Chlouvānem: Difference between revisions

Two different topics are also commonly used in contrasts:

** ''rūdakis mæn tadadrā sama lili yąlute'' "[my] husband has cooked, and I eat" - unlike in the sentence where "lili" is the topic, here it's explicit that the husband cooked for the speaker. The sentence ''lili mæn rūdakei tadadrā sama yąlute'' may be interpreted with the same meaning, but the topics are different: with the previous one, the conversation is supposed to continue about the husband; in the second one, it's all about the speaker. Note that the agent-trigger voice in the second verb is of vital importance: the sentence ''lili mæn rūdakei tadadrā sama yąlu'' means "it is me my husband has cooked, and [now] he eats me".

*** Another possible interpretation of ''lili mæn rūdakei tadadrā sama yąlute'' is "[my] husband has cooked for me, and now I eat", which is the same as ''lili rūdakei takædadrā sama yąlute'', but the latter is a plain neutral statement.

Topics also mark context: as a good example, the Chlouvānem translation of Schleicher's fable begins as: ''yanekai mæn bhadvęs udvī leila voltām mišekte, ūtarnire cūllu khuliu, spragnyire ūtrau dumbhivu no, lilu kimęe dumbhivu no''. Here "horses" is the topic and has no syntactical role in the sentence, as the subject is the agent ''voltām'' (sheep) and the three objects are the patients ''khulias'' (the pulling one) and two different ''dumbhivas'' (the carrying one). The topic makes it clear that these latter are nouns referring to horses - it would still be grammatical to use [...] ''khuliu yaneku, spragnyire ūtrau dumbhivu yaneku no, lilu kimęe dumbhivu yaneku no'', but the sentence would sound strange to Chlouvānem ears - compare the possible English translation "[...] a sheep saw one horse that was pulling a heavy wagon, one horse that was carrying a big load, and one horse that was carrying a man quickly".

Finally, certain sentences act as answers for different questions due to different implications depending on whether there's an explicit topic or not:

===Noun phrase===

====Stative cases as nominal tense====

The three stative cases of Chlouvānem (translative, exessive, essive) express nominal tense in certain situations, most notably in copulative sentence, where the translative case conveys a future meaning and the exessive a past one:

* ''liliā kaleya mæn gu ninejñairau ša nanū aveṣyotārire lallāmahan camimurkadhānan gīti'' — as for my best friend<ref>''kaleya'' actually is a "spiritual friend", which has a religiously charged meaning</ref>, I could not believe it, that she was the Great Inquisitor-elect <small>(note the use of the highly respectful (not translated) formula "Her Most Excellent Highness, the Great Inquisitor")</small>.

* ''tami tamiāt šulañšenat'' — he is her former husband.

'''Ablative case''' is used in order to state comparisons:

: ''dāneh '''dulmaidanų''' nanū lalla.'' "Dāneh is taller than Dulmaidana."

It is also used as reason when it's an abstract noun:

Generally this imperfective meaning is assumed by other words in the sentence, usually ''væse'' (while), but commonly also ''mbu'' (but) with a related sentence understood to be imperfective. Out of context, imperfective past is usually expressed with an analytic construction:

: train_station.<small>DIR.SG</small>. yesterday. <small>1SG.ERG</small>. eat-<small>SUBJ.IMPF.3S.EXTERIOR-LOC</small>. with. be.<small>IND.PAST.3S.PATIENT.EXTERIOR</small>.

: Yesterday I was eating at the station.

The use of optative forms, given this explanation, is fairly clear; some examples follow.

: ''pū glidemæh āñjulā jeivau!'' "if only I had been there!"

: ''samin nanǣ dvārme gu tiaineran ša.'' "the kids shouldn't stay in that room."

: ''yąlenų ānat kārvātiu valtfårsadreinite.'' "after a meal you ought to burn <small>(lit. "to turn on")</small> incense<ref>Burning incense after meals is a common tradition across most of the Chlouvānem world.</ref>."

====The subjunctive mood====

| In a corner; on a border; at the limits of ('''vai-''') || vaitiāke || vaimirte || vayukte

|-

|-

| In the center of ('''lā(d)-''') || lātiāke || lāmirte || lādukte

These basic forms have static meanings, and are always intransitive exterior verbs.<br/>Their causative forms translate the English verbs "to put", "to seat" and "to lay" respectively, and are transitive when exterior and intransitive (middle) when interior. Verbs equivalent to English ''to remain'' are formed by attaching these prefixes to the verb ''lįnake'' for the analogues of ''-tiā/-tim'' (e.g. ''tatiāke'' → ''lįnake''; ''āntiāke'' → ''āṃlįnake''; ''šutiāke'' → ''šulįnake'' and so on), while for the others (''to remain seated; to remain lying'') the construction ''lįnake + positional infinitive'' is used (e.g. ''tamirtelęnu'' "I remain seated").

These verbs all use two different place arguments: ''actual position'', which requires '''locative''' case, and ''relative position'', requiring '''exessive''' case. The latter often denotes non-inclusion in the mentioned place. Some examples:

| to fly || ''mugdhe'' (mudh-) || ''mordhake''

|-

|-

| to float on water<br/>to go with a small boat, to row || ''uṭake'' || ''arṭake''

| to roll || ''pṝke'' || ''pārlake''

|-

|-

| to jump || ''mųke'' || ''mårṣake''

|-

|-

| to fall || ''sturake'' || —

Multidirectional verbs have different uses:

* Generic or habitual actions:

* Movement inside a specific location (in locative case, or expressed through locative trigger voice), without any specified direction:

: ''marte peithalieh'' - we walk around the city.

* Gnomic or potential meanings:

: ''gūṇai mordhīran'' - birds [can] fly.

| vai- || vea- || In a corner

|-

|-

| lā(d)- || lo(d)- || In the center

|}

A few more specific verbs exist, like for example the pair ''kamilāṇṭake''/''kįlalāṇṭake'', used for putting on/taking off a ''lāṇṭepenai'' (colloquially just ''penai''), a kind of net made of Calemerian juta (''lāriṭa'') usually worn by adolescent girls (traditionally it was worn by unmarried women) with "cotton" hair (''bhadvausye''<ref>Plural only, shaped on ''pārye'' (hair).</ref>, or how Chlouvānem people call "Afro-textured hair").

Chlouvānem relative clauses are nonreduced and work exactly the same way as adjectival verbs do: both clauses are independent, with optionally an ''i'' particle (which combines with the preceding verb) for disambiguation. Time, place, and similar things are expressed with a distal correlative (see the [[Chlouvānem/Morphology#Correlatives|table of correlatives]]).<br/>

The structure is thus as follows:

: <small>2S.ERG</small>. that.<small>DIR</small>. girl.<small>DIR.SG</small>. see-<small>IND.PRES.3S.EXTERIOR.PATIENT</small>. <small>1S.GEN.</small> older_sister.<small>DIR.SG</small>.

: That girl you see is my older sister.

Other examples:

: ''liliā ñæltah līlekhaitom tesmudhiṣya ātiya lęi lairkeikom khlavasiṣya''.

: ''tū kulekte ātmena gu tarliru ša''.

: ''lilei '''priemęlia''' fluta'' - the bag which has been given back by the person

: ''flutu dhurvāneiti '''prikevemęlia''' lila'' - the person for whose benefit the bag has been given back to the police

: ''flutu ītulom '''prituremęlia''' lila'' - the person for whose misfortune the bag has been given back to the thief

: ''flutu '''priūsyemęlia''' lila'' - the person who has been given back the bag

: ''flutua demie maihei '''priūsyemęlia''' lila'' - the person who has been given back the bag by his/her own daughter

: ''lili mæn pū nanū nūlastān gīti chlǣcæm lilatiam.'' "if I had more money, I'd live (impf. aspect) better."

: ''pū tami tuheiladom kitīti āndriṣya.'' "if it were included in the [next] six-year plan, it would be built."


* Unfulfillable past conditions, where the condition could have been fulfilled in the past but wasn't. The ''pū-''clause is always in perfective subjunctive, while the other may be either imperfective or perfective depending on the meaning.

: ''mei tati pū kulevitaṃte yaiva gātarireti.'' "if I had said 'yes', everything would be different (now)."

Choice questions may be formed with ''dam'' just like yes-no ones, or may be expanded in a form such as "do you X... or do you X?". ''dam'' is only included once, at the end:

Non-polar questions are formed by using an interrogative (''ya-'') correlative, without ''dam''. Unlike English, there is no mandatory wh-fronting in Chlouvānem (word order is usually flexible enough to allow all possibilities):

: ''jalgudām demiąa praškigin lā luvāyom fliven'' "Jalgudām is walking to the store with his two older brothers" → ''jalgudām yavitęs lā luvāyom fliven?'' "with whom is Jalgudām walking to the store?"

: (S)he told his/her daughter's boyfriend/girlfriend that she is painting her face in her room. (… "she paints her face in her room")

: [[w:Carthago delenda est|Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.]] (literally: "last [but not least], I think: "Carthage must be destroyed")