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Re: Development and Use of the Silindion Optative

From:Elliott Lash <erelion12@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 28, 2004, 5:23
--- Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...> wrote:

> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 17:31:24 -0700, Elliott Lash > <erelion12@...> wrote: > > > The Silindion Optative is a rather confusing > >mood/tense. First I will talk about the form of it, > >then I will talk about it's uses. > > ... > > >Let me know what you think. > > First, can you tell us more about the aspect system > and the mood system of > Silindion? (I checked your site, but didn't see > anything.) > > Best regards, > > Jeffrey
There isn't anything on my site, since I'm still trying to work out HTML, (as an aside, any help would that would be appreciated). Anyways, you'd like to know about aspects and moods in Silindion..hm.. I think it's like this: Aspect: Really only 3 Continuous Perfect Simple (Optative in some of it's senses can sort of be another mood) (Stative might be another aspect, although it is lexicalised and therefore not really part of the verbal system) The Continuous Aspect is present in the Past Tense morphologically. It is marked with the so called "imperfect" marker -ne (which becomes -nei in some dialects). Hence: til "see" tili- "present stem" Imperfect tilinesi tilinena tilinelë tilinenta tilinë tilinento/tilinentë The imperfect denotes such things as: "I was seeing" "I used to see" "I would see" (habitually) As in: Whenever people in pain would go to the temple, the priests would help them Lëovissa yaninto nima inekavi when(ever) go-subj-3rdp. people pained noro i noinna, to the temple-allative poskenentossa i noyondë heal-impf.-3rdp.-3rdp. the priest-p. ---------------------------------- The Perfect stressed complete action. In most Silindion writings it is not denoted by a morphological verb form, but rather by a particle. The perfect particle is "liu" which basically means "through". It is preceded or followed by a past tense (in some texts by the present) Example: "I have played this flute the whole day" alinisi liu i phiorëan play-past-1s. prf. the flute-acc. më erë nassëan ulori. this during whole-acc day-gen. ----------------------------- The simple or aorist aspect is found in the present and past tenses of the indicative. "priests offer oblations" santo noyondë sayein. raise-up-3p. priest-pl. oblation-pl-acc. -------------------------------- The mood system of Silindion is rather complex: Indicative Subjunctive (Conjunctive) General Irrealis Imperative Optative (in some of its uses) Necessitive/Obligative (? terminology ?) 1) The indicative mood is what all the previous exampples are in. -------------------------------------------- 2) The subjunctive or conjunctive mood is found after particles. It is formed in the present by adding "i" to the verb stem, in the past by adding "u" to the augmented stem: til- til-i- til- assil-u- It has various meanings: after "ta" = English Subjunctive: aphelkë ta onëanisi "He asked that I leave" ask-pst.-3s. that leave-subj.-1s after "lëovissa" <when> and "kalëossa" <after>: Either "would + verb" or "verb in present or past", depending on the aspect of the main verb. If the main verb is imperfect, then use "would" otherwise the present or past. after "nissa" <be it that, let> and "nayoi(ssë)" <let> nissa yanin "let him go" nayoissë yanintë "let them go" (High Silindion) There are probably other uses of the subjunctive that I am not remembering at the moment. --------------------------------------------------- 3) General Irrealis: This mood is formed by adding various auxiliary verbs and particles to the infinitive of the main verb: nai- (in the present) + infinitive "may, be allowed + verb" Basically, this indicates the possibility of doing something, either because someone told you that you could do it, or general possibility. It does not look at whether or not the action is probable. This is the closest to the "future-optative meaning of "will do something in the future, but it might not happen". As this sense of the future was lossed in Low Silindion, this "nai- + infinitive" once more became important. In the earlier language, when the future-optative meaning was something different, this form was also rather important. It was only when its meaning overlapped with the future-optative meaning that there was competition. nai- (in the past) + infinitive "might have + verb" This shows general possibility but indicates that the action did not take place. Usually the action is something that was desired, and in its failure to be enacted, the subject is expressing some sort of unhappiness. nai- (in the present) + infinitive + vorë "might + verb" This shows that the speaker is uncertain even as regards the possibility of the action. The "vorë" is an old infinitive of the word meaning "to be able", so the whole phrase means "might be able to X but not sure" --------------------------------------------------- Optative/Future This mood has been covered in the previous message. ----------------------------------------------- Imperative This mood is rather straight-forward. ------------------------------------------- Necessitive/Obligative This has various different realisations with slightly different meanings: 1) ther, thi "it is/was necessary" + verb "need" ther sinti horiellu necessary-3s me-dat. find-inf.-3s. "I need to find him" The need is personal/subjective here, and can be viewed from the outside as rather unnecessary depending on the context. 2)yathendar, ayathensi "must, ought" "it is/was an obligation" + verb. yathendasi horiellu obligation-1s find-inf.-3s. "I must find him" The need here is objective. By finding whoever it is that is lost, the subject fulfills a moral or lawful duty. 3) BE + necessitive participle + allative agent. "should, is fit to" The necessitive participle is formed from the gerund, by putting the gerund in the dative case: nam "name" namma (ger) nammanu (nct.prt) ne: "get married" nina (ger) nindu vohwur "discuss" vohwurna (ger) vohwurnanu etc. Example: ë sinta nammanu, "Olomandili" is by-me name-nct.prtc. Olomandil-ess. "He is fit to be named 'Olomandil', by me" "He should be named Olomandil, be me" "I should name him "Olomandil" Indicates a situation in which something should be done, because it seems right by nature. The object seems ready and willing to be affected in some way by the verb. .. if that makes any sense. ------------ I hope that helps. Elliott __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail