Saridzani grammar
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1. Saridzani grammar
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Article created in: May 2022
Saridzani or Salidzani (natively called salījani salījani) is a Southern Desanian language spoken by an ethnic minority (about 150,000 people) in northeastern Nesyania. Its closest relative is Keranian (especially the eastern dialects), however the lexicon and phonology were heavily influenced by the Nesyanian language.
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Nominal cases
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Usage of the cases
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Personal
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Interrogative
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Saridzani verbs conjugate for tense (present, past and future), aspect (imperfective, perfective, progressive, habitual), person and number. Moods are generally marked with auxiliary verbs and/or particles. This system is quite similar to those found in other Desanian languages.
Verbs in their infinitive form end with -en, -in, -yn or -īn depending on sound changes between Old Desani and modern Saridzani:
- • śiben śiben ‘to say’
• ummin ummin ‘to search (for)’
• hwyn hwyn ‘to drink’
• bīn bīn ‘to sit down’
Tense and aspect
Just like closely related Keranian, Saridzani is a highly fusional language and each conjugation suffix indicates tense, person and number at the same time. Perfective aspect can be used only in past and future tense, and not all verbs can be perfective.
| 1SFirst person singular (person) speaker, signer, etc.; I | 1PIFirst person plural inclusive (person) we (inclusive) | 1PEFirst person plural exclusive (person) we (exclusive) | 2SSecond person singular (person) addressee (you) | 2PSecond person plural (person) addressee (plural) | 3SThird person singular (person) neither speaker nor addressee | 3PThird person plural (person) neither speaker nor addressee, they/them | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | |||||||
| Past | |||||||
| Past perfective | |||||||
| Future | |||||||
| Future perfective |
These suffixes can be altered depending on the verb stem, adding epenthetic /e/ when needed or lengthening /i/ to /iː/, and sometimes it is the stem that gets changed (e.g. a consonant gets palatalized), as shown below on two verbs – eźin ‘to make’ and misen ‘to think’:
| 1SFirst person singular (person) speaker, signer, etc.; I | 1PIFirst person plural inclusive (person) we (inclusive) | 1PEFirst person plural exclusive (person) we (exclusive) | 2SSecond person singular (person) addressee (you) | 2PSecond person plural (person) addressee (plural) | 3SThird person singular (person) neither speaker nor addressee | 3PThird person plural (person) neither speaker nor addressee, they/them | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | miska | miseda | misew | mised | misedo | misem | misel |
| Past | misecin | misedin | miswyn | misedyn | misedyn | mismin | mislin |
| Past perfective | misceban | miselban | miselban | misedban | misedban | misemban | miseban |
| Future | miśiŋ | miśinel | miśinu | miśind | miśindo | miśinem | miśinel |
| Future perfective | miśibak | miśibal | miśibaw | miśibad | miśibad | miśibam | miśibal |
In order to indicate progressive aspect, the suffix -ina is added to the main verb after the person/tense markers:
hum wusaz le un hwymina. Hum wusaz le un hwymina.Habitual aspect is marked with an infix, placed between the verb stem and the tense-person-number suffix:
hum
man wusa-z
water-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient le
river un
from hwy-m-ina
drink-PRESPresent tense (tense)
current.3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-PROGProgressive (aspect)
be verb-ing
The man is drinking water from a river.
talut bulaz hotińel. Talut bulaz hotińel.
tal-ut
wolf-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few bula-z
meat-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient hot-iń-el
eat-HABHabitual (aspect)
done often or out of habit-PRESPresent tense (tense)
current.3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them
Wolves eat meat.
Voice
There are two voices, active and passive, the active being the default one. Passive voice is indicated by the auxiliary nwyn nwyn used with past participle form of a verb:
un śibań nwyl. Un śibań nwyl.
un
away śib-ań
take-PSPARTPast participle nwy-l
AUXAuxilliary.PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed-PRESPresent tense (tense)
current.3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them
They are (being) taken away.
un śibań nwyban. Un śibań nwyban.
un
away śib-ań
take-PSPARTPast participle nwy-ban
AUXAuxilliary.PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed-PFVPerfective (aspect)
completed action.PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them
They were taken away.
Auxiliary and defective verbs
Auxiliary verbs are used to mark moods and conditionality. They do not have a normal conjuagtion pattern and some of them can be considered defective.
Verbs like ten ten ‘to be possible’, ýamin ýamin ‘to be necessary’ and inden inden ‘to be required’ have only a few conjugated forms:
| 3rd person singular | 3rd person plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Present | ýamim indem | ýamil indel |
| Future | — innem | — innel |
The verbs ambi ambi ‘should’ and zwy zwy ‘would’ (conditional mood marker) cannot be conjugated. The person and number is marked on the main verb instead.
ambi begal milīd. Ambi begal milīd.
ambi
should begal
there mi-lī-d
into-go-PRESPresent tense (tense)
current.2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
You should go there.
isa mańdi zwy śmidban, mań tī kazabalan zwy eźdyn? Isa mańdi zwy śmidban, mań tī kazabalan zwy eźdyn?
isa
if mań-di
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient zwy
CONDConditional (mood)
would śmi-dban
see-PFVPerfective (aspect)
completed action.PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you) mań
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee tī
with kazabalan
conversation zwy
CONDConditional (mood)
would eź-dyn
do-IPFVImperfective (aspect)
'interrupted or incomplete'.PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
If you saw him, would you talk to him?
Derivational morphology
Like in other Desanian languages, certain verbs referring to movement and spatial relations can be modified with various locative prefixes:
- • līn līn ‘to walk; to go’
• uýlin uýlīn ‘to go away; to leave’
• lalīn lalīn ‘to go down; to descend’
• belīn belīn ‘to go in; to enter’
Reduplication is used as well; however, it is much less productive than it used to be in Old Desani.
- • źiźen źiźen ‘to blink’ (from Old Desani egi-)
• līlin līlin ‘to walk around; to wander aimlessly’ (from rehi-)
• bebaýen bebaýen ‘to talk a lot’ (from evahi-)
• tuhtuźin tuhtuźin ‘to hit repeatedly’ (from tugi-)
Causative verbs
The main causative affix is ī-. Adding it sometimes results in vowel deletion (in the first syllable of the main verb).
| Verb | Causative form | Old Desani origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to finish | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to put to sleep | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to feed | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to give smth to drink | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to send; to set | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to show | |||
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act to drop |
Some verbs have suppletive or irregular causative forms derived from roots which aren't productive anymore, e.g. wanin wanin ‘to begin (intransitive)’ vs. wańdin wańdin ‘to begin (something)’.
Compounding / Noun incorporation
Noun incorporation in Saridzani is uncommon, but sometimes it's used in literary or technical language. It happens more frequently in words borrowed from Nesyanian (which is an unrelated language, but had a large impact on the Saridzani grammar and vocabulary).
- • tlajītlen tlajītlen ‘to send a letter’ (Nesyanian traji ‘letter’ + native Saridzani ītlen ‘to send’
(interestingly, traji itself is a Desanian borrowing partially, and ultimately comes from the same Old Desani root as telen/ītlen)
• walwoýlen walwoýlen ‘to cut trees’ (equivalent to wal ‘tree’ + wylen ‘to cut’)
• luýihten luýihten ‘to breastfeed’ (lu ‘breast’ + īhten ‘to feed’)
Adjectives preceed the noun they describe and do not decline; there is no case nor number agreement with the noun. Most adjectives end with -ī or -e. The regular adjectival comparison uses affixes as follows:
luze luze ‘dark’A few adjectives have more or less irregular comparative and/or superlative forms due to suppletion or sound changes:
luzeti luzeti ‘darker’
śiluzeti śiluzeti ‘the darkest’
dle dle ‘green’In some cases, adverbs thy thy ‘more’ and śithy śithy ‘the most’ can be used instead of the affixes.
dleti dleti ‘greener’
śildeti śildeti (instead of *śidleti) ‘the greenest’
Overview
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Interrogative and relative adverbs
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Declarative
Basic declarative clauses are SV by default.
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Negative
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Interrogative
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Relative
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Subordinate
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Conditional
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