Seuna adjectives
Adjectives have the form CVCV. The second vowel can be a diphthong.
Antonyms
Many adjectives come in opposite pairs. For example;-
beautiful | haue | ugly | aiho |
big | jutu | small | tiji |
hot | fema | cold | pona |
fast | saco | slow | gade |
Each of these pairs have a specific relationship to each other. Each consonant is reflected about "l" and each vowel is reflected about "a".
important | mutu |
unimportant | umutu |
Not all adjectives come in such pairs. For example mutu means "important", the corresponding antonym is derived. umutu means "unimportant".
Colour terms
There are 12 colour terms.
black | hau |
white | ai |
red | hia |
green | geu |
yellow | kio |
light blue | nela |
dark blue | nelau |
orange | suna |
brown | dunu |
pink | celai |
purple | helau |
grey | loso |
List of all antonyms
beautiful | haue | ugly | aiho |
wide/broad | juga | narrow | tisa |
hot | fema | cold | pona |
fast | saco | slow | gade |
many | kaya | few | bawa |
heavy | hubua | light | ikia |
strong | yubu | weak | wiki |
soft | uje | hard | hito |
high, tall | hai | low, short | au |
deep | gubu | shallow | siki |
good | boi | bad | keu |
exact | tiki | about | jubu |
long | yau | short | wai |
white | ai | black | hau |
vertical | feti | horizontal | pobu |
parallel | tona | perpendicular | jema |
big | jutu | small | tiji |
The last three pairs produce three more adjective by combining together and prefixing u.
utoje = neither parallel or perpendicular
ufepo = sloping, inclined
ujuti = about average
The comparative and the superlative
big | jutu | beautiful | haue |
bigger | jutus | more beautiful | haues |
biggest | jutustu | most beautiful | haueste |
Note that the final vowel of the superlative is the penultimate vowel repeated.
Verbs from adjectives
to expand | bwa jutumbwa |
to increase | jutumba |
Alonebwa is the verb "become" and ba is the verb "do". The "m" is the nasal that is used for making compounds.
the expansion = jutusban the increase = jutusban
In the nominalised form the difference between the active and passive disappears (what phonological term ??)
Adjectives and nouns
For antonyms, the "positive" member of a pair is used as a noun of state. The noun is formed by adding n.
tujun = size hauen = beauty
Compounding
jutu kloga = size of shoe .... general, big/small/medium etc. kloganjutu = shoe size .... thinking about a specific measuring system i.e. European, etc. etc.
jutu poibo = size of mountain .... general, big/small/medium etc. poibonjutu = mountain size .... thinking about a specific measuring system i.e. a monro, etc. etc.
Index
- Introduction to Seuna
- Seuna : Chapter 1
- Seuna word shape
- The script of Seuna
- Seuna sentence structure
- Seuna pronouns
- Seuna nouns
- Seuna verbs (1)
- Seuna adjectives
- Seuna demonstratives
- Seuna verbs (2)
- Asking a question in Seuna
- Seuna relative clauses
- Seuna verbs (3)
- Methods for deriving words in Seuna
- List of all Seuna derivational affixes
- Numbers in Seuna
- Naming people in Seuna
- The Seuna calendar
- Seuna units