Dal'qörian adverbs

back to main page

Adverbs are words that describe or give extra meaning to verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or any word that 'isn’t' a noun. In English, many adverbs are formed from the adjective by adding the suffix ly/ily:

• happy/happily

• strong/strongly

• hasty/hastily

• stupid/stupidly

• effective/effectively

However, there are many that are irregular and do not have recognizable endings such as now, very, quite. Words such as today, tomorrow, yesterday, nowadays, sometimes are also known as 'adverbs of time'. In Dalcurian, regular adverbs or adverbs that have a relative adjective, are formed by adding the following suffixes to the adjective:

ː s to adjectives that end with a vowel

ː as to adjectives that end with a consonant

ː ni to adjectives that end with ø (some adjectives already end in ni; these take no ending)

Adjective	Adjectival adverb
qurnöra-happy	qurnöras-happily
vélø-nasty	véløni-nastily
geræsni-graceful	geræsni-gracefully
neƒracteÞ-affectionate	neƒracteÞas-affectionately

---

Word order

In English, normal adverbs can either precede or follow the adj/verb:

• The child played happily.

• The child happily played.

In Dalcurian, adjectival adverbs always precede the word they modify:

• Di arangáj qurnöras gä’spélögr. The child happily played.

• Minäla, öcra taÞ resæÞámn, örendörädnas gä’létr érenöra vögér dörÞ. They were told to wait there specifically for that reason. (lit: They, for that reason, specifically told them to wait there).

• Di siárij sæmérädnas ømária. The sun is brightly shining.

---

Adverbs of time

Adverbs of time 'always' begin a sentence or clause 'except' when used in interrogative questions or comparative sentences where they are placed last:

• Vonériáda, di parenöj qve binöra besöcéræ,, brát nequtöndrel, mæ besöcérax binöra vélas. My dad is coming tomorrow but he doesn’t visit me much nowadays. (lit: Tomorrow, my father will visit, but nowadays, he visits not me much.)

• Væl? iquirquas diö gör vonériáda. Where would you like to go tomorrow?

• TiÞ säsa stæmériÞ strömi ädiáda. It's not as hot as yesterday.

Note that, in the first example, there is also an adverb of time in the second clause: nequtöndrel-nowadays. When you have an adv of time in the second clause of a sentence, it immediately follows the conjunction which introduces that clause. Following is a list of very common aderbs of time:

• ädiáda-yesterday

• am éagömrÞ-in good time

• andörest-at first

• aracievas-lately

• fröqu-early

• gegéna-again

• iádas-daily (every day)

• iáda-today

• infrequ-seldom/rarely (not very often)

• irønet-often

• mömádi-at last

• nequtöndrel-nowadays/these days

• nes-then

• nöra-now

• nösaraciev-sooner or later

• nösa-soon

• öcra nöra-for a short time/for now

• öcra tirimiÞ-for a long time

• qömblas-weekly (every week)

• quriandø-sometimes/now and then/again

• repönas-recently

• retöga máriÞ-at the same time

• sævála-always/forever

• sintránes-since then/from that time

• sintra-since

• solegasas-immediately

• täandø-at times

• Þömnas-monthly (every month)

• vonériáda-tomorrow

• vorbæ/vonéri-beforehand

• yérasas-yearly (every year)

There

In English the adverb there can be used either as an adverb of position or direction:

• The café is over there.

• We have to go through there.

• Look over there!

or as an existential adverb:

• There is a church in the village.

• There was a man in the garden.

• There are better things in life than....

Dalcurian has two words meaning there: dörÞ and danöÞ. The first is used to denote position or direction and is normally recognized as following the subject noun/pronoun, prepositon or modal verb:

• Ména mösár, dörac dörÞ, gör. We have to go through there.

• Di éƒrácaj, rödn dörÞ, Þalár. The café is over there. Lit: The café resides over there.

The second is used as an existential adverb:

• DanöÞ Þalár ni qöráj am orÞ, yil? Is there a church in the village? Lit: There resides a church in the village, yes?

• DanöÞ ni qöráj am orÞ. There is a church in the village.

• DanöÞ sáÞ épø,, vömä vétä svägérø. There are times when life is hard.

NOTE: As you can see from the examples, the verb Þalár-reside is used to denote the position or the existence of an object. This equates the English use of is/was/were as in there is/was a man in the garden. To render was/were, Dalcurian would use the past tense of Þalár:

• DanöÞ gä’Þalár ni sáj am jérabödä. There was a man in the garden. Lit: There resided a man in the garden.

This rule also applies to the adverb dérÞ-here:

• Dörac iáda, di siaberöj qve binöra gä’Þalár dérÞ. My sister was here all day. Lit: Through today, my sister resided here.

Contractions

DanöÞ takes the following contractions:

• danöqu-there is nothing

• danöÞöa-there are some/is something

• danörasáb-there is a person/somebody

As stated earlier, there was/were is rendered with the past tense of the verb reside. However, this is only used with a physical object (known in Dalcurian as a tangible noun). danöÞ takes the prefix gé’ when its object is non tangible:

• Gé’danöÞ sáÞ épøel,, vömä vétä gé'svägérø. There were times when life was hard.

DanöÞ is also used idiomatically to replace the dummy pronoun it when it doesn't appear to refer directly to an object, eg:

• DanöÞ morgér saméla,, taÞ tev’araciev, danpörämös näocr qamör¿ It looks as if it might rain later. lit: There seems as if, that later rain could come.

• Iádas séÞa qömbla, danöÞ gä'ábradanpör.. It's rained every day this week. lit: Daily this week, there has rained.

However, this leans towards correct speech. Colloquially, one might here:

• Ela qömbla, danpörämös gä'qamör. It rained all week. lit: All week, rain came.