Sumuar Grammar
▲
0▲ 0 ▼ 0
This article talks about grammar in the Sumuar language.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 28 Mar 2024, 08:42.
[comments] sumrgrammar
2. Sumuar Grammar
?
?
Sumuar is a language in the Faharic language family. It is spoken by a population of people who live in a cold, humid, and windswept (pretty miserable) grassland region.
Word order in Sumuar is quite simple. The basic verb order in Sumuar is VSO, though you could change this about (generally done for poetic purposes) to emphasise specific parts of the sentence, as nouns have case.
Adjectives in Sumuar come after the nouns they modify, as do articles. Demonstratives and specific adjectives (cimen, all) come before nouns, while adverbs come after the nouns they modify.
The specific word order for noun modifiers is this:
1. Demonstrative, specific adjectives
2. Noun
3. Adjective(s)
4. Article
5. Genitive (possessive) noun or pronoun
Therefore the English sentence "I climbed all the small mountains" would be in the order "I climbed all mountains small the" (selcāon cimen peldīunelus renteul nulus)
And the sentence "my good little black cat" would be in the order "cat good little black my" (bece neor renteu fean lear)
There are three kinds of verbs in Sumuar, being the verbs which end in -an, the verbs which end in -en, and the verbs which end in -in in their infinitive forms. The verbs conjugate for person (first, second, and third), number (singular and plural), tense (past, present, future), aspect (perfect, habitual, and progressive), and mood (indicative, conditional, subjunctive, and imperative). Because of Sumuar's inherently fusional nature, the subject is baked into the verb conjugation and therefore it is not necessary to say the subject in most settings.
Camē - I speak
(Vī) camēa - (if) I spoke...
Camīve - I would speak
A given verb will have 78 different conjugations, plus the imperative (4 forms - polite and regular, singular and plural), and the infinitive.
Verbs also have participle and gerund forms, which are here contrasted against the progressive form:
Ivishidas - he is charming (he is in the process of charming someone or something) - progressive conjugation
I ivishunis - he is charming (what a charming young man!) - participle
Ivishedeo i steas - charming is fun - gerund
In Sumuar, what would be known as "auxiliary verbs" in English or Spanish are not conjugated as such - instead, words like "should" and "may" are treated as uninflected adverbs - unces, for example, is "you burn", however unces debre is "you should burn". Debre, meaning "should", is not inflected at all and is placed behind the verb it modifies.
Adjectives in Sumuar inflect for number only in a sentence. Adjectives have comparative and superlative forms, negative forms, and adverbial forms as part of their derivational morphology. They come after nouns they modify and may come in any order provided the adjectives of opinion then size come first. Specific adjectives, such as those concerning quantities (enough, all, more, less, etc.), come before the noun they modify.
In Sumuar, there is no such thing as grammatical gender as other members of the Faharic language family have, with that having been lost entirely in Gurinoan (an ancestor language) already.
Nouns decline for plurality (singular, plural) and case.
There are 7 cases in Sumuar, being the nominative, dative, accusative, locative, instrumental, and vocative. The vocative and instrumental cases were not present in Proto-Faharic, having come from interactions and assimilation of the people who previously inhabited the region where Sumuar is spoken.
Amu - mother (NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument)
Amud - to mother (mother-DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location)
Amus - mother (mother-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient)
Amuar - mother's (mother-GENGenitive (case)
possessive)
Amufÿm - at/in mother (mother-LOCLocative (case)
'in, on, at' etc)
Amum - using mother (mother-INSTRInstrumental (case)
'with' 'using')
Amudō - 'O, mother' (mother-VOCVocative (case)
'O [addressee]')
Genitive nouns come after the thing that they possess. "Mother's son", for example, would be vivinde amuar (boy-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument mother-GENGenitive (case)
possessive)
Pronouns decline for the seven cases above. Every form of every pronoun is irregular - when it comes to pronouns, there are no rules in case, there are mere word-forms.
Lio - I (NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument)
Līd - to me (DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location)
Los - me (ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient)
Lear - my (GENGenitive (case)
possessive)
Lÿm - at/in me (LOCLocative (case)
'in, on, at' etc)
Līum - using me (INSTRInstrumental (case)
'with' 'using')
Leō - 'O, me' (VOCVocative (case)
'O [addressee]') admittedly this one is pretty seldom
The definite and indefinite articles in Sumuar change based on case and number. There is no particular rule to which form they will take. Articles always come after the noun they modify.
Gidine ner - the language (NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument)
Gidined nīd - to the language (DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location)
Gidinerte neārel - of the languages (GENGenitive (case)
possessive.PLPlural (number)
more than one/few)
Shone ur - a man (NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument)
Shonelus esul - some men (ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient.PLPlural (number)
more than one/few)
Nouns take adjectival forms:
Ovo (friend) -> ovoshan (friendly)
Teston (grass) -> testondishan (grassy)
Nouns and verbs both have agentive noun forms, which consist of the addition of the suffix "-(i)sÿt" to the verb or noun.
Camen (to speak) -> camesÿt (speaker)
Olhen (to forget) -> olhesÿt (forgetter)
Elin (to love) -> elisÿt (lover)
Peldīun (mountain) -> peldīunisÿt (mountaineer or mountain-goer)
Verbs have simple and abstract noun forms (plus the gerund):
Leohin - to move
Leoho - a move
Leohüre - movement
Leohedeo - moving (GERGerund
verbal noun)
Verbs have a passive form:
Linemin (to settle) -> linemishan (something was settled)
Abenan (to welcome) -> abendishan (someone was welcomed)*irregular
Verbs have an attributive adjectival form:
Olhen (to forget) -> olheha (forgetful)
Adjectives also take abstract noun forms:
Clios (cold) -> cliosadnu (coldness)
Valīn (happy) -> valīnadnu (happiness) ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
Comments
