Bodin Lesson #3: view article

From Lesson 2, you should now be able to construct a simple indicative sentence in Bodin (with reference to the dictionary for vocab). Lesson 3 will go into more varied sentence structures.

Conjunctions
Most Bodin conjunctions go between the sentences they connect, or at the beginning of the clause they subordinate, as in English.

ei - and
oi - or
ni - because (must be used with a full sentence. "because of (noun)" is expressed using the preposition ci)
shlonu - while, as, at the same time as
cui - but
purna - and then, and next, after that
cra - so, therefore, thus
mukh - for example, such as; (at the end of a sentence) anyway, in the first place

There are several conjunctions that relate to hypotheticals:
chei - if (likely), when ("you'll be sorry when X happens")
cha - if (general, no opinion)
chacui - if (unlikely)
toichei - unless (toichei danshui = "unless only" = except if, except for)
she - even if, still, despite
pucha - until (future, conditional; "x will keep happening until y happens")
bacha - until (past, descriptive; "x kept happening until y happened")
When any of these are used, the consequence clause (if x, then y) is usually in the subjunctive, and is preceded by nui, "then, therefore".

Questions
Bodin questions have the same format as indicative sentences, except for the addition of a question affix. There are 3 question affixes, each of which suffixes to the word being questioned:
-mo - interrogative question marker
-khu - yes/no question marker
-khui - rhetorical/ironic/incredulous question marker

Relative and Complement Clauses
Bodin has a relative particle de that comes after the noun to begin a relative clause, and then retains the pronoun within the relative clause (e.g. "I see the person, de he is my father"). All positions in the accessibility hierarchy can be relativized.

Although this is often omitted when the relative clause occurs at the end of a sentence, Bodin also has two relative particles that can end a relative clause. The most commonly used is la, which escapes the most recently started relative clause. There is also le, which is used when you have nesting relative clauses or prepositional phrases, and escapes all clauses/phrases.

As for complement clauses, depending on the main verb of the sentence, either de, a preposition (many Bodin prepositions can take an entire clause as their argument), or just a comma may be used to set off the clause.

Quotations
Standard Bodin has several quotative particles, which come immediately before the quote:
scu - direct quotation, this is EXACTLY what they said. Mostly used in written text. ("She said, 'No, sorry, you can't do that.'")
sca - informal paraphrased quotation, similar to "was like" in English. ("She was like, 'no way will I let you do that'.")
scei - paraphrasing, not in the original speaker's POV. ("She told them they couldn't do it.")
The quotative particle may just be preceded by a pronoun/name, or by a sentence with a verb like "bor" (tell/say/speak), "car" (shout), etc.

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