Some (proposed) details Tanala/Erava

This is something I was fooling around with a year or so ago, something to do
with Tanala and Erava.  I was rewriting "The House of the Gods", my novel set
in Keraii-Sero, the City of Kero, in Kero Siritse, the Kero Commonwealth,
when I happened upon a coupla books on Coptic; I was delirious I think when I
worked up this conjugation.

Read and enjoy!  (kinda like "Share and enjoy!")

Wesley Parish


Tanala and Erava are Topic-based languages.  Their handling of
narrative is based on establishing the Topic firstly by means of the
personal pronoun or appropriate noun which is prefixed in its
construct form to the first verb.  Subsequent verbs are left as
infinitive until a change of Topic occurs.

Prefixed pronouns change their general form for aspect.

Continuous Aspect:
Singular 1st Continuous: nte-
Singular 2nd Continuous: pe-
Singular 3rd Continuous: rto-
Plural 1st Continuous: ntsha-
Plural 2nd Continuous: pne-
Plural 3rd Continuous: tira-

Completed Aspect:
Singular 1st Completed: mbe-
Singular 2nd Completed: pre-
Singular 3rd Completed: to-
Plural 1st Completed: dzha-
Plural 2nd Completed: pnere-
Plural 3rd Completed: nyida-

Potential Aspect: The Potential Aspect consists of the Completed
Aspect reduplicated before the infinitive form of the verb.

Optative Aspect: The Optative Aspect consists of the verb -asyart (to
be) in the Continuous Aspect with the complementary verb in the
infinitive accompanied by the independent pronoun, eg, Ntaii-asyart
nte srinyart nontaii-faratin  - I would that I could rule my passions!

Conversational style uses the independent pronoun and the infinitive,
with adjectives and adverbial particles to indicate time.

New Tanala and Erava speakers are warned not to mix the narrative and
conversational styles.  It is too good a way to get laughed at.

--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."