of demotions: the boys go from ergative to absolutive; the window goes from absolutive to genitive (and no longer triggers any verb agreement).
<p>Inanimates can never cause anything.
<h5>Manner</h5>
These prefixes describe the way an action is performed.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>prefix</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i><i>meaning</i></td>
<td><i>example</i></td>
<td><i></i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>me-</b></td>
<td>pretense; doubt</td>
<td><b>mekisun</b></td>
<td>I pretended to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>nil-</b></td>
<td>knowledge, ability</td>
<td><b>nilseatre</b></td>
<td>I know how to swim</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>in-</b></td>
<td>attempt</td>
<td><b>inkisun</b></td>
<td>I tried to listen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gam-</b></td>
<td>clumsiness</td>
<td><b>gammendu</b></td>
<td>he walked clumsily, he stumbled</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ŋre-</b></td>
<td>falsity</td>
<td><b>ŋrenulin</b></td>
<td>he spoke wrongly, he lied</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kpa-</b></td>
<td>wrongness</td>
<td><b>kpaguaşreg <br>kpanulin</b></td>
<td>We are misruled <br>he spoke wrongly, he was mistaken</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bun-</b></td>
<td>neglect to do, almost do</td>
<td><b>bunḍişinu </b></td>
<td>you overlooked it</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ukḷu-</b></td>
<td>despective</td>
<td><b>ukḷuṭiarku</b></td>
<td>he was lurking (<b>ṭirk</b>- ‘stand’)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kus-</b></td>
<td>in a superior way</td>
<td><b>kussemritu</b></td>
<td>she outran him</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ru-</b></td>
<td>quickly, urgently</td>
<td><b>rurugnda!</b></td>
<td>come quickly!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭis-</b></td>
<td>into pieces</td>
<td><b>ṭisbakşum</b></td>
<td>it broke into pieces</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍam-</b></td>
<td>completely, wholly</td>
<td><b>ḍamşeabrum</b></td>
<td>it was entirely lit up</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ŋok-</b></td>
<td>stop</td>
<td><b>ŋokmende</b></td>
<td>I stopped walking</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>piŋ-</b></td>
<td>undo</td>
<td><b>piŋgitrum</b></td>
<td>it was destroyed</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>pum-</b></td>
<td>help</td>
<td><b>pumsaulrat</b></td>
<td>she wants to help clean</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>min-</b></td>
<td>back</td>
<td><b>mindanteg</b></td>
<td>we went back</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mek-</b></td>
<td>here</td>
<td><b>mekuḍriḍum!</b></td>
<td>bring it to me here!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍim-</b></td>
<td>there</td>
<td><b>ḍimmenidut?</b></td>
<td>did she walk there?</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
If the prefix ends in -<b>m</b>, this changes to -<b>u</b> before a non-labial stop: <b>ḍautispum </b>‘they ripped it entirely up’.
<p><b>Me</b>- indicates doubtfulness in the absolutive paradigm (<b>mekisne </b>‘I may not have been heard’), but falseness or fakery in the ergative (<b>mekisun</b> ‘I pretended to listen’).
<h5>Associated action</h5>These prefixes associate the action with another action.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>prefix</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i><i>meaning</i></td>
<td><i>example</i></td>
<td><i></i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mne-</b></td>
<td>walk</td>
<td><b>mnemoirmeg</b></td>
<td>we’re walking in a circle</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>tim-</b></td>
<td>cut</td>
<td><b>tiuḍeḍugu</b></td>
<td>I cut it in half</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bau-</b></td>
<td>speech</td>
<td><b>baugime</b></td>
<td>he insulted me (= bit with words) </td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<h5>Associated object</h5>
These prefixes associate the action with a particular object.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>prefix</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i><i>meaning</i></td>
<td><i>example</i></td>
<td><i></i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>les-</b></td>
<td>water</td>
<td><b>leskeşgut <br>leskuşuga</b></td>
<td>she drowned <br>I greet you (= bring you water)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ksa-</b></td>
<td>heat, light</td>
<td><b>ksaşodme <br>ksaḍeske</b></td>
<td>I’m dizzy from the heat <br>it’s faded (= whitened by light)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ŋol-</b></td>
<td>food</td>
<td><b>ŋolburusug</b></td>
<td>I’m hungry (= lack food)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>una-</b></td>
<td>clothing</td>
<td><b>unatisipe</b></td>
<td>he tore my clothes</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>nos-</b></td>
<td>money</td>
<td><b>nosḍaraḍum</b></td>
<td>I paid for it (= money-took it)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍoŋ-</b></td>
<td>baby</td>
<td><b>ḍoŋuslritu!</b></td>
<td>wash the baby!</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>um-</b></td>
<td>head or face</td>
<td><b>umboŋke</b></td>
<td>I have a headache</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>bol-</b></td>
<td>hair</td>
<td><b>bolbuldei</b></td>
<td>I’m going to comb my hair</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>teḷ-</b></td>
<td>by hand</td>
<td><b>teḷgenudum </b></td>
<td>I made it by hand</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gan-</b></td>
<td>by foot</td>
<td><b>gantarasgut</b></td>
<td>she was barefoot</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
Some other nouns may be used as prefixes, especially in nouns or in single lexical items. Derived nouns (see next section) can never be used as a verb prefix.
<h4><a name="nominal">Nominalizations</a></h4>
A variety of nouns can be formed from any verb root. Not every derivation is actually used, but I’ve run a set of verbs (<b>kisn</b>- ‘listen’, <b>ṭelp</b>- ‘write’, <b>gitr</b>- ‘form, create’, <b>kirk</b>- ‘fight’, <b>geşr</b>- ‘rule’, <b>meln</b>- ‘nurture’, <b>meŋl</b>- ‘speak to’, <b>masp</b>- ‘think about, care for’) through all the possibilities to help clarify the meaning of each transform.
<p>That we <i>can </i>form all these nominalizations doesn’t mean that we <i>should</i>. Proper OS style prefers verbs wherever possible— e.g. “I fight and they cannot stop me” rather than “My fighting technique is unstoppable”. See <a href="#nocop"><i>Avoiding copulation</i></a> below.
<ul>
<li><b>Process</b>: <b>e</b>C<b>u</b>C<b>e</b>C<b>a<br></b>This is a general nominalization naming a process, activity, or ability.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ekusena</b></td>
<td>listening, hearing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>eṭulepa</b></td>
<td>the writing process</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>egutera</b></td>
<td>creation</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ekureka</b></td>
<td>fighting, combat</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>eguşera</b></td>
<td>government, rule</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>emulena</b></td>
<td>nurture, mothering</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>emuŋela</b></td>
<td>speaking, (the facility of) speech</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>emusepa</b></td>
<td>thinking; concern, worry</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Instance</b>: CC<b>iu</b>CC<b>a<br></b>A single instance of the action. In English the same word is often used for both process and instance, but the instance takes an article (compare ‘thought’ with ‘a thought’). <b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ksiunna</b></td>
<td>an act of listening</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭliuppa</b></td>
<td>a writing session</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gdiurra</b></td>
<td>the formation of a single object</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kriukka</b></td>
<td>a fight</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gşiurra</b></td>
<td>a governmental act</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mliunna</b></td>
<td>a nurturing action</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ŋiulla</b></td>
<td>utterance</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>msiuppa</b></td>
<td>thought, idea</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Art</b>: <b>u</b>C<b>a</b>CC<b>as<br></b>Specifically names an art, skill, or science.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ukasnas</b></td>
<td>listening skills</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>uṭalpas</b></td>
<td>writing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ugatrasa</b></td>
<td>pottery</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ukarkas</b></td>
<td>the art of war</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ugaşras</b></td>
<td>a ‘gubernatorial’ (vs. a senatorial) state </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>umalnas</b></td>
<td>the art of nurturance, parenting skills</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>umaŋlas</b></td>
<td>oratory</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>umaspas</b></td>
<td>logic</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Resulting object</b>: CC<b>e</b>C<b>a<br></b>An object (or at least a speech act) resulting from the action.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ṭlepa</b></td>
<td>document, essay</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gdira</b></td>
<td>pot, vessel</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mŋela</b></td>
<td>a speech, a discourse</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>msepa</b></td>
<td>subject, topic</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gşera</b></td>
<td>regime, administration</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Patient</b>: C<b>o</b>CC<b>im<br></b>A person or object that undergoes the action. (By contrast with the previous transform, this should be a person if possible; if not, it’s less concrete; compare <i>gdira, gotrim</i>.)<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kosnim</b></td>
<td>a sound</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭolpim</b></td>
<td>text</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gotrim</b></td>
<td>the form or shape of something</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>korkim</b></td>
<td>opponent</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>goşrim</b></td>
<td>subject (of a ruler)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>molnim</b></td>
<td>child</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>moŋlim</b></td>
<td>addressee, audience</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mospim</b></td>
<td>ward, protégé </td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
If desired, these can be made explicitly <b>feminine</b> by changing the final -<b>m</b> to -<b>s</b>; e.g. <b>mospis </b>‘female ward’, <b>molnis</b> ‘girl’.
<br>Recall that the OS feminine includes children; this is occasionally relevant— e.g. <i>goşris </i>could be used for ‘a child subject’. Where the word implies non-adult status, however (e.g. <i>molnis, mospis</i>), it refers to actual girls.<p>
<li><b>Actor</b>: <b>a</b>C<b>e</b>C<b>o</b>C<b><br></b>A person that does the action.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>akeson</b></td>
<td>listener</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>aṭelop</b></td>
<td>writer</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>agetor</b></td>
<td>potter, creator</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>akerok</b></td>
<td>fighter</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ageşor</b></td>
<td>ruler</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>amelon</b></td>
<td>mother</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ameŋol</b></td>
<td>speaker</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>amesop</b></td>
<td>thinker</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
These can optionally be turned into <b>female</b> referents by adding a final -<b>t</b>; e.g. <b>aṭelopt </b>‘female writer’, <b>akerokt </b>‘female fighter’, <b>ameŋolt </b>‘female speaker’. Again, where semantically appropriate, these can refer to children as well.<p>
<li><b>Device</b>: C<b>e</b>CC<b>e</b>C<b><br></b>An object that performs the action. This is never a person, though it could be an animal, e.g. <i>ŋessem </i>‘bull, stud’.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kessen</b></td>
<td>a recording device, perhaps magical</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭellep</b></td>
<td>a writing device</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>getter</b></td>
<td>mold</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kerrek</b></td>
<td>a recalcitrant or dangerous machine</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>meŋŋel</b></td>
<td>a speaking device</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>messep</b></td>
<td>robot</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Tool</b>: C<b>i</b>C<b>a</b>C<b><br></b>A tool or object used to execute the action. Many basic nouns in OS derive from verbs using this transform.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>kisan</b></td>
<td>ear</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭilap</b></td>
<td>pen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gitar</b></td>
<td>potter’s wheel</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kirak</b></td>
<td>weapon</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gişar</b></td>
<td>staff (Skourene symbol of authority)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>milan</b></td>
<td>breast</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>miŋal</b></td>
<td>mouth</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>misap</b></td>
<td>heart (for Skourenes, the organ of thought)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Place</b>: CC<b>a</b>C<b>ali<br></b>A place where the action is performed.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ṭlapali</b></td>
<td>scriptorium</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gdarali</b></td>
<td>pottery shop</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>krakali</b></td>
<td>arena</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gşarali</b></td>
<td>throne room, court</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mlanali</b></td>
<td>foster home, orphanage</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mŋalali</b></td>
<td>auditorium</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>msapali</b></td>
<td>study, a thinker’s private room</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Absolutive </b>participle: <b>a</b>C<b>a</b>CC<b>i<br></b>Something acted upon. Similar to our past participle, but not always passive in meaning— e.g. <b>agandi </b>means ‘(someone) coming’.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>akasni</b></td>
<td>heard</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>aṭalpi</b></td>
<td>written</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>agatri</b></td>
<td>formed, shaped</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>akarki</b></td>
<td>fought</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>agaşri</b></td>
<td>ruled</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>amalni</b></td>
<td>nurtured</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>amaŋli</b></td>
<td>spoken to</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>amaspi</b></td>
<td>thought about or cared for</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>Ergative </b>participle: <b>i</b>CCC<b>e</b>C<b><br></b>Something which acts; similar to our present participle.<b>
<br></b>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ikksen</b></td>
<td>listening</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>iṭṭlep</b></td>
<td>writing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>iggter</b></td>
<td>forming</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ikkrek</b></td>
<td>fighting</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>iggşer</b></td>
<td>ruling</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>immlen</b></td>
<td>nurturing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>immŋel</b></td>
<td>speaking</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>immsep</b></td>
<td>thinking</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
If the verb has a verb prefix, form the nominalization, then precede it with the verb prefix. However, the initial <b>u-</b> of the art nominalization, and the initial <b>a- </b>of the actor nominalization, normally migrate before the prefix: <b>uŋremaspas</b> ‘illogic’, <b>amnekerok</b> ‘one who fights by hand’.
<br>The most ancient form of nominalization is to use an <b>complete verb form</b> as a noun:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>ḍairḷoḍ</b></td>
<td>they keep bringing it</td>
<td>amber</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gitra</b></td>
<td>you were formed</td>
<td>wax</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>guṭḷi</b></td>
<td>they will be glad</td>
<td>good omen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kusni</b></td>
<td>they will be heard</td>
<td>language</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>Miligenḍi</b></td>
<td>they were summoned; they came</td>
<td>(city name)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍadnim</b></td>
<td>they are inside</td>
<td>intestines</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>guşouri</b></td>
<td>we rule them</td>
<td>hinterland</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ṭailuadni</b></td>
<td>they want to keep living in the sea</td>
<td>iliu</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>goşpa</b></td>
<td>it tires you</td>
<td>far</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>nuilmim</b></td>
<td>they will cyclically shine</td>
<td>moons</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>mianum</b></td>
<td>it is always below</td>
<td>floor</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gairoukum</b></td>
<td>we cyclically sprinkle it</td>
<td>cumin</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>muḍureg</b></td>
<td>we will be whole</td>
<td>federation</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gidori</b></td>
<td>they protected them</td>
<td>military honors</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>raḍḍoug</b></td>
<td>we have finished harvesting</td>
<td>harvest festival</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>usṭişum</b></td>
<td>(you) solve it!</td>
<td>puzzle</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
This type of derivation remained extremely productive for names, as well as for nonce descriptions: <b>kşigu umḍişnu</b> ‘don’t kill a man who has surrendered’, where <b>umḍişnu</b> is used as a noun, but simply means ‘he surrendered’.
<p>There are also irregular derivations:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>maŋ</b>- fear</td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>moŋ</b> coward</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>dem- </b>go upward<b></b></td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>idma </b>more<b></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍed- </b>be a brother<b></b></td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>ḍod </b>brother<b></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>meld- </b>be a sister<b></b></td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>mald </b>sister<b></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>pasn- </b>be a man<b></b></td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>pisan </b>ten<b></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>sirm- </b>crawl<b></b></td>
<td>→</td>
<td><b>surm </b>reptile<b></b></td>
<td></td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
Or perhaps the process of derivation went the other way. Some linguists suggest that e.g. <b>ḍod </b>came first, and was turned into a verb.
<h4><a name="bicons">Biconsonantal verbs</a></h4>
A minority of verbs are biconsonantal. They are conjugated very much like triconsonantal verbs, with some adaptations. In the examples below, four biconsonantal verbs are compared with triconsonantl <b>kisn</b>-.
<p>For biconsonantal verbs, the positions are named P0 C1 P12 C2 P3.
<ul>
<li>The <b>absolutive</b> and <b>reflexive</b> paradigms work as usual, since they’re applied with suffixes.<p>
<li>The <b>ergative</b> and <b>ergative/absolutive</b> paradigms discard the stem vowel and replace it with the ergative infixes. (The exception is the 3s null infix; here, just leave the stem vowel alone.)
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td><b>kisn</b>- <i>listen</i></td>
<td><b>ḍer- </b><i>rot</i></td>
<td><b>gim- </b><i>bite</i></td>
<td><b>riŋ- </b><i>sing</i></td>
<td><b>ŋeḍ- </b><i>recline</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs (1s)</i></td>
<td>kisne</td>
<td>ḍere</td>
<td>gime</td>
<td>riŋe</td>
<td>ŋeḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg (1s)</i></td>
<td>kisun</td>
<td>ḍur</td>
<td>gum</td>
<td>ruŋ</td>
<td>ŋud</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs/erg (1s/2s)</i></td>
<td>kisuna</td>
<td>ḍura</td>
<td>guma</td>
<td>ruŋa</td>
<td>ŋuda</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>refl (1s)</i></td>
<td>kisnei</td>
<td>ḍerei</td>
<td>gimei</td>
<td>riŋei</td>
<td>ŋeḍei</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg (3s)</i></td>
<td>kisn</td>
<td>der</td>
<td>gim</td>
<td>riŋ</td>
<td>ŋeḍ</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>For the intentive, desiderative, and metutive <b>moods</b>, prefix the verb with the mood vowel (<b>u</b>-, <b>a</b>-, or <b>o</b>-), and delete the stem vowel (if it hasn’t been replaced by an ergative infix).<p>
<li>The <b>negative</b> is formed by duplicating the initial consonant and inserting -<b>o</b>- in between.<p>
<li>The <b>imperative</b> merges with the intentive.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td><b>kisn</b>- <i>listen</i></td>
<td><b>ḍer- </b><i>rot</i></td>
<td><b>gim- </b><i>bite</i></td>
<td><b>riŋ- </b><i>sing</i></td>
<td><b>ŋeḍ- </b><i>recline</i></td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Absolutive</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>intentive </i></td>
<td>kusne</td>
<td>uḍre</td>
<td>ugme</td>
<td>urŋe</td>
<td>uŋde</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>desiderative</i></td>
<td>kasne</td>
<td>aḍre</td>
<td>agme</td>
<td>arŋe</td>
<td>aŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>metutive</i></td>
<td>kosne</td>
<td>oḍre</td>
<td>ogme</td>
<td>orŋe</td>
<td>oŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>negative</i></td>
<td>ksne</td>
<td>ḍoḍre</td>
<td>gogme</td>
<td>rorŋe</td>
<td>ŋoŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Ergative</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>intentive</i></td>
<td>kusun</td>
<td>uḍur</td>
<td>ugum</td>
<td>uruŋ</td>
<td>uŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>desiderative</i></td>
<td>kasun</td>
<td>aḍur</td>
<td>agum</td>
<td>aruŋ</td>
<td>aŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>metutive</i></td>
<td>kosun</td>
<td>oḍur</td>
<td>ogum</td>
<td>oruŋ</td>
<td>oŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>negative</i></td>
<td>ksun</td>
<td>ḍoḍur</td>
<td>gogum</td>
<td>roruŋ</td>
<td>ŋoŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>If there’s no overt mood, the <b>aspect</b> vowel (-<b>a/u/i</b>-) is inserted before C2— that is, after the stem vowel or ergative prefix, whichever occupies P12. (This produces a few mergers— e.g. <i>goim</i> could be ‘you-pl bit’ or ‘they habitually bit’; only context can disambiguate these.)
<li>If there’s a marked mood, insert the aspect vowel after the mood vowel.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td><b>kisn</b>- <i>listen</i></td>
<td><b>ḍer- </b><i>rot</i></td>
<td><b>gim- </b><i>bite</i></td>
<td><b>riŋ- </b><i>sing</i></td>
<td><b>ŋeḍ- </b><i>recline</i></td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Absolutive</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td>kiasne</td>
<td>ḍeare</td>
<td>giame</td>
<td>riaŋe</td>
<td>ŋeaḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td>kiusne</td>
<td>ḍeure</td>
<td>giume</td>
<td>riuŋe</td>
<td>ŋeuḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td>kirisne</td>
<td>ḍeire</td>
<td>girime</td>
<td>ririŋe</td>
<td>ŋeiḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Ergative</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>durative</i></td>
<td>kiasun</td>
<td>ḍuar</td>
<td>guam</td>
<td>ruaŋ</td>
<td>ŋuad</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>inceptive</i></td>
<td>kiusun</td>
<td>ḍurur</td>
<td>gurum</td>
<td>ruruŋ</td>
<td>ŋurud</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cyclical</i></td>
<td>kirisun</td>
<td>ḍuir</td>
<td>guim</td>
<td>ruiŋ</td>
<td>ŋuid</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>With aspects</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Absolutive</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>dur + int</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i>kuasne</td>
<td>uaḍre</td>
<td>uagme</td>
<td>uarŋe</td>
<td>uaŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>incep + desid</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i>kausne</td>
<td>auḍre</td>
<td>augme</td>
<td>aurŋe</td>
<td>auŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cycl + metut</i></td>
<td>koisne</td>
<td>oiḍre</td>
<td>oigme</td>
<td>oirŋe</td>
<td>oiŋḍe</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td colspan="6"><b><i>Ergative</b> (1s)</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>dur + int</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i>kuasun</td>
<td>uaḍur</td>
<td>uagum</td>
<td>uaruŋ</td>
<td>uaŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>incep + desid</i><b><i></b></td>
<td></i>kausun</td>
<td>auḍur</td>
<td>augum</td>
<td>auruŋ</td>
<td>auŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>cycl + metut</i></td>
<td>koisun</td>
<td>oiḍur</td>
<td>oigum</td>
<td>oiruŋ</td>
<td>oiŋuḍ</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>prefixes</b> work as usual; the prefixes appear before the mood/aspect prefixes if any.<p>
<li>The pattern for the <b>nominalizations</b> can be seen in the following table.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td><b>kisn</b>- <i>listen</i></td>
<td><b>ḍer- </b><i>rot</i></td>
<td><b>gim- </b><i>bite</i></td>
<td><b>riŋ- </b><i>sing</i></td>
<td><b>ŋeḍ- </b><i>recline</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Process</i></td>
<td>ekusena</td>
<td>eḍera</td>
<td>egema</td>
<td>ereŋa</td>
<td>eŋeḍa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Instance</i></td>
<td>ksiunna</td>
<td>ḍiurra</td>
<td>giumma</td>
<td>riuŋŋa</td>
<td>ŋiuḍḍa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Art</i></td>
<td>ukasnas</td>
<td>uḍaras</td>
<td>ugamas</td>
<td>uraŋas</td>
<td>uŋaḍas</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Resulting object</i></td>
<td>ksena</td>
<td>ḍrera</td>
<td>gmema</td>
<td>reŋa</td>
<td>ŋeḍa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Patient</i></td>
<td>kosnim</td>
<td>ḍorim</td>
<td>gomim</td>
<td>roŋim</td>
<td>ŋodim</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Actor</i></td>
<td>akeson</td>
<td>aḍeroṭ</td>
<td>agemoṭ</td>
<td>areŋoṭ</td>
<td>aŋeḍoṭ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Device</i></td>
<td>kessen</td>
<td>ḍerreḍ</td>
<td>gemmeg</td>
<td>reŋŋer</td>
<td>ŋeḍḍeŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Tool</i></td>
<td>kisan</td>
<td>ḍiraḍ</td>
<td>gimag</td>
<td>riŋar</td>
<td>ŋiḍaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Place</i></td>
<td>ksanali</td>
<td>ḍarali</td>
<td>gamali</td>
<td>riŋali</td>
<td>ŋaḍali</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Abs. participle</i></td>
<td>akasni</td>
<td>aḍari</td>
<td>agami</td>
<td>araŋi</td>
<td>aŋaḍi</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>Erg. participle</i></td>
<td>ikksen</td>
<td>iḍḍer</td>
<td>iggem</td>
<td>irreŋ</td>
<td>iŋŋeḍ</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<br>The biconsonantal verbs are no longer productive; innovated or borrowed verbs are always triconsonantal.
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="nouns">Nominal morphology</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
Nouns are changed along three dimensions:
<ul>
<li><b>Number </b>(singular, dual, plural)
<li><b>Case</b> (absolutive, ergative, genitive)
<li><b>Definiteness</b> (indefinite, close definite, remote definite)
<br>
</ul>
In addition there are two separate patterns of declension: affixing and vowel-changing.
<p>The <b>citation form</b>— the form you’ll find in <a href="oslex.htm">the lexicon</a>, and the one the other forms are all built from— is the absolutive singular indefinite.
<p>Noun <b>stress</b>:
<ul>
<li>If a noun derives from a verb, it follows the verb stress rule (thus <i>tébbeḍ, amélon, krákali, ukásnas, kísan, Agéşoram, Gúṭḷeli</i>).
<li>If not, it’s stressed on the vowel following the first consonant in the root (thus <i>Skínor, kúḷiŋ, máḍaŋ, Ṭísuram, Iṭíli</i>).
<li>The word <b>eŋ</b> ‘city’and its derivatives are stressed on the <b>e</b>: <i>éŋi, éngidori</i>.
</ul>
<h5><a name="affixing">Affixing nouns (indefinite)</a></h5>
An affixing noun is one where the root itself doesn’t change; declension is accomplished through prefixes and suffixes.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan="2"></td>
<td><i>‘realm’</i></td>
<td><i>‘mother’</i></td>
<td><i>‘wax’</i></td>
<td><i>‘arena’</i></td>
<td><i>‘writing’</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>sing.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>tebbeḍ</td>
<td>amelon</td>
<td>gitra</td>
<td>krakali</td>
<td>ukasnas</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ittebbeḍ</td>
<td>ŋamelon</td>
<td>iggitra</td>
<td>ikrakali</td>
<td>ŋukasna</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>tebbeḍi</td>
<td>ameloni</td>
<td>gitrai</td>
<td>krakaliri</td>
<td>ukasnai</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>pl.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>tebbeḍe</td>
<td>amelono</td>
<td>gitrar</td>
<td>krakalir</td>
<td>ukasnara</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ittebbeḍe</td>
<td>ŋamelono</td>
<td>iggitrar</td>
<td>ikrakalir</td>
<td>ŋukasnara</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>tebbeḍu</td>
<td>amelonu</td>
<td>gitrau</td>
<td>krakaliu</td>
<td>ukasnau</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>ergative</b> is formed:
<ul>
<li>If the noun begins with a single consonant, by prefixing the word with <b>i</b>C1. That is, the initial consonant is doubled.
<li>If it begins with two consonants, by prefixing it with <b>i</b>-.
<li>If it begins with a vowel, by prefixing it with <b>ŋ</b>-.
</ul><p>
<li>The <b>genitive</b> is formed by suffixing -<b>i</b> in the singular, -<b>u</b> in the plural. As usual, i + i = <b>iri</b> and u + u = <b>uru</b>.<p>
<li>The <b>plural</b> is formed:
<ul>
<li>If the noun ends in a consonant, by suffixing the last vowel in the root.
<li>Otherwise, by suffixing -<b>r</b>.
<p>(We can reconcile these two rules by supposing that in the ancestral language, a final vowel was doubled, with the usual -<b>r</b>- insertion between identical vowels: *<i>gitrara</i>; the final vowel was then lost.)
</ul>
<li>If the noun <b>ends in -as</b> or -<b>is</b>, remove the -<b>s</b> before applying the above rules. E.g. <i>Skouras → </i>erg. <i>Isskoura</i>, gen. <i>Skourai</i>.
</ul>
<h5><a name="changing">Vowel-changing nouns (indefinite)</a></h5>
In a vowel-changing verb, declension is accomplished largely by varying the vowels within the root.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan="2"></td>
<td><i>‘document’</i></td>
<td><i>‘ear’</i></td>
<td><i>‘sea’</i></td>
<td><i>‘temple’</i></td>
<td><i>‘city’</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>sing.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ṭlepa</td>
<td>kisan</td>
<td>ṭal</td>
<td>ṭisu</td>
<td>eŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>iṭṭlepa</td>
<td>ikkisan</td>
<td>iṭṭal</td>
<td>iṭṭisu</td>
<td>ŋeŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ṭleipa</td>
<td>kisain</td>
<td>ṭail</td>
<td>ṭirisu</td>
<td>eŋi</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>pl.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ṭlopa</td>
<td>kison</td>
<td>ṭol</td>
<td>ṭusu</td>
<td>oŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>iṭṭlopa</td>
<td>ikkison</td>
<td>iṭṭol</td>
<td>iṭṭusu</td>
<td>ŋoŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ṭleupa</td>
<td>kisaun</td>
<td>ṭaul</td>
<td>ṭiusu</td>
<td>eŋu</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>ergative</b> is formed in the same way as for affixing nouns.
<li>The <b>genitive</b> is formed by infixing -<b>i</b>- in the singular, -<b>u</b>- in the plural, after the last non-final vowel in the root (or to put it another way, before the final consonant of the root). As usual, <b>i</b>+<b>i</b> = <b>iri</b>, <b>u</b>+<b>u</b> = <b>uru</b>.
<br>A subclass of vowel-changing nouns forms the genitive in the same way as affixing nouns; <b>eŋ</b> is an example. These are noted in <a href="oslex.htm">the lexicon</a>.
<li>The <b>plural</b> abs. and erg. are formed by backing the last vowel: <b>i</b>/<b>o</b> → <b>u</b>, <b>a</b>/<b>e</b> → <b>o</b>.
<br>
</ul>
How do you know if a noun is <b>vowel-changing or not</b>?
<ul>
<li>The <b>resulting object</b> (CCeCa) and <b>tool </b>(CiCaC)<b> </b>nominalizations are always vowel-changing.
<li>The relatively few nouns which aren’t derived from a verb (often recognizable by being biconsonantal) are vowel-changing; cf. <i>ṭal, ṭisu </i>above.
<li>Adding the -<b>ṭi</b>- diminutive (see <a href="#dimin">below</a>) to a vowel-changing noun makes it affixing.
<li>Borrowings (e.g. the <i>Skinor </i>river, <i>Aksun, Deṭubori</i>) are always affixing.
<li>Anything not predictable by these rules is indicated in the lexicon.
<br>
</ul>
<h5><a name="def">Definite forms</a></h5>
There are two definite forms, close and remote. They are formed by suffixation.
<ul>
<li>The <b>close definite</b> suffix is normally -<b>ul</b>.
<li>After a vowel, it’s just -<b>l</b>.
<li>If the noun ends in plural -<b>r</b>, change this to -<b>ḷ</b> instead.
<li>If the noun ends in -<b>as</b> or -<b>is</b>, change these to -<b>atul</b>, -<b>itul</b> instead.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan="2"></td>
<td><i>‘writing’</i></td>
<td><i>‘wax’</i></td>
<td><i>‘document’</i></td>
<td><i>‘ear’</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" colspan="2"><i>base</i></td>
<td>ukasnas</td>
<td>gitra</td>
<td>ṭlepa</td>
<td>kisan</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>sing.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ukasnatul</td>
<td>gitral</td>
<td>ṭlepal</td>
<td>kisanul</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ŋukasnal</td>
<td>iggitral</td>
<td>iṭṭlepal</td>
<td>ikkisanul</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ukasnail</td>
<td>gitrail</td>
<td>ṭleipal</td>
<td>kirisanul</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>pl.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ukasnaral</td>
<td>gitraḷ</td>
<td>ṭlopal</td>
<td>kisonul</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ŋukasnaral</td>
<td>iggitraḷ</td>
<td>iṭṭlopal</td>
<td>ikkisonul</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ukasnaul</td>
<td>gitraul</td>
<td>ṭleupal</td>
<td>kiusanul</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The <b>remote definite</b> suffix is normally -<b>aŋ</b>.
<li>After a vowel, it’s just -<b>ŋ</b>.
<li>If the noun ends in -<b>as</b> or -<b>is</b>, change these to -<b>ask</b>, -<b>isk</b> instead.
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td colspan="2"></td>
<td><i>‘writing’</i></td>
<td><i>‘wax’</i></td>
<td><i>‘document’</i></td>
<td><i>‘ear’</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" colspan="2"><i>base</i></td>
<td>ukasnas</td>
<td>gitra</td>
<td>ṭlepa</td>
<td>kisan</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>sing.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ukasnask</td>
<td>gitraŋ</td>
<td>ṭlepaŋ</td>
<td>kisanaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ŋukasnaŋ</td>
<td>iggitraŋ</td>
<td>iṭṭlepaŋ</td>
<td>ikkisanaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ukasnaiŋ</td>
<td>gitraiŋ</td>
<td>ṭleipaŋ</td>
<td>kirisanaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>pl.</i></td>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>abs</i></td>
<td>ukasnaraŋ</td>
<td>gitraŋ</td>
<td>ṭlopaŋ</td>
<td>kisonaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>erg</i></td>
<td>ŋukasnaraŋ</td>
<td>iggitraŋ</td>
<td>iṭṭlopaŋ</td>
<td>ikkisonaŋ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>gen</i></td>
<td>ukasnauŋ</td>
<td>gitrauŋ</td>
<td>ṭleupaŋ</td>
<td>kiusanaŋ</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
The close definite form is very similar to our definite article— that is, we can say that <b>ṭlepa</b> = ‘a document’, <b>ṭlepal</b> = ‘the document’.
<p>The remote definite can be seen as an obviative: <b>ṭlepaŋ</b> ‘the other document’.
<p>These can be also seen as <b>demonstratives</b>, and in fact historically that’s what they are: ‘this document / that document’. If you have no specific noun in mind, you can use the generic <b>mam</b> ‘thing, item’— e.g. <b>mamul </b>‘this one, <b>mamaŋ </b>‘that one’.
<p>The precise manner of using the definite forms varied by region:
<ul>
<li>In the delta they were used much as in English.
<li>In the southeast (and therefore in Gurdago) they were less used, generally only to avoid confusion.
<li>In the southwest they’re very frequent, used more as in French.
<li>In the far north they’re not used at all.
<br>
</ul>
Definite forms were not used with proper names; but some proper names are formed from definite expressions, the best known being <b>Namal</b>, literally ‘The Waters’. (I write ‘the Namal’ in English to reflect this.)
<h5><a name="dimin">Diminutives</a></h5>
OS had two diminutives. One, expressing mainly smallness, is formed by infixing -<b>ṭi</b>- before the final consonant(s) of the root:
<blockquote>
<b>ḍel</b> river → <b>ḍeṭil</b> brook<br><b>konşim</b> galley → <b>koṭinsim</b> rowboat<br><b>misan</b> grass → <b>misaṭin</b> stubble<br><b>surm</b> reptile → <b>suṭirm</b> insect<br><b>greḍa</b> house → <b>greṭiḍa </b>hut
</blockquote>
The other diminutive expresses affection, and is mainly used for family members, lovers, children’s names and body parts, and small animals. In most cases, one applies the following rules:
<ol>
<li>Take the accented syllable only (including final consonant)
<li>Change dentals to retroflexes, and velars to labials.
<li>Raise <b>a</b> (if any) to <b>e</b>.
<li>Add a copy of the vowel to the end of the word
</ol>
Examples:
<blockquote>
<b>aŋesom</b> father → <b>meşe</b> daddy<br><b>amelon</b> mother → <b>meḷe</b> mommy<br><b>ḍod</b> brother → <b>ḍoḍo</b><br><b>mald</b> sister → <b>meḍe</b><br><b>adenom</b> male lover → <b>ḍene</b><br><b>domim</b> female lover → <b>ḍomo<br>biraḍ </b>buttocks → <b>biri </b>tushie
</blockquote>
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="other">Other word types</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
<h4><a name="adjish">Adjectives, more or less</a></h4>
There is not really a class of adjectives in OS. Rather, there are four classes of lexemes that correspond to English adjectives, grouped together here for ease of exposition.
<ul>
<li><b>Descriptive affixes</b>, such as -<b>ram</b> ‘great’ -<b>ikt</b> ‘cold’; these never stand alone, but simply extend the meanings of nouns.
<li><b>Associative nouns</b>, such as <b>skourand</b> ‘Skourene’, <b>komand</b> ‘eastern’; these are derived from nouns and can be used as substantives, but can also be used appositively much like adjectives.
<li>The <b>participles</b>, which are similar to associative nouns but are derived from verbs instead.
<li><b>Descriptive verbs</b>, such as <b>şilp</b>- ‘be fat’; these are simply verbs, though they have no ergative forms.
<br>
</ul>
<h5><a name="descrip">Descriptive affixes</a></h5>
Many common attributes are indicated simply with affixes. There are two subclasses, <b>suffixes</b> (e.g. -<b>eli</b> ‘good’, -<b>naku</b> ‘new’) and <b>infixes</b> (e.g. -<b>iḷt-</b> ‘beautiful’, -<b>uşṭ</b>- ‘red’).
<h6>Suffixes</h6>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>suffix</i></td>
<td><b>miŋal</b><i> <br>harbor</i></td>
<td><b>ḍel</b><i> <br>river</i></td>
<td><b>norşis <br></b><i>maiden</i></td>
<td><b>ṭisu</b><i> <br>temple</i></td>
<td><b>dreşa</b><i> <br>alliance</i></td>
<td><b>krakali</b><i> <br>arena</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>ram</b> <i>great</i></td>
<td>miŋarram</td>
<td>ḍerram</td>
<td>norşisram</td>
<td>ṭisuram</td>
<td>dreşaram</td>
<td>krakaliram</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>sok</b> <i>white</i></td>
<td>miŋalsok</td>
<td>ḍelsok</td>
<td>norşissok</td>
<td>ṭisusok</td>
<td>dreşasok</td>
<td>krakalisok</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>eli</b> <i>good</i></td>
<td>miŋaleli</td>
<td>ḍeleli</td>
<td>norşiseli</td>
<td>ṭisueli</td>
<td>dreşeli</td>
<td>krakaleli</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>naku</b> <i>new</i></td>
<td>miŋalnaku</td>
<td>ḍelnaku</td>
<td>norşisnaku</td>
<td>ṭisunaku</td>
<td>dreşanaku</td>
<td>krakalinaku</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
The suffix is added to the citation form of the noun, with these exceptions:
<ul>
<li>If the (absolutive singular) noun ends in -<b>i</b> or -<b>a</b> and the suffix begins with a vowel, the -<b>i </b>or<b> -a</b> is suppressed.
<li>If the noun ends in -<b>as</b>, the -<b>s </b>is suppressed: <b>Skouranaku</b> ‘new Skouras’.
<br>
</ul>
Some assimilation, difficult to predict, can be observed, as in <b>ḍerram</b> or <b>Guṭḷ-</b> + -<b>naku</b> = <b>Guṭḍaku</b>.
<h6>Infixes</h6>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>suffix</i></td>
<td><b>miŋal</b><i> <br>harbor</i></td>
<td><b>ḍel</b><i> <br>river</i></td>
<td><b>norşis <br></b><i>maiden</i></td>
<td><b>ṭisu</b><i> <br>temple</i></td>
<td><b>dreşa</b><i> <br>alliance</i></td>
<td><b>krakali</b><i> <br>arena</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>iḷt</b> <i>beautiful</i></td>
<td>miŋaliḷt</td>
<td>ḍeliḷt</td>
<td>norşiḷtis</td>
<td>ṭisiḷtu</td>
<td>dreşiḷta</td>
<td>krakiḷtali</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>urg</b> <i>dark</i></td>
<td>miŋalurg</td>
<td>ḍelurg</td>
<td>norşurgis</td>
<td>ṭisurgu</td>
<td>dreşurgi</td>
<td>krakurgali</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>ikt</b> <i>cold</i></td>
<td>miŋalikt</td>
<td>ḍelikt</td>
<td>norşiktis</td>
<td>ṭisiktu</td>
<td>dreşikta</td>
<td>krakiktali</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">-<b>arṭ</b> <i>green</i></td>
<td>miŋalarṭ</td>
<td>ḍerarṭ</td>
<td>norşarṭis</td>
<td>ṭisarṭu</td>
<td>dreşarṭa</td>
<td>krakarṭali</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
For standalone nouns like <b>ḍel </b>and <b>ṭisu</b>, the infix is added after the last consonant.
<p>For nouns derived from triconsonantal verbs, the infix is added after C3. When C3 is the last consonant, as in <b>miŋal </b>and <b>dreşa</b>, this looks like the last rule; but compare <b>norşis </b>and <b>krakali</b>. The -<b>is</b> and -<b>ali</b> are sufixes, so the infix must precede them.
<p>Descriptive affixes are applied after case changes and pluralization, but before the definite suffixes. Thus <b>ṭisurram</b> ‘great temples’, <b>tebbeḍiram</b> ‘of a great realm’, but <b>ṭisurramul</b> ‘the great temples’, <b>tebbeḍiramul</b> ‘of the great realm’.
<h6><a name="verbalize">Verbalizations</a></h6>
Descriptive affixes can be turned into causative verbs, by prefixing <b>ḍe-</b>. More precisely, in the absolutive these mean ‘become —’, and in the ergative ‘make —’.
<blockquote>
<b>ḍemn</b>- blacken<br><b>ḍegr</b>- darken, make evil<br><b>ḍeḷt</b>- beautify<br><b>ḍenk</b>- renew, renovate
<p><b>Ḍunku <font color="#008000">Skouras</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋageşor</font>. </b> <i>The ruler will renew Skouras.</i>
<br><b>Ḍeltut <font color="#008000">norşis</font>.</b> <i>The girl has become beautiful.</i>
</blockquote>
<h6><a name="nominalize">Nominalizations</a></h6>
Descriptive affixes can form nouns using the same patterns as the biconsonantal verbs. The common types are:
<ul>
<li>An abstract noun <b>e</b>C<b>e</b>C<b>a</b> ‘the state of being —’.
<br><b>erema</b> greatness, <b>eneka</b> newness, <b>ereḍa</b> size, <b>erega</b> darkness<p>
<li>A patient C<b>o</b>C<b>im</b> ‘someone who is —’; feminine C<b>o</b>C<b>is</b>.
<br><b>romim</b> great man, <b>nokim</b> new man, <b>roḍim</b> giant, <b>rogis</b> dark woman<p>
<li>An associated or typical object CC<b>e</b>C<b>a</b> ‘something —’.
<br><b>mema</b> a great thing, <b>nkeka</b> a novelty, <br><b>rḍeḍa</b> a large thing, <b>rgega</b> a dark thing
<br>
</ul>
<h5><a name="assoc">Associative nouns</a></h5>
These are nouns derived from other nouns, typically to express location or origin. Typical suffixes are -<b>and</b>, -<b>asp</b>, -<b>(a)ro</b>, or <b>-ik:</b>
<blockquote>
<b>Skouras</b> → <b>skourand</b> Skourene<br><b>Ṭisutra</b> → <b>ṭisutrand</b><br><b>Guṭḍaku</b> → <b>guṭḍakuro</b> Gurdagor<br><b>Aksun</b> Axunai → <b>aksunaro</b> Axunemi<br><b>Ḍabriŋ</b> Jeor → <b>ḍabriŋik</b> Jeori<br><b>Namal → namalasp<br>boḍ </b>west → <b>boḍand </b>westerner
</blockquote>
As substantives, they decline and behave exactly like any noun:
<blockquote>
<b>isskourand</b> <i>the Skourene (sg. erg.)</i>
<br><b>ḍabriŋiki</b> <i>a Jeori’s (sg. gen.)</i>
<br><b>skouranda</b> <i>the Skourenes (sg. abs.)</i>
</blockquote>
They can be used to modify a noun, in which case they look to us more like adjectives, especially as in this usage they are not declined by case or number. They appear after the noun:
<blockquote>
<b>ŋortim ḍabriŋik</b> <i>Jeori merchandise</i>
<br><b>eŋ komand</b><i> an eastern city</i>
<br><b>ameşodol aksunaro</b> <i>the Xurnese women</i>
</blockquote>
<h5><a name="participle">Participles</a></h5>
The participles are much like the associative nouns, except that they’re derived from verbs. Again, they may be used as nouns; e.g. from <b>geşr</b>- ‘rule’ we form <b>agaşri </b>‘ruled’ and <b>iggşer </b>‘ruling’— i.e. ‘subject’ and ‘ruler’.
<p>(The patient and actor nominalizations (<b>goşrim</b> ‘subject’ and <b>ageşor </b>‘ruler’) are similar, but imply a more permanent or inherent state, which is why they’re often lexicalized as names of titles and classes of people. An <b>iggşer</b> might be someone who finds themselves leading in a temporary or abnormal situation.)
<p>As substantives, the participles are declined normally:
<blockquote>
<b>ipplen</b> <i>kind one (sg. abs.)</i>
<br><b>ipplene</b><i> the kind ones (pl. abs.)</i>
<br><b>ŋaḍaltir</b><i> the beautiful ones (pl. erg.)</i>
</blockquote>
And like the associative nouns, the participles can be used as apppositives, without declension:
<blockquote>
<b>ageşor ipplen</b> <i>kind ruler (lit., a ruler, a kind one)<br></i>
</blockquote>
The descriptive affixes can be turned into standalone substantives or appositives by taking the absolutive participle of the causative: e.g.
<blockquote>
<b>-iḷt</b> beautiful → <b>ḍeḷt-</b> beautify → <b>aḍaḷti</b> beautiful one
<p><b>ŋaḍalti</b> <i>a beautiful person (erg.)</i>
<br><b>norşis aḍaḷti</b> <i>a beautiful girl</i>
<br><b>kennek aḍaski</b> <i>whitewashed wall</i>
</blockquote>
<h5><a name="desverb">Descriptive verbs</a></h5>
Where we would use an adjective, OS often uses a normal verb. E.g. <b>şilp</b>- ‘be fat’:
<blockquote><b>Şolpe. </b> <i>I’m fat. </i>(metutive)<br><b>Şulpa.</b> <i>You’re fat. </i>(intentive)<br><b>Şiulpu.</b> <i>He started to get fat. </i>(inceptive)
</blockquote>
These verbs can only have absolutive forms. However, they have regular causatives, e.g. <b>aişolrape ŋameloŋŋop</b> ‘My mother is making me fat’.
<h5><a name="possessive">Possessive suffixes and pronouns</a></h5>
Possession is generally indicated by a special set of descriptive suffixes:
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>suffix</i><b></b></td>
<td><i>gloss</i></td>
<td><i>example</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-ŋop</b></td>
<td>my (m.)</td>
<td><b>greḍaŋop</b> ‘my house’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-ŋot</b></td>
<td>my (f.)</td>
<td><b>atesoŋŋot</b> ‘my husband’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-goş</b></td>
<td>your (s. m.)</td>
<td><b>aŋesomgoş</b> ‘your father’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-goṭ</b></td>
<td>your (s. f.)</td>
<td><b>nriuddagoṭ</b> ‘your dance’ </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-san</b></td>
<td>his</td>
<td><b>eŋsan</b> ‘his city’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-sat</b></td>
<td>her</td>
<td><b>teralsat</b> ‘her hand’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-lek</b></td>
<td>its</td>
<td><b>msanalilek</b> ‘its pasture’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-dor</b></td>
<td>our</td>
<td><b>ṭretador</b> ‘our country’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-beş</b></td>
<td>your</td>
<td><b>smepabeş</b> ‘your law’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-sir</b></td>
<td>their</td>
<td><b>sortimşin</b> ‘their clothes’</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-lim</b></td>
<td>their (an.)</td>
<td><b>gimagşam</b> ‘their teeth’</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
Inanimates can’t possess anything, so -<b>lek</b> and -<b>lim</b> apply to animates only.
<p>A noun with possessive is considered definite; the definite and remote suffixes can’t be added to it.
<p>As with any descriptive suffix, these can be turned into causatives, e.g. <b>ḍedr</b>- ‘make or become ours’. Compare:
<blockquote>
<b>Ḍedru eŋul.</b> <i>The city became ours.</i>
<br><b>Dedouru eŋul.</b> <i>We made the city ours.</i>
</blockquote>
These verbs have a special nominalization C<b>e</b>CC<b>i</b>C<b>a</b> which functions as a standalone pronoun. These are used for emphasis or for a sense of formality.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td></td> <td colspan="2"><i>s.</i></td> <td colspan="2"><i>pl.</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="2"><i>1</i>
<td><b>ḍeŋŋipa</b></td>
<td>I (m.)</td>
<td><b>ḍeddira</b></td>
<td>we</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍeŋŋita</b></td>
<td>I (f.)</td>
<td><b></b></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="2"><i>2</i>
<td><b>ḍeggişa</b></td>
<td>you (m.)</td>
<td><b>ḍebbişa</b></td>
<td>you</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍeggiṭa</b></td>
<td>you (f.)</td>
<td><b></b></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#B8B8D0" rowspan="3"><i>3</i>
<td><b>ḍessina</b></td>
<td>he</td>
<td><b>ḍessira</b></td>
<td>they (m/f)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍessita</b></td>
<td>she</td>
<td><b></b></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍellika</b></td>
<td>it</td>
<td><b>ḍellima</b></td>
<td>they (an.)</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
The patient nominalization produces the generalized pronominals <b>ḍosrim</b> ‘they’ and <b>ḍodrim</b> ‘we’. These are used to express common judgments or behavior; the second, of course, when the speaker approves of them, or wants to contrast Our People (the family, or Skouras) with outsiders or foreigners.
<p>As usual, the absolutive participle can be used as a substantive or appositive: <b>aḍaŋti </b>‘my (f.)’, <b>aḍabşi</b> ‘your (pl.), etc. These have an emphatic force, so we might think of them as meaning ‘mine, my own’, ‘yours, your own’, etc.
<h5><a name="nocop">Avoiding copulation</a></h5>
It should be no surprise that, having no true adjectives, OS has no <b><i>predicative</b></i> verb either. In effect, you don’t say that something “is” big; you say that it “bigs”; that is, you use the verb <b>riḍ- </b>‘be big’.
<p>In general, if you find yourself wanting to say that something “is” something, you’re not thinking in OS. Think about how to express the thought using a verb, instead— even if the nouns you want to use exist in the lexicon. Using English examples and sometimes stretching the language:
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>English style</i></td>
<td><i>OS style</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>This is amusing</td>
<td>This amuses me</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>He’s rich</td>
<td>He has become rich</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>My house is here</td>
<td>I live here</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>He is the ruler</td>
<td>He rules</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>I’m happy</td>
<td>I rejoice</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>That’s a lie!</td>
<td>You’re lying!</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>He’s dead, Jim</td>
<td>He just died, Jim</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>We are at war</td>
<td>We have begun to fight</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>My son is worthy</td>
<td>I praise my son</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>She’s ready for marriage</td>
<td>She has matured</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>I’m a storyteller</td>
<td>I habitually tell stories</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>I have orders</td>
<td>They ordered me</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>I am a parent</td>
<td>I’m raising children</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>He’s the Lord’s advisor</td>
<td>He advises the Lord</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>He is naked</td>
<td>He undressed</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>She’s a hottie</td>
<td>She attracts me</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>This is my father</td>
<td>Meet my father</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>I am 24 years old</td>
<td>I lived 24 years</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>That’s a great idea</td>
<td>I admire your idea </i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>This is a ‘saddle’</td>
<td>We call this a ‘saddle’</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>You are a wonder</td>
<td>I marvel at you</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><i>This is my answer</td>
<td>I reply thusly</i></td>
<td><i></td></tr>
</i>
</table></blockquote>
It is possible to use an <b><i>appositive</b></i> construction without a verb: <b>Eŋŋuloşum aŋelot Meŋelandi</b> ‘Eŋŋuloşum is the dictator of Meŋeland’; <b>nilam dlena </b>‘gold is a metal’. But most nouns are derivatives of verbs and thus can be replaced with verbal expressions: <b>ŋualtu </b><b><font color="#008000">Meŋeland</b></font><b> </b><b><font color="#ff0000">Ŋeŋŋuloşum</b></font> ‘Eŋŋuloşum commands Meŋeland’.
<p>There is an <b><i>existential</b></i> verb <b>tirṭ</b>-, so that one can say e.g. <b>tiarṭu eŋ koimdaraŋu</b> ‘there existed a city in the east’. <b>Gand</b>- ‘come’ is also used existentially. Generally, however, it’s better to use a locative for this; <a href="#locate">see below</a>.
<h4><a name="quant">Quantifiers</a></h4>
Quantifiers are a type of descriptive affix, which can be used in several ways.
<ul>
<li>As an affix: e.g. <b>molnimdoḷ </b>‘every boy’.
<li>The patient nominalization C<b>o</b>C<b>im</b> forms an indefinite pronoun; e.g. <b>ḍolim </b>‘everybody’.
<li>With time expressions, especially <b>ḍus </b>‘day’; e.g. <b>ḍusdoḷ </b>‘every day = always’, but note also <b>pastdoḷ </b>‘every year’
<br>
</ul>
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td><i>Root</i> </td>
<td><i>Forms</i> </td>
<td><i>Meaning</i> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-ṭas</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>no, not</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ṭosim</td>
<td>no one, nothing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ḍusṭas</td>
<td>never </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-moṭ</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>one</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>moṭim</td>
<td>someone, an individual</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-gog</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>other, another</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>gega</td>
<td>another thing, something else</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>gogim</td>
<td>another thing or person</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ḍusgog</td>
<td>another day, some other time</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-bab</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>some, a few</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>beba</td>
<td>something</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>bobim</td>
<td>someone</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ḍusbab</td>
<td>some day, sometime</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-kuş</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>much, many</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>koşim</td>
<td>many people</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ḍuskuş</td>
<td>many days, often</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>-doḷ</b></td>
<td></td>
<td>each, every</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>doḷim</td>
<td>everyone, everything</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b></b></td>
<td>ḍusdoḷ</td>
<td>always</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
In negative expressions, -<b>moṭ</b> can be translated ‘any’: <b>gşutut moṭim </b>‘I don’t love anyone.’
<br>After a plural substantive, the affixes can be used as separate words with their own descriptive affixes, to indicate the composition of the group, e.g. <b>greḍar babsok kla-babuşṭ </b>‘the houses, some white, some red’.
<p>The pronouns in -<b>im</b> must be inflected by case: e.g. <b>ibbobim</b> ‘someone (erg.)’.
<br>Other useful expressions of time include <b>aṭi </b>‘now’ and <b>sas </b>‘already’.
<h4><a name="numbers">Numbers</a></h4>
OS uses a duodecimal system.
<p>The numbers from 1 to 6 are unanalyzable roots; <b>pisan </b>‘10’ is a variation of <i>pasn- </i>‘to be a man’, and 7 to 9 and 11 are formed by subtraction— e.g. 9 = 1 [from] 10. <b>Morg</b> ‘12’ seems to be a contraction of <i>mar + ḍog </i>‘six-two’.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td></td>
<td>unit</td>
<td>x12</td>
<td>x144</td>
<td>12<sup>x</sup></td>
<td>1/x</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">1</td>
<td><b>moṭ</b></td>
<td>morg</td>
<td>geld</td>
<td>morg</td>
<td>ḍmeṭa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">2</td>
<td><b>ḍog</b></td>
<td>morḍog</td>
<td>geldog</td>
<td>geld</td>
<td>ḍega</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">3</td>
<td><b>ded</b></td>
<td>morḍed</td>
<td>gelded</td>
<td>ruŋ</td>
<td>ḍneḍa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">4</td>
<td><b>darṭ</b></td>
<td>morḍart</td>
<td>geldarṭ</td>
<td>demum</td>
<td>ḍreṭa</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">5</td>
<td><b>bim</b></td>
<td>morbim</td>
<td>gelbim</td>
<td>tolkim</td>
<td>ḍbema</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">6</td>
<td><b>mar</b></td>
<td>mormar</td>
<td>gelmar</td>
<td>geldroḍ</td>
<td>ḍmera</td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">7</td>
<td><b>depsan</b></td>
<td>morḍeps</td>
<td>geldeps</td>
<td>ruŋroḍ</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">8</td>
<td><b>darg</b></td>
<td>mordarg</td>
<td>geldarg</td>
<td>demumroḍ</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">9</td>
<td><b>mopsan</b></td>
<td>mormops</td>
<td>gelmops</td>
<td>tolkimroḍ</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">10</td>
<td><b>pisan</b></td>
<td>morpisn</td>
<td>gelpisn</td>
<td>geldram</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">11</td>
<td><b>momug</b></td>
<td>mugeld</td>
<td>geldruŋ</td>
<td>ruŋram</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0">12</td>
<td><b>morg</b></td>
<td><b>geld</b></td>
<td><b>ruŋ</b></td>
<td>demumram</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<br>Multiples of <b>ruŋ</b> and higher are simply the multiplier plus the units; e.g. <b>ruŋdarṭ</b> 4*1728, <b>ruŋmopsan</b> 9*1728, <b>demumdarṭ</b> 4*20736; <b>tolkimded</b> 3*248,832.
<p>A multidigit number can be expressed, majestically, by concatenating the full forms of each digit: e.g. 5293 (base 12) = <b>ruŋbim ḷa-geldog ḷa-mormops ḷa-ded</b>.
<ul>
<li>If there are no zeroes, this can be abbreviated by reducing all the conjoined numbers to the unit name.
<br>5293 = <b>ruŋbim ḍog mopsan ded</b><p>
<li>If there are zeroes, the digits on either side must have their full multiplier.
<br>5093 = <b>ruŋbim mormops ded<br></b>5203 = <b>ruŋbim geldog ded<br></b>5290 = <b>ruŋbim ḍog mormops
<br></b>5200 = <b>ruŋbim geldog </b><br>5090 = <b>ruŋbim mormops <br></b>5003 = <b>ruŋbim ded</b>
<br>
</ul>
Numbers follow the noun: <b>ameşod ded </b>‘three women’. A noun should not be pluralized if it’s followed by a number.
<br>Basic arithmetic expressions:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td>5 + 2</td>
<td>bim idma ḍog</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>5 - 2</td>
<td>bim imna ḍog</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>5 * 2</td>
<td>bim diliri ḍog</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>5 / 2</td>
<td>bim kunkiri ḍog</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
There are verbs for the first three ordinals: <b>nikt- </b>‘be first’, <b>nişp- </b>‘be second’, <b>nind</b>- ‘be third’. The participles <b>anakti, anaşpi, anandi</b> ‘first one, second one, third one’ are useful. Past this the idiom ‘to come <i>n</i>’ can be used, e.g. <b>gendu bim </b>‘he came fifth’.
<p>For the first six numbers, there are verbs ‘to make <i>n; </i>divide into <i>n</i> parts’: <b>ḍemṭ-, ḍeḍg-, ḍenḍ-, ḍerṭ-, ḍebm-, ḍemr-</b>. The first six fractions are nominalizations of these verbs.
<p>Further fractions are made by numbering the word <b>tniussa </b>‘fraction’. e.g. <b>tniussa depsan </b>‘1/7’, <b>tniussa momug </b>‘1/11’. A ratio is expressed as e.g. <b>tniussa ded kunkiri darg </b>‘3/8’.
<p>The Skourenes were well trained for arithmetic; in trading they had to deal not only with currency conversions but different bases, since the Jeori used base 6 and the Axunemi used base 10. They learned the Jeori and Axunašin numbers in order to calculate using these bases.
<h4><a name="names">Names</a></h4>
The most characteristic names are entire one-word sentences, often expressing a prediction for the future, a pious reflection on the parents’ state of mind, or a shout-out to the gods for recent blessings. A sampling:
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td><i>Name</i> </td>
<td><i>Meaning</i> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Baulunrada</td>
<td>she will calm you with speech</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Bolbsgu</td>
<td>he will not lack hair</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Doḷsurriki</td>
<td>you (f.) will please them all</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍamnualmu</td>
<td>he will shine wholly</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍodsians</td>
<td>he counselled (his) brother</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍolbunodu</td>
<td>they all will marvel at him</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍuaptai </td>
<td>you will always make yourself strong</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍurunsu </td>
<td>he will become rich</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Gangşpu </td>
<td>his foot does not tire</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Geŋmunda</td>
<td>you will walk in the forest</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Kamopa</td>
<td>we expected you</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Krolakurilim</td>
<td>they will not weaken you, you will weaken them</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Kurran</td>
<td>she will attract </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Kuskurki</td>
<td>he will outfight them</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Mandaŋoḍu</td>
<td>the people want to obey him</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Menidep</td>
<td>you accompanied us</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Mianṭep</td>
<td>we are rejoicing</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Mneutiḍe </td>
<td>you will walk alongside me</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Nilşugla </td>
<td>you know how to be great</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Nosḍururiḍ </td>
<td>he will acquire money</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Nuiktui </td>
<td>he will win many times</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Nusrinep</td>
<td>you (f.) will take care of us</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Pgomu</td>
<td>they won’t defeat him</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Pilobus</td>
<td>we sacrificed</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Pualran </td>
<td>She will always be kind</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Sianisep</td>
<td>you continually advised us</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Sinatşugla </td>
<td>you will be great with the sword</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Suŋka</td>
<td>you will succeed</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Tuşurat </td>
<td>we are attached to you (f.)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ṭalḍaga</td>
<td>you were born by the sea</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ṭelpulgag</td>
<td>his hand will support you</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Umḍultat</td>
<td>her face will be beautiful</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Uruŋḍep</td>
<td>we will begin to rest</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
Some names (e.g. <i>Mandaŋoḍu</i> and <i>Sinatşugla</i> above) use verbal prefixes which are rare or nonexistent in the rest of the lexicon.
<p>Noun phrases can also be used as names; these are less likely to be unique.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<td><i>Name</i> </td>
<td><i>Meaning</i> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Anakti</td>
<td>first one</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Anesodram</td>
<td>great hunter</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Apelog</td>
<td>sustainer</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Bika</td>
<td>silver</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Greḍakos</td>
<td>fine house</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Guṭḷi</td>
<td>good omen</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ikkren</td>
<td>beautiful one</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ksenilam</td>
<td>like gold</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḷordis</td>
<td>dancer</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Maḍaṭiŋ</td>
<td>jewel</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Nreşuşta</td>
<td>rose</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Riuŋŋa</td>
<td>song</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Teralepṭ</td>
<td>strong hand</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍişaneli</td>
<td>good eye</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍodeli</td>
<td>good brother</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ḍonsim</td>
<td>rich man</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="syntax">Syntax</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
<h4><a name="order">Word order</a></h4>
OS permits a good deal of variation, but it is largely modifier-last.
<p>The default sentence order is V<font color="#008000">A</font><font color="#ff0000">E</font> (verb-absolutive-ergative):
<blockquote>
<b>Kisni <font color="#008000">asenoso</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋageşorul</font>.
<br></b>listened-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">advisor-pl</font> <font color="#ff0000">governor-def</font>
<br><i>The governor listened to his advisors.
<br></i>
</blockquote>
Pragmatically, placing a constituent earlier than its accustomed position expresses surprise, hearsay, or distance: <b><font color="#008000">Asenoso</b></font><b> kisni </b><b><font color="#ff0000">ŋageşorul</b></font>, for instance, could be translated “I hear that the governor listened to his advisors.” A complete reversal (<b><font color="#ff0000">Ŋageşorul </b></font><b><font color="#008000">asenoso</b></font><b> kisni </b>) could be interpreted, “His advisors— take it as you will, I’m just sayin’— the governor listens to them.”
<p><b>Modifiers to a noun</b> (e.g. numbers, genitives, appositives) follow it.
<h4><a name="tense">Tense</a></h4>
Curiously, there is no verb form whose primary meaning is an <b>imperfect</b> or <b>present</b> tense. For this the other moods or aspects must be used, or analytic expressions.
<p>As a slightly jocular summary, we might say that OS asks three questions of any action in order to assign the tense:
<ul>
<li>Is it done yet? If so, use the <b>perfect</b>.
<li>If not, is someone taking care of it now? If so, use the <b>intentive</b>.
<li>If not, would we like it done? If so, use the <b>desiderative</b>.
<li>If not, use the <b>metutive</b>.
</ul>
<h5><a name="perfect">The perfect</a></h5>
The rules are somewhat complex; let’s start at the easy end— with <b>past actions</b>. If an event occurred in the past— and it’s completed, not still in process— it’s normally expressed in the perfect.
<blockquote>
<b>Kirouki.</b> <i>We fought them.</i>
<br><b>Gauşte</b> <i>I fell in love.</i>
<br><b>Melrane <font color="#ff0000">ŋameşodul</font>.</b> <i>This woman raised me.</i>
<br><b>Meŋlut <font color="#008000">tosgitul</font>.</b><i> Someone spoke to the naked woman.</i>
</blockquote>
By a slight exaggeration the perfect can refer to events which the speaker assures us are nearly complete: <b>gendut</b> ‘she’s coming’, <b>ṭelpe</b><i> </i>‘I’m just finishing writing.’
<h5><a name="othermoods">The other moods</a></h5>
The perfect contrasts with all the other moods— that is, the intentive, desiderative, metutive, and imperative all normally imply that the action is incomplete, ongoing, in the future, or unreal. These may refer to past, present, or future activity. All are associated with a mental state:
<ul>
<li>The <b>intentive</b> expresses <b>will</b>: the action is intended by the actor.
<p>Its prototypical meaning is to express what someone is trying to do right now, or intends to do in the future: <b>dunte</b> ‘I’m going, I will go’; <b>kurouk</b> ‘we mean to fight’.
<p>Combined with the perfect, it expresses the actors’ state of mind, and thus corresponds to our past progressive:
<blockquote>
<b>Gendi durki</b>, <i>lit. ‘They came, they will cry’ = They came crying.</i>
</blockquote>
<li>Our first-person imperatives are usually expressed as intentives: <b>muspe</b><i> </i>‘let me think!’ <b>dunteg</b><i> </i>‘let’s go!’
<p>It’s the vaguest of the imperfect moods— after all, most actions are intended by <i>someone</i>. As such it can be used for most present actions, much like our present progressive.
<blockquote>
<b>Surutu <font color="#008000">degarṭa.</font></b> <i>I’m wearing a green dress.</i>
</blockquote>
<li>The <b>desiderative</b> expresses <b>desire</b>; the <b>metutive</b> expresses <b>fear</b>. To the Skourenes desire and fear were apparently less of a guarantee of results than intention: the two moods function something like a subjunctive or irrealis, separated by whether the action is viewed positively or not.
<p>They may be used literally to refer to desire or fear: <b>dante</b> ‘I want(ed) to go’, <b>donta</b> ‘I’m afraid you’ll go’.
<p>Normally the feelings are those of the speaker; but speaking to someone one may take their point of view (<b>torga</b> ‘you could fall!’); and in a narrative they refer to the viewpoint character (<b>torgu</b> ‘he was afraid of falling’).
<p>By extension, they’re used for uncertain or future events that no one is responsible for (i.e., they’re no one’s intent). If the effect is positive or neutral the desiderative is used (<b>paltu</b> ‘it will rain (if all goes well)’, otherwise the metutive (<b>soḷgu</b> ‘it may get dark’).
</ul>
All three moods may be used in place of the perfect when it’s desired to emphasize someone’s emotional state. E.g. in a past context you’d normally say <b>dante</b> ‘I went’; but if you wanted to emphasize that you were leaving on purpose you could say <b>dunte</b> ‘I intended to go’, without necessarily implying that you didn’t succeed.
<h5><a name="special">Specialized aspects</a></h5>
The perfect in the durative, inceptive, and cyclical aspects is not restricted to past events:
<ul>
<li>The <b>durative</b> perfect is used for long-term states, true in the past as well as the present: <b>meallaneg</b> <b><font color="#ff0000">iṭṭalul</b></font> ‘the sea nurtures us’.
<li>The <b>inceptive</b> perfect can be used for actions begun in the past and still going on: <b>kiurkeḍ</b> ‘we began to fight each other’, thus ‘we’re fighting’.
<li>The <b>cyclical</b> perfect can be used for actions which have occurred many times in the past and continue to do so: <b>neimtum koimdaiŋut </b><b><font color="#008000">aşebortul</b></font> ‘the sun rises in the east’.
<br>
</ul>
<h4><a name="sequence">Verb sequencing</a></h4>
OS has <b>no relativization</b> and, in effect, no way of making complex or compound sentences except for concatenation. Rather, the OS speaker simply strings verbs together until the desired meaning is achieved. Particles called <b><font color="#0000ff">connectors</b></font> (shown in this section in blue) help clarify the relationships between referents and clauses.
<p>(It could also be argued that the connectors are all subordinators. Since they include simple concatenation and all have the same syntactic form, it’s simpler to consider them akin to conjunctions.)
<p>The simplest case is where two or more verbs share the exact same arguments. They can simply be concatenated, using the clitic <b>ḷa</b>- (<b>aḷ</b>- before a vowel):
<blockquote>
<b>Nemratut <u><font color="#0000ff">ḷa</u></font><u>-lenradut</u><font color="#ff0000"> </font><font color="#008000">ḍogimsat</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋamelonul</font>.
<br></b>lift-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> and-comfort-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#008000">baby-her</font> <font color="#ff0000">mother-DEF </font>
<br><i>The mother picked up and comforted her baby.</i>
</blockquote>
The conjoined verb can also be moved after the object:
<blockquote>
<b>Nemratut <font color="#008000">ḍogimsat</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋamelonul </font><u><font color="#0000ff">ḷa</u></font><u>-lenradut</u>.
<br></b>lift-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#008000">baby-her</font> <font color="#ff0000">mother-DEF </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font>-comfort-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>
<br><i>The mother picked up her baby and comforted it.</i>
</blockquote>
<h5><a name="changearg">Changing arguments</a></h5>
If the arguments change, the new ones can simply be supplied after the second verb.
<blockquote>
<b>Lenradut <font color="#008000">ḍogimsat </font><font color="#ff0000">ŋamelonul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-naḷraşu <u><font color="#008000">atesonsat</u></font>.
<br></b>comfort-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#008000">baby-her</font> <font color="#ff0000">mother-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-praise-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">husband-her</font>
<br><i>The mother comforted her baby and praised her husband.</i>
<p><b>Nemratut <font color="#008000">ḍogimsat</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋamelonul </font><u><font color="#0000ff">ḷa</u></font><u>-</u>naḷşut <u><font color="#ff0000">ŋatesonsat</u></font>.
<br></b>lift-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#008000">baby-her</font> <font color="#ff0000">mother-DEF </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font>-praise-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">husband-her</font>
<br><i>The mother picked up her baby and her husband praised it.</i>
</blockquote>
In the first example, we know that the second verb should have an ergative argument and none is supplied: it’s assumed to be the same as the first verb’s (i.e. ‘<font color="#ff0000">mother’</font>). The same goes for the second example and its understood absolutive argument (i.e. ‘<font color="#008000">baby’</font>).
<p>What if the a referent’s role changes between sentences? First and second person arguments cause no confusion, of course; one can string together almost any number of predicates with no confusion:
<blockquote>
<b>Guşutat <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-guşrite <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-nuḷuşat <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-daunumat.
<br></b>love-INT-<font color="#008000">2sf</font>-<font color="#ff0000">1sm</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-love-INT-<font color="#008000">1sm</font>-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-praise-INT-<font color="#008000">2sf</font>-<font color="#ff0000">1sm</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-sex-DESID-<font color="#008000">2sf</font>-<font color="#ff0000">1sm</font>
<br><i>I love you and you love me and I praise you and I want to sleep with you.</i>
</blockquote>
Referents of differing genders are also clear:
<blockquote>
<b>Meŋralu <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-kisnut <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-dantu <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-benkut.
<br></b>speak-INT-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-listen-INT-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-go-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-stay--<font color="#008000">3sf</font>
<br><i>She spoke to him and he listened to her and he went and she stayed. </i>
</blockquote>
Ergativity leads to some unexpected implications, if you’re used to a nominative-accusative language. For instance:
<blockquote>
<b>Serḍu <font color="#008000">aŋeşoṭul</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋanesonul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-sepu.
<br></b>hit-<font color="#008000">3s</font><font color="#ff0000">-3s</font> <font color="#008000">thief-DEF</font> <font color="#ff0000">watchman-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-go-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i>The watchman hit the thief and he left.
<br></i>
</blockquote>
The person who left is understood to be the thief, not the watchman. <i>Sepu</i> requires an absolutive argument, and there’s nothing to indicate that case roles changed, so it gets the first verb’s absolutive.
<h5><a name="anti">The antipassive</a></h5>
If it’s desired to have the watchman leave, the first sentence can be put in the causative. This is a transformation which demotes the original ergative to the absolutive, and the absolutive to the genitive. If we see a causative without an ergative causer— implying that it’s used only for its case demoting effect— we can call it an <b>antipassive</b>.
<blockquote>
<b>Aiserḍu aŋeşoṭil <font color="#008000">anesonul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-sepu.
<br></b>CAUS-hit-<font color="#008000">3s</font> thief-GEN <font color="#008000">watchman-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-go-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i>The watchman hit the thief and left.</i>
</blockquote>
Again, the unstated argument of the second verb is assumed to be the absolutive of the first verb, but now this is the watchman.
<br>The antipassive may also be used on the second verb:
<blockquote>
<b>Serḍu <font color="#008000">aŋeşoṭul</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋanesonul</font> <u><font color="#0000ff">aḷ-</u></font><u>aiŋiriştu</u> romimil.
<br></b>hit-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">thief-DEF</font> <font color="#ff0000">boy-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-CAUS-steal-CYC-<font color="#008000">3s</font> noble-GEN-DEF
<br><i>The boy hit the thief who was robbing the noble.</i>
</blockquote>
Aiŋiriştu lacks an explicit absolutive, so it’s understood as referring to the most recent absolutive, the thief. (Without the antipassive, the thief would be the one robbed!)
<h5><a name="loosen">Other options</a></h5>
If a verb is missing an argument and none of the previous arguments fit it, we try loosening the case roles. For instance:
<blockquote>
<b>Ŋişṭum <font color="#008000">ŋiraşul</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋaŋeşoṭul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-sepu.
<br></b>steal-<font color="#008000">3sin</font><font color="#ff0000">-3s</font> <font color="#008000">money-DEF</font> <font color="#ff0000">thief-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-go-<font color="#0000ff">3s</font>
<br><i>The thief stole the money and left.</i>
</blockquote>
As usual <i>sepu</i> requires an absolutive argument; but it can’t be <i>ŋiraşul</i> ‘the money’, because that’s inanimate. Its argument is therefore taken to be the thief, demoted from ergative to absolutive.
<p>If it’s not possible or not desired to change case roles to make everyone match up, the clitic <b>ge</b>- (<b>g</b>- before a vowel) can be used instead; this has the same meaning as <b>ḷa</b>- but explicitly suspends case role expectations. E.g::
<blockquote>
<b>Serḍu <font color="#008000">aŋeşoṭul </font><font color="#ff0000">anesonul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ge</font>-sepu.
<br></b>hit-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">thief-DEF</font> <font color="#ff0000">watchman-DEF</font> <font color="#0000ff">plus</font>-go-A<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i>The boy hit the thief and he (the boy) left.</i>
</blockquote>
There’s nothing explicit that tells us that the boy is the absolutive of <i>sepu</i>; but we can deduce it from the fact that no other argument was supplied, and <b><font color="#0000ff">ge</b></font>- was used.
<p>Often we want to introduce a referent in one clause, typically as an absolutive, and focus on it in the next, typically as an ergative. This is done using the <b>topicalizer</b> <b>kau</b>- (<b>kam</b>- before a vowel).
<blockquote>
<b>Bilobutu <font color="#008000">Ṭisutrand</font> <font color="#0000ff">kau-</font>nankep.
<br></b>find-<font color="#ff0000">1p</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">Ṭisutran</font> <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-cheat-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1p</font>
<br><i>(Lit.) We found the Ṭisutran; as for him, he cheated us.
We found the Ṭisutran who had cheated us.</i>
</blockquote>
The pragmatic effects of <b>kau</b>- and <b>ge</b>- are similar— both revise the case matching process— but <b>kau</b>- is more specific; its referent is always one explicitly present in the preceding clause.
<p>In both cases, the most natural English translation is with a <b>relative clause</b>; the <b>ge</b>- example above might also be translated <i>The boy hit the thief, who left. </i>Still, in OS there is no formal process of relativization— that is, the use of a pronominal element referring explicitly to a preceding referent.
<h5><a name="logic">Logical connectors</a></h5>
Connectors help clarify the relationship between clauses:
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><i>prefix</i></td>
<td><i>before vowels</i></td>
<td><i>meaning</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">ḷa-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">aḷ-</b></td>
<td></font>and (concatenation)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">kla-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">kaḷ-</b></td>
<td></font>or (disjunction)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">ŋa-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">aŋ-</b></td>
<td></font>but (contrast, surprise)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">nsul-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">nsul-</b></td>
<td></font>therefore (logical effect)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">kru-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">krum-</b></td>
<td></font>because (logical cause)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">ṭou-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">ṭom-</b></td>
<td></font>for (purpose)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">gre-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">grel-</b></td>
<td></font>for (exchange)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">aṭi-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">aṭiḷ-</b></td>
<td></font>when, while (at the same time as the main action)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">mur-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">mur-</b></td>
<td></font>until, before (end time of the main action)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">de-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">nd-</b></td>
<td></font>since, after (beginning of the main action)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">aḷde-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">ḷand-</b></td>
<td></font>then, next (sequence in time)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">nen-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">nen-</b></td>
<td></font>as (metaphor)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">şiu-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">şim-</b></td>
<td></font>only, except (limitation on main action)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">ṭas-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">ṭas-</b></td>
<td></font>except; (after negatives) not even, including</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">laŋ-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">laŋ-</b></td>
<td></font>there (introduces an event at a mentioned location)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">kau-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">kam-</b></td>
<td></font>topicalizer (promotes previous absolutive) </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b><font color="#0000ff">ge-</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#0000ff">g-</b></td>
<td></font>case reset</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
Some examples:
<blockquote>
<b>Gauşrutu <font color="#0000ff">kru</font>-paralnet.
<br></b>incep-love-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">because</font>-dur-kind-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1sf</font>
<br><i>I fell in love with him <font color="#0000ff">because</font> he was kind to me.</i>
<p><b>Ḷilirde <font color="#0000ff">mur</font>-nemtut <font color="#008000">aşebort</font>.
<br></b>cycl-dance-<font color="#008000">1px</font> <font color="#0000ff">until</font>-rise-<font color="#008000">3sf sun</font>
<br><i>We often danced <font color="#0000ff">until</font> the sun rose.</i>
<p><b>Dirinmet <font color="#0000ff">şiu</font>-tesnet.
<br></b>cycl-sex--<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1sf </font><font color="#0000ff">only</font>-marry-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1sf</font>
<br><i>(Lit.) He had sex with me only (when) he married me.<br>We had sex <font color="#0000ff">only once</font> we were married.</i>
<p><b><font color="#0000ff">Ŋa</font>-bakşeip <font color="#0000ff">ṭou</font>-ḍelnum <font color="#008000">sekketsan</font>.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">but</font>-break-refl-<font color="#008000">1px</font> <font color="#0000ff">purpose</font>-assist-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">taxes-his</font>
<br><i>However, we divorced <font color="#0000ff">for</font> tax reasons. </i>
</blockquote>
The difference between ‘since’ and ‘after’ (and ‘until’ and ‘before’) is expressed by verbal aspect (perfect vs. durative). Compare:
<blockquote>
<b>Bedre <font color="#0000ff">de</font>-sepat. / Beadre <font color="#0000ff">de</font>-seapat.
<br></b>wake-<font color="#008000">1s</font> <font color="#0000ff">after</font>-leave-<font color="#008000">2sf</font> / dur-wake-<font color="#008000">1s</font> <font color="#0000ff">after</font>-dur-leave-<font color="#008000">2sf</font>
<br><i>I woke <font color="#0000ff">after</font> you left. / I’ve been awake <font color="#0000ff">since</font> you left.</i>
<p><b>Ḷiardeg <font color="#0000ff">mur</font>-ḍusnemtu. / Ḷirdeg <font color="#0000ff">mur</font>-ḍusmentu.
<br></b>dur-dance-<font color="#008000">1p</font> <font color="#0000ff">before</font>-sunrise / dance-<font color="#008000">1p</font> <font color="#0000ff">before</font>-sunrise
<br><i>We danced <font color="#0000ff">until</font> dawn. / We danced <font color="#0000ff">before</font> dawn.</i>
</blockquote>
A more sophisticated sentence, from the examples:
<blockquote>
<b>Saŋkum <font color="#008000">psiukkasan</font> <font color="#0000ff">nsul</font>-mindntu <font color="#0000ff">aŋ</font>-inbuştu boiḍunru <font color="#0000ff">nen</font>-bşti ḍodrim.
<br></b>successful-<font color="#008000">3sns</font> <font color="#008000">expedition-his</font> <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font>-back-go-neg-<font color="#ff00ff">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-attempt--int-travel-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> westward <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-dur-go-neg-<font color="#ff0000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">us-people</font>
<br><i>(Lit.) His expedition was successful / <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font> he did not return / <font color="#0000ff">but</font> tried to travel westward / <font color="#0000ff">as</font> people do not go</i>
<br>His expedition was so successful that he did not return, but decided to travel farther west than anyone had gone.<br>
</blockquote>
This way of putting sentences takes some mental adjustment; but on its own terms, it’s as simple and expressive as English. It’s something like pointillistic painting: there are more and shorter brushstrokes, but the resulting picture is no less complicated.
<h5><a name="report">Reported speech and thought</a></h5>
OS has no formal notion of sentential subjects or objects; this too is handled by sequenced verbs. For instance:
<blockquote>
<b>Korlu <font color="#008000">molnimul</font> <font color="#0000ff">kau</font>-nulnum.
<br></b>metu-sicken-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">boy-def</font> <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-tell-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font>
<br><i>Lit. The boy sickened / he said it
<br>The boy says that he is sick. </i>
</blockquote>
The two conjoints can just as well be reversed:
<blockquote>
<b>Nulnum <font color="#ff0000">immolnimul</font> <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-korlu.
<br></b>tell-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font><font color="#ff0000">boy-def</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-sick-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
</blockquote>
The case roles must be handled according to the usual rules. Here, for example, the boy is the absolutive of <i>kirl</i>- ‘be sick’ but the ergative of <i>neln</i>- ‘tell’. In the first sentence <b><font color="#0000ff">kau</b></font>- is used to promote him from absolutive to ergative; in the second the demotion is automatic since no other argument is possible.
<p>Direct speech can be handled the same way—
<blockquote>
<b>“Korle,” <font color="#0000ff">ge</font>-nulnum <font color="#ff0000">immolnimul</font>.
<br></b>metu-sicken-<font color="#008000">1s</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-tell-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font><font color="#ff0000">boy-def</font>
<br><i>Lit. I sickened / the boy said it
<br>“I’m sick,” the boy said.</i>
</blockquote>
—but it may be explicitly signalled using the pronouns <b>mamul</b> (if the verb of speaking comes first) or <b>mamaŋ</b>:
<blockquote>
<b>“Korle,” <font color="#0000ff">ḷa</font>-nulnum <font color="#008000">mamaŋ</font> <font color="#ff0000">immolnimul</font>.
<br></b>metu-sicken-<font color="#008000">1s</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-tell-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin that </font><font color="#ff0000">boy-def</font>
<br><i>Lit. I sickened / the boy said it
<br>“I’m sick,” the boy said.</i>
</blockquote>
The case-resetting connector <b><font color="#0000ff">ge</b></font>- is no longer needed, because both arguments to <b>neln</b>- are now explicit.
<h5><a name="compare">Comparatives</a></h5>
One of the most useful connectors is <b><font color="#0000ff">nen</b></font>-, which introduces a comparison. The prototypical case involves a full verb phrase:
<blockquote>
<b>Nuasni <font color="#008000">goşrimi</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋageşorram</font> <font color="#0000ff">nen</font>-mualranit <font color="#008000">molnimi</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋamelon</font>.
<br></b>dur-care-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">subject-pl </font><font color="#ff0000">ruler-great</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-dur-nurture-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">child</font>-pl <font color="#ff0000">mother</font>
<br><i>A great ruler cares for his subjects as a mother nourishes her children.</i>
</blockquote>
If the verbs and arguments are identical (or can be made so), the conjoined verb can be omitted, and <b>nen</b>- attached to the noun instead:
<blockquote>
<b>Nuasdi <font color="#008000">goşrimi</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋageşordor</font> <font color="#0000ff">nen</font>-<font color="#ff0000">ikkuḷiŋ</font>.
<br></b>dur-hunt-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">subject-pl</font> <font color="#ff0000">ruler-our</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#ff0000">lion</font>
<br><i>Our ruler preys on his subjects like a lion.</i>
</blockquote>
The same connector is used for comparisons of equality:
<blockquote>
<b>Şulpu <font color="#008000">ageşordor</font> <font color="#0000ff">nen</font>-<font color="#008000">gerrek</font>.
<br></b>int-fat-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">ruler-our</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">pig</font>
<br><i>Our ruler is as fat as a pig.</i>
</blockquote>
Inequalities are indicated with the adverbs <b>idma</b> ‘more’ and <b>imna</b> ‘less’: e.g. <b>Şulpu </b><b><font color="#008000">ageşordor</b></font><b> idma</b> <b><font color="#0000ff">nen</b></font><b>-</b><b><font color="#008000">gerrek</b></font> ‘Our ruler is fatter than a pig’.
<p>Superlatives are expressed the same way, with the addition of -<b>doḷ</b> ‘every’:
<blockquote>
<b>Ḍoansum <font color="#008000">Engidori</font> idma <font color="#0000ff">nen</font>-<font color="#008000">eŋdoḷ</font>.
<br></b>dur-be.rich-<font color="#008000">3sin Engidori</font> more <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">city-every</font>
<br><i>Engidori is the richest of cities.</i>
</blockquote>
<h4><a name="locate">Location</a></h4>
Simple location is expressed using the locative verb <b>daŋ</b>- ‘be in a place’. The location itself appears in the genitive and is placed immediately after the verb. Statements of the location use the verb as the principal predicate— using the durative for permanent states of affairs.
<blockquote>
<b>Daraŋum ḍeilul <font color="#008000">eŋul</font>.
<br></b>located-dur-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> river-gen-def <font color="#008000">city-def</font>
<br><i>The city is on the river.</i>
</blockquote>
For present, temporary situations, the intentive is the most appropriate form:
<blockquote>
<b>Udnu msapalirisan <font color="#008000">aŋesom</font>.
<br></b>located-int-<font color="#0000ff">3s</font> study-GEN-his <font color="#008000">father</font>
<br><i>Father is (presently) in his study. </i>
</blockquote>
The locative expression may simply be dropped into another sentence, normally after the nominal arguments:
<blockquote>
<b>Ŋulsum <font color="#008000">roz</font> <font color="#ff0000">ŋaŋesom </font><u>udaŋ msapalirisan</u>.
<br></b>eat-int-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">apple</font> <font color="#ff0000">father </font><u>located-int-</u><u><font color="#ff0000">3s </u></font><u>study-GEN-his</u>
<br><i>Father is eating an apple <u>in his study</u>. </i>
</blockquote>
Locatives are essentially sequenced verbs without an explicit connector. The case roles must match the main verb— here, for instance, <b>udaŋ</b> takes an <font color="#ff0000">ergative 3s subject</font>, matching <font color="#ff0000">‘father’</font>. Locative verbs have the peculiarity that they may take either absolutive or ergative arguments, without a change of meaning. (If you’re not sure what verb form to use, it’s always safe to have it match the main verb.)
<p>(It wouldn’t be incorrect to say <b>udnum msapalirisan</b> with an <font color="#008000">absolutive 3s-in subject</font>; this would match <font color="#008000">‘apple’</font>. This would focus attention on the apple; we might translate the sentence <i>Father is eating the apple (that’s) in his study.</i>)
<p>Directions and short common geographical terms are prefixed to the verb; in effect the combined verb becomes an adverbial. E.g. <b>koimdaraŋu</b> ‘in the east’, <b>geiŋdaraŋu</b> ‘in the forest’, <b>ṭaildaraŋu</b> ‘at sea’. (I’ve used the durative 3s form for these to emphasize the commonality; but they must agree with their subject in case and person.)
<p>Motion toward is expressed using the verb <b>ner</b>- ‘move (toward)’; motion away using <b>sep</b>- ‘depart’, using the same rules as <b>daŋ</b>-.
<blockquote>
<b>Unrep eŋil. Uspep şoḷmimil.
<br></b>move-int-<font color="#008000">1px</font> city-gen-def / leave-int-<font color="#008000">1px </font>ship-gen-def
<br><i>We’re going to the city. We’re leaving the ship.</i>
</blockquote>
Again, short words can be prefixed: <b>koimnearu</b> ‘eastward’, <b>soupseapu</b> ‘from the mountains’.
<p>There are <b>no prepositions</b> in OS; instead, there is a set of more specific locative verbs, such as:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>dem-</b></td>
<td>be above</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>men-</b></td>
<td>be below</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>telk-</b></td>
<td>be on top of</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍadŋ-</b></td>
<td>be inside</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>kart-</b></td>
<td>be before</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>sipt-</b></td>
<td>be after</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>dird-</b></td>
<td>be in front of</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>taḍ-</b></td>
<td>be next to</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>didm-</b></td>
<td>be far from</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>gerd-</b></td>
<td>be between</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>saln-</b></td>
<td>be in the middle</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>marm-</b></td>
<td>be around</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>geḍl-</b></td>
<td>be beside</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
<b>Deictic</b> locatives include:
<blockquote><table>
<tr><td><b>luḷ</b></td>
<td>here</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><b>ḍumak</b></td>
<td>there</td>
</tr>
</table></blockquote>
If you have (in our terms) a pronominal object, it can be expressed using the absolutive suffixes— e.g. <b>utuḍat</b> ‘I am next to you (f.)’,
<h4><a name="instru">Instrumentals</a></h4>
An instrument can be indicating using a genitive expression immediately following the verb:
<blockquote>
<b>Suruḍu <u>ṭeḷḷeki</u> <font color="#008000">ukḷuṭorkimul</font>.
<br></b>intent-hit-<font color="#ff0000">1s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> shovel-gen <font color="#008000">lurker-def</font>
<br><i>I’ll hit the villain <u>with a shovel</u>.</i>
</blockquote>
Some verb prefixes can be instrumental— e.g. <b>teḷ</b>- ‘by hand’. If an appropriate prefix exists, use it in preference to the above construction: <b>teḷsuruḍu </b>‘I’ll hit him using my hand’.
<p>It’s bad form to use an instrumental derived from the main verb— e.g. <b>ṭiḷuk ṭeḷḷeki</b> ‘I dug using the shovel’, <b>utnisum tennesi </b>‘cut it using the knife’. Though these sentences are fine in English, they sound redundant in OS; the instrumental can simply be omitted.
<br>A <b>measurement</b> is a type of instrumental:
<blockquote>
<b>Siatmum <u>mneida darg</u> <font color="#008000">greḍal</font>.
<br></b>dur-measure-3sin <u>pace-gen eight</u> <font color="#008000">house-def</font>
<br><i>The house is 8 paces long.</i>
</blockquote>
<h4><a name="time">Time</a></h4>
Duration and position in time are also indicated with a genitive noun phrase after the verb. (That is, in form they’re measurements, thus instrumentals.)
<blockquote>
<b>Benkep <u>ḍuis darṭ</u> daŋep eŋi.
<br></b>stay-<font color="#008000">1pex</font> day-gen four located-<font color="#008000">1pex</font> city-gen
<br><i>We stayed in the city for four days.</i>
</blockquote>
(For time clauses (‘after’, ‘before’, etc.), see <a href="#logic"><i>Logical connectors</i></a> above.)
<br>(For indefinite time expressions (‘always’, ‘now’), see <a href="#quant"><i>Quantifiers</i></a> above.)
<h4><a name="questions">Questions</a></h4>
<b>Yes-no</b> questions are formed by adding -<b>si</b> after the verb, or after the element being questioned.
<blockquote>
<b>Ḍariḍum-si <font color="#008000">rilar</font>?
<br></b>bring-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> Q <font color="#008000">kindling</font>
<br><i>Did you bring kindling?</i>
<p><b>Ŋurşum <font color="#008000">koṭinşim</font>-si?
<br></b>int-buy-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">rowboat</font> Q
<br><i>He wants to buy a <u>boat</u>?</i>
</blockquote>
A specific item that’s being questioned is often fronted: <b><font color="#008000">Koṭinşim</b></font><b>-si ŋurşum?</b> This expresses a certain skepticism: “Is it really a <i>boat</i> he wants to buy? / He wants to buy a <i>boat</i>, are you sure?”
<br>The word ‘<b>who/what’</b> varies by gender and case. It’s used with 3s verb forms, agreeing of course with the verb.
<blockquote><table>
<tr bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><td><b></b></td>
<td><i>abs</td>
<td>erg.</i></td>
<td><i>gen.</i></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>masc.</i></td>
<td><b><font color="#008000">abeg</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#ff0000">ŋabeg</b></td>
<td></font><b>abegi</b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>fem.</i></td>
<td><b><font color="#008000">abegis</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#ff0000">ŋabegis</b></td>
<td></font><b>abegiri</b></td>
<td></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#B8B8D0"><i>non-sentient</i></td>
<td><b><font color="#008000">bogim</b></td>
<td></font><b><font color="#ff0000">ibbogim</b></td>
<td></font><b>bogimi</b></td>
<td></td></tr>
</table>
<p><b>Ŋalsum <font color="#008000">şresa </font><u><font color="#ff0000">ŋabeg</u></font>?
<br></b>desid-eat-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">cake </font><font color="#ff0000">who</font>
<br><i>Who wants cake?</i>
<p><b>Guşitut <u><font color="#008000">abegis</u></font>?
<br></b>int-love-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#008000">who-f</font>
<br><i>Which girl are you in love with?</i>
<p><b>Ḍerḷagu <font color="#008000">aŋetotul</font> <u><font color="#ff0000">ibbogim</u></font>?
<br></b>make.evil-<font color="#ff0000">3sin</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">trader-def</font> <font color="#ff0000">what</font>
<br><i>What made the trader evil?</i>
<p><b>Şagḷaḍ <font color="#008000">rark</font> <u>abegi</u> tellak riummai?
<br></b>shit-<font color="#008000">3sns dog</font> who-gen on-<font color="#008000">3sns</font> carpet-gen
<br><i>Whose dog shit on the carpet?</i>
<p><b>Salitum <u>bogimi</u> <font color="#008000">mianum</font>?
<br></b>clean-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> what-gen <font color="#008000">floor</font>
<br><i>What did you clean the floor with?</i>
</blockquote>
The verb <b>sepk</b>- asks what someone is doing: <b>Supik? </b>‘What are you doing?’ It can be very usefully expanded with the logical connectors:
<blockquote>
<b>Ukḷubunriku <font color="#008000">ḍodgoṭ</font> <u><font color="#0000ff">tou</u></font><u>-supriku</u>?
<br></b>intent-annoy-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s brother-your.sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">for</font>-intent-what-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s </font>
<br><i>(Lit.) You’re annoying your brother because of what-are-you-doing?
<br>Why are you annoying your brother?</i>
</blockquote>
There are two special locative verbs: <b>sadŋ</b>- for questioning <b>location</b>, and <b>senr</b>- for questioning direction or destination:
<blockquote>
<b>Ḍişinu <font color="#008000">ṭailuadnil </font><u>sadiŋu</u>? <u>Senru</u>?
<br></b>see-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s iliu-def </font>where-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s </font>/ whither-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i>Where did you see the iliu? Where was it going? </i>
</blockquote>
One can ask about <b>times</b> with the connectors <b>mur</b>-/<b>de</b>-; but the usual method is to question a possible time: <b>Dunta ḍustaḍ-si?</b> ‘Are you going tomorrow?’ <b>Danta pastdim-si</b>? ‘Did you go last year?’ (From a query about whether something happened at a particular time, it’s not a long jump to a request that the correct information be supplied.)
<p>The verb <b>sakş-</b> asks about the <b>quantity</b> or extent of something: <b><u>Sukşum</b></u><b> </b><b><font color="#008000">koṭinsimul</b></font><b>? </b>‘How much is the boat?’
<p>As <b>manner</b> is not grammaticalized in OS, there is no standard way of asking <b>how</b> something was done. If you want to ask (say) ‘how did the prisoner escape?’, you will have to rephrase: where is the prisoner? why is he not here? who allowed it, the prisoner escaping?
<h4><a name="negatives">Negatives</a></h4>
As noted under <i>Morphology</i>, the negative applies to all the other moods: it negates the perfect, the intentive, the desiderative, or the metutive.
<blockquote>
<b>Şbourum <font color="#008000">riullal</font>.
<br></b>neg-light-<font color="#ff0000">1p</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">fire-def</font>
<br><i>We didn’t light the fire.
<br>Or, I won't light the fire. Or, I don't want to. Or, I fear to.</i>
</blockquote>
To negate an <b>imperative</b>, however, the particle <b>gba</b> is used with the ordinary imperative: <b>gba ukḍibe</b> ‘don't lie to me!’
<p>The negative words listed under <i>Quantifiers</i>, including the negative suffix -<b>ṭas</b>, must be used with the negative mood:
<blockquote>
<b>Gndu <font color="#008000">ṭosim</font>. Klte ḍusṭas. Ŋlisum <font color="#008000">ṭagṭas</font>.
<br></b>neg-come-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#008000">nobody</font> / neg-sleep-<font color="#008000">1s</font> never / neg-eat-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin fish-none</font>
<br><i>No one is coming. I never sleep. I won’t eat any fish.</i>
</blockquote>
Negative questions are formed according to the standard rules for questions:
<blockquote>
<b>Gnidum-si <font color="#008000">unaŋellemgoş</font>? <font color="#0000ff">Aḷde</font>-bsigum-si?
<br></b>neg-bring-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>Q <font color="#008000">blanket-your</font> / <font color="#0000ff">then</font>-neg-lack-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> Q
<br><i>You’re not bringing your blanket? You won’t miss it?</i>
</blockquote>
Ṭas</b>- is also used as a logical connector. If the preceding verb is positive, it excludes a case from the main action; we can translate it ‘except’:
<blockquote>
<b>Guḍobuli <font color="#008000">ageşorodor</font> <font color="#0000ff">ṭas</font>-<font color="#008000">aŋeloto</font>.
<br></b>support-<font color="#ff0000">1pex</font>-<font color="#008000">3p ruler-pl-our</font> / <font color="#0000ff">not</font>-<font color="#008000">dictator-pl</font>
<br><i>We support our rulers, except dictators.</i>
</blockquote>
If the preceding clause is negative, however, <b>ṭas</b>- simply gives a more specific case, and we can translate it ‘not even’:
<blockquote>
<b>Nnobuki <font color="#008000">skouranda</font> <font color="#0000ff">ṭas</font>-<font color="#008000">Guṭḷeliki</font>.
<br></b>neg-cheat-<font color="#ff0000">1pex</font>-<font color="#008000">3p Skourenes</font> / <font color="#0000ff">not</font>-<font color="#008000">Guṭḷeliki</font>
<i>We do not cheat Skourenes, not even people from Guṭḷeli.</i>
</blockquote>
<table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#B8B8D0">
<h3><a name="examples">Examples</a></h3>
</td></tr></table>
<h4><a name="ex1">Example: 1. Usṭişum Paurṭuti -- Lazybones’s Puzzle</a></h4>
The Skourenes had no schools; children were taught at home, largely by observing or participating in the paperwork of the family business: inventory, making change, weighing, currency conversion, accounting, correspondence.
<p>However, it was felt that puzzles and games developed the mind, and there were many collections of these. This one, unsigned, dates from Engidori from about Z.E. 650.
<p>Paurṭut means ‘lazy (child)’, and is a nickname rather than a given name. We find him in other anecdotes and stories as well; he is something of a folkloric character. Though usually disdained for his laziness, he is sometimes admired for finding clever ways to avoid work.
<p>Looking at the numbers, remember that OS uses base 12, not base 10.
<blockquote>
<b>Ṭou-piraṭ naurranim Ippaurṭut giurra morḍog ḷa-ded, ḷa-satramim diḷaig moṭ.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">for</font>-game / incep-desid-want-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#008000">cube </font><font color="#008000">24 and-3</font> <font color="#ff0000">Lazybones</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-desid-measure-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> finger-gen one
<br>Feminine forms are used, implying that Paurṭut is a child (of either sex).
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">For a game, Paurṭut wanted 27 cubes one finger’s width each.</i></font>
<p><b>Nirranum giurra ḷa-satmum diḷaig ded ḷa-ḍetşum.
<br></b>have-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin cube</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-measure-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>finger-gen three / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-make.blue-<font color="#008000">3sin
<br></font>OS resists reifying colors and other qualities. ‘Blue’ exists only as a suffix <b>-toş</b> and a verb <b>detş-</b> ‘be(come) blue’.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He had a cube measuring 3 fingers, which was painted blue.</i></font>
<p><b>Tinrasum giurral aḷde-niurranim giuṭirra morḍog ḷa-ded; ḷa-nulidum daŋum goḍlimi babtoş kla-babburn.
<br></b>cut-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin cube-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">then</font>-have-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin cube-dim</font><font color="#008000"> 24 and-3</font> / <font color="#008000">and</font>-know-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> exist-<font color="#008000">3pin side-pl- some-blue </font><font color="#0000ff">or</font><font color="#008000">-some-wooden</font>
<br>The idiom <i>noun-pl quant-x</i> <b>kla-</b><i>quant-y</i>, where <i>quant</i> is a quantifier, gives the composition of a group in terms of qualities <i>x </i>and <i>y</i>. We’ll see this again below with <b>ḍega</b> ‘half’.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He cut the cube into 27 cubes; but of course some sides were blue, some were wood color.</i></font>
<p><b>Ḍeutraşim giuṭirraḷ şiu-goḍlimmoṭ giurraudoḷ.
<br></b>incep-make.blue-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin cube-dim-pl-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">only</font>-side-one cube-pl-gen
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He began painting the cubelets blue, one side of one cube at a time.</i></font>
<p><b>De-ḍetraşim goḍlim morg ŋa-delrad ḷa-nilaukşim goḍlimi giurraudoḷ ḍegatoş kla-ḍegaburn.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">after</font>-make.blue-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin side twelve</font> / <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-decide-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> desid-suffice-<font color="#008000">3pin side-dim-pl</font> cube-pl-gen-each half-blue or-half-wooden
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">But after painting 12 sides, he decided that it was sufficient if each cube was half blue and half not. </i></font>
<p><b>Saukşim goḍlimi ḷa-ḍtraşim?
<br></b>how.many-<font color="#008000">3pin side-pl</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-neg-make.blue-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">How many sides does he still have to paint?</font></i>
</blockquote>
The answer to the puzzle is <b>morg ḷa-ded</b>.
<ul>
<li>A related puzzle: how many <i>cubes</i> did Paurṭut paint? (I hope you didn’t answer <b>morḍog ḷa-ded</b>; the answer is <b>morg ḷa-depsan</b>.)
<li>If Paurṭut hadn’t been so lazy, he would have made the cubes entirely blue. How many wooden sides would he have to paint, in total? (Answer: <b>mormops</b>.)
<br>
</ul>
<h4><a name="ex2">2. Ṭisutrand -- The Ṭisutran</a></h4>
This is a little parable from the writer <b>Ḍodsians,</b> who was born in Iṭili around Z.E. 410. The variety of OS literature is so great that I can’t say that it’s typical, but it does include many of the literary tropes that were popular in Skouras: a merchant hero, a little adventure, a little sex, a little understated moralism. It’s somewhat unusual for Ḍodsians himself, however; he devoted his considerable energies to a deadly earnest series of works on political philosophy and the history of the wars against Ṭisuram. But later centuries remember him only for his one thin book of stories (including this one), which he wrote for his children.
<p>The first woman is obviously an iliu (<b>ṭailuadni</b>). These were fairly well known to the Skourenes— it was easier to get to the iliu enclave north of Feináe than to Axunai. However, this area was not exotic enough to form the basis of a cautionary fantasy; Ḍodsians therefore places her far to the west, past where the known world ended in Luduyn. There actually is an iliu enclave on the southern coast of Ereláe, in Jagai, though it’s unlikely that Ḍodsians actually knew this.
<p>Syntactic notes are placed after the glosses and before the translation. If a mood is not named, it’s perfect; e.g. “and-bring-3s-3pns” should be taken as the perfect “and he brought them”.
<blockquote>
<b>Şuḷm boiḍudaŋ iṭṭisutrand ḷa-ḍarḍim kirok ḍiran ḷa-şketa ḷa-sortimikos ḷa-ŋartim ḷa-ḍaurḍim reller ḷa-bika ḷa-ḍairḷoḍ.
<br></b>int-sail-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> west-gen-locate-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> <font color="#ff0000">Ṭisutran</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-bring-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pns</font> <font color="#008000">weapon-pl and-tin and-wine and-clothes-pl-fine</font> and-trade-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pns</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-bring-incep-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pns</font> <font color="#008000">spice and-silver and-amber</font>
<br>OS does not have double accusatives; it can’t directly say ‘he traded X for Y’, but ‘he traded X and brought Y.’
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">A man from Ṭisutra sailed to the west, bringing weapons, tin, wine, and fine clothing, which he traded for spices, silver, and amber. </i></font>
<p><b>Saŋkum psiukkasan nsul-dntu unru Ṭisutrai aŋ-inbuştu boiḍunru nen-bşti ḍodrim.
<br></b>successful-<font color="#008000">3sns</font> <font color="#008000">expedition-his</font> <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font>-return-neg-<font color="#ff00ff">3s</font> int-go-<font color="#ff00ff">3s</font> Ṭisutra-gen <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-attempt--int-travel-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> west-go-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-dur-go-neg-<font color="#ff0000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">us-people
<br></font>The generalized <b>ḍodrim</b> ‘people’ can be taken here as meaning ‘we Skourenes’.<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">His expedition was so successful that instead of returning to Ṭisutra he decided to travel farther west, beyond the lands that anyone knows.</i></font>
<p><b>Neru ṭretai mirḍok aḷ-ekurenairam ŋa-barasgi mandimi— ŋa-maraspum mur-girput ameşod, kau-kuarran nen-illenis ḷa-şuagluṭ nen-ikkuḷiŋ, ḷa-karaḷraşim tişaptoş ḷa-bul kau-şeabrim nen-riulla.
<br></b>come-<font color="#008000">3s</font> land-gen remote <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-beauty-gen-great / <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-dur-lack-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">people</font>/ <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-dur-think-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">until</font>-encounter-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> woman / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-dur-int-attract-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#ff0000">goddess</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-proud-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>-<font color="#ff0000">refl</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#ff0000">lion</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-had.inalienably-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#008000">skin-blue</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">hair</font> / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-dur-glow-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">fire
<br></font>The woman does not possess her skin and hair like she does her house; she enjoys the use of them. These are two different verbs in OS, <b>nirn</b>- and <b>kalş</b>-.
<br>“Without people” is— like almost everything else— a subclause, literally “though it continually lacked people.”
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He came to a remote land of great beauty, yet empty of people, or so he thought till he encountered a woman, lovely as a goddess, proud as a lion, with blue skin and hair the color of fire. </i></font>
<p><b>Srratim sortimi şiu-sirat ḷa-maḍaṭiŋ.
<br></b>wore-neg-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sns</font> <font color="#008000">clothes</font> <font color="#0000ff">except</font>-<font color="#008000">belt</font> and-<font color="#008000">jewel-pl</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">She wore no clothing except a belt and jewelry. </i></font>
<p><b>Gauştut ogpu ḷa-ŋirimput ṭou-tasnut.
<br></b>incep-love-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> wait-neg-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-cyc-beg-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> / <font color="#0000ff">for</font>-desid-marry-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>
<br><b>Ogpu</b> is literally ‘he didn’t wait’; without a connector, it’s an adverbial— “at once”.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He fell in love with her at once, and begged her to become his wife.</i></font>
<p><b>Şmrapu ŋa-inmindaintu ḍusdoḷ<font color="#ff0000"> </font> inneirum luiṭ laŋ-daraŋut ḍaradnut greiḍaḍarkos ḷa-ŋirimput.
<br></b>neg-consent-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-back-attempt-cycl-go-<font color="#008000">3s</font> day-every go-<font color="#008000">3s</font> meadow-gen / <font color="#0000ff">there</font>-dur-reside-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> dur-inside-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> house-gen-stone-fine / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-cyc-beg-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">She refused, but every day he returned to the meadow where she lived in a fine stone house, and pleaded with her. </i></font>
<p><b>Oŋlsu ŋiraş ḷa-ḍeandum ŋiraşul ḷa-ḍaurḍum kru-garaştut.
<br></b>eat-neg-<font color="#008000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-scorn-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin money </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font>-acquire-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>/ because-dur-love-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He did not eat, and he scorned the riches he had won, he was so enamored of her. </i></font>
<p><b>Dedimu ḍaḍḍut, ŋa-nelranum aḷ-udni ṭreitasat ḷa-gba utrlum nilam ḷa-gba unuşṭ ḷa-gba udunmut ameşod şiu-tosnissan.
<br></b>after-long soften-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> <font color="#0000ff">but-</font>say-<font color="#008000">3sin</font>-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-imper-reside-<font color="#008000">3p</font> land-gen-her / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-not imper-touch-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">gold</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-not steal-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-not sex-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf woman</font> <font color="#0000ff">except</font>-<font color="#008000">wife-his
<br></font>The reported commands are simply expressed as imperatives.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Finally she relented, but she said that they must live in her land, and that he must never touch gold, nor steal, nor make love to any woman but his wife. </i></font>
<p><b>Şamput agaṭḷi kru-ḍadŋ ṭreital ḍuşnum nilammoṭ, aḷ-adaŋimoṭ şim-ameşodtoşul, aḷ-greḍamoṭ şim-aḍasni.
<br></b>agree-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3f </font>glad-part / <font color="#0000ff">because</font>-inside-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> land-gen-def neg-see-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font><font color="#008000">-3sin gold-one / </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font><font color="#008000">-resident-one except</font>-<font color="#008000">woman-blue-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">house-one</font> <font color="#0000ff">except</font>-<font color="#008000">hers</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He gladly assented, for in this land he had seen no gold, nor any inhabitant but the blue woman, nor any house but hers. </i></font>
<p><b>Aḷde-dinmut, ḷa-ŋaraktim molmsat idma nen-ameşoddoḷ ṭaildoḷ, ḷa-deanḍim milonsat idma, ḷa-niadpum medsat idma.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">then</font>-sex-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3f</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-warm-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#008000">lip-pl-her</font> more <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">woman-every</font> world-gen / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-soft-<font color="#008000">3pin breast-pl-her</font> more / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-active-<font color="#008000">3s body-her </font>more
<br>The particle <b>idma</b> stands in for the whole repeated <b>nen</b>- clause in the last two comparisons.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Then she made love to him, and her lips were the warmest of any woman in the world, her breasts the softest, her body the liveliest.</i></font>
<p><b>Daraŋi taraḍi past geld ḷa-ḍspi ḍusṭas kau-ŋsomi molnimi.
<br></b>live-dur-<font color="#008000">3p</font> together-dur-<font color="#008000">3p</font> year 144 / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-age-neg-<font color="#008000">3p</font> never / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-sire-neg-<font color="#ff0000">3p</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">child-pl</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">They lived together for one hundred years, never aging, and having no children.</i></font>
<p><b>
<br>De-past geld ḷa-ḍus baurukpu ṭisutrandul.
<br></b>after-year 144 <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-day incep-desid-wander-<font color="#008000">3s Ṭisutran</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">After a hundred years and a day, the man from Ṭisutra felt the urge to wander. </i></font>
<p><b>Mendu goşpa sepu greiḍasan, de-bakpu ḍus mar aḷ-aibiltum greṭiḍitsai kau-telkum saip.
<br></b>walk-<font color="#008000">3s</font> far leave-<font color="#008000">3s</font> house-gen-his / <font color="#0000ff">after</font>-wander-<font color="#008000">3s</font> day six / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-caus-find-<font color="#008000">3s</font> hut-small-gen / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-on.top-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> mountain-gen
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He walked far from his house, and after a week’s travel he came to a small hut on a mountain peak. </i></font>
<p><b>Diardut greṭiḍai bararḍut ameşod taraḍut riullai.
<br></b>dur-front-<font color="#008000">3sf </font>hut-gen / dur-sit-<font color="#008000">3sf woman </font>/<font color="#008000"> </font>dur-next.to-<font color="#008000">3sf </font>fire-gen
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Before the hut a woman sat before a burning fire. </i></font>
<p><b>Karalraşum buldimşalg ḷa-ḍug nilaim ḷa-tişap ḷa-şeabrum nen-maki; ḷa-tirṭum degasat reḍirimuşt; ḷa-ḍamkearnut.
<br></b>dur-have.inalienable-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin hair-long-brown</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">eye-pl</font> gold-gen / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">skin</font> and-glow-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> as-<font color="#008000">wheat</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-made-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">robe-her</font> linen-gen-red / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-wholly-dur-attract-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">She had long brown hair and golden eyes, and skin the color of wheat; her robe was red linen; she was altogether lovely. </i></font>
<p><b>Serratim merrem nilaim, ḷa-moŋa ḷa-merreme miḍaim nilaim, ḷa-serratum bolḍellet nilaim ḍadnim burul.
<br></b>wear-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#008000">circlet</font> gold-gen <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">earring-pl</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-<font color="#008000">circlet-pl</font> wrist-gen gold-gen / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-wear-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">crown</font> dur-in-3sin hair-pl-gen-her
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">She wore a gold necklace, golden earrings and bracelets, and a gold crown in her hair. </i></font>
<p><b>Nelnum, “Ḷa-nuarrinum nilam nen-mukrişum, nsul-ḍuansat!”
<br></b>say-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-desid-have-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">gold</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-int-that.extent-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font>-int-rich-<font color="#008000">2sf
<br></font><b>Makş</b>- ‘to be to an extent’, when it qualifies another verb, takes the same verb form. We may translate ‘...to have gold to the extent you do.’
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“You must be a rich woman indeed to have so much gold,” he told her.</i></font>
<p><b>“Şuş!” ḷa-nelranum. “Mekoakşum nilam nen-ukḷumisan.
<br></b>pff / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-say-<font color="#ff0000">3sf-</font><font color="#008000">3sin</font> / here-metut-dur-spread-<font color="#008000">3s gold</font> <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">weed</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“Pff! It is as common as weeds in these parts,” she told him. </i></font>
<p><b>Surrutum nilamdoḷul kla-piŋurrunum naurinum, şiu-nd-uḍriḍum dlenal nuilmimi nen-searitum mneṭa-gre-mneṭa.”
<br></b>int-wear-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin gold-all-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-int-un-have-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>int-incep-have-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">only-after</font>-imper-bring-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin metal-def moon-gen</font> / <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-dur-wear-<font color="#ff0000">2s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> weight-for-weight
<br>Literally, “I wear all this gold, I give it / you take it, after you bring metal of the moons, as you wear it, weight for weight.”
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“I will give all I wear for its weight in the moon-metal you are wearing.”</i></font>
<p><b>Bika gre-nilam— dildum ḷa-mnegḍlum!
<br></b><font color="#008000">silver</font> for-gold cheap-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-neg-pass-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Silver for gold— this was a bargain he could not pass up! </i></font>
<p><b>“Ukmripe,” ḷa-delnum.
<br></b>imper-wait-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">1s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-say-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“Wait here,” he said.</i></font>
<p><b>Minbiştu şolmimisan ḷa-teḷḍarḍum bikakuş ḷa-patku ḷa-teḷḍarḍim ḍairḷoḍsanbab ḷa-reller.
<br></b>back-travel-<font color="#008000">3s</font> ship-gen-his / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-gather-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">silver-much</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-whim-<font color="#008000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-gather-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> <font color="#008000">amber-gis-some and-spice
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">He travelled back to his ship, gathered much silver, and on a whim gathered some of his amber and spices as well. </i></font>
<p><b>Aḷde-mnebiştu ḍuis mar neru greṭiḍitsai ameşodi.
<br></b>then-walk-travel-<font color="#008000">3s</font> day-gen six / move-<font color="#008000">3s</font> hut-small-gen woman-gen
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Then he walked the week’s journey back to the woman’s hut. </i></font>
<p><b>Ḍimgendu ḷa-suanrar uatraḍ riullai.
<br></b>there-come-<font color="#008000">3s</font> <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-intent-dur-cook-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> /<font color="#008000"> </font>intent-dur-next.to-<font color="#008000">3sf </font>fire-gen
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">When he approached, the woman was cooking on her fire. </i></font>
<p><b>Pirsut aṭi-ḍişranu, ḷa-paurragim mombik giṭḷut ḷa-ḍarḍim.
<br></b>smile-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> / <font color="#0000ff">when</font>-see-<font color="#ff0000">3sf-</font><font color="#008000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-incep-inspect-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin thing-pl-silver</font> / delight-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-bring-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">She smiled when she saw him, and looked with delight at the silver items he had brought.</i></font>
<p><b>“Kearnim nsul-bundu atesoŋŋot,” ḷa-nelranum.
<br></b>beauty-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font>-intent-marvel-<font color="#008000">3s husband-my.f</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-say-<font color="#ff00ff">3sf-</font><font color="#008000">3sin</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“My husband will be amazed at their beauty,” she said. </i></font>
<p><b>“Sunrurum aṭi ŋliussasan, kla-kumpu.”
<br></b>intent-cook-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin meal-his</font> / but-int-delay-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“I am cooking his dinner now; but he is delayed.”</i></font>
<p><b>Sigum plesa ṭisutrandul ḷa-saranrum ḷa-ḍeskum şliuppai ḷa-sigum nen-punspiutta, nsul-ḍamŋolbausig.
<br></b>smell-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin beef</font> <font color="#ff0000">Ṭisutran-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-cook-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-white-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> fat-gen / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-smell-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / as-procession / <font color="#0000ff">therefore</font>-wholly-incep-hunger-<font color="#008000">3s</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">The man smelled the cooking beef, white with fat, fragrant as a temple festival, and was overcome with hunger. </i></font>
<p><b>Nelnum, “Aḷ-uḍşinim, ḷa-ḍauruḍim riullamna aḷ-gneka aḷ-şreta aḷ-gairoukum.”
<br></b>say-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-imper-see-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-bring-<font color="#ff0000">1s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin pepper and-salt and-coriander and-cumin</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“Look, I’ve brought pepper and salt and coriander and cumin,” said the man. </i></font>
<p><b>“Uḍbriḍim udriŋim ŋolḍreinagoṭ, aḷ-uŋlrus utuḍat.”
<br></b>imper-add-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> imper-inside-<font color="#ff0000">2sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> stew-gen-your.f / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-imper-eat-<font color="#ff0000">1s</font> imper-next.to-<font color="#ff0000">1s</font>-<font color="#008000">2sf</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“Add some of them to your stew and let me eat with you.”</i></font>
<p><b>Şamrapu, ḷa-ḍamsanrar rellerisan, ḷa-ŋelos toḍ.
<br></b>agree-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3s </font>/ <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-wholly-cook-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font> spice-gen-his / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-eat-<font color="#ff0000">3p</font> together-<font color="#ff0000">3p</font>
<br>The instrumental is expressed as a genitive immediately following the verb.<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">The woman agreed, and finished cooking with his condiments, and they ate together.</i></font>
<p><b>“Bunruda,” ḷa-nelranum. “Udnum ḍerreḍugoş bogimgog?”
<br></b>int-marvel-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">2s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-say-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font><font color="#ff00ff">-</font><font color="#008000">3sin</font> / int-inside-<font color="#008000">3s</font> bag-pl-gen-your <font color="#008000">what-other</font>
<br>Note that the ‘other’ quantifier can be added to the interrogative pronouns.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“You are a man of wonders,” she told him. “What else is in those bags of yours?”</i></font>
<p><b>Ḍişnum ḍairḷoḍul adarbi aḷ-aŋarni kau-şeabrum nen-aşeboṭir kla-nilam kla-riulla.
<br></b>show-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin amber-def </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font><font color="#008000">-polished </font><font color="#0000ff">and</font><font color="#008000">-murky</font> / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-dur-glow-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">as</font>-<font color="#008000">sun-dimin</font> or-<font color="#008000">gold</font> or-<font color="#008000">fire</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He showed her the amber, polished, translucent, some glowing like little suns, some like gold, some like fire.</i></font>
<p><b>“Narrunim momu,” ḷa-nelranum.
<br></b>desid-have-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3p</font> <font color="#008000">thing-pl-def</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-say-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font><font color="#ff00ff">-</font><font color="#008000">3sin</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“These things I desire too,” she said. </i></font>
<p><b>“Ŋa-barasrugum nosḍreḍadoḷ ṭas-mamul.”
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">but</font>-lack-<font color="#ff0000">1sf</font><font color="#008000">-3s payment-all</font> / <font color="#0000ff">except</font>-<font color="#008000">thing-def</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">“But I have no payment to offer but this.” </i></font>
<p><b>Aḷde-tasratum degasat ḷa-barraḍim terolsan telk-milonsat.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">then</font>-open-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> <font color="#008000">robe-her</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-put-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin hand-pl-his</font> on-breast-pl-her
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">And she opened her robe and placed his hands on her breasts. </i></font>
<p><b>Ḍişranum şampum, ḷa-dinmut ḍiurakuş taḍut riullaisat.
<br></b>offer-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> accept-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-make.love-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> hour-gen-many beside-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf</font> fire-gen-her
<br>The lack of connective on <b>şampum</b> binds it closer to the previous verb, making it an aspect of a single action: “she offered + he accepted”
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">He accepted her gift, and they made love beside her fire for hours. </i></font>
<p><b>Aḷde-teḷḍarḍum nilam ḷa-nirranum, aḷde-mindantu ḍuis mar neru greiḍasan; sararkum ŋriuttasan ḷa-maraspum triulla meulmsat.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">then</font>-gather-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin gold</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-give-<font color="#ff0000">3sf</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin </font>/ <font color="#008000">then</font>-return-<font color="#008000">3s </font>day-gen six / go.to-<font color="#008000">3s</font> house-gen-his / dur-please-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin sale-his</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-remember-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin touch</font> lip-gen-pl-her
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Afterward he gathered up the gold she gave him, and returned the week’s journey to his own home, pleased with his trade, and still feeling the taste of her lips.</i></font>
<p><b>Aṭi-mindantu ŋa-barasgum greḍaḍar ḷa-barasgut tosnissan ṭas-bol ṭas-ganbeta.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">when</font>-return-<font color="#008000">3s</font> / <font color="#0000ff">but</font>-dur-lack-<font color="#008000">3sin house-stone</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-dur-lack-<font color="#008000">3sf wife-his</font> / <font color="#0000ff">not</font>-<font color="#008000">hair</font> / <font color="#0000ff">not</font>-<font color="#008000">foot-sign
<br></font>‘Lack’ is effectively negative, so <b>ṭas</b>- reinforces it rather than introducing an exception.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">But when he returned, there was no stone house, nor any sign of his wife, not even a hair or a footprint. </i></font>
<p><b>Kussiptum minmaspum ḍamşmiuppasan.
<br></b>out-after-<font color="#ff0000">3s-</font><font color="#008000">3sin</font> remember-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin promise-his</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Too late, he remembered his promise. </i></font>
<p><b>Ŋa-terlum nilam, ḷa-ŋiştum ŋliussa gogimi, ḷa-dinmut tosnisgog.
<br></b><font color="#0000ff">but</font>-touch-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin gold </font>/ <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-steal-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sin meal other.person-gen</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-sex-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3sf wife-other</font>
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">But he had touched gold, and stolen another man’s meal, and slept with the man’s wife.</i></font>
<p><b>Mspu idmaṭas, kru-ḍamterlim past geld de-basgim, ḷa-targu ḍumak ḷa-keşgu.
<br></b>neg-think-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font> more-not / <font color="#0000ff">because</font>-wholly-touch-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin year 144</font> / <font color="#0000ff">after</font>-miss-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3pin</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-fall-<font color="#008000">3s</font> there / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-die-<font color="#008000">3s
<br></font>The middle section is literally “Because the 144 years completely touched him, after they missed him [before]”.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">This was his last thought, for the hundred years which had not touched him now swept over him in a minute, and he fell down on that spot dead.</i></font>
</blockquote>
<h4><a name="ex3">3. Agedor Skourandul -- Protector of the Skourenes</a></h4>
This is an extract from a bit of propaganda written in the late 790s by a senator from Meŋeland, extolling the dictator of the city, Eŋŋuloşum, perhaps the greatest general produced by ancient Skouras. He had won fame just a few years before by his successful assault on Guṭḷeli— ending a brutal twelve-year war, and ending as well Guṭḷeli’s attempt to create an empire over Skouras.
<p>The imperial idea was in the air— the Jeori emperors Toma:un and Suma:un had recently conquered half of the Ezičimi states, and it was not long before Axuna would begin its march to empire. (<i>Toma:un</i> appears in the text in its Old Jeori form <i>Tamon</i>.) The Skourenes knew the Jeori well— they were longtime trading partners and rivals, and were frankly considered a little backward. Skourene ships were bigger, faster, and more powerful; Skourene armies were hardened by centuries of war. The right man in the right city could surely surpass the Jeori achievement.
<p>Eŋŋuloşum seemed to many— certainly to everyone in his hometown of Meŋeland— to be that man. In 795 he supported the rebellion of Iṭili against Engidori. Engidori sent an army to punish him; he ambushed it along the <i>Gerredtar</i>, the south road, and cut it to pieces. A few years later he attacked Papliopagimi and whipped it and Engidori again.
<p>The passage is written in the <b>dialect of Meŋeland</b>, not that far from the delta standard, but with a few peculiarities, e.g
<ul>
<li>the interrogative particle is -<b>su</b> instead of -<b>si
<li></b>the ergative is indicated by a particle <b>ŋu-</b> rather than <b>iC/ŋ-
<li>dant- </b>‘go’ has been pressed into service as a future tense prefix <b>det</b>-
<br>
</ul>
There are a number of spelling differences, which have been regularized, as they are inconsistent, and highly ambiguous due to the nature of the writing system. Some of them point to some phonetic simplifications (e.g. <b>kau</b>- is often written <b>ka-</b>); it’s also notable that <b>Guṭḷeli</b> is written <b>Guṭḷei</b>, a presentiment of the Uṭandal spelling <b>Gudlai.</b>
<blockquote>
<b>Pagmu tebbeḍram ŋu-Tamon boṭşinkos Ḍabriŋi ḷa-pamdi ḍabriŋikil.
<br></b>conquer-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s empire-great</font> <font color="#ff0000">Toma:un</font> king Jeor-gen / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-benefit-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p Jeori-pl-def
<br></font><b>Pamd</b>- ‘help’ is a regionalism; the delta standard is <b>ŋeml-</b> ‘benefit’.
<br><i><font color="#0000ff">Toma:un, the ruler of Jeor, conquered a great empire for the Jeori. </i></font>
<p><b>Det-gandu abeg nen-kuḷiŋaŋ kau-pamdi skourandal?
<br></b>fut-desid-come-<font color="#008000">3s who</font> <font color="#0000ff">like</font>-<font color="#008000">lion-that</font> / <font color="#0000ff">topic</font>-benefit-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3p Skourene-pl-def
<br></font>The connector <b>kau</b>- promotes the absolutive subject of ‘come’ into the ergative subject of ‘benefit’.<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Who will be a similar lion among the Skourenes?</i></font>
<p><b>Det-ŋasmeg ŋu-abeg ḷa-det-ḍarmeg ṭou-mandram?
<br></b>fut-desid-raise-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1p</font> <font color="#ff0000">who</font> / <font color="#0000ff">and</font>-fut-desid-make.great-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">1p </font><font color="#0000ff">purpose</font>-people-great
<br>The first verb has the connotation ‘raise as a father’; the agent form <b>aŋesom</b>, in fact, is the word for ‘father’.<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Who will raise us into a great nation?</i></font>
<p><b>Nalunu Eŋŋuloşum-su, kau-pagmu Guṭḷeli, ḷa-ṭuḍu Iṭili, ḷa-ḍamrelu Engidori?
<br></b>desid-refer-<font color="#ff0000">1s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s </font><font color="#008000">Eŋŋuloşum</font><font color="#008000">-Q</font> / topic-conquer-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s Guṭḷeli </font>/ and-free-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s Iṭili </font>/ and-destroy-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s Engidori
<br></font>Literally, ‘Do I want to refer to...?’; this is comparable to our rhetorical ‘Is it not...?’
<br><b>Ḍamrel</b>-, literally ‘wholly burn’, is another regionalism; the standard is <b>piŋgitr</b>- ‘destroy’.<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Is it not Eŋŋuloşum, the conqueror of Guṭḷeli, the liberator of Iṭili, the destroyer of Engidori?</i></font>
<p><b>Inkirku-su ŋu-ṭretamoṭ? Pagmu-su ŋu-ŋelotmoṭ?
<br></b>resist-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-Q <font color="#ff0000">city-one</font> / defeat-<font color="#ff0000">3s</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-Q <font color="#ff0000">general-one</font><font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Has any city resisted him? Has any general defeated him? </i></font>
<p><b>Det-baunaraludu-su agedorram skourandul?
<br></b>fut-desid-dur-name-<font color="#ff0000">1p</font>-<font color="#008000">3s</font>-Q protector-gen Skourene-gen-pl-def<font color="#008000">
<br></font><i><font color="#0000ff">Will he not be called the Great Protector of the Skourenes?
</i></font>
</blockquote>
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<h3><a name="writing">Writing </a></h3>
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Around 100, the city of Iṭili established a trade route with Gotanneli, and from the Ezičimi the Iṭiliki learned the concept of writing and the mechanics of the Axunašin logosyllabary.
<p>Neither logographs nor a syllabary fit Old Skourene. Individual lexical forms were too numerous to create separate glyphs for, while lexemes (e.g. <i>kisn</i>-) were too broad. And the formidable syllable clusters and diphthongs of OS (e.g. <b>bgiuşşa, ḍspi</b>) made a simple syllabary impossible.
<p><img src="illo/ostlp.gif" align="left">
The solution was a mixed system: each word was represented by a logograph representing the lexeme, plus a syllabic representation which merged all the consonants. E.g. <i>ṭuloup</i> ‘we will write’ would be represented by a logograph <tt>ṬLP</tt> and syllabic glyphs <tt>$u-$o-u$</tt>, while <i>ṭlepa</i> ‘document’ would use the same logograph plus syllabic glyphs <tt>$$e-$a</tt>. The syllabic representation need not specify the actual consonants, since these are implied by the logograph.
<p><img src="illo/ostriuttar.gif" align="right">
The logograph was known as a <i>peşşep </i>‘signifier’, the syllabic representation as a <i>triutta </i>‘spelling’. The word derives from the convention that one could say a <i>triutta </i>out loud by using <b>t</b><i> </i>for all the consonants—— e.g. <tt>tu-to-ut</tt> for the first example above. A cluster was represented by <b>tr</b>, so the second example was spelled <tt>tre-ta</tt>.
<p>A single syllabic glyph is a <i>triuṭitta</i>. The full set of <i>triuṭittar</i> is shown at right. (There are no three-consonant glyphs; if necessary, just ignore the extras: <b>ḍspi</b> is spelled <tt>tri</tt>.)
<p><i>Peşşepe</i> are written <b>right to left</b>. The <i>triuttar</i> are written normally written right to left underneath them, but they’re also sometimes written to the left of the <i>peşşep</i>, top to bottom. A Skourene would read the first line of the chart at right as <b>u-o-i-e-a</b>!
<p>The samples are shown in color because the prototypical medium for the Iṭilik script is painting (as that for Chinese characters is brushwork, while medieval European calligraphy, and thus our typography, are based on writing with a bias-cut quill). Handwritten symbols at first closely matched the painted versions, but over the centuries were simplified and stylized much faster.
<p><img src="illo/osnals.gif" align="left">
There were something over 700 <i>peşşepe</i>; but less than half of these were completely independent graphemes. Symbols could be combined to create a <i>peşşep</i>, or adapted from a similar-sounding root: e.g. the glyph for <b>nals-</b> ‘fly’, a picture of a hawk, was used for <b>naḷş-</b> ‘honor’ as well, with the addition of a ribbon (i.e. a mark of honor).
<p><img src="illo/osgeo.gif" align="right">
Geographical names, especialy foreign ones, were something of a problem. For some old borrowings glyphs were devised; e.g. that for <b>Skouras</b> was a stylized picture of a river (also used for <b>ḍel</b> ‘river’), plus some stylized hills. For newer borrowings the usual expedient was to borrow a word with the same consonants; e.g. <b>Aksun</b> uses the glyph for <b>kisn-</b> ‘hear’, with a special initial <i>triuṭitta</i> that indicates that the word is a toponym.
<p>By the way, the representation of <b>Skouras</b>, <tt>tro-u-ta-at</tt>, illustrates two fine points in writing <i>triuttar</i>:
<ul>
<li>Wherever possible, use a CV <i>triuṭitta</i> rather than VC.
<li>Since OS does not permit long vowels, the implied -<i>aa</i>- can be reduced to a single vowel.
</ul>
<p>Other cities adopted the Iṭilik system, but felt free to change the actual glyphs, in order to make it harder for outsiders to read one’s accounting or trade secrets. The result was a plethora of alternate scripts, one for each major city and its colonial empire.
<p>By historical accident, from about 700 to 1000 Skouras was dominated by three different cities all using variations of the script of Guṭḷeli: Guṭḷeli itself, Meŋeland, and Kuḷiŋibor. This therefore became the standard script in the littoral; in Skouras proper, the Iṭilik script was the standard (to a somewhat lesser extent).
<p>After the Tžuro invasion, most of the variants were removed from competition. Gurdago— yet another variant of Guṭḷeliki— had simplified its script; this influenced but did not replace the standard script in the littoral. This modified script is the ancestor of the modern Uṭandal and Gelihurendi scripts.
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<h3><a href="oslex.htm">Lexicon</a></h3>
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