Re: Senyecan Verb Idiom I

(Yoo hoo, I'm baaack..., still have some catching up to do in the Archive)

Charlie wrote:

> In your various conlangs how do you express the concepts:
> 1. to have just
> and
> 2. to be about to
>
Kash has the particle mende 'already; all over, finished' which as an
invariant can indicate the perfect tenses-- mende manahan 'I have eaten'.
Any tense marking goes on the main verb: mende manahansa 'I had eaten'.

It can also function as a verb, 'be done, finished' but usu. only in 3d
person-- yamende 'it's all done/over/finished', caus. rumbende  'to finish
s.t.' (there are other synonyms for 'finish', preferred because they avoid
the awkward/repetitious ?* "mende yamende" 'it has finished').

But to answer your question: 'to have just...' uses reduplicated mende--
either mende-mende or memende: mende-mende manahan 'I have just eaten' (I
think it could also mean 'I have (just?) finished eating'--this is
uncovering an unexplored area); mende-mende yahorem 'he/she has just died'.
Again, tense markers go on the main verb:  memende yahoremsa 'he had just
died'.

As for 'be about to'... well, you've just uncovered another gap.  Bah. "More
research is needed". There is invariant _poro_ 'be going to...' but that's
not quite the same.