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Vosan Adjectives
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Balak is not the only Vaniuan language with crazy adjectives!
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 11 Apr 2021, 22:06.

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As it turns out, Vosan adjectives are a lot more complicated than I thought. So here's an article about it, both for my reference and for your curiosity.

Adjectives

To best summarize adjectives in this language would be more like adjectives*. And to elaborate, here's how.

There are three kinds of adjectives in this language. There are the true adjectives, the causal adjectives, and the stative verbs. All three are used differently.

True Adjectives, so I call them, are basically the adjectives you would see in English. They're the, perhaps, lawful good kind of adjective in Vosan. Sentences or phrases that say that something is an adjective just need a copula, and they're paired together like a nice couple when the affected noun happens to be a subject or object in a much larger verb phrase.

Ðas duro.
Ḍas duro.
I'm red.

Er bâ ðal urestu.
Er bâ ḍal urestu.
The boy was happy.

A ctulû urî bizul a zur seno.
A ctulû urî bizul a zur seno.
A stupid man went to the inn.


Causal adjectives are not even adjectives at all, but verbs that cause something else to have an adjective. But given the rules regarding object-focused sentences, as in, they're basically sentences with implied subjects, they functionally act like them, with some quirks.

Casel ram.
Casel ram.
I am disguised. (literally "disguised me")

Veriðil er bâ.
Veriḍil er bâ.
The boy was painted. (literally "painted the boy")

Awal a urî bizul a zur seno.
Avbal a urî bizul a zur seno.
A damned man went to the inn. (literally "damned a man went to the inn")

A ciwo rûgel mes agazel a puke.
A civbo rûgel mes agazel a puke.
A bird pooped on a depressed pig. (literally "a bird pooped on depressed a pig")
though it does not help that the Vosan word for pig is puke; it might be why it's depressed in the first place, because it can't bear being called puke

Yes, literally any transitive verb can be used like this. Also note that these kinds of adjectives require determiners on any nouns after them, because they are saying "Someone depressed a pig," after all.

Stative Verbs are, no surprise, verbs that denote the state of a noun, and are key features of the Kothlenic languages in Eastern Vaniu, but are also here in the west, somehow. Adjectives with the ability to be marked with person, tense, and mood, pretty much. This of course means that you cannot use copulas in these phrases, if they even are phrases.

Tustas.
Tustas.
I am at peace. (be_at_peace.1First person (person)
speaker, signer, etc; I
.PRESPresent tense (tense)
current
)

Zur asåstå amsel.
Zur asåstå amsel.
The answer was correct. (the answer be_correct.3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
.PASTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
)

Er urî birim vi bizul a zur seno.
Er urî birim vi bizul a zur seno.
The chaotic man went to the inn. (the man be_chaotic.3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
.PRESPresent tense (tense)
current
and go.3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
.PASTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
to the inn, literally "the man is chaotic and he went to the inn")


These adjectives differ from the other two kinds by either being alone in the sentence or being after the affected noun, which seems odd for an adjective-noun language. For the last sentence in particular, you'll notice that the "adjective" and the verb are separated with a conjunction. These are completely different phrases because of the stative verb's nature of just being... a verb.

Adjective Modifiers

The adjectives themselves don't make up the whole story. Vosan has a handful of things to use that modify an adjective: comparison particles and adverbs.

Comparison particles do exactly as their name suggests; they compare. But they're used in a way you might not expect. There's only two, but depending on where they're used, they make a difference. And those two particles are simply ce (ce) and ge (ge), prepositions which mean "over" and "under" in their usual contexts. But pair them with adjectives, and they become used differently, as they are now positive and negative comparative particles. As in, "greater than" and "not as great as" with the base adjective "great."

When the particle is BEFORE the adjective, they become basically the superlative affix "-est" but detached from the modified noun.
¡Ðis er ce tun urî mes er Reme!
Ḍis er ce tun urî mes er Reme!
I'm the strongest man in the world!


¡Ðis er ge tun urî mes er Reme!
Ḍis er ge tun urî mes er Reme!
I'm the weakest man in the world!


Negative superlatives reverse the meaning of their modified noun, like you saw with "strongest" becoming "weakest." Useful for replies where you contradict somebody that's saying you're the wrongest person in the room.

When the particle is AFTER the adjective, they become like the English comparative "-er than" or the phrase "not as [preceding adjective] as."
¿Ðûs tun ce ram þera?
Ḍûs tun ce ram ṣera?
Why are you stronger than me?


¿Ðûs tun ge ram þera?
Ḍûs tun ge ram ṣera?
Why aren't you as strong as me?


But it doesn't have to be directly after the adjective, there can be a noun in the way to still make sense.
¿Ðûs a tun urî ce ram þera?
Ḍûs a tun urî ce ram ṣera?
Why are you a stronger man than me?


¿Ðûs a tun urî ce ram þera?
Ḍûs a tun urî ge ram ṣera?
Why are you as strong of a man as me?


Matter of fact, it doesn't even have to have a compared noun after it if it's a "make something [adjective]er" phrase.
Bis a tanna a tun urî ce.
Bis a tanna a tun urî ce.
I want to make a stronger man.


Bis a tanna a tun urî ge.
Bis a tanna a tun urî ge.
I want to make a man not as strong.


In these contexts, "than others" phrases are not needed, because it can be guessed to be so regardless.

Adverbs are used not that much differently in regards to adjectives compared to how they are in English. They're like an adjective's adjectives, put before an adjective to modify it. But the catch is, when superlatives are involved, adverbs cannot be used. That's all.
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