Hypothetical Statements: view article

Shikathi hypothetical Statements are like if/then statements. Something or some action is dependent on some kind of hypothetical situation. For example:

I will quit my job if I win the lottery. (If I win the lottery, then I will quit my job)
or
I would quit my job if I won the lottery. (If I won the lottery, then I would quit my job)
or
I would have quit my job if I had won the lottery. (If I had won the lottery, then I would have quit my job.)

In all of the sentences, me quitting the job is dependent upon the hypothetical condition of winning the lottery. The word if signifies which condition needs to happen first; and if that condition is met, English will use a modal to indicate what will or would happen.

Similarly, the Shikathi word for if is ðik which has a few variations ( ðyk / thik / thyk / thk) depending on the phonemes surrounding it. Shikathi has other words that can function in the same way: before (drao), after (sao), unless (pän) to name a few.

Before diving into conditional and hypothetical statements, there are a couple of other grammar points that should be reviewed first. The first one to review is forming gerunds.

[top]Grammar Review 1: Shikathi Gerunds

There's heavy use of gerunds in Shikathi conditional and hypothetical statements. Let's review how to form them.

Gerunds are nominalized verbs. In English, they can correspond to -ing.
For example: Running a marathon is hard work. In this case, the word for running in Shikathi would be shlozhm ( a variant of shlozhām; and the gerund form of shlozh akām (to run).

Each verbalizer has it's own gerund form and there are two types of gerunds. Only Type 1 gerunds are needed for hypothetical statements. The Type 1 Gerund forms are suffixes that are attached to nouns and adjectives. The forms are as follows:

Verbalizer	Gerund (Type 1)	Example
akām	-ām	benghin akām > benghnām (benghynām)
lator	-āl	benghin lator > benghnāl (benghynāl)
ekrō	-āk	benghn (benghyn) ekrō > benghnāk (benghynāk)

[top]Hypothetical / True to Fact Statements Using the Indicative

As mentioned before, hypothetical statements usually require the word if (ðik / ðyk / thik / thyk / thk). When dealing with hypothetical statements, it's important to remember that ðik and the other possible words are conjunctions and as such, may become a pro-verb or a converb. Please view the pro-verb/converb article for a re-cap on those rules. As a quick reminder, use the conjunction form if there is a single subject. Use the converbial form if there are two different subjects.

Single-Subject Hypothetical Statements

In the following sentences, there is only one subject and so the conjunction is used; and it is attached to the gerund.

I will go if I want (to).
benghin thōnālthyk ūmkīakām. (Note: the future tense marker is used)
go wanting-if I-will.

(alternatively one could say)

benghin ūmkīakām thōnālthyk .
go I-will wanting-if.

What will you do if you get money?
fornäsh ilkīlatorpa sukina klakālthyk.
do you-will-what money getting-if?

If he dies, he will not be happy.
zhorākthyk zhovik indrakīakāmtō.
dying-if happy he-will-be-not.

Note: Although Shikathi word order is usually fixed, there is a little wiggle room. The first example is the most common and preferred method. In the second example, the gerund and conjunction are after the verbalizer. This can be done for poetic reasons, or if the sentence is more complex like if there are two or more direct/indirect objects involved. The fourth example is also correct and is comparable to English syntax although in latinized Shikathi, a comma is not necessary.

Multiple-subject Hypothetical Statements

Now let's switch to using different subjects. The conjunction will now take on its pro-verbial / converbial form and must be conjugated like any other pro-verb or converb. The gerund is no longer needed.

I will go if you want (me to).
benghin ūmkīakām thōn ilthykāl. (alternatively: thōn ilthkāl)
go I-will want you-if.

What shall we do if you get money?
fornäsh ūmkīlatorkpa sukina klāk ilthykāl. (alternatively: klāk ilthkāl)
do we-will-what money get you-if?

If he dies, I will not be happy.
zhohor indrāðyke zhovik ūmkīakāmtō. (alternatively: zhohor indrāthke)
die he-if, happy I-will-be-not.

As a reminder, the above sentences are hypothetical yet factual and so the indicative was used. The next section will cover hypothetical sentences that are counter factual and/or imply doubt that something will occur. In order to do this, we first need to review the irrealis mood.

[top]Grammar review 2: Shikathi Verbalizers and Conjugating in the Irrealis

Shikathi has three principle verbalizers: akām, lator, and ekrō.
The irrealis form of these are: aren, lātren, and oren respectively.

To conjugate, simply attach the correct pronominal prefix as well as any tense/aspect markers. A quick review of the prefixes are listed below...

ūm	il	indra	aea	zen	tos	kū	ne or nē
1st person	2nd person	3rd person masculine	3rd person feminine	indefinite (one/someone)	indefinite (no one)	3rd person neuter	reciprocal

Some examples:

bengh(i)n = movement

benghin akām = to move
benghn ūmakām = I move / I am moving
benghin ūmaren = Let me move / I may move / I might move / I could move / I would move

benghin lator = to move (an object)
tōgn benghin ilātr = You move the pen.
tōgn benghin ilātren = Move the pen! / you might move the pen / you could move the pen / you would move the pen

benghn ekrō = to be moved
benghin kūekrō = It (the pen) is moved.
benghin kūoren = Let it be moved / May it be moved / it might be moved / it could be moved / it would be moved

[top]Conditional / Hypothetical Contrary to Fact Statements Using the Irrealis

When we talk about hypothetical statements that are contrary to fact, English uses the past subjunctive along with the conditional.

Beyoncé says:

If I were a boy even just for a day I'd roll out of bed in the morning and throw on what I wanted and go...

Here, were is in the past subjunctive as it is contrary to fact and I'd (I would) is the conditional.

Shikathi does not have a conditional tense. To get around that, it uses its irrealis mood. Since it's already using the irrealis mood as its conditional, there is no need to use it as part of the “if” clause. And so where English would use the past subjunctive, Shikathi will simply use either a gerund (w/ conjunction) or the indicative mood of a pro-verb / converb. For conditional / contrary to fact contexts (or if the speaker wants to imply doubt that something will occur), you can use words such as if (ðik) even if (tethyk), before (drao), after (sao), unless / until (pän), as long as / provided that (rūm), which all follow the same rules. Using the irrealis with ðik can potentially change its meaning from if, to when or once, depending on the context.

Some examples...

Single-Subject Conditional Statements

I would go if I wanted (to).
benghin thōnālthyk ūmkiaren. (note: Although the future irealis is used here it implies both future time and present time. 90% of the time, for "would" use the future irrealis)
go wanting-if I-would.

(alternatively)

I would go if I wanted (to).
benghin ūmkiaren thōnālthyk.
go I-would wanting-if.

What would you do if you got money?
fornäsh ilkīlatrenpa sukina klakālthyk.
do you-would-what money getting-if?

If he died, he would not be happy.
zhorākthyk zhovyk indrakīarentō.
dying-if happy he-would-be-not.

Multiple-subject Hypothetical Statements

Remember to use the converb (indicative version) instead of the conjunction tagged onto the gerund.

I would go if you wanted (me to).
benghin ūmkiaren thōn ilthykāl. (alternatively: thōn ilthkāl)
go I-would want you-if.

What would we do if you got money?
fornäsh ūmkīlatrenkpa sukina klāk ilthykāl. (alternatively: klāk ilthkāl)
do we-would-what money get you-if?

If he died, I would not be happy.
zhohor indrāðyke, zhovik ūmkīarentō. (alternatively: zhohor indrāthke)
die he-if, happy I-would-be-not.

[top]Other tenses involved with Conditional/Hypothetical Statements.

Up until now, we've been using just the future and present Shikathi tenses. However, other tenses are possible with different shades of meaning. Let's start with the English sentence from the beginning of the article.

I would have quit my job if I had won the lottery.

Here the conditional perfect is used in conjunction with the past perfect. Everything is happening in past time. Now let's use the same formula with one of the Shikathi sample sentences.

Single-subject:

I would have gone if I (had) wanted (to).
benghin thōnālthyk ūmtraren. (note: The past irrealis is used here since we are talking about sometime in the past.)
go wanting-if I-would have.

(alternatively)

I would have gone if I (had) wanted (to).
benghin ūmtraren thōnālthyk.
go I-would have wanting-if.

Multiple-subject:

I would have gone if you (had) wanted (me to).
benghin ūmtraren thōn iltorthykāl. (note: Not only is the past irealis used, but also the past indicative of the converb.)
go I-would have wanted you-had-if.

Watch out!

In single-subject sentences, there may be some ambiguity in Shikathi where there is none in English. While English has the ability to use other tenses in the "if" clause, Shikathi typically does not. And so the following English sentences are all translated one way in Shikathi.

If I did the job (sometime today), I would get paid.
If I had done the job (yesterday), I would get paid.
If I were doing the job (right now), I would get paid.
paznāmthyk sukina ūmkiaren.
doing-(the job)-if, money I would earn.

The same is true with factual statements.

If I do the job, I will get paid.
If I did the job, I will get paid.
paznāmthyk, sukina ūmkīakām.
doing-(the job)-if money I will earn.

Use context clues to decipher the true meaning in these cases. Multiple-subject statements do not have this ambiguity since the pro-verb/converb will be conjugated and contain all necessary tense markers.

[top]Hypothetical Sentences Implying Doubt

The very last thing to talk about are hypothetical sentences that are not necessarily contrary to fact, but they do imply a doubt that certain conditions will occur before any chance of reaction/consequence can happen. The good news is that this only applies to multiple-subject sentences where a pro-verb/converb is needed. Up until now, the pro-verb/converb has always been in the indicative mood. In this last case, it will be in the irrealis mood. Remember that the irrealis forms of the pro-verbs and converbs are different from the other verbalizers and can be highly irregular.

For hypothetical-doubt sentences, we'll continue to use words like before (drao), after (sao), unless / until (pän), as long as / provided that (rūm). It's important to note that the words (ðik) if, and (tethyk) even if, when used in these types of sentences, can take on a new meanings: once/when and even when respectively. You mostly run up against these sentences when talking about future events (though there are some exceptions). Here are some examples in English:

I will eat when/once we get home.

I won't eat until you get here.

I will eat provided that there is food.

On the surface, these look like hypothetical-factual sentences, which would allow us to use the future coupled with the indicative form of the converb. Grammatically that would be correct. However the same sentences could be hypothetical-doubtful in a different context. For example:

I will eat when/once we get home, (but our getting home is uncertain, and I don't know when we will get home and so if it's too late, I might just go to bed instead.)

I won't eat until you get here, (but you getting here is uncertain, and if you don't get here until too late, I'm going to eat without you.)

I will eat provided that there is food, (but my boyfriend has been home all day and I don't know if there will be any food left by the time I get ready to eat.)

Let's go back to our original sample sentences to see how this works in Shikathi. Below you will find a comparison chart of hypothetical factual, hypothetical-counterfactual, and hypothetical-doubtful sentences.

	Hypothetical-Factual	Hypothetical-Counterfactual	Hypothetical-Doubtful
Example 1	I will go if you want (me to).	I would go if you wanted (me to).	I will go when/once you want (me to).
	benghin ūmkīakām thōn ilthykāl.	benghin ūmkiaren thōn ilthykāl.	benghin ūmkiaren thōn ilthenl.
	go I-will want you-if	go I-would want you-if	go I-will want you-when/once
Example 2	I will go provided that you want (me to).	I would go provided that you wanted (me to).	I will go provided that you want (me to).
	benghin ūmkīakām thōn ilrūmāl.	benghin ūmkiaren thōn ilrūmāl.	benghin ūmkiaren thōn ilrūinl.
	go I-will want you-provided	go I-would want you-provided	go I-will want you-provided
Example 3	I will not go unless you want (me to).	I would not go unless you wanted (me to).	I will not go unless you want (me to).
	benghin ūmkīakāmtō thōn ilpänāl.	benghin ūmkiarentō thōn ilpänāl.	benghin ūmkiarentō thōn ilpäshenl.
	go I-will-not want you-unless	go I-would-not want you-unless	go I-will-not want you-unless

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