Taspin word order and noun case
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This article explains the rules and sentence structure of the Taspin language in relatively basic sentences.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 11 Feb 2024, 02:08.
[comments] tspuword ordersentencesbasicgrammarguide
1. A short story
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The Taspin language, or, as it's known by its speakers, leoli Tasapu, has quite a complex sentence structuring system. In this article, the rules and sentence-building system is broken down in a small guide to making short and slightly complex sentences in the language.Nouns must be marked for three cases - nominative (the subject of a clause), accusative (the direct object of a clause), and dative (the indirect object of a clause). Because of this marking, however, Taspir gains the advantage that it can have free word order for emphasising specific parts of a sentence. Nouns also are declined for plurality and can have an affixed article (the, a/an) as well. Note that, in intransitive sentences, the subject of a clause does not need to be marked as such.
Verbs are conjugated differently for the singular and plural versions of the first person, second person (formal and informal), and third person, and therefore sometimes pronouns are not necessary, however this can cause some confusion because of the 24+ different ways a given verb can be conjugated.
Adjectives come after the noun, and, if there is more than one adjective to be added to the noun, they can go in any order so that specific aspects may be emphasised.
Pronouns are relatively simple. There is a singular and a plural form for the first person, second person, and third person, and singular and plural formal second person pronouns as well. While there are no dedicated possessive pronouns, a possessive marker comes after the possessing pronoun to mark possession. And, while there are no dedicated reflexive pronouns (himself, yourself, etc.) there is a marker which comes after the pronoun in question.
Now then, let's put it together in a sentence!
The sentence we will be translating is: "the stupid child brought us some beautiful bones."
a usili tivaath maewath wana aalopa i aapaulosu thiisi.
(SUBCLSubject clause (syntax)
word modifies or describes the main subject child-DEFDefinite
"the".ARTArticle
indicate the type of reference being made by the noun stupid bring-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech to we-DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location OBJCLObject clause (syntax)
word modifies or describes the main object PLPlural (number)
more than one/few-bone-INDFIndefinite
a nonspecific referent.ARTArticle
indicate the type of reference being made by the noun beautiful.)
That was pretty hard, but we haven't even gotten started >:)
Because of Taspin's lack of many tenses found in English and other languages, it can be somewhat difficult to translate things word for word. However, it does make it easy on the learner, as there is only a single past, single present, and single future tense to worry about and they are all inflected on the specific verb's conjugation. To get some phrases that you would find in English, you need to get creative:
Enee iae losama
(should already cook-1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I.PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech)
"I should have cooked" or "I should have cooked already".
In Leoli Tasapu, "should", which in English can function as a verb of its own, must be an auxiliary. In this way it cannot conjugate as a verb does. To get a past-perfect tensed verb as you would find in English or German, you must used the adverb "iae", meaning "already", before the verb which you wish to put in that tense. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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