Development and Use of the Silindion Optative

 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.

 The optative in Silindion is formed by adding -e to
the stem of the verb.

Examples:

 til-e-  "see"
 nari-e  "fly"
 fas-e   "give off heat"
 laD-e   "steal"
 nak-e   "kill"

etc.

In the passive, the ending -e is added to the passive
stem:

 tildi-e  "is seen"
 ladi-e   "is stolen"
 nanki-e  "is killed"

etc.

----------------
(Dialect forms of the passive are formed by adding
 -ei  instead of -e, but this is due to analogy with
the 3rd person form which is always -ei (written -ë at
the end of the word. A form with the suffix -ei is
found throughout the indicative past tense passive and
therefore the two paradigms are frequently confused in
Low Silindion Dialects).
-------------------

 To the -e ending is added the following endings:

1st person: -si        plural: -na
2nd person -lë         plural: -nta
3rd person -n or -zero plural: -ntë or -nto

Thus the Optative forms of "nak" are:

ACTIVE:
nakesi   nakena
nakelë   nakenta
naken    nakentë/nakento

PASSIVE:
nankiesi   nankiena
nankielë   nankienta
nankië     nankientë/nankiento

---------------------------------------------
USES OF THE OPTATIVE:

1) In High Silindion and Religious language:

 a) " <ta> + would that + verb"

 ta nakelëo "would that you would kill him"

 b) "hope to + verb"

 nakesio "I hope to kill him"

2) Later High Silindion:

 a) "hope and intend + verb"

  same basic thing as "1b" but with a
  stronger meaning of intent.

 b) "intend to + verb"
     (may or may not happen)

  tilesi i nistan  "I intend to see the king"

 c) "desire to + verb"

   ermissiassen "he desires to fall in love"
 (this use still has a large meaning of intent with
verbs where the subject has control over the action.
In this verb, it merely states his desire. From this
form, weakened senses include the following:

    1) "want"
    2) "will"

AND FINALLY:

3) Low Silindion:

   future tense:

   fasentë i suti "the flames will create heat"

At first this could only form the future tense of
verbs where the subject had some sort of say in what's
going on, namely agentive subjects. This ties back to
the intent meaning of the High Silindion optative.
This example shows that the future meaning spread to
other verbs as well.

Also, the future tense has a much stronger sense of
irrealis in Silindion, at least in the beginning
stages of its use in Low Silindion. What this means is
that the action is viewed as possible but not at by
means totally probable, it may or may not happen.

I think this kind of thing shows up in Russian, I'll
have to check again and make sure, unfortunately I'm
losing some of the Russian knowledge I gained during
the last two years.

Let me know what you think.


Thanks
Elliott.






		
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