Re: Active, Was: Help with grammar terms

On Fri, 21 Jan 2000, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
>        As far as I know, aorist means "point in time", that's to say the point of
>view of an event without any reference with the time frame. So your
>definition is right. On the other hand, it is a "linguistic" definition,
>and the "grammatical" definition of "aorist" is usually "simple past"
>because of its use in Greek. Anyway, I find it better to use the linguistic
>definition, so... :)
Hm. I found this: "an inflectional form of a verb typically denoting
simple occurrence of an action without reference to its completeness,
duration, or repetition". This is pretty close to what happens in
Tallarian verbs, though I'd say it a little differently. I might say
"Tallarian verb form that denotes the occurrence of an action without
reference to any verbal aspect." It's almost a kind of personal
infinitive, with a vaguely defined difference between then and now. I
think for now at least, I'll stay with "aorist".

>        I like very much this language, seems beautiful! :)
Merci! Here's a good example sentence that illustrates compounded
nouns, which are used quite commonly in literature. It's from some old
myth or legend from long bygone days, unimaginatively entitled "Namsit
fraatar" from the first two words of the text:

namsit fraatarfraataruwiruáhucos harcaahacaawapucaranimamaatara-
paataracalcaracerwhoarathuutantas.

Namum means take or scrape together (namsit is, surprise surprise,
past aorist). The next word is a compound of brother, brother, man,
horse; which means "twin warriors". The last word is a compound of
hound, horse, cattle, weapons, wives, mother, father, household goods,
and daughters (apparently in order of importnace). Cos and tas are the
ubiquitious articles "this" and "that". Thus: "The Heroes got together
all their goods and relations." Or literally: "Got together
twinbrotherhorsewarrior-the houndhorsekinespearwifemamapapa-
bowlhorndaughters-the."

This sentence is VSO only because it's the first sentence in its
section of prose, and also happens to be the first sentence in the
story. Other sentences are regularly SOV.

Now for an athematic verb, hatim "go", from the root *ghe-:

Indicative
        Pr. aor.                        Pr. nonperf.
        S       D       P               S       D       P
        hadmi   hadmes  hatcam          hattami hattames hattcam
        hatsi   hatip   hater           hattesi hattep  hatter
        hatti           hadomti         hatteti         hattamti
   M-P  hater           hadomter        hatter          hattamter

        Ant. pres.
        ahadmi  ahadmes ahatcam
        ahatsi  ahatip  ahater
        ahatti          ahadomti
   M-P  ahater          ahadomter

        Past aor.                       Past perf.
        hatso   hatsomes hatsecam       hahadmi hahadmes hahatcam
        hatsis  hatser  hatser          hahatsi hahater hahater
        hatsit          hatsomt         hahatti         hahadomti
   M-P  hatser          hatsomter       hahater         hahadomter

        Past nonperf.                   Anterior past perf.
        hatem   hatemes hatecam         hati    hatimes haticam
        hates   hater   hater           hatis   hatier  hatier
        hatet           hatemt          hatit           hatimt
   M-P  hater           hatemter        hatier          hatimter

        Ant. past nonperf.
        ahatem  ahatmes ahatecam
        ahates  ahater  ahater
        ahatet          ahatemt
   M-P  ahater          ahatemter


No athematic verbs show ablaut from present to past, except welim:

Present aorist                  Past aorist
welmi   welmes  welcam          wolso   wolsomes welsecam
welsi   welip   weler           wolsis  wolser  welser
welti           welomti         wolsit          wolsomt

The 2nd dual in -ip, 1st plural in -cam, 2nd plural in -er and the
present nonperfect infix -p- (above assimilated by preceeding -t) are
borrowed from an adstrate language. Also, the use of anterior and
posterior aspects (the latter of which I haven't worked out yet) are
borrowed from an adstrate tongue, but not the same one.

Tallarian doesn't have conjugations like Latin or Kernu (thank God);
only this distinction of thematic and athemiatic, the latter of which
is a rather small group of verbs.

Padraic.

>                                                        Christophe Grandsire
>                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.
>
>"Reality is just another point of view."
>
>homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
>