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Forming sentences
This public article was written by [Deactivated User] on 6 Feb 2019, 01:54.
[comments] htnlessonslesson 5complex sentencessimple sentencescompound sentencessentences
5. Lesson in Hakkan
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Simple sentencesIn today's lesson, the fifth lesson of the "Lessons in Hakkan" series, we will cover sentence constructions. Hakkan, or Hatxan as it was originally called, traditionally has employed a nominative-accusative morpho-syntactic alignment. There has been some evolution into what seems to be a makeshift and rudimentary tripartite system in which the agentive case is used by using the instrumental case whenever there is confusion in sentence structures, whereby all nouns without any inflection endings are called simply considered absolutive. It is, however, for the most part known to contain a nominative-accusative system of inflection. Here we will start with a basic sentence in traditional classical Hakkan. The sentence below reads I am a boy.
Wa ksa psaxbos.
The first word is I in the nominative case, followed by am, or is in certain contexts, and finally the word boy in the accusative case. Please note that there is some flexibility that is allowed to used in that sometimes, when the copula is used, the accusative case can be dropped allowing for an absolutive recipient to match the nominative case ending. This, however, is only used by metropolitan youth in the capital city of Hakkan. It is also worthy of pointing out that Hakkan has no definite or indefinite articles. Strictly speaking, the sentence above is read I am boy without any clarification of using any article. If there is ambiguity in comprehending this statement, the word one can be used for a, an, e.g. heno thus making Wa ksa henos psaxbos a complete and understood thought. Now the following sentence will match in person in number, the sentence They are boys. will be used:
Tsowa ksowa psaxbowos.
As you can see in the above sentence, wa has been replaced by the nominative tsowa meaning they, ksa has been replaced by plural ksowa meaning are, and finally, the boy has been inflected to its accusative plural form, making psaxbowos. You can replaced the verb ksa to refer to any other verb available that fits the context. You can make They see the boys: Tsowa xawowa psaxbowos, They hear boys: Tsowa howoqowa psaxbowos, or They want to see the boys: Tsowa xawothonsowa psaxbowos, and so on. As long as the subject is nominative and the object is accusative, you have mastered the simple sentence structure.
Compound sentences
Now that we have seen and understood what a simple sentence looks like in Hakkan, we can now look at making compound sentence structures. This means that we will have a main clause and a dependent or relative clause that follows suit. For example, I am a man in formal Hakkan is said Wa ksa yonos. If you want to say I am a man that lives in the city, you have to use the animate relative pronoun the or the inanimate relative pronoun thos depending on the subject matter of the sentence. Thus, the sentence becomes Wa ksa yonos the xatse psasan.. Other types of sentences that utilize however, and, or because, function much in a similar way for instances, I will give you certain variations of the same sentences in the examples below:
I am a man and I live in the city.
Wa ksa yonos won xatsa psasan.
I am a man, but I live in the city.
Wa ksa yonos, ksos xatsa psasan.
I am a man because I live in the city.
Wa ksa yonos qowoxeno xatsa psasan.
Sentences with more than one object, complex sentences
Fortunately for the Hakkan language, speakers employ a vast array of nominal case inflections, enumerating up to 15 cases! So it is understandable that Hakkan become not only a pro-drop language, but a language in which emphasis relies less on word order but case inflections instead. So, emphasis is only understood when the word is spoken in tone as well as understanding its case ending. Here is one example:
I gave you a book.
Wa thasowa seyoses kseyehos. Here, the sentence is correct in formal classical Hakkan, but to a speaker of Hakkan in the modern informal context would utilize the subject in the instrumental case in case their is an error in understanding where the emphasis lies, whether it is in giving the book to you, or the fact that a book was being given. Also, the dative appears to be used more infrequently, and instead, a prepositional phrase is used in the accusative case, or if the speaker is unfamiliar as to which object is the direct or indirect object.
I saw a man and his son.
Wa xawa yonos won xenohoyes. Here, there are two direct objects that are both in the accusative case. The only difference is that the man's son is employing alienability, specifically in the context of the first object that was introduced beforehand and we know that the son is the man's son because it uses the third person possessive enclitic, not the first person possessive enclitic. The term enclitic is used loosely, only because in the case of there not being any form of alienability, both the object and the possessive enclitic are inflected. Thus, making the enclitic into a separate pronoun all on its own that procedes an inflected object.
I was seen by a man.
Wa xawowaye ksa yonokse. Here, passive voice is employed by utilizing the past participle of the verb followed by an auxiliary verb, in this case, to be is used. I remains uninflected and man is used in the instrumental case, or the makeshift agentive case. Because Hakkan uses a nominative-accusative system of nominal inflection, nominative cases are unmarked. However, the very utilization of the instrumental case to prevent confusion between ambiguous meanings of indirect and direct case endings. Now, with a wider array of vocabulary, namely nouns and verbs, you will be able to put together any kind of sentence that you can think of. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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