Re: If...then in Ikanirae Seru

Estel Telcontar wrote:

>I've thought of a neat way to handle the "if...then" - type sequences
>in Ikanirae Seru.
>All such sequences must have words expressing the "if" and "then"
>parts.  The equivalent of "then" is always |te|.  The equivalent of
>"if" has three equivalents.  I'm going to explain in examples, because
>if I try to explain in the abstract, I'll just be confusing.
This is very close to something in Rhean. I hope the link works:
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?
A2=ind0209C&L=conlang&P=R5594&D=0

When an "if" or "when" or "because/since" clause comes before the main
clause, it is ALWAYS closed with a particle |ba|. This closing |ba| was
stolen from the Japanese -eba ending for some conditional verbs. [1]
There are three (or four) ways to open such a clause. |adis| means "if",
|dorod| means "when", and |daze| means "because" or "since". There is also
|du|, which was originally "if" and was later replaced by |adis|; |du|
nowadays makes an abiguous "if/when". [2]

>|me| = "open if"; it is used to leave open whether the if-clause is
>true or not.  Thus, the sentence (uttered before one has looked out the
>window in the morning) "If it is raining, (then) I will wear my blue
>coat" would be:
>me roha siri te uti moma somika oee metiya ro uti a
>if.open it rain then I will wear blue coat of me STATEMENT
ADIS amöz kaec'a BA s'öl palton fikrirmi.
IF rain fall-3SG BA blue coat-ACC wear-1SG:FUT

>|ne| = "(negatively) closed if"; it is used to deny the possibility
>that the if-clause is true.  Thus, after one looks out the window and
>finds that it is sunny, one might say "If it were raining, I would wear
>my blue coat":
Now this is cool. What some languages mark with a subjunctive (as in your
English example, "if it were..."), you've marked on the "if" word. The
closest thing I can think of is "suppose..."
This would also be |adis| in Rhean but the verbs would both be in the
hypothetical mode.

>ne roha siri te uti moma somika oee metiya ro uti a
>if.closed it rain then I will wear blue coat of me STATEMENT
ADIS amöz kaec'or BA s'öl palton fikröm.
IF rain fall-3SG:HYP BA blue coat-ACC wear-1SG:HYP

>|ye| = "since (positively closed if)"; it is used to assert that the
>if-clause is true.  Thus, after one looks out the window and finds that
>it is raining, one might say "Since it is raining, I will wear my blue
>coat":
This is |daze| in Rhean. Because of X, Y happens; daze X ba Y.

>ye roha siri te uti moma somika oee metiya ro uti a
>since it rain then I will wear blue coat of me STATEMENT
DAZE amöz kaec'a BA s'öl palton fikrirmi.
BECAUSE rain fall-3SG BA blue coat-ACC wear-1SG:FUT

And to throw in the last one:

DOROD amöz kaec'a BA s'öl palton fikrim.
WHEN rain fall-3SG BA blue coat-ACC wear-1SG

"When in rains, I wear my blue coat."

>I hope that made sense.
Perfect sense. But how do you handle "when"? is it also similar to this
|me/ne/ye ... te|?

M


[1] but the 'internal' etymology doesn't show this. The Japanese never
existed *there*.
[2] dorod, daze, and du correspond to the question words c'orod "when",
c'aze "why" and "c'u" (yes/no -- ripped unchanged from Esperanto).