Proto-Mila Coursebook Chapter 15: view article

Chapter 15 Subclauses

There are a number of different ways to introduce subclauses. If for example we have a sentence in English such as The boy, who is happy, was here yesterday then Mila will simplify this, as is also possible in English by saying The happy boy was here yesterday. There is however a subtle difference between the two sentences in English. In the first sentence we are being specific about which boy was happy, in the second the happiness is purely explanatory.

One way to express this difference in Mila is to embed the sentence (in this case he is happy) into the original sentence but giving it an adjectival suffix). This gives us the sentences The happy boy was here yesterday as ‘Púhcin lídic ilúkit uhkíchit in lal’, whereas The boy, who was happy was here yesterday becomes ‘Puháɟna lídic ilúkit uhkíchit in lal’.

This same difference can be extended to more complex subclauses. To say the boy, who was singing, was here yesterday again we can make the singing into an adjective and have ‘Rúmlin lídic...’ or we can embed the sentence he was singing (it) with ‘Bin irúmlin lídic...’ (from ‘ba irúmla’). Notice that within a subclause the adjectives are related to each other so there is no need to introduce the –l particle.

Using this method we can end with quite complex sentences. So The boy, whom I saw walking down the road yesterday, is standing by the tree is translated as ‘roadthrough+adj walkadj he1s+adj pastseeadj boysubj attree person3s presstand’ giving ‘Kúhijzina lúhtin áliɟna inɟíɟlin lídic lal ilúhja.

Another example would be She’s the girl you think I love which has three clauses giving ‘Áliɟna inúbin bin ilíndin lumát’.

Exercise***

Exercise***

Reported speech

Another kind of clause is when we have reported speech. Consider the case below:

Peter: I am hungry

Peter said he was hungry.

You will note that in order to report what Peter said we need to change the person and tense in English to agree with the moment it was said and not with the actually sentiment.

In Mila this is unnecessary, however we it is possible to embed the speech in the same way as with the clauses above, which will give us The ‘I am hungry’ Peter it said which translates as ‘Ámbiɟna Pídric ba inmíla’. But it should be noted that this kind of construction is rare and it is much more likely to make two sentences, or clauses giving ‘Pídric ba inmíla, ‘ámbic’.
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