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Menu 1. The Desiderative in Form 2. The Desiderative in Function Edievian lacks a word for "to want". There is beldae, meaning "to desire", but its usage is restricted to exceptionally formal speech and is commonly used for "to will", i.e., pass possessions on after death. Instead of having a separate verb for "to want", Edievian employs the desiderative mood instead.

[edit] [top]The Desiderative in Form

The desiderative, like the negative and the passive, is a prefix on the verb. For almost all tense and aspect combinations, it appears as <ciáe(n)> /s̪ɛ(n̪)/ affixed to beginning of the word. An epenthetic <n> is inserted if the verb begins with a phonetic (not orthographic) vowel.

Verb	Desiderative	English
dodae	ciáedodae	to speak - to want to speak
obae	ciáenobae	to go - to want to go
uastae	ciáeuastae	to yell - to want to yell

The prefix <ciáe(n)> is used for all tense/aspect combinations except for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular gnomic forms of the the verb, which "invert" the prefix to <aéic> /ɛs̪/. This suffix is then applied to the beginning of the verb. One must remember, however, that the i-after rule requires the diacritic over a vowel to shift to after the modified consonant if a new vowel appears there, meaning that all verbs that begin with vowels (even orthographic) have a change in orthography.

Verb	Desiderative	English
dod	aéicdod	I speak - I want to speak
ob	aeciób	I go - I want to go
uast	aeciúast	I yell - I want to yell

It is also worth noting that because the desiderative is a verbal prefix, it does not shift stress away from the stem, even if the prefix is the penultimate syllable.

The negative desiderative (which can be translated as "do no want to") takes a different prefix, <náic>. It does not vary for any of the tense/aspect combinations.

Verb	Negative Desiderative	English
dod	náicdod	I speak - I do not want to speak
ob	naciób	I go - I do not want to go
uast	naciúast	I yell - I do not want to yell

a-Dropping verbs drop the /a/ before the prefix for the desiderative or negative desiderative is added:

Infinitive	Verb	Desiderative	English
abae	bam	náicbam	to be - we are - we do not want to be
amae	méic	ciáeméic	to have - you will have - you will not want to have
aslae	slaen	náicslaen	to fall - s/he fell - s/he didn't want to fall

Full paradigms for the desiderative can be found below:

[edit] [top]The Desiderative in Function

In statements in which the subject of the sentence is the one who wants to do the action, the desiderative can be left as-is:

Edievian	English
Mes ciáesiáoméis nóis tort?	Do you want to eat some of the cake?
Ciáenobaéic aéis art.	S/He will want to go to the store.
Tac náiccatas batem siáer.	I don't want another beer right now.

In English situations where a speaker would just use "to want", such as "I want a drink", "Do you want something [to eat?]", "She doesn't want a child", etc; one must use another verb in the desiderative mood:

Edievian	English	Literal Translation
Ciáerofas cro.	I want something to drink.	I want to drink a thing.
Mes ciáesiáoméis cro?	Do you want something to eat?	Do you want to eat a thing?
Naciám le abarn.	She doesn't want a child.	She doesn't want to have a child.

In cases where it is not the subject of the speaker who would perform the desired action, Edievian employs a construction using the desiderative form of abae, to be, in the third person singular:

ciáebaéis si [wanter] nes ne [conjugated verb]

[Wanter] refers to the person who wants the action to occur but will not be performing it; in "I want you to go to the store", "I" is the one who wants the action to occur. If this role is a pronoun, one must remember to use the appropriate form of the preposition si. The [conjugated verb] is the verb referring to the other subject performing the action; in the sentence above, "you to go" is the equivalent portion of the sentence.

Ciáebaéis literally is "it wants to be", and should match the tense and aspect of the statement appropriately.

Ciáebaéis sig nes ne obéis aéis art.
I want you to go to the store.
ciáe-baéis
DESDesiderative (mood)
wishes, desires, wants-COPCopula
used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.PRESPresent tense (tense)
current sig
by.1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I nes
RELRelative ne
IRRIrrealis
mood ob-éis
go-2SGUnknown code aéis
to the art
store
Lit: It wants by me that you go to the store.

Further examples:

Ciáebaen sil nes ne hentaren.
S/He wanted you to leave.
ciáe-baen
DESDesiderative (mood)
wishes, desires, wants-COPCopula
used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed sil
by.3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee nes
RELRelative ne
IRRIrrealis
mood hentar-en
leave-2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you).PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed
Lit: It wanted by him/her that you left.

Náicbaeciáéis síis haem oc nes ne siáomives nóis tort.
My mother won't want us to eat some of the cake.
náic-baeciáéis
NEGNegative (polarity)
not.DESDesiderative (mood)
wishes, desires, wants-COPCopula
used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.FUTFuture (tense)
action occurring after the moment of speech.IMPFUnknown code síis
by.DEFDefinite
"the" haem
mother oc
GENGenitive (case)
possessive.INALInalienable (possesson)
thing that can't be gained or lost.1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I nes
RELRelative ne
IRRIrrealis
mood siáom-ives
eat-1PFirst person plural (person)
we (inclusive or exclusive).FUTFuture (tense)
action occurring after the moment of speech.IMPFUnknown code nóis
PTVPartitive (number)
'some of' or for mass nouns.DEFDefinite
"the" tort
cake
Lit: It will not want by my mother that we will eat some of the cake. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

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