adj

jesse stephen bangs wrote:

> > Kae ga ppali ttida.  (The dog runs quickly.)
> > Kae ga ppaluda.  (The dog is fast.)
> > Ppalun kae ga ttida.  (The fast dog runs.)
> >
> > Grr.  I can't actually tell, since it's a different form each time
> > and I don't have the formal grammar.
>
> Romanian is rather like German in that there are no explicitly
> deadjectival adverbs.  ad(verbs/jectives) are exactly the same
> in form--only context tells them apart.  I think it's a fairly
> common feature.
My conlang has a particle /mad/ which transforms the following
adjective into (the equivalent of) an adverb. I don't call these
'adverbs' because the syntax (word order, etc) treats them like
adjectives (they go just after the ordinary adjectives). Instead I
call them 'inverbial adjectives' (not to be confused with
'byverbial') because they specify an attribute which is relevant
with_in_ the duration of the verb.

There are also a small number of verb modifiers, which go before the
verb.

A recent change: originally I'd just used the Germanic word for 'dog'
(hund -> hwnd) because (a) this was in the very early stages of design
and I wanted plenty of words with 'nd', and (b) I figured at the time
that words for earth-specific animals should be borrowed from earth
languages. However, I changed this a few days ago because I find /hund/
to be extremely dry/unaffectionate. So I've evolved it to /kunt/,
partly because we once had a dog called Count.

Using zeq (to go/travel) instead of ? (to run), the sentence examples
are:

Roniu kwnt ma*d wc zeq    The dog runs quickly
/ronoU kunt mad uS ze:R/

Roniu kwnt wcll ykk       The dog is fast
/ronoU kunt uSl: ix/

Roniu wc kwnt zeq         The fast dog runs (as opposed to some other dog)
/ronoU uS kunt ze:R/

Roniu kwnt wc zeq         The fast dog runs ('fast' is purely descriptive)
/ronoU kunt uS ze:R/

* * *

My conlang currently borrows from:
   (natlangs) English, Swedish, Welsh
   (conlangs) Valdyan, Kelen, Brithenig
Who will be next? <evil laughter>

--
web.       | Here and there I like to preserve a few islands of sanity
netyp.com/ | within the vast sea of absurdity which is my mind.
member/    | After all, you can't survive as an eight foot tall
dragon     | flesh eating dragon if you've got no concept of reality.