Dal'qörian nouns
Noun forms
There are 5 classifications of noun in Dalcurian:
Tangible nouns
These are mainly nouns that are physical; can be felt, seen and touched. These always end in j (with some exceptions):
- gadöraj dog
- ádecödrij accessory
- ratäj deer
- fosetaj tap
- sáj man
Verb-derivative nouns
These are nouns formed from an infinitive and have the characteristic ending ämös:
- amör-to love amörämös-love
- ölegár-to order ölgarämös-order/instruction
- quatésr-to confess quatésrämös-confession
These are nouns that have an adjectival relative but no verbal relative. They take the charactaristic ending ámn:
- nistelæÞ-dejected nistelæÞámn-dejection
- incatröli-lawful incatröliámn-law
- Þravætas-gravitational Þravætasámn-gravity
Stative nouns
These are nouns that depict someone or something as having an attribute, such as: profession, religion, nationality etc, and typically take the ending átsi:
- incatrolátsi-police (this is a plural noun by default)
- reparesenátsi-ambassador
- stæmátsi-anarchist
- Estöna-Estonia Estönátsi-Estonian
- Anglæána-England Anglæánátsi-English
- qaÞolianámn-catholosism qaÞolianátsi-catholic
General nouns
These are nouns which take no ending, and have no verbal or adjectival relative:
- vönæÞ-address
- ädaquatic-antiquity
- stöndæ-hour
Gerunds
In English, a gerund is the present participle acting as a noun. These are recognizable in the following instances:
Non finite clauses:
- The running of the country is an unenviable task.
- The recording of an album can be a costly effort.
After prepositions
- I've warned you about running in the corridor!
- The police warned us against going into the building.
The verb acting as a subject/object
- I like swimming. (direct object)
- Swimming is fun. (subject)
The gerund preceeded by a genitive
- We enjoyed their singing.
For the most part, a Dalcurian gerund is rendered with the infinitive and the preposition te-to:
- Te qalegør ni qalegørämös näocr stætaröpas vädenár. The recording of a record can be expensive.
- Te valcr 20 minötel iádasas, öcra di läbendéj, éagöra. Walking 20 minutes per day is good for the heart.
- Te øélár andri nörasábel máriÞ vendábrämösel disiri tamørämös. Laughing at disabled people is very ignorant.
With prepositions, te attaches to the verb by high apostrophe:
- Minäla, rödn te'vaÞr am amnistráÞ, gä'vonlétr minöra. We were warned about running in the corridor. Lit: They, over to run in the corridor, warned us.
- Di incatrolátsi, stæcamä te'gör amte prodnæj, gä'béÞamr minöra. The police advised us against going into the building. Lit: The police, against to go into the building, advised us.
Where a verb acts as an object, this is simply given as a pure infinitive:
- Binä iqur svemör. I like swimming. Lit: I like to swim.
If the verb has an actual noun, then this can also be used with an article:
- Ni svemörämös di agöepedandrädn ebian qve binöra. Swimming is my favourite hobby. Lit: A swim is my favourite hobby.
With Genitives
These kinds of gerunds are not translatable in Dalcurian. For example:
- We liked her singing-singing is not a noun in Dalcurian. One may reformulate the sentence as:
- Ména gä'iqur di gäba,, vöes sia gä'löigár. We liked the way she sang.
Plurals
The Dalcurian noun simply adds el to form plurals. Nouns ending in a flat a remove their final vowel:
- áda-day ádel-days
- abödä-house abödäel-houses
- televizian-television televizianel-televisions
- ninÞi-night ninÞiel-nights
Compound Nouns
Until quite recently (and to some extent, still in use. See end of section), Dalcurian compound nouns were formed either with the possessive qve or the genitive dis/nis.
Qve was used if the noun being spoken of was general, ie not identified:
- dalmanj qve Þradäjel door handle lit handle of doors
- Binä gä'nemör ni dalmanj qve Þradäjel. I bought a door handle.
Note that doors is plural; this is what denotes the generalization. If I bought many door handles then I would say:
- Binä gä'nemör émø dalmanjel qve Þradäjel. I bought some door handles. lit: I bought some handles of doors.
The genitive would be used if I wanted to talk about a specific door handel:
- di dalmanj dis Þradäj the door handle lit: the handle of the door
- Binä gä'peliacr di dalmanj dis Þradäj. I replaced the door handle.
Some examples:
- ni ecörämös qve penjel (a) headache lit: an ache of heads
- di ecörämös dis penj the headache
- di ecörämös dis penj binöra my headache
- di ecörämös dis penj the headache
- ni dræpéraj qve öánajel (a) shower curtain
- di dræpéraj dis öánaj the shower curtain
- émø dræpérajel qve öánajel some shower curtains
- di dræpéraj dis öánaj the shower curtain
The use of possessive and genitive compound constructs has been in decline for a number of years, being seen as somewhat archaic. In fact the whole language has undergone some significant syntactical changes recently. One will commonly see these days, compounds being formed as thus:
- ni ecör'penjämös a headache
- di dræpéra'öánaj the shower curtain
- dalman'Þradäjel door handles
Typically, if both the nouns are tangible (take a j suffix), the suffix from the first noun is removed and replaced with an apostrophe. Plural endings go onto the end noun.
Adding to that, if the 1st noun is an ämös noun, the suffix is removed and placed at the end of the compound.
NOTE 1: This is to some extent colloquial, but very popular among the younger generation. Many newspapers now use the new construct, but this is mainly in the towns and cities. In fact, there are still many shops and restaraunt/eating establishments who prefer the old method in their shop names and menus.
NOTE 2: Compounds are always written in their appropriate form in dictionaries, and dictionaries published after 2006 have both modern and the now 'archaic' constructs.
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