Queranarran description - comments?

Take the following description with a grain of
salt - it is written not from the perspective of
21st century historical linguistics, but rather
from something akin to the perspective of an 18th
century antiquarian.

=====

        The Daine of Asia speak two principal languages:
the Queranarran, which be a common daily speech,
being an admixture of the Teora, or Elvish,
somedeal mingled with many words of the ancient
Daine language; and Ozmandish or Anglian, the
tongue of Westmarche and the Whythywyndle Hills,
and is also fairly understood in the Holy Hills
and some lands to the west. The particulars of
the Elvish language proper that hight Lamme are
treated elsewhere; but the details known of the
Queranarran tongue as the Daine speak it have not
been published anywhere, though some Telerani
philosophers make some study of it, for their
priests study the sutras or scriptures of Daine
shamans. Curiously, few Sharrundaine speak or
even understand the Lamme as it be properly
spoken; and most Scholars of anthropology agree
that it is due to the influence of the Men of old
Hoopelle that they have mostly forgotten their
ancestral language. Many Daine are able to speak
fairly good Elvish, by all accounts, and this
shouldn't be confused with their own variety of
that tongue that hight Queranarran.
        Most words and grammatical forms are in fact
Elvish in nature; though the language has been
tailored to the native speech of Daine kind.

        Of the Substantives

The nouns and adjectives substantives of the
Queranarran tongue are not distinguished by any
termination; but can be determined by their
relation in a phrase.  Viz: taggo = great size,
height; nima ez taggo = tall woman, or "woman
from height".  There are several particles, such
as ez, that regulate the relationships between
the obliquely declined words in phrases and
determine their cases.  Possession is shown by
ru; the dative by go, or di; the instrumental by
nav, or nam; the locative by an, or a; the
accompaniment of something by ço; motion away
from a thing by dul; motion towards a thing by
di; motion within a thing by na, or an; motion
alongside or through a thing by çâl; and motion
out of or away from a thing by ez.  The
nominative,  accusative and vocative are shown
not by any particles but by their bare stem only
and their position within the phrase. Queranarran
substantives depict number by either a root vowel
alteration or a stem termination. Thus, nima =
woman; niman = women; wata = tribe, nation; waith
= tribes, nations.  Nima = a woman, there being
no article that answers to "a"; nima-han = the
woman, which literally means "this woman".

        The Declension of the Noun Substantive

Singular                        Plural

Nom.    nima                    niman
Acc.    nima                    niman
Voc.    nimey                   nimanis

Pos.    ru nima                 ru niman
Dat.    di nima                 di niman
        go nima                 go niman
Instr.  nan nima                nan niman
Loc.    an nima                 an niman
Abl.    dul nima                dul niman
All.    di nima                 di niman
Ess.    na nima                 na niman
        an nima                 an niman
Trans.  çâl nima                çâl niman
Exit.   ez nima                 ez niman
Accom.  ço nima                 ço niman

        The Declension of the Noun Substantive with an
Adjective

Singular                        Plural

Nom.    nima ez vana            niman ez vana
Acc.    nima ez vana            niman ez vana
Voc.    nimey ez vana           nimanis ez vana

Pos.    ru nima ez vana         ru niman ez vana
Dat.    di nima ez vana         di niman ez vana
        go nima ez vana         go niman ez vana
Instr.  nan nima ez vana        nan niman ez vana
Loc.    an nima ez vana         an niman ez vana
Abl.    dul nima ez vana        dul niman ez vana
All.    di nima ez vana         di niman ez vana
Ess.    na nima ez vana         na niman ez vana
        an nima ez vana         an niman ez vana
Trans.  çâl nima ez vana        çâl niman ez vana
Exit.   ez nima ez vana         ez niman ez vana
Accom.  ço nima ez vana         ço niman ez vana

A Substantive adjective may be made into an
adverb by appending nil onto the end of the word.
 A participal, such as lelanavars, leaping man,
may be treated as is any Noun Substantive.

        The Declension of the Pronoun Substantive

First Person

        Feminine        Masculine
        sing.    pl.    sing.   pl.
Nom.    ehan     elam   çan     salem
Obl.    endi     elendi çandi   salendi

Second Person

Nom.    ra       erel   tas     alem
Obl.    randi    reldi  tandi   aldi

Third Person

Nom.    ena      yar    antar   ritam
Obl.    sindi    yandi  andi    tendi

There are no possessive pronouns, that form being
supplied by the simple pronouns: nima ez çandi =
my (mascul.) wife; awan ez sindi = her sibling.
Who, which, what and similar pronouns are
expressed by a different form of pronoun:

who     wanca (fem), çeo (mascul)
whose   ez anca (fem), ez so (mascul)
which   cor
this    han, pan
that    tugan

        Of the Substantive Verb

There are two great kinds of verbs in
Queranarran: the one hight Substantive and the
other hight Copula or Stative.  The former are
invariably verbs depicting actions, such as
erdain = drink; lelanain = leap, daunse; bagain =
hunt.  The latter are verbs that link two phrases
or things or else they depict the staus of
something, such as darhain and tahain = be;
salambain = sit; lamnain = be dead.  Queranarran
verbs distinguish mood and person within the
verb, but not time.  Various minor particles can
be prepended to distinguish certain of these
moods: a, or as = a perfect or complete action;
tes = an imperfect or incomplete action.  Various
other moods may be expressed by postpended
particles: osse, or esse = hortatory; nil =
adverbial particle.  Still other particles may be
used to denote the certainty with which the
speaker understands the action to have taken
place; though these particles are placed usually
at the end of a phrase.  Thus, ço = certain
knowledge; adso = uncertain knowledge but a
likely happening; cro adem = knowledge that the
action never happened.  Often, these certainty
particles are left unsaid, unless the speaker
feels it important to impart that level of
certainty to his interlocutor.  Thus it can be
assumed that when left unsaid, the action is
assumed to be true.

        The Conjugation of the Substantive Verb

Active                  Middle

Perfect

F         M             F               M
alelanen  alelanas      alelanend  alelanelend
alelanar  alelanta      alelanard  alelantand
alelanna  alelantar     alelanndi  alelanandi
alelainelam alelainasel alelainelend
alelainelandi
alelainer alelainem     alelaineled alelainaldi
alelainyar alelaintam   alelainyandi alelainendi

Imperfect

teslelanen teslelanas   teslelanend teslelanelend
teslelanar teslelanta   teslelanard teslelantand
teslelanna teslelantar  teslelanndi teslelanandi
teslelainelam teslelainasel teslelainelend
teslelainelandi
teslelainer teslelainem teslelaineled
teslelainaldi
teslelainyar teslelaintam teslelainyandi
teslelainendi

Aorist

lelanen lelanas lelanend        lelanelend
lelanar lelanta lelanard        lelantand
lelanna lelantar lelanndi       lelanandi
lelainelam lelainasel lelainelend lelainelandi
lelainer lelainem lelaineled    lelainaldi
lelainyar lelaintam lelainyandi lelainendi

The time of the action is distinguished by a
circumlocution that provides context for the
time, such as an duasay ez harcoras = "in the
allermost yesterday", which indicates the remote
past or an duasay ez harranas = "in the allermost
tomorrow", which indicates the distant future.
The present can be demonstrated by either no such
circumlocution or by an-han duas = "this day".

The various commands and nominal forms of the
Substantive Verb are each formed with a
particular termination.  The command forms
generally terminate in o: lelano = leap!; erdo =
drink!  The hortatory command terminates in osse
or esse. The termination ana indicates necessity
of the action; vehers (fem), and vars(mascul)
make a participal (as do -and or -ang in in the
Ozmandish).  The infinitive is formed by the
termination ain, ein or win.  The termination ain
indicates a verb of concrete or plain action; the
termination ein indicates a stative or copulative
verb usually; while the termination win denotes a
less concrete or obscured action, such as verbs
of thought or inner deed.

An çaganain ez ahwan, nima-han lelanna nand
lalaytionil = On seeing her husband, the woman
leaps for joy.

I don't yet know how the copula or state verbs
are handled. Comments? Anything glaring I've said
wrong or left out?

Padraic.


=====
la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.


--

Ill Bethisad --
<http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad>


Come visit The World! --
<http://www.geocities.com/hawessos/>







.

Reply