Dalcurian relative pronouns
Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause. Commonly, that, who, which, whose and whom introduce relative clauses:
- The man who was here yesterday is my father.
- She has a dog that barks loudly.
- The house which we lived in was demolished.
- That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted.
- I don't know whose car this is.
With the exeption of whose see Cases, relative clauses in Dalcurian are introduced with taÞ, which equates to who, that, which or whom directly. The basic rule is: if you can replace a relative pronoun with that (as you can in the 1st 4 examples above), then taÞ is used:
- Di sáj, taÞ ädiáda gä’Þalár dérÞ, di parenöj qve binöra. The man who was here yesterday is my father.
- Sia ábra ni gadöraj, taÞ qurehendøni vafr. She has a dog that barks loudly.
- Minäla gä'escanostr di abödä, taÞ ména gä'habitr. The house which we lived in was demolished.
With whom, if the pronoun refers to the object of the main clause, taÞ can be used:
- TaÞ nörasáb, taÞ binä éagöras qenár, stæcenámeni. That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted.
If the object is an indirect object, then add te to taÞ:
- Di sáj, tetaÞ binä gä'andöcr ni lalégraj, di qömpal qve binöra. The man whom I gave a book is my friend.
Punctuation note: Ordinarily, taÞ when introducing a subordinate clause is preceeded by a double comma; only a single comma precedes when introducing a relative clause. A good tip here is to see if taÞ can be replaced by any of the other relative pronouns and still make sense, if not then use a double comma.
NOTE: The relative pronoun is NEVER omitted in Dalcurian, as it can be in English:
- The man who was here yesterday... The man here yesterday...
