Verse:Mwail/Old Gloob: Difference between revisions

Themsaran is my first constructed language, for my conworld of Hheergrem. It is intended to be a head-initial, head-marking language with a plausible development from an erstwhile dependent-/double-marking language. The grammar and syntax has been heavily influenced by Semitic and Celtic languages, with some drawing from Japanese, while the aesthetics draws on Germanic, Celtic, Finnish, Semitic, and [[w:Gyeongsang dialect|Gyeongsang Korean]]. The morphology is an experiment with grammatical non-concatenative morphology: as Celtic grammaticalizes initial consonant mutations, and Semitic vowel patterns, Themsaran does so with tone patterns. The grammar is also an experiment on using inflections and agreement to show grammatical relations without case, which explains the gender system (however minimalistic), the different types of switch-reference on verbs, the applicative voice and borderline polysynthesis. So I guess it ends up a tad more like some Native American languages. Other purposes of my language include mixing in un-English verb syntax, such as the use of optatives  in subordinate clauses, and using principally non-finite subordinate clauses in the indicative.

The demonstratives have identical endings to personal pronouns in the feminine singular, the dual and the plural. The adnominal demonstratives are ''mé'' (near speaker), ''ħé'' (near hearer), and ''ŧá'' (distal; identical to 4th person pronoun), and the pronominal demonstratives are ''imé'', ''ivá'', and ''iŧá''.

Nouns and adjectives have a rich morphology, albeit less ornate than verbs. They inflect for number (''ðūré''), definiteness (''thrȳ́zamétīd'' 'rememberedness') and possessedness (''ránmolíħe'' 'attribution'), but not for case. Nouns have singular (''cḗminnathā́''), dual (''líntathā́'') and plural (''ū̌rathā́'') numbers, and masculine (''qulzáthā'') and feminine (''deiáthā'') genders. In third- and fourth-person possessed forms, Themsaran makes a distinction, realized tonally, between the ''absolute'' possessed form, which indicates a noun possessed by a pronoun, and the ''conjunct'' possessed form, used to indicate a possessive relationship between two nouns and agreeing with the gender of the possessor.

!|3/4.m

!|3/4.f

!|3/4.m

!|3/4.f

!|3/4.m

!|3/4.f

!|3/4.m

!|3/4.f

!|3/4.m

!|3/4.f

The clause begins with the topicalized noun phrase, then a 3rd or 4th person pronoun corresponding to the subject is used in the sentence. If the topic is the object of a finite verb, a 3rd or 4th person object suffix is used on the verb.

:'''''dí tángrysī ā̌tmān''' (lit. at my mother's being-born)''

:'''''ne scínī́lvi d'iennā́'''''

:''(the fact) that they excel in war''

:'''''ne líscinī́lvi d'iennā́'''''

:''(the allegation) that they excel in war''

Negation of finite verbs is performed by the pre-verbal clitic ''tir''.

Infinitives are negated with ''tíessu''.

====Proximate/obviative====

The 3rd person, or proximate, object marks foreground or central referents, usually the first one or the most animate/possessing one mentioned soon after it. while the 4th person, or obviative, object refers to background or peripheral referents. The third person and the fourth person combine as 3+4=3, and when parts of a proximate plural is taken out, the first noun phrase to be taken out is the new 3rd person.

 

The fourth person ({{sc|4}}) in the Themsaran language is a third person obviative pronoun that distinguishes a non-salient third person referent from a more salient, proximate or pertinent, third person referent in a given discourse context.

 

There are a few basic rules for the Themsaran fourth person:

 

*If there is no need for a proximate/obviate distinction in the clause, the pronouns get [[w:Demonstrative pronoun|proximal]] and [[w:Demonstrative pronoun|distal]] functions.

*A proximate subject is always animate.

The comparative particle 'than' is ''rā''. Themsaran enables one to discriminate "He loved me more than she [loved me]" and "He loved me more than [he loved] her", by focusing the argument in the main clause that is compared. The comparative phrase is by default placed after the subject or verb, and the compared noun phrase is stated, or repeated with a pronoun.

|phrase = vá yntarpsýn slá rū́ ŧî

|IPA=/ʋˠá ʉntàrpsʉnꜜ sláꜜ rúː t͡ʃíꜜiː/

|morphemes = vá ynt-arb-s-n/ slá rū́ ŧī́

|gloss = 3SG.M PAST.IPFV-teach/PAST.IPFV.3/4SG.M>1SG more.ADV than 4SG.F  

|phrase = ná yntarpsýn slá rū́ ŧī́

|IPA=/náː ʉntàrpsʉnꜜ sláꜜ rúː t͡ʃiꜜiː/

|morphemes = ná ynt-arb-´s-n/ slá rū́ ŧī́

|gloss = 1SG PAST.IPFV-teach/PAST.IPFV.3/4SG.M>INV.SG.M more.ADV than 4SG.F  

|phrase = ná yntarpsýn vá slá rū́ ŧī́

|IPA=/náː ʉntàrpsʉnꜜ ʋˠáꜜ sláꜜ rúː t͡ʃiꜜiː/

|morphemes = ná ynt-arb-´s-n/ vá slá rū́ ŧī́

|gloss = 1SG PAST.IPFV-teach/PAST.IPFV.3/4SG.M>1SG 3SG.M more.ADV than 4SG.F

If the complement clause's subject corefers with the subject of the main clause, it is left unstated in the complement clause. Otherwise the third- or fourth-person pronoun is used as the subject as appropriate.