1st lesson in Gaajan (wsd: Re: Weekly Vocab #1.1.3 (repost #1))

Den 14. sep. 2006 kl. 03.24 skrev Henrik Theiling:

>>> Could you give some description of your langs?  I'd be very
>>> interested.
>>
>> Sure. I have an introductory course in Urianian at http://
>> groups.yahoo.com/group/urianian/.
>> ...
>
> Even if I would allow my browser to log in at Yahoo, it would probably
> not be easy to read .rtf files.  But I'll read in your other there.
You are boycotting Yahoo? And why? Maybe I should set up my group
elsewhere? I think I will put it on my home pages eventually. And can
you recommend a file format that's more transportable than rtf? I
thought there weren't any.

I's like to post a first lesson in Gaajan. The clue to mastering
Gaajan is learning the auxiliaries. There are two of them, and they
both may be translated as 'be' or 'do', depending on the context. One
of them, iu, is used for intransitive verbs while the other, a, is
used for transitives. That is: they make the verbs transitive or
intransitive. An auxiliary can have a meaning on its own. For
example, iut alone means "I am" or "I do" or "yes", depending on the
context. But usually they are associated with a verb. In Gaajan, all
clauses require an auxiliary, and most often a verb. The verb is
always immediately in front of the auxiliary, which terminates the
clause. Examples:

ketk iut - I scratch
ij tiu - you eat
ej iu - he, she, it sleeps
ini giu - we say
an jun - you(pl.) walk
wini junji - they run

Note that there are no gender specification in the third person
forms. Note also that a leading i in the auxiliary will mutate to a
fricative j (again like the English y) after vowels or l, m and n.

These 6 forms of the intransitive auxiliaries are easy to learn. Not
so easy are the 36 forms of the transitive auxiliaries. Also, dative
is marked on the auxiliaries, giving in principle 252 more forms. But
there is some system to the madness, which helps a little. Here are
some examples of transitive sentences:

Epe tate - I love you.
Bee aut a - she hits the boy.
Ekoke ik ate - the fire burns me.
Ekewe usenuke ild anjinje - the wolves kill the sheep.

Here, -ke (just -e after consonants) marks the subject of a
transitive action, if it's not implicit in the auxiliary. In the last
sentence above you are free to switch ekewe and usenuke about as you
please, as long as you keep them ahead of the verb. The plural marker
is -we after vowels except a, and -u elsewhere. There is no concept
of the definite, so I'm just putting in the 'the's of the
translations as I please.

LEF

.....home pages www.ortygia.no.....

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