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DispatchFactbookCulture

by Kladderstan. . 34 reads.

kladd

[spoiler=Unsorted grammar stuff]Kuerhyét verbal morphology is both affixing and isolating.

[b]Suinä[/b] - to eat, eating
[b]Suinä[u]nu[/u][/b] - I eat, I’m eating
[b]Suinä[u]die[/u][/b] - thou’re eating
[b]Suin[u]ta[/u][/b] - (s)he/it’s eating

[b]Suinä[u]näm[/u][/b] - the two of us but not you are eating
[b]Suinä[u]mem[/u][/b] - thou and me are eating
[b]Suinä[u]dim[/u][/b] - the two of you’re eating
[b]Suin[u]team[/u][/b] - the two of them are eating

[b]Suinä[u]nä[/u][/b] - we but not you are eating
[b]Suinä[u]me[/u][/b] - we’re eating
[b]Suinä[u]di[/u][/b] - you’re eating
[b]Suin[u]tea[/u][/b] - they’re are eating

[b]Suinä[u]so[/u][/b] - someone is/are eating
There’s a spescial form for mentioning who is eating:
[b]Suin[u]in[/u] Marya[/b] - Marya is eating

Here, suinä is used as an intransitive verb, IE one without an object. In transitive sentences, the personal marking on the verb is reserved for the object, and the subject is either free-standing or marked on a preverb:
[b]Enu suinin ohu[/b] - I’m eating an apple
[b]Adie/edie/idie* suinin ohu[/b] - thou’re eating an apple
[b]Ata suinin ohu[/b] - (s)he/it’s eating an apple
Dual and plural can be inferred from the above list.
*Intimate/general/polite form

Tense and aspect marking is isolating, and done with a preverb:
[b]Suinänu[/b] - I’m eating
[b]Hau suinänu[/b] - I am eating (with marked progressive aspect, I am in the process of eating)
[b]Hua suinänu[/b] - I ate, I have been eating
[b]Huä suinänu[/b] - I have (just) finished eating
[b]Het suinänu[/b] - I finised eating (some time in the past)
[b]Eyer suinänu[/b] - I (just now) started eating
[b]Ayet suinänu[/b] - I started eating (some time in the past)
[b]Tuo suinänu[/b] - I’m going to eat
[b]Tuet suinänu[/b] - I was going to eat
[b]Na suinänu[/b] - I use to eat
[b]Nena suinänu[/b] - I used to eat
(This list is not exhaustive, and I’ve probably not even worked out all forms yet..)

Adding an object, thus turning suinä into a transitive verb will mean the subject (or more correctly, agent) is marked on the preverb. It’s never wrong to mark every subject on the preverb, but 1p.sg (I) can be omitted on certain preverbs, and 3p.sg can be omitted on others.. (I might edit in a list and a bit more explanations later, but I’m kindof running out of time rn..):

[b]Hua suinta / huanu suinta[/b] - I ate it.
[b]Nenayin Mihala suinin buiju[/b] - Mihal used to eat snot
There is also negator yu, yes/no-question verbal suffix -cyi and question particle ci:
[b]Yudie nenacyi suinin buiju ci?[/b] - You didn't use to eat snot, did you?

Distinguish three numbers; singular, dual and plural.

1st person inclusive: enu / enäm / inä - I / we two / we >2
1st person exclusive: - / emem / ime - we two (but not you) / we >2 (but not you)

2nd person distinguish three degrees of closeness, with only singular distinguishing between all three.
2nd person intimate: adie / edim / idi
2nd person general: edie / edim / idi
2nd person polite: idie / idim / idi

3rd person does not distinguish between gender nor animacy.
3rd person: ata / etem / ite (he, she, it / they (2) / they (>2))
4th person is used to mark a continued reference of a 3rd person when a new 3rd person is mentioned.
4th person: ise (no number distinction)


Kuerhyét verbals come in two distinct classes: verbs and preverbs. Verbs are the most numerous among these. It's an open word class with a great variety and sometimes fluent borders towards other wordclasses such as nouns and modifiers. In a sentence, verbs usually follow a subject or an inflected preverb. Some verbs require a preverb, and all verbs require a preverb to specify past tense (in opposition to non-past tense) as well as imperfective aspect (roughly corresponding to future tense).

[u]Verbs[/u] take personal marking (by suffix) for:
1) the object of the sentence (or clause) in monotransitive sentences (ones with one subject/agent and one object/patient), 
2) the indirect object in ditransitive sentences (ones with one subject/patient and two objects (indirect/recipient, direct/theme)
3) the sole argument of intransitive sentences (sentences with just one subject/argument) (making Kuerhyét typologically a language with syntactic eregative marking - a very rare thing in natural languages).

[u]Preverbs[/u] on the other hand, is a small, closed class of verbs. As the name implies, they usually comes as the first element of the sentence or clause. They take personal marking for:
1) subject (agent) of transitive sentences (both mono- and ditransitive)
2) subject (sole argument) of intransitive sentences, [i]unless[/i] there is a verb as well in the clause.

Personal marking paradigm
[b]P: sg / du / pl (translation)[/b]
1.p exclusive: -nu / -näm / -nä (I, me / we two, not you / we more than two, not you)
1.p inclusive: - / -mem / -me (we two, you included / we more than two, you included)
2.p: -die / -dim / - di (you / you two / you more than two)
3.p: -ta / -team / -tea (it/he/she / they/them two / they/them)
3. overt: -in (used when the 3.p person referent is imediately mentioned after the inflected verbal)
0.p -so (indefinite pronoun (some) as well as reflexive (-self/-selves)

-nu 1.p.sg is mandatory in verbs but may be dropped in preverbs.

There are no more than nine preverbs, and they have two supplemental forms for each of the tenses; non-past and past.
The nine preverbs in their two forms are:

[u][b]Non-past / Past - function: example sentence(s)[/b][/u]
[b]hä / hea[/b] - adjectival copula: [i]Häta hihälí[/i] - that’s funny. [i]Hea(nu) ibiyú[/i] - I was thirsty
[b]ne / nean[/b] - nominal copula: [i]Nedie hyéthauayín?[/i] - Are you a conlanger?
[b]na / nau[/b] - locational copula: [i]Naumem mueda?[/i] - Where were we (two)?
[b]yu / yoa[/b] - negative copula: [i]Yu häta suyí![/i] - it’s not red!
[b]tuo / tue[/b] - imperfect copula: [i]Tuoso bietä[/i] - It’s going to rain.
[b]jie / jeat[/b] - to have (to own): [i]Jeatdi suipúe hakí[/i] - they had a black cat
[b]haua / heyet[/b] - to do, make, happen: [i]Hauanu suina[/i] - I’m making dinner
[b]huä / het[/b] - to arrive, to come: [i]Hetin babudie yapalic[/i] - Your father came yesterday
[b]eyer / ayet[/b] - to leave, to go: [i]Eyernä icic[/i] - We’re leaving now

As you can see from the samples, there can be more than one preverb per sentence, where usually only the last one of these have personal marking.[/spoiler]

Kladderstan

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