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A Summary of the Kendri Language Part 3
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Adverbs, Adjectives, Determiners: Pronouns, Classes, Demonstratives, Interrogatives, Quantitives, Distributives.
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A SUMMARY OF THE KENDRI LANGUAGE

Part 3

Adverbs, Adjectives, Determiners (Pronouns, Classes, Demonstratives, Interrogatives, Quantitives, Distributives.)


ADVERBS

In kendri, adverbial elements perform functions which might fall to other parts of speech in other languages. For example, the basic meaning of gè is ‘with’ or ‘together with.’ As an adposition it can occur before pronouns, e.g. ngámbur géba, with the bear. It can also conjoin two entities, e.g. ngámbur ge cárh, bear and (together with) man. It can be affixed to a verb, as in igésa, to go with, accompany. In all cases, however, it is best regarded as an adverbial governing the verb.


Freestanding

There are many adverbs and other freestanding elements. Most, but not all, end in -e. Some of these are formed from a single class element, usually followed by -e:

re - surely, indeed
ne - entirely
nu - all, totally
ge - and, also
pe - only
se - in motion
ze - really, actually
fe - by means of

Other adverbs are more complex in structure:

twe - in the past
tye - in the future
ínte - again
ítre - until

Adverbs can take any form, but there are some characteristic ones:

Consonant(s) + vowel(s), as most of the ones above:

re - surely,
te - then,
rúe - well,
píe - similarly

Two syllables.

téne - often
ínte - again

Correlative format.

kwéte - now
kwéme - here

Modfix - consonant(s) - vowel(s)

úre - low, down
úrwe - back(wards)

Many adverbs end in -E. There is a relationship, or convergence, of this with the ablative case. In the phrase ighrátu tháurhe, to stab to death, the final -E in tháurhe is ostensibly the ablative case, ‘with death.’ But it could equally be perceived as an adverb, meaning ‘fatally.’ This perception leads to ablative forms being used as adverbs.


Affixed

Many adverbials can also be prefixed to verbs, e.g.

nu-fháta - totally destroy
re-thaurhátya - he will surely die
úrwe-sátya - he will return (úrwe - back, backwards)

Also to class pronouns and participles:

nú-can ambrúnu nú-mwan e-nu-fhátwan
all-they cities all-them (off)-totally-annihilated
‘they all totally destroyed all the cities.’


ADJECTIVES and other Attributive and Predicative Strategies

There is a class of adjectives ending in -I, which might be seen rather as weak associative nouns. These are often similar in meaning to English adjectives ending in -Y, and come before the absolute form of the noun. Examples are

rúi - nice, e.g. rúi ngámbur - a nice bear
léithi - shady, e.g. léithi dwéndo - a shady forest

Although they can come after the noun, in that case they are perceived as nouns rather than adjectives, and require the first noun to be in the construct.

ngámbru rúi - a nice bear.

Ngámbur rúi would mean ‘the bear is nice.’

Most such adjectives are derived from other parts of speech, e.g. ýthti, instant, from ýthto, an instant.


Noun-Based Strategies

Attributive relations are more usually expressed by a construction similar to the possessive, where the noun to be qualified is in the construct, followed by the qualifying noun in the absolute.

ngámbru rú - a good bear (literally, bear of goodness)
dwéndo léith - shady forest (forest of shade)

Certain elements are habitually suffixed to nouns to qualify them. The most common is -DH, which forms diminutives. Similarly -RH, bad.

cárho-dh - small person, child
cágo-rh - bad dog


Verbal Strategies

Certain verbs have an intrinsically stative, predicative meaning, e.g.

ílra, be happy
ngámbur ilráta, the bear is happy.

The perfect aspect of certain verbs has a predicative meaning, e.g. thaurhátha, from tháurha, die.

ngámbur thaurhátha, the bear is dead (has died.)

The perfect tends to be used in this way, as it emphasises the participant. The progressive-perfect, thaurhántha, would mean something more like ‘has now died.’


Participles

Participles used alone may have the same effect as a noun and adjective, e.g. thaurháthon - dead people; the dead. (These forms often have a fused class aspect marker, like stative verbs, q.v. so thaurháchon.)

Both perfect and progressive participles are used attributively.

ngámbur ilráth(o) - happy bear
ngámbur thaurháth(o) - dead bear
Dwéndo Osánt, the Rising Wood

Participles often omit the final -O, especially in the perfect (final -O is more likely than other vowels to be omitted from Kendri words in general.) As participles, their position in the sentence is not critical, and unlike adjectives proper they may come after nouns in the absolute state. They agree only in number.

The simple aspect participle can also be used as an adjective to express habituality, as in cárho arosyáto, a hunting man or hunter. It can also be used as a noun, but here the class aspect form arosyáco, hunter, would more typically be used.


Stative Verbs

Stative verbs are often used where English would use an adjective. So rúa, be good, from rù, goodness, The participles (usually perfect) of these verbs are typically used in the attributive construction, and the indicative in the predicative. So:

ngámbur rúabh - a good bear
ngámbur rúaba - the bear is good.

Again, the perfect participle usually omits the final -O.

These stative verbs have a fused class-aspect marker, where a class element takes over the role of the aspect marker - normally -T- - and adopts its phonetic features, such as lenition for the perfect. So rúabh stands for *rúatho, and rúaba for *rúata. The synthetic aspect markers are also often used attributively, by analogy, for verbs such as ílra, e.g. ngámbur ílrabh, happy bear. Except occasionally in metre, these forms always lose the final -O.

Verbs of this type have irregular stress in the stem, in that the first vowel in a combination is stressed, so rúaba instead of the expected *ruába. This suggests that they are being perceived as one syllable, unlike other vowel combinations of this type, and they are normally treated as such for purposes of prosody.

Unlike normal participles, these class-lenited forms can take case endings in the same way as class participles. So rúabhi - to the good animal.


Comparison

To compare nouns and qualifications, a combination of the following strategies is used:

Prefixing a pronoun with ENI
Prefixing a stative verb with (E)NI
Putting a noun in the ablative

ngámbur sývh ení-ba dúaba - the bear is bigger than the mouse

Here, ENI is prefixed to the class pronoun ba, referring to the mouse (syvh) - the word order shows that it doesn’t refer to the bear.

ngámbur sývh ni-dúaba - the bear is bigger than the mouse

Here, NI is prefixed to the verb, which comes to mean ‘is bigger than.’

The ablative is not often used alone, but is combined with one or both of the other two:

ngámbur sývh-e ení-ba ni-dúaba



DETERMINERS and the Class System

Pronouns, Classes, Adverbs, Adjectives, Demonstratives, Interrogatives, Quantitives, Distributives.


PRONOUNS and Classes

The Patientive and Agentive pronouns only occur affixed to verbs. Freestanding pronouns - which can also be combined and affixed - are based on the Kendri class system. The following are the class markers most used in later Kendri, with examples of what they typically refer to:

B - non-sapient animals; body parts (Bio - biotic - animal-related)

C - humanoid sapient beings; most weather features (Mut - mutable - change-related)

D - plants; objects made of wood or plant matter (Bot - botanic - plant-related)

F - ylfwoid (six-limbed) sapient beings; artefacts; tools (Mor - morphic - hand and form-related)

G - groups, e.g. families, nations, herds, organisations, armies (Col - collective - group-related)

J - forces of nature - hurricanes, lightning, volcanos; powers and abilities (Dyn - dynamic - force-related)

K - sounds and items of communication - words, letters, poems, signals (Glos - glossic - language, ear and mouth-related)

L - luminaries - sun, moon, stars, lamps; intellectual concepts, knowledge, ideas, emotions (Phot - photic - eye and light related)

M - substances and materials; inanimate objects in general; places (Geo - geoic - earth-related)

P - reciprocal relationships; distinct, countable items (Item - item and head-related)

R - roads and routes; directions; orders; laws, customs, plans (Trop - tropic - way-related)

T - times and seasons, temporal states (Chro - chronic - time-related)


Class Pronouns

Class pronouns take the same person endings as verbs.

da - it, a plant
cin - we, people
be - you, an animal

They are commonly used in place of a copula.

lhéme ci? - where am I?
àusyovánto ce - you are a relic-bearer

They are frequently used with modfixes and other adverbials, which cannot be affixed to nouns, and which function as prepositions do in many other languages.

asháurh á-ma - to the castle
ámbur í-ma - in the town

cárhodh gé-ca - with the child

They can also be used in conjunction with noun cases.

ámbri í-ma - in or to the town

R, P and S forms further define the effect of the affixes.

ámbri ímpa - in the town (stative)
ámbri ímra - in the direction of the town (directional)
ámbri ímsa - to the town (kinetive)

Syntactic alignment can be emphasised by agentive and patientive forms. They usually, but not necessarily, have corresponding markers on the verb.

cyón thaurhyáton - those who kill
cón thaurháton - those who die
cwón thaurhwáton - those who are killed

They are often used in combination with each other, and with the reflexive element P.

cá-pa ilwáta - he sees himself
cá-pan ilwátan - they see each other (the plural may be omitted in the first pronoun)
cán-cwan thaurhyátan - they kill them


Class Pronominals

Class pronominals end in -O, and may often be translated as ‘the one’ or ‘that one.’

bó osánto - the one (animal) which is climbing
cón ekwánton - the ones who are speaking

They can also take modfix and adverbial prefixes.

gécon ekwánton - with the ones who are speaking

There are also lenited class indefinite pronouns, similar to participials, which can take case endings in place of the final -O

ché ilwáti - I see him/her/it (ablative object of ilwa, see)
bhné ikwáta - he hears them (plural biotic - animals - class)

Also used with prefixes:

áchni - to them (people)
ébhne - from them (animals)


Class Prepositionals

Class prepositionals are a variation of lenited class pronominals with prefixed modfix or adverbial, which agree in class with a following noun and have no ending in singular or plural. They use partial lenition - see Lenition under FEATURES above (Part 1).

ébh ferávnan - from their horses (lenited B-biotic class, agreeing with féar, horse)
ém jirmávnan - from their arrows (unlenited M-geoic class, agreeing with jírma, arrow)


Class Absolutes

Class absolutes end in -U, and are often abstract nouns with a more general relationship to the class.

du - size, e.g. féra du, a horse of size, big horse (féra - construct of féar, horse)
bu - life, e.g. cárho bu, a person of life, a living person


Class Relatives

Class relatives end in -Y, and are used as relative pronouns.

cárh cỳ esánta - the person who is leaving
féaran býn lwéme - the horses which are over there (B-biotic class)
tý esátha - when he has left (T-chronic class)


DEMONSTRATIVES, INTERROGATIVES, QUANTITIVES, DISTRIBUTIVES

These all work in a similar way. They have adverbial, adjectival and participial forms.

Interrogative adverbial lhe.

lhé isánte? - are you going?

Interrogative participial lho.

lhó ce? - what are you?

Interrogative adjective lhi

lhi ngámbur bà? - what bear is (that)

The demonstratives have forms similar to those of verbal evidential modes, based on the verbs to touch, reach, hear, listen, see and look.

fwe - this, within grasp (ifwa, touch)
fye - that, within reach (ifya, reach)
kwe - this, within hearing (ikwa, hear)
kye - that, has to be listened for (ikya, listen)
lwe - that, within sight (ilwa, see)
lye - that - has to be looked for (ilya, look)

kwí sývh - this mouse
sývh kwé - this mouse (more common)
lhé kwó? who is this (one)?

Several quantitive adverbials - known here as quantitives or partitives - work similarly.

rhe - any, some
ni - some
ne - many
nhe - few
nu - all
he - not, none
zhe - none

These may be suffixed and prefixed. Theoretically any class element may be suffixed, but some are more common than others. Note that the endings on these elements are not personal endings, as on pronouns, but E adverbial and O pronominal. The initial elements in these cases are the adverbial rather than the participial form.

Note that there is a conventional distinction between the adverbial -ME, which is used of places, and the pronominal -MO, which is used of objects. ME, in particular, takes the same R directional, S kinetive and P stative elements as class participles.

lhéme - where?
lhémo - what?

lhé-co - what person, who?
lhé-bo - what animal?
lhé-re - how?
lhé-ne - how many?
lhé-me - where?
lhé-po - which one?

kwé-co - this person
lwé-re - that way
kwé-me - here

These forms can take modfixes and adverbial prefixes.

ilwépo - to that one.

When lenited they can also take cases. They use partial lenition, where only certain consonants require to be lenited. See further Lenition under FEATURES.

ilwéphi - to that one (dative - lenited P class)
ilyémi - to that place (M does not require lenition)

The general rule for partial lenition is:

Lenited - Ph, Th, Kh, Bh, Dh, Gh
Unlenited - M, N, NG, F, S, V, Z, L, R
Variable - C, J (Often, C is lenited and J is not)


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