Re: Vaiysi grammar revised: nouns and adjectives

I don't really have time to read through these posts in detail, but I just
wanted to say that I find Vaiysi very beautiful.  I like the
quasi-irregularities of the noun declensions too!

Matt.

Mangiat wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Today it's time for nouns and adjectives...
>
> The Noun
> Nouns are inflected for two numbers (singular and plural), and six cases
> (ergative, absolutive, dative, genitive, locative and allative); there is no
> gender. Nouns are listed in dictionaries in their singular absolutive form,
> which ends with a short vowel. We have four declensions patterns, one for
> each ending vowel: a, e, i, u (-o nouns merged with -u even before classical
> Suimeni period). There are no differences between the various patterns, inly
> the locative case presents different ending for each stem vowel.
> Note: in these exemples we will use words with long radical vowel, to let
> you see when the desinence contains a long vowel that can reduce it.
>
> Absolutive
> Absolutive is the unmarked case. It is used with subjects of intransitive
> verbs and objects of transitive verbs, but it is generally considered the
> default form of every noun, used even for vocatives. The absolutive form
> ends with a vowel, a, e, i or u, and each of these vowels has an indipendent
> declension pattern. The ending vowel can be dropped in the singular form
> even in the classical period , if it is preceded by /s/, /l/, /r/, a vowel
> or a nasal (i.e. miyre 'sun' > miyr, douru 'mare' > dour, Leiye (name of a
> town) > Leiy). The endings of the plural have merged: the old desinence of
> the -e stem nouns is now widespread.
>
> When we talk about nouns, we will assume they are in their absolutive form,
> which is that listed in dictionaries.
>
>                     meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand         kyemma     kemmeiy
> miyre         sun           miyre         mireiy
> eriynni       wind         eriynni         erinneiy
> douru        mare         douru         dureiy
>
> *Ending -a has already been displaced by -o in vernacular Vaiysi, that is
> caused by the same phenomenon which made Suiméni third singular person of
> the present tense pass from -a to -o; this change is well accepted with
> verbs, but is not completely accepted for nouns, because -a nouns usually
> indicate male beings, and a change -a > -o could generate confusion with -u
> nouns, generally indicating female beings.
>
> Ergative
> The ergative case is used with subjects of transitive verbs. The ergative
> form has retained, both in singular and in plural, the old -l ending (note:
> in the older version of the lang the ending was -s) but, as in the
> absolutive, the plural desinences merged with the -e nouns ending.
>
>                     meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand         kyemmal     kyemmel
> miyre         sun           miyrel         miyrel
> eriynni        wind         eriynnil       eriynnel
> douru         mare         dourul         dourel
>
> Dative
> The dative case is used with indirect objects of transitive and intransitive
> verbs and with direct objects in antipassive constructions. The singular
> form is characterized by the desinence -am, even in after e, i and u.
> Actually the Suiméni ending -m caused the nasalization of the preceding
> vowel, which turned out to be an -a. The plural ending is -mis (this doesn't
> cause any vowel change because not in final position).
>
>                  meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand         kyemmam kyemmamis
> miyre         sun             miyram     miyremis
> eriynni         wind         eriynnam eriynnimis
> douru         mare         douram     dourumis
>
> Genitive
> The genitive case is used with the master in a master-subordinate
> construction as in English possessive 'John's exercise book', and it is used
> to mark any realationship between two nouns. The genitive is also a
> prepositional case, i. e. it is used to mark the objects of prepositions. In
> other terms, prepositions govern the genitive case. The singular ending
> is -ni in singular and -eiyni in plural forms.
>
>                 meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand         kyemmani kemmeiyni
> miyre         sun         miyreni         mireiyni
> eriynni         wind        eriynnini     erinneiyni
> douru         mare         douruni     dureiyni
>
> Locative
> The locative case is used with location statements, as in English 'at home',
> 'in the town'. Locative hasn't to be confused with allative: the former
> marks a state, the latter a motion toward something. The old Suiméni
> postposition -ó was assimilated to the last vowel of the stem, causing
> diphthongization or vowel lengthening. Plural generally adds -yau to the
> usual -eiy, becoming -eiyau. Notice that in everyday's speech the locative
> case can be replaced by prepositional constructions.
>
>                 meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand         kemmyau  kyemmeiyau
> miyre         sun             miryeu     miyreiyau
> eriynni     wind             erinniyo     eriynneiyau
> douru     mare             duryou     doureiyau
>
> Notice that in the widespread desinence -eiyau the syllabification works
> this way -ei+yau. Hence the retained long radical vowel in the root.
>
> Allative
> The allative case is used to mark location toward someone or something. The
> ending is -d in singular, -sti in plural forms. As the locative, the
> allative case is sometimes replaced by prepositional constructions in
> everyday speech.
>
>                 meaning     Singular     Plural
> kyemma     hand     kyemmad     kemmeiyti
> miyre         sun         miyred         mireiyti
> eriynni     wind         eriynnid         erinneiyti
> douru         mare     dourud         dureiyti
>
> The Adjective
> We must distinguish two functions of the adjective: predicative and
> attributive. Predicative adjectives are always followed by one of the
> inflected voices of -yeo, 'to be'. Attributive adjectives usually end in -i
> and decline as nouns. They generally precede nouns, but they can be placed
> after them as well.
>
> Noun-adjective agreement
> It has been already said that adjectives usually precede nouns, but they can
> be placed also after them. It is important remember that adjectives are
> bound to be put in the same case the nouns are. This unless they are in the
> locative or allative case. In noun phrases with these cases, indeed, only
> the last component of the phrase bears the case marker. This because in
> Suiméi locative and allative were built with postpositions (ó and it)
> governing the absolutive case.
>
> For istance:
>
> lyaskam samam
> good.DAT man.DAT
> to the good man
> miylinini rinani
> little.GEN town.GEN
> of the little town
>
> but:
>
> hyene talou
> beautiful house.LOC
> In the beautiful house
>
> or:
>
> sile burmouved
> sky cloudy.ALL
> up to the cloudy sky
>
> Comparative and superlative: our-
> The comparative and superlative constructions require in Vaiysi the use of a
> proclitic augmentative particle, our-, fixed immediately before the
> adjective. In the comparative constructions, the second term is introduced
> by the preposition oulis, which means 'in front of / in relation with' The
> superlative construction works the same as the comparative, but the
> adjective is not followed by a second term, so the augmentative takes an
> absolute value.
>
> Thus the general form of a comparative or a superlative is:
>
> our-adjective + first term + oulis + second term
> Let's take a look at these exemples:
>
> Pulle ourvedyeo oulis yerke.
> ox AUG.big.be.3s than cat
> The ox is bigger than the cat.
>
> Vel houvo ourboinni langeiyni oulis ta.
> me.ERG have.3s AUG.simple task than your
> I have a simpler task than yours.
>
> Yeam ourhyeni punyeu oulis este.
> be.1s AUG.beautiful village.LOC than you
> I live in a nicer town than yours.
>
> However, with complex sentences, we may find other constructions:
>
> Ourlaskyeo vye yegam oulis vye yegad.
> AUG.good.be.3s than go.1s than go.2s
> It's better if I go than if you go.