Maghrebi Azalic
Maghrebi Azalic (lit. [the language] of those who say đâu [for '2']) is an Azalic language. It is closer to English than other Azalic languages are, but still a separate language. It is inspired by Vietnamese.
It is in the Ăn Yidiș-Cubrite sprachbund.
Morphology
Pronouns
- conj. i, du, khê, si, it, gia, dul, da
- disj. mi, du, khim, kher, it, eox, dul, dam
- poss. moi, ur, khex, kher, itx, eor, dux, dar
Nouns
Two cases (nominative and genitive), no gender
- Genitive singular is always -x or -ơx
- Plural is always nom. -i, gen. -xi
Umlaut, known in Lõis as affection, is used for some plurals.
Verbs
Only the imperative/infinitive survives in lexical verbs.
Auxiliaries
Maghrebi Azalic has an auxiliary verb system similar to Colloquial Welsh. In addition, there is a T-V distinction: the 2nd person plural u is also used as a polite pronoun.
The choice of preposition before the lexical verb also controls the tense:
- Im ođ heđ = I eat/I am eating (lit. I am at eating)
- Im pho heđ = I have eaten (lit. I am after eating)
→ Person | I | thou | he | she | it | we | blotp | they | Non-pronominal |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Present (sêu is from *seq̇ 'see') | im | dur | khês | sis | its | giar | dulơr | dar | sêu |
Pres. Interrogative | am i | ar du | is khê | is si | ist | ar gia | ar dul | ar da | is |
Pres. Negative | nam i | nar du | nis khê | nis si | nist | nar gia | nar dul | nar da | nis |
Past (from aorist *dʰéh₁t of *dʰeh₁ 'to do') | ted i | ted u | ted khê | ted si | ted it | ted gia | ted u | ted da | ted |
Future/Subjunctive | ter i | ter u | ter khê | ter si | ter it | ter gia | ter u | ter da | ter |
Cautionary future
The auxiliary for the cautionary future comes from the Biblical Hebrew verb *zāmam 'to scheme'. It's used to:
- warn the listener of a future event or contingency:
- Zum sąraz tha lovu fu kol ngeth. = 'The storm might come here any moment.'
- Zum tafkestaz mul lith kovuą hettev! = 'The map might not be well-defined! [in a hypothetical math lecture, cautioning against a tacit assumption the audience might make]'
- often used in a threatening manner, for example: Lakh to mul yedhą ma zum i ląsuth lakh to! = 'You have no idea what I'm gonna do to you!'
Object pronouns
Object pronouns are not different from subject pronouns, except kho/khe/khem may be found instead of to/te/tem in some dialects.