Tag: verbs

Conlang: Ori (relative clauses)

~ mnransdellgreen ~ Leave a comment

A bit ago I introduced some interrogative, indefinite, and negative pronouns for Ori. Related to these forms are relative pronouns, which are used to create relative clauses.

In Ori, relative clauses are head-initial, despite the generally left-branching (head-final) nature of Ori. This means that the head of the relative clause (the main noun) is placed before the relative clause (as it is done in French or English, for example).

The relative pronouns are basically all formed from verions of the interrogative pronouns, but with an additional suffix of -a at the end of the word.

nalar – ‘who?’ –> nalara ‘who’ (rel.)

nabel – ‘what?’ –> nabela ‘which, that’

nanye – ‘where?’ –> nanya ‘where’ (rel.)

nasya – ‘why?’ –> nasya ‘for which reason’ (rel.)

natin – ‘how?’ –> natina ‘in which way’ (rel.)

nalin – ‘when?’ –> nalina ‘when’ (rel.)

The trisyllable forms of the relative pronouns (nalara, nabela, natina, and nalina) also have short forms that are used more commonly in eveyday speech.

nalara –> na-

nabela –> naba-

natina –> nata-

nalina –> nana-

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Relative pronouns take the same case that the shared noun uses in the embedded clause. In the below sentence,

Tu-hema-s na-s tet lyen-besorpa-tan nimas rya

def.art-woman-nom who-nom makes def.art-clay.pots-acc mother-nom be

‘The woman who makes the clay pots is a mother’

–

Lye-besorpa-s naba-t elucu-m cyan truma-s rya.

def.art-clay.pot-acc which-acc choose-1sg pst.perf red-nom be

‘The clay pot that I chose is red’

–

nanya, nasya, nalina/nana are all often used without a case marker at all.

Ti-trente-cya nanya ti-hiluma-pya peli-t cyan culim-bru alinda.

def.art-temple-loc where def.art-priestess-acc find-2sg pst.perf travel-1pl tomorrow

‘Tomorrow we will travel to the temple where you found the priestess’

Upcoming works are brewing…

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 1 Comment

I’m writing some mini-stories about Orikrindians that I will probably post in the future. Topics may/will include:

– An Orikrindian girl who leaves her country at age 15 and moves to Quarios, some of her thoughts, motivations, and memories (telling her story in retrospect)

– Two Orikrindian brothers who are separated due to a war with a neighboring country

– A story of the devotees of the mountain goddess and fire god who go on a pilgrimage to a great mountain. Fewer will descend that those who went up

I’m also recording new poems in Rílin now, since I am finally back in touch with my h4n Zoom audio recorder, which is higher quality than my laptop mic, unsurprisingly.

Other topics in the works: more Ori grammar, the Orikrindian pantheon, and info on Orikrindian artisanal works.

This has been a semi-update with a bunch of teasers…but I’m really excited about what I’m working on so it’s ok. 😛

Mintaka

Conlang: Ori (interrogative pronouns, deictic adjectives, a few irregular verbs)…

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 3 Comments

orikrindiaemblem

This is the purple flower of Orikrindia, the nation emblem. Its six petals represent the six provinces of Orikrindia. 

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Here are a few more pronouns in Ori (non-personal pronons). The base forms of these words is the indeterminate pronouns (something, somewhere, etc.), while adding na- makes the words interrogative (who?, what, etc.). Similarly, adding ca- makes them negative (no one, no way, etc.). See below for the forms and some examples sentences.

alar ‘someone’

nalar? ‘who?’

calar ‘no one’

 

bel ‘something’

nabel? ‘what?’

cabel ‘nothing’

 

nye ‘somewhere’

nanye? ‘where?’

canye ‘nowhere’

 

sya ‘some reason’

nasya? ‘why?’

casya ‘for no reason’

 

tin ‘in some way’

natin? ‘how?’

catin ‘in no way’

 

lin ‘some time’

nalin ‘when?’

calin ‘never’

 

Examples:

Alars tari cyan pye Mirmis cleppat proru cyan ‘Someone said Mirmi ate poison’

 

Nanye minim ti-trentepya ma? ‘Where can I find the temple?’

 

Nasya tranye ti ma? ‘Why are you here?’

 

Calars tin-nelcag iyuru can ‘No one sees the gods’

 

Tu-porinis tun-porityan tin peli bil ‘The shepherd will probably find the sheep somehow’

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Deicitc adjectives

Ori has two sets of deictic adjectives. These are adjectives that modify nominals to show relative spatial position–in English we have ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, ‘those’. In Ori, one set of adjectives relates to spaces near and away from the 1st person (the speaker), while the other set is used with references to all other persons (2nd and 3rd).

From 1st person perspective:

ti ‘that’

tra ‘this’

 

tim ‘those’

tram ‘these’

 

From 2nd person or 3rd person perspective:

dum ‘that

del ‘this’

 

dumi ‘those’

deli ‘these’

Plural vs singular is the only morphological distinction, and there is no class agreement on deictic adjectives.

 

Examples:

dumi porisa ‘those sheep’ (far from you/another)

deli porisa ‘these sheep’ (near you/another)

 

tim porisa ‘those sheep’ (far from me)

tram porisa ‘these sheep’ (near me)

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Ori has a few irregular verbs, like all natural languages. Many of them are quite common verbs.

li ‘come’

me ‘go’

te ‘do, make’

celi ‘have’

syalu ‘use’

tyelu ‘know’

malu ‘be’

maro ‘give’

Examples of conjugations of irregular verbs (where two forms are listed under 3rd person, the first form is for animate/inanimate nouns and the second is for celestial/abstract nouns):

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More irregular verbs and other stuff to come!

Mintaka

Conlang/conculture: Ori(krindia): (temples, quick note on ‘s’, independent pronouns)…

~ mnransdellgreen ~ Leave a comment

Alrighty.

I am posting some photos of cliffs and mountains like this, since this is how I envisage some of the Orikrindian temples appearing, situated high in the mountains and built into the rock itself. My feeling at this point is one of their primary deities of their pantheon is a mountain goddess who is seen as a mother, supporting and giving life to many other smaller gods who represent entities that dwell on or around the mountain. I know there is a god that is represented by fire/volcanoes, since those are everywhere in Orikrindia. Somehow I want connect the fire god/mountain goddess in a kind of symbiotic relationship. I’m not sure how yet.

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One more small note on noun cases: I failed to mention that any nouns ending in -s are a little different. I noted that nouns ending in stops (oral or nasal) got an epenthetic -i- inserted before the main case ending for their class. Other final consonants like -r and -l do not. -s however is a little different. In certain respects, it follows the pattern of -l and -r in that it doesn’t get an epenthetic -i-, but in other instances, it does. See below for examples. Note which cases use the epenthetic -i- and which do not.

Inanimate noun: holis ‘door’

Animate noun: selis ‘teacher’

Celestial noun: tus ‘beam of light’

Abstract noun: lyos ‘grief’

nom sg: holis-is OR holis-∅; selis-is/selis-is; tus-ya; lyos-yal

gen sg: holis-ni; selis-ire; tus-sye; lyos-sye

dat sg: holis-im; selis-te; tus-ilya; lyos-lu

acc sg: holis-t selis-t; tus-pya; lyos-pya

loc sg: holis-il; selis-le; tus-cya; lyos-cu

instr sg: holis-ir; selis-in; tus-cya; lyos-ce

voc sg: holis-ca; (all use -ca)

nom pl: holis-sa; selis-sa; tus-ta; lyos-ta

gen pl: holis-ni; selis-si; tus-na; lyos-nya

dat pl: holis-mi; selis-ti; tus-lo; lyos-bi

acc pl: holis-tyin; selis-tyan; tus-ig; lyos-gya

loc pl: holis-len; selis-ic; tus-id; lyos-tya

instr pl: holis-ip; selis-int; tus-id; lyos-tya

voc pl: (all use -ca)

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So we have looked at the case system for full nouns of all classes. Now it is time to look at independent personal pronouns. Ori does mark the subject of the verb as a suffix, but it also includes personal pronouns that are not attached to the verb. See the chart below for how these pronouns exist in each case. Note that third person pronouns are irregular, and also that they exist differently for each class.

These pronouns can be made reflexive by the addition of the suffix -(i)cye:

canicye iyum cyan ‘I saw myself’

Example of pronoun use:

Cala ipalnda ‘I like them’ (lit: they are pleasing to me)

Tan yubru! ‘We see you!’

Elya abarita tresita ummultu ‘In them all blessings lie’

Maropye en eun! ‘Give it to them!’

Lye-trumat suhit ryesubru cyan na tyeli ipalir cyan ‘We sipped the red nectar and it pleased us’

Eu lye-tepet maroi cyan ‘I gave her the fruit’

 

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Mintaka

Conlang: Ori, continued (more verbs, tense/aspect particles)…

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 4 Comments

Last time we looked at some ways to conjugate verbs in Ori--specifically verbs ending in -i or in alveolar sounds (-t, -d, -n, -s, -l, -r). Some examples of these:

merir ‘he/she/it dances’ (animate, inanimate)

boltimbra ‘we keep’ (boltin- + -bra)

lalta ‘they laugh’ (celestial, abstract) (lar- + -lta)

As you can see from some of the above verbs, sometimes there is variation in stem or ending, as per phonotactic constraints.

Today I want to show the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, which will wrap up all of the regular verbal classes.

The first class, as we saw, includes verbs ending in -i and in alveolars. The second class includes verbs ending in -e, -a, and velar consonants (-c and -g).

cuhe- ‘cleave’

syeg- ‘steal’

ta- ‘speak’

plec- ‘fall’

Note differences in endings in bold. 

cuhe-ni ‘I cleave’

cuhe-ti ‘you cleave’

cuhe-ri ‘he/she/it cleaves’ (an, inan)

cuhe-li ‘he/she/it cleaves’ (cel, abs)

cuhe-ce ‘we cleave’

cuhe-cya ‘you all cleave’

cuhe-cyo ‘they cleave’ (an, inan)

cuhe-cyon ‘they cleave’ (cel, abs)

ta-ni ‘I speak’

ta-ti ‘you speak’

ta-ri ‘he/she/it speaks’ (an, inan)

ta-li ‘he/she/it peaks’ (cel, abs)

ta-ce ‘we speak’

ta-cya ‘you all speak

ta-cyo ‘they speak’ (an, inan)

ta-cyon ‘they speak’ (cel, abs)

syeg-i ‘I steal’

syeg-it ‘you steal’

syeg-ir ‘he/she/it steals’ (an, inan)

syeg-il ‘he/she/it steals’ (cel, abs)

syeg-e ‘we steal’

syeg-ya ‘you all steal’

syeg-yo ‘they steal’ (an, inan)

syeg-yon ‘they steal’ (cel, abs)

plec-i ‘I fall’

plec-it ‘you fall’

plec-ir ‘he/she/it falls’ (an, inan)

plec-il ‘he/she/it falls’ (cel, abs)

plec-e ‘we fall’

plec-ya ‘you all fall’

plec-yo ‘they fall’ (an, inan)

plec-yon ‘they fall’ (cel, abs)

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The 3rd, and final regular verb conjugation includes verbs ending in -o, -u, and labial consonants (-b, -p, and -m).

pellum- ‘count’

cyep- ‘take, grab’

lyab- ‘lick’

brelo- ‘nuzzle against’

ryesu- ‘sip’

Once again, note changes in stem or ending marked in bold.

ryesu-m ‘I sip

ryesu-tu ‘you sip

ryesu-ru ‘he/she/it sips’ (an, inan)

ryesu-lu ‘he/she/it sips’ (cel, abs)

ryesu-bru ‘we sip’

ryesu-ru ‘you all sip

ryesu-bu ‘they sip’ (an, inan)

ryesu-ltu ‘they sip’ (cel, abs)

(Verbs ending in -o, such as brelo- ‘nuzzle against’ conjugate exactly the same way as those verbs in -u.)

pellum-u ‘I count’

pellun-tu ‘you count’

pellur-ru ‘he/she/it counts’ (an, inan)

pellul-lu ‘he/she/it counts’ (cel, abs)

pellum-bru ‘we count’

pellum-ru ‘you all count’

pellum-bu ‘they count’ (an, inan)

pellul–tu ‘they count’ (cel, abs)

cyep-u ‘I take’

cyep-pu ‘you take’

cyep-ru ‘he/she/it takes’ (an, inan)

cyep-lu ‘he/she/it takes’ (cel, abs)

cyep-pru ‘we take’

cyep-ru ‘you all take’

cyeb-bu ‘they take’ (an, inan)

cyel-tu ‘they take’ (cel, abs)

lyab-u ‘I lick’

lyab-du ‘you lick’

lyab-ru ‘he/she/it licks’ (an, inan)

lyab-lu ‘he/she/it licks’ (cel, abs)

lyab-bru ‘we lick’

lyab-ru ‘you all lick’

lyab-bu ‘they lick’ (an, inan)

lyal-tu ‘they lick’ (cel, abs)

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Ok, so that is it for present conjugation of regular verbs. You may wonder about other tenses. Ori is pretty light on the morphological tense. It uses some different particles that follow the verb to indicate various tenses and aspects, though.

cyan — past perfect 

Ex.: Es lyab-u cyan 

3sg.inan.acc lick-1sg pst.prf

‘I licked it’

Tun-pori-tyan cyep-pru cyan

      def.art.an.pl sheep-acc.an.pl-1pl pst.prf

‘We took the sheep (pl)’

lyes — past imperfective/habitual

This particle also indicates past tense, but the aspect is different. Instead of perfect, like cyan, lyes indicates an incompleted action in the past or a habitual action in the past (that happened many times).

Ex.:  Gotebinur-ipya ta-ri lyes 

Gotevian-acc.abs.sg speak-3sg.an pst.hab

‘She used to speak Gotevian’

bil — modal

This modal particle indicates a speaker;s uncertainty that the statement is true.

Ex.:  En cyep-ru bil.

3pl.inan.acc take-3sg.an mod

‘He might be taking them’ / ‘Maybe he is taking them’

The modal bil particle can also be combined with the other particles:

Ex.: En cyep-ru cyan bil.

3pl.inan.acc take-3sg.an pst.prf mod

‘He might have taken them’

Ok, that is a lot of info for one post, so I will continue later! Question if anyone cares–do you want to see more linguistic info on Ori, or should I break it up with some cultural info? Shall I stick to Ori for a while or visit some other places/people/languages?

Mintaka