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Learn a Little Laxaran
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Learn about greetings and conversations
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 14 Jan 2018, 00:59.
[comments] lxr Hello and welcome to the first in a series about learning Laxaran! In this article, you will learn some basic grammar, greet someone you have not met before, tell them your name, and ask a question.
Let's start with some simple grammar. In English, the position of words in a sentence determines a lot about them. This is not so in Laxaran, where word order is nearly completely free- instead, the purpose of a word in a sentence is determined by the word immediately before it, just like how prepositions affect words in English. In fact, each of these words is a preposition, but they cover a much wider range than prepositions in English do. They also have two categories that they cover- a formal and a casual form of speech. When you meet someone you don't know, you should use the formal forms, and as such we will cover those only in this article, and discuss the informal forms in a later discussion.
To give an example, lets first look at this simple script. In it, Kevin has just landed at Doma Island's airport, and is asking Soru, the person who is currently running the information desk, what the number for a taxi service is.
Kevin: Ao axonu, ale Xevino apowa.
Soru: Ata Xevino ao axonu. Ara Soru apowa. Ale nella azori? Alli aferi.
Kevin: Orane hana ille fono taxi asape?
Soru: Ta!
Let's look at the first sentence. First, Kevin greets Soru. "Ao axonu" literally means "Good greetings". Remember how we said that there are a lot of words that modify other words? Well, ao is one of those words- it means nothing by itself, but rather it implies that you are in a good mood about what you are talking about when you add it to a verb. Axonu is made up of two parts - a and xonu. A is the formal present tense marker for a verb, and xonu is the verb "to greet". Note that, unlike English and other Indo-European languages, the verbs in Laxaran conjugate the front of the word, vice the end.
The next part of Kevin's sentence is "Ale Xevino apowa" Xevino is how Kevin would be transformed into a Laxaran form, but what about the other words? Ale is another preposition, it marks the subject of the sentence, but it is for masculine nouns only. Don't use this for feminine nouns! The word ara is for them, as you can see later on in Soru's response "Ara Soru apowa". Finally, the word apowa means 'To call' and can refer to being named something or to call for something. Remember that the a in front of the word indicates that it is in the present tense.
What about Soru's reply? She first says "Ata Xevino ao axonu" We now know what "ao axonu" means, and that Xevino is Kevin, but what about Ata? We can guess that it is another modifier based on what we've discussed before, but what form of speech does it indicate? It indicates the masculine vocative case, which is used when you address someone. It is used quite frequently in Laxaran. Its feminine form is itene. The next phrase we haven't learned yet is "Ale nella azori". We know what ale indicates, but what is the word "nella"? As it turns out, it is a pronoun, similar to what or who in English. It indicates that the speaker doesn't know the part of speech it is taking up, but would like to know it. azori is the present tense form of "to want". Now that we know all of that, we can try to put this sentence together, but we seem to be missing something. That's because, unlike English, Laxaran doesn't require the speaker to be explicit about what is being talked about, provided that it is clear in context. So what could be implied by the phrase "What want"? Well, clearly, "What do you want?" Please note that, while rude in English, this phrase is more in line with "What would you like?" because of the use of formal conjugations and prepositions.
You can probably guess at this point that the word "aferi" in the next phrase is a present tense verb, and you'd be correct. Feri means to assist or to help, and "Alli" implies that the speaker has the ability to perform the following action. Once again, through context you must guess a part of the sentence- which would most closely be translated as "I can assist you."
Kevin's next line is a long one, and is a bit imposing at first for a beginner- "Orane hana ille fono taxi asape" is asking for the telephone number for a taxi service. Let's break it down. First, the word orane, which as you can guess is a marker for something. In this case it refers to the thing that is a sound of some sort. This is significantly different than English, so just remember that if something is a sound that is made from a verb, that it takes the preposition "Orane" for masculine nouns and "Nara" for feminine nouns. Hana is the word for number. Let's skip to the verb now, so we can talk about the basic sentence. The word sape is the verb "to tell", so we can see why the preposition "orane" is being used- the sound is what is being told. In this case we have to once again guess the subject and object of the sentence, but from context it is most likely that the subject is "you" and the object is "me", so we can now move on.
What does the "ille fono taxi" part of the above phrase mean? Ille is the genitive marker, meaning that what follows it is owned by what precedes it. It is very similar to the word 'of' in English. It's feminine form is "Lla". The next two words are borrowed from English. Fono comes from phone and Taxi is a taxi. A genitive phrase continues until a new preposition or verb appears, and goes in the order that would be backwards for an English speaker. So the phrase means "of phone taxi".
Now lets put it all together. "Orane hana ille fono taxi asape", translated literally as "Sound number of phone taxi tell", is best translated as "Will you please tell me the phone number of a taxi?" What about Soru's simple response, "Ta"? Well, It simply means "yes" or affirmative. Now we've translated the entire conversation!
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