Innovative Adverb Formation

I just had this idea for forming adverbial phrases while traveling home
by train today.  Globally, it's probably not as innovative as I'd like
it to be, but at least for Obrenje it's a new concept.  ;-)

Up to now, I've just had a few simple ending paradigms to append to
adjectives to make them into adverbs, much like Latin:


|lis| "cold" --> |lisu| "coldly"
|mali| "Goddess" --> |melinje| "divine" --> |melimwe| "divinely"
|kil| "glass (vessel)" --> |kilni| "clear" --> |kilmu| "clearly"


A disadvantage is that each adverb used in a sentence but be marked
individually.  So here's this new idea:

Rather than forming adverbs from adjectives by appending an ending, I
can use a generic adverbial phrase head |naw| meaning approximately "in
a way, in a fashion".  So:


|fom| "hot"
|naw fom| "hotly" (lit: in a hot way)

|corge| "cruel", |rictes| "evil"
|naw corge a rictes| "in a cruel and evil fashion"


Whee!  That wasn't too difficult.  Let's try playing with other things
than simple adjectives...


|warve| "dog", |pitsu| "savage, wild"
|naw warve pitsu| "like a rabid dog"

|im| "bread", |gilamel| "grandma"
|im naw gilamel| "grandma-style bread"

|ti| "this"
|ti naw| "like this" etc.


That allows me to use the whole range of noun phrase constructions while
losing only one syllable to mark the whole thing as an adverbial.  I
guess I'd keep the appended forms for a few select adjectives like
"good" and "bad", though.

I could even mark the noun phrase under |naw| with a case, and pull
stunts like |Tsygze je naw i warve.| "I will kill him like (I would
kill) a dog."

Whaddya think?  Any obvious glaring catches?


-- Christian Thalmann

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