Dal'qörian negatives
In Dalcurian, there are two ways in which not is rendered.
Negation of verbs
With verbs, not is rendered by the suffix ax/x. If the verb is already inflected with the future or conditional tense suffix, or is in the infinitive or past tense form, ax is added. x is added to the present participle. This is the only use x has in Dalcurian, therefore it is easy to recognize when a verb is in a negative state:
- qöhacria-approaching qöhacriax-not approaching
- gä’vaÞr-ran gä'vaÞrax-not ran (didn't run)
- quascrquas-would ask quascrquasax-would not ask
- göræ-will go göræax-will not go
With auxilliary and modal verbs
Modal verbs and the auxiliaries ábra/ádra and néba, do NOT take the negative inflection when being used with a main verb; the main verb carries the inflection. They can however, be used as a main verb, as in English (although this is colloquial), and must then take the inflection:
- Diö már, am dérÞ, sécösatrax. You can’t smoke in here. lit: You may, in here, smoke not.
- Binä Þöldr sécösatrax qoÞ. I shouldn’t be smoking anyway.
- Sia voltirax tiÞ. She doesn’t want it. lit: She wants not it.
- Binä ábrax eÞöa nömæaj. I don’t have any money. (Again, this is proper usage. Colloquially a Dalcurian would say: Binä öna nömæaj-I'm without money).
Negation of adjectives
The standard negation of adjectives is rendered with the prefix stæ which most commonly equates to the following English prefixes (which normally denote the opposite of) but can carry the meaning of not:
- un: stædembrödn-unashamed (not ashamed)
- dis: stævehiqualosträdn-disassociated (not associated)
- anti: stæasötséal-antisocial (which carries the meaning of not sociable)
and some words that end in less:
- stævösérädn-useless (not useful)
Here, the prefix is a part of the word as a whole. But with non-prefixed adjectives, stæ is separated with an apostrophe:
- vélø-cold stæ'vélø-not cold Lit: uncold
NOTE: It's not possible in Dalcurian to say literally: He is not antisocial, you are not useless etc; in other words, to disagree with an already negated adjective. In these instances, the preposition néfaracte-which literally means on the contrary is tagged at the end of the positive sentence:
- Mæ stæasötséal néfaracte! He is NOT anitsocial!
For more on negation of comparative sentences, see Comparative sentences
Finally, there is an unwritten rule for foreign speakers: if you're not sure how to negate your sentence, simply put an x/ax on the end of the adjective. Grammatically this is incorrect, but you will be understood!
