Nauradi: Difference between revisions
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While Nauradi does not inflect for case, descriptions of case can be applied to the meaning of each preposition. | While Nauradi does not inflect for case, descriptions of case can be applied to the meaning of each preposition. | ||
'''Ablative''' – movement away from something | '''Ablative''' – movement away from something; the means by which something is accomplished. | ||
'''Accusative''' – direct object (the accusative preposition may or may not be present in a sentence. Presence of the preposition tends toward literature or formal speech); governs the personal pronoun as a reflexive | '''Accusative''' – direct object (the accusative preposition may or may not be present in a sentence. Presence of the preposition tends toward literature or formal speech); governs the personal pronoun as a reflexive | ||
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'''Superessive''' – on the surface: on, on top of | '''Superessive''' – on the surface: on, on top of | ||
'''Temporal''' – specifing a time | '''Temporal''' – specifing a time: at 2:00 | ||
'''Terminative''' – marking the end of a movement or time | '''Terminative''' – marking the end of a movement or time |
Revision as of 21:05, 25 November 2008
Nauradi is a language isolate spoken in the Nauradi Republic of Eastern Europe. It is written in the Latin alphabet but as the republic was once part of the Soviet Union, it was also written in Cyrillic. As the Nauradi people wish to distance themselves from the Soviet era, Latin is the sole alphabet recognized by the Nauradi Language Institute and the Nauradi government.
Parts of Speech
Nauradi Verbs
Nauradi has no tenses and conveys all meaning based on aspect and mood. One must rely solely on the context to determine when the action takes place. Accordingly, Nauradi verbs have a wide variety of subtle nuances in meaning.
Aspect
Pefective: Perfective verbs are used to express an action that takes place and ends at one particular point in time. They indicate the finality of the process. Perfective is formed by a prefix to the imperfective verb, by ablaut or a combination of both. If the context does not indicate time, the speaker of Nauradi would understand that the action takes place at the time of speaking.
Imperfective: The imperfective aspect is used to describe an action that covers an unspecified time. It indicates the durative, continuous, or unstarted nature of the process. The imperfective verb is the “dictionary form” of the word. As with the perfective, if the context does not indicate time, the speaker of Nauradi would understand that the action takes place at the time of speaking.
Mood
Realis: This is used for statements of fact, certainty or reality. Just as the dictonary form of the verb is the imperfective, the dictionary form of the verb is realis.
Irrealis: Irrealis covers a broad spectrum of meanings that cannot be assigned to the realm of real time. This mood is used to express statements of uncertainty or conditionality. The irrealis is formed by the addition of a suffix.
Participles
Participles exist for all inflections of the verb and are formed by adding the participle suffix. They can be used as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Nauradi Verbs Used in Sentences
Declaratives
Realis Perfective: Actions that are complete or perceived as such. “I went to school last week.” “I’m fixing the car for the last time.” “Tomorrow I will get up at 7:00”
Realis Imperfective: Actions that do not show an actual start or end but still represent statements of reality. “I’m walking to the store at this moment.” “I will buy a house.” “I used to live in New York.”
Commands
Any of the four verb inflections can be used as a command. They are most commonly expressed in the irrealis.
Irrealis perfective: used as a direct command or order.
Irrealis imperfective: used as suggestion. Can often be translated with “perhaps.” Also used in intimate settings to ask someone to do something (“Kiss me”)
Realis Commands: If a command expressed in the realis form, the command would convey a stronger sense, with realis perfective being the stongest sense.
Queries
Queries can be made in either realis or irrealis, and would most commonly appear as realis perfective (where the answer is already known) or irrealis imperfective (where the answer is unknown).
Conditionals
Conditionals are expressed as a protasis and apodasis. The mood of the verbs in both clauses generally match. If the protasis is known to be true, the realis is used. If the protasis is a statment of conjecture, the irrealis is used.
Nauradi Nouns
Nauradi nouns are classified in two genders: animate and inanimate. Further specification can be inidcated in nouns by the addition of suffixes. The dictionary form of all nouns is the indeterminate form.
Animate Nouns
In their indeterminate form, animate nouns express a gender neutral concept; they do not indicate the anatomical sex of the entity they represent. Suffixes are added when it is necessary to indicate that the entity is either male or female. In example, the English word deer, does not indicate either a male or female deer. English will have a futher specialized word to indicate this concept eg. buck or doe. With some exceptions, Nauradi does not have such specialized words, but would add either a male or female suffix to identify the difference.
Inanimate Nouns
These are always indeterminate. Unlike animate nouns, there are no additional specications ascribed to them requiring an affix.
Special Considerations
Anthropomorphism Inanimate nouns can add the animate male/female suffixes in the case of literature or other instances where anthropomorphosis is necessary such as in children's literature. Anthropomorphized inanimate nouns are would still be modified by inanimate ajectives.
Plant Kingdom While plants are biologically animate entities, Nauradi does not assign male or female properties to them. In the rare case that it may be required (as in scientific contexts), the animate male/femanle suffixes can be added. Despite this, they are always treated as animate entities requiring an animate adjective.
Nauradi Personal Pronouns
As there are no cases in Nauradi, personal pronouns exist in only one form. The personal pronoun always preceeds the verb in a declarative and by definition, follows the preposition. Personal pronouns exist in both singular and plural, and common forms for first person singular, second person singular and plural, and third person plural. The first person plural exists in both inclusive and exclusive forms. The third person singular exists for each gender, animate and inanimate.
Dative-Accusative Construct: The normal declarative structure in Nauradi is Subject-Verb-Object. In the case where two personal pronouns directly follow the verb, it is understood that those are first the indirect object (dative) and then the direct object (accusative).
Nauradi Prepositions
While Nauradi does not inflect for case, descriptions of case can be applied to the meaning of each preposition.
Ablative – movement away from something; the means by which something is accomplished.
Accusative – direct object (the accusative preposition may or may not be present in a sentence. Presence of the preposition tends toward literature or formal speech); governs the personal pronoun as a reflexive
Adessive – adjacent location: near, at, by something
Allative – movement to adjaceny: to something
Antessive – before something
Apudessive – location next to something
Benefactive – for the benefit of, intended for
Comitative – in the company of someone/something
Dative – receiver of action: to, for whom
Delative – movement from the surface: from, off of
Distributive – distribution by piece: per
Distributive-Temporal – how often something happens: daily, hourly, on Sunday
Egressive – beginning of a movement or a time or origin: beginning from something or beginning from some point, I am from the north.
Elative – out of something
Essive – marking a condition as a quality: as a brick is heavy
Genitive – relation or possession
Illative – movement into something
Inessive – inside something
Instrumental – instrument by which something is completed: I hit the ball with a bat
Locative – location: at, on, in something
Orientative – oriented or turned toward something
Partitive – used for amounts: three (of the) books, a cup (of) flour
Pertingent – in contact with: touching something
Privative – lacking something: without a house, homeless
Revertive – backwards to something: against the wall
Subessive – under something: under, below
Sublative – movement onto or below something
Superessive – on the surface: on, on top of
Temporal – specifing a time: at 2:00
Terminative – marking the end of a movement or time
Vialis – movement through: by way of , via
Vocative – used for address typically in prayer, or other formal situations. Implied in informal speech
Nauradi Adjectives
Adjectives agree with their associated nouns in both gender and number. They preceed their associated noun in sentence structure. Agreement is formed by adding a suffix indicating gender and number. Comparison of adjectives is at four levels, positive, comparative, superlative, and exaggerated. Comparative forms are indicated by prefix.
Nauradi Adverbs
Like adjectives, adverbs preceed the word which they modify. Comparison is formed with the same prefixes as adjectives.
Articles
Nauradi uses no articles.
Number
Nauradi has two numbers, singular and plural. Plural is indicated by suffix in most cases though a few words exist that use the same form for singular and plural.