Weekly Vocab 6, Minyeva (4-6)

I just decided that Minyeva was going to be an aspective language instead of
a tense language.

progressive: vla
perfective: ko
iterative: ma
habitual: fle

this is just a preliminary list. how many aspects do your conlangs
distinguish between?

abbreviations:

PFV = perfective
PAT = patient
FOC = focus

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> 4. murder
here, a causative construction is used with the state verb "to be dead":
piko = be dead

vye  ko  tu i   le,  loge u   lo   le       piko i   da mo.
they PFV do PAT me,  say  FOC that I [make] dead PAT a  one
> They did that to me, saying I murdered someone.
tu is a "proverb", standing in place of what was probably said previously in
the discourse, and what is said after this clause.

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> 5. to release
similarly to "murder", a causative construction is used:
nyote = to be free

vye  ko         nyote i   le,  tce so  se te  seluglai u   teca  o  le
they PFV [make] free  PAT me,  because be the judge    FOC uncle of me
> They released me because the judge is my uncle.
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> 6. feud
mepa = a war

swe zuna   da mepa jwa     vasi   o  le jwa   te  mwasi
now exists a  war  between family of me (and) the army
> Now there is a feud between my family and the army.
i use "jwa...jwa..." for "between...and..."

--
Garrett Jones
http://www.alkaline.org