Verbal nouns

Hi all, hope you all are having (or had or will have) a great Christmas.

Anyway, I have the system for forming nouns from verbs all layed out. I'm
posting them here for those of you who don't want to fire up your web
browsers to see it on the web.

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Verbal nouns in Saalangal are formed from prefixes added onto the roots.
These verbal nouns are only formed from roots that are not of concrete
things. You would never see the root for the word to write (kálaw) alone
to signify "a writing" (but, the word for bird, pakú' can be). It would
need a prefix to make it a noun.

Anyway, the prefixes are:

- kag - simple verbal noun prefix. can be used to make any verbal noun,
except for words of instruments, tool, etc. (is the most common also).
kagkálaw - a writing , *kag-ánlal - love.

- ha - abstract verbal noun prefix. Is used only for abstract nouns, like
emotions, etc. Usually only seen used to create the emotion words ) love,
hate, etc). Hasomí - hate, haánlal - love, hakáel - a dislike, hasátya -
joy, happiness, ecstasy.

- inu - instrumental verbal noun prefix. Used to create words like pen,
hammer, knife, etc. inukálaw - a writing instrument (covers pen, stylus,
pencil, etc.)

- anu - doer of verb. Used to make words like worker, writer, etc.
anukálaw - writer.

Cultural note: For the emotions, Saalangal men prefer to use the  'kag-'
prefix, because it has harder sounds. Women tend to like the 'ha-' prefix
because it sounds softer.

Generally, the simple verbal noun prefix is used most often. If someone
was learning the language, and they weren't sure which to use, the simple
verbal noun prefix is the safest choice, as it can create any verbal noun
(except for instrument words). .

The one to watch out for is the abstract verbal noun prefix. It gets fuzzy
once you move away from the emotions (for which is it almost always used,
most commonly). You cannot use it for instance, to create the word for  "a
writing" (hakalaw wouldn't work. ), as it only denotes abstract nouns.
When in doubt, go with the simple verbal noun prefix.

* kag-ánlal is hyphenated so you know to say it as kag-An-lal, instead of
ka-gAn-lal.






________________________________________________
Barry Garcia.
- My homepage:
 http://student.monterey.edu/dh/garciabarryjames/world/dahon.html
- The Saalangal Language:
http://student.monterey.edu/dh/garciabarryjames/world/contents.html