Syrenian/Sides
| Syrenian | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slot: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Root | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Suffix(es) |
| Function: | Case | Deixis | Class. | Person | Prep. | State | Mode | Case | Deixis | Class. | Person | ||
| For: | "On Side" | "Off Side" | |||||||||||
| Phonology • Texts | |||||||||||||
The most important part of the Syrenian verbal conjugation is what are called "sides". There is the on-side and the off-side. These generally specify the pronoun we would use in English for the subject and object of a verb. Like English, Syrenian is called an SVO language, which means it proceeds in order through subject-object-verb. It is convenient to group together four things called case, deixis, class, and person and call them a "side". It would not be ungrammatical (though odd and cumbersome) to have as many as eight "sides" conjugated on one verb.
Case
There are four cases markers in Syrenian which have two different functions depending on which side of the root they appear on:
| On-side | Case | Off-side |
|---|---|---|
| Intentional, actual performer | Ergative | Pseudo-passive or Adjutative |
| Anti-passive or Experiencer | Absolutive | Instrument, Manner |
| Indirect Object | Thematic | Applicative, Content |
| Patient | Patientive | Context, Location |
Case is required whenever Person is specified. The Ergative case may not be specified in the Impersonal State on either side. The Absolutive Case may not be used on-side with the Impersonal State. Only the on-side may be used in the Causative State, while only the off-side may be used with the Resultive State.
Deixis
There are a variety of infixes that give information about proximity. While English has 'this' and 'that', Syrenian has a two or three-way distinction for each of the persons. Very unusually, wh- words also go here.
| Person | Distance | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Near | That which is touching the speaker | |
| Far | That which is not quite touching the speaker, "this" | ||
| Interrogative | "who of us?", "what of mine?" | ||
| 2 | Near | That which is touching the interlocutor | |
| Far | That which is not quite touching the interlocutor, "that" | ||
| Interrogative | "who of you?", "what of yours?" | ||
| 3 | Near | Upstream | Upstream and away from both conversation partners, "up yonder" |
| Downstream | Downstream and away from both conversation partners, "down yonder" | ||
| Far | "that other", "the other one" (former vs. latter) | ||
| Interrogative | "what?", "why?", "how?", "where?" | ||
Class
In the mind of a Syreni, there are only ten kinds of things. One of these infixes must be specified whenever a side is used.
| Name | Acronym | Word |
|---|---|---|
| Persons, Lightning, Forces | PLF | |
| Wind, Words, Weather | WWW | |
| Living, Animate Beings | LAB | |
| Receptacles, Openings, Controls | ROC | |
| Solid, Discreet Things | SDT | |
| Mushy, Porous Areas | MPA | |
| Bendy, Flat Fractals | BFF | |
| Flowing, Undulating Flocks | FUF | |
| Cloudy, Random Hazes | CRH | |
| Unchanging, Dead Stuff | UDS |
PLF's are uncontrollable, (mostly) unpredictable, intentional things (cp. “acts of God/Nature”). WWW's govern almost all invisible things (including spirits). LAB's are more predicable, but very much alive. Cows, cats, and gravity. ROC's are that which is manipulated. An element of unpredictability remains, since anything can go in a box. SDT's are balls, fruits, and non-containers with clear boundaries MPA's have fuzzy boundaries, fuzzy definitions, e.g. mud or a mirage/reflection on a hot day. BFF's are the Syreni “land”. This category sees the interlocking, patterned nature of bushes, carpets, ropes and shower curtains all together. FUF's include a school of fish, which is not the sum of individuals. One cannot study individual water molecules and understand a river. CRH - there is continual, complete cloud cover on Syren. It is always moving and changing, but does nothing. UDS's are how we see a majority of things in our world, whereas Syreni consider this to be the least populated, least important category.
Person
Like English, Syrenian has the first, second, and third person. Like several Earth languages, it has the fourth person, or third person obviate. (In English this function is usually covered periphrasticly by expressions such as "the other one".) Some linguistics analyze the Impersonal State as a zeroth person, also present in certain Earth languages. Very uniquely, there exist a separate set of infixes used for each person to make polar (yes/no) questions. There are also separate conjugations for real and counter-factual protases (the 'if' part of an 'if-then'). The third and fourth person are always the same here, with the distinction being made by the deixis infix.
Like many languages of Earth (but not English), Syrenian does not generally care about the number of things involved. The major exception to this is the number two. There are separate morphemes for "the two of us but not you", "all of us but not you", "just the two of us, you and I", "all of you", "the two of you", "the two of them", and "all of them", but there is no marker for "you and I and some others". Explicit plural marking is done in the State (i.e. slot #6)
| Dual | General | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st excl. | di- | r̀- |
| 1st incl. | bə̣- | No |
| 2nd | tzí- | ŋòj- |
| 3rd/4th | ı̣n- | bb̀ |
| Dual | General | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st excl. | ||
| 1st incl. | No | |
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd/4th |
| Dual | General | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st excl. | ||
| 1st incl. | No | |
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd/4th |
| Dual | General | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st excl. | ||
| 1st incl. | No | |
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd/4th |
