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'''Adjectives''' | '''Adjectives''' | ||
Adjectives are predominantly nouns - they have a fixed position within the noun phrase and may function as nouns on their own. However, they may also function as a verb | Adjectives are predominantly nouns - they have a fixed position within the noun phrase and may function as nouns on their own. However, they may also function as a verb in conjunction with the copula verb "binön": | ||
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"This dress is expensive." | "This dress is expensive." | ||
The first version is more common among speakers of a lower social status, whereas the second has a more official and | The first version is more common among speakers of a lower social status, whereas the second has a more official and literary style. The first version, however, may also be used by people of higher status, especially in situations when someone wants to emphasize that the dress really IS expensive. This is in contrast to languages like German or English, as Volapűük_nulíik expresses emphasis not on the intonational level but on the morphological. | ||
'''Numerals''' | '''Numerals''' | ||
Numerals also belong, just like adjectives, predominantly to the category of nouns but can be used as verbs as well: | Numerals also belong, just like adjectives, predominantly to the category of nouns, but can be used as verbs as well: | ||
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'''Nouns''' | '''Nouns''' | ||
The category of nouns encompasses all | The category of nouns encompasses all words that denote concrete and abstract objects, persons, animals, plants, feelings, and concepts. Noun is the basic category of words, since each adjective, verb, and so on is based on a nominal root and derived from it. Nouns inflect for case, number, and possession and may receive further conjunctive/modal particles | ||
Each noun is built up according to a fixed scheme: | Each noun is built up according to a fixed scheme: | ||
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''Numbers'' | ''Numbers'' | ||
Nouns inflect for | Nouns inflect for number, meaning they indicate whether a noun appears as a single entity (singular), as a pair/in two (dual), or in more than one entity (plural). Each number has a specific marker: | ||
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Since the singular is a category that almost any object, person, animal, idea or anything else can appear in, it is considered the 'default' category and unmarked. This is also true for most natural languages, where there is no explicit suffix denoting a single unit of something. However, there are languages as Welsh which provide a singular suffix for nouns that | Since the singular is a category that almost any object, person, animal, idea, or anything else can appear in, it is considered the 'default' category and remains unmarked. This is also true for most natural languages, where there is no explicit suffix denoting a single unit of something. However, there are languages, such as Welsh, which provide a singular suffix for nouns that normally denominate entities that exist in conglomeration, e.g. the trees of a forest ''coed'', where a single tree is derived from the whole via the suffix -en, thus giving ''coeden'' 'a tree'. This system does not apply to Volapȕük nulíik. Every noun has the default numerical value 1, and thus is in the singular by default. The second suffix for the singular number is actually a suffix occasionally used, e.g. for poetic purposes or when a speaker wants to stress the singularity of a noun. The dual suffix has a correspondence with the number word for 'two' ''tel''. It can appear in a voiced alternative, which evolved as a result of voiced surrounding consonants. This applies also to the plural marker ''s'', which alternates with ''z''. In personal endings there is also the alternation -š-/-ž- which evolved due to phonological changes. | ||
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''Cases'' | ''Cases'' | ||
'''Volapȕük nulíik''' has a | '''Volapȕük nulíik''' has a complex set of cases. The complexity arises from a set of nine primary cases, which exist independently but can also be combined with a set of prefixes of local, temporal, or abstract function. This combination creates more than thirty different cases, which can not all be named and are not all actually regarded as cases of their own. | ||
The basic cases and their suffixes are: | The basic cases and their suffixes are: | ||
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|} | |} | ||
The Northern dialect has retained a tenth case | The Northern dialect has retained a tenth case, which has collapsed in other dialects with the dative suffix -é(-), and thus adding its meaning to the dative case: | ||
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The particle ''-ö'' was traditionally used to express exclamations, e.g. seelȍ! "Quiet!" < ''seel'' "being quiet", moȍ! "Get out of here!" < ''mo'' "away". This usage has extended towards nouns and names of persons: ''Kal'' ("Charles") > Kalȍ!, ''Floor'' ("flower") > Floorȍ!, etc. | The particle ''-ö'' was traditionally used to express exclamations, e.g. seelȍ! "Quiet!" < ''seel'' "being quiet", moȍ! "Get out of here!" < ''mo'' "away". This usage has extended towards nouns and names of persons: ''Kal'' ("Charles") > Kalȍ!, ''Floor'' ("flower") > Floorȍ!, etc. | ||
In the Northern dialect this principle has remained to the very day and | In the Northern dialect this principle has remained to the very day and developed in a manner that adding the suffix showed the person addressed a form of respect. Addressing a "normal" person was gradually done by simply using the nominative form. However, about two hundred years ago, the people speaking the northern dialect started to adopt a fashion of using the lenited nominative form as a normal form of address. Therefore, the dialect incorporated both forms, having a "normal" vocative form and a "special" vocative form, showing extra respect to the person addressed.: | ||
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The further development spread the ''-ȍ''-suffix to other dialects and within about 50 years the usage as a marker of respect evolved. Therefore, the language has | The further development spread the ''-ȍ''-suffix to other dialects and within about 50 years the usage as a marker of respect evolved. Therefore, the language today has two forms of marking the vocative case: a) using the lenited nominative stem b) adding the suffix -ȍ to show more respect to the person addressed. | ||
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b) they change the beginning of the noun they are attached to by a process called lenition. This process is explained in detail in the section '''morphophonological processes'''. | b) they change the beginning of the noun they are attached to by a process called lenition. This process is explained in detail in the section '''morphophonological processes'''. | ||
c) they do occur alone but are | c) they do occur alone but are always combined with a specific case suffix. In some cases a single prefix may be combined with more than one case suffix and thus giving a specific, different meaning with each case suffix. | ||
Local prefixes | Local prefixes | ||
These prefixes indicate spatial relations. In most natlangs and conlangs these relations are expressed via | These prefixes indicate spatial relations. In most natlangs and conlangs these relations are expressed via separate words. In Volapȕük nulíik this used to be done as well. However, about two thousand years ago, speakers started combining adverbs with prepositions, e.g. ''in domó'' 'at the house' > ''indomó''. These new expressions were very quickly recognized and analyzed as complete words and only about 100 years after the first appearance of such constructions were they written with the initial syllabic structure CV-, including a change of the initial consonant: ''niddomó'' ( ''dd'' representing a dental fricative [ð]). | ||
Most of these prefixes kept the phonetic structure they had as prepositions. | Most of these prefixes kept the phonetic structure they had as prepositions. |
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