User:Aquatiki/Sandbox

Intro to Verb Conjugation

The part of Syreni most like English (in terms of layout) is the verb conjugation. English is called and SVO language, which means it lists the parts of a sentence in the order subject-verb-object. It is thought that perhaps Syreni began this same way. The major difference being, Syreni glues all those English words together into one, big, monster word! It is easiest to picture a collection of nine "slots" into which one may inject part, with only the root absolutely being obligatory.

#	1	2	3	4	5	6	Root	7	8	9	10
Function:	Voice	Deixis	Class	Person	Prep.	Plural		Voice	Deixis	Class	Person
For:	"On Side"					Both?		"Off Side"

Let's look at the first three and the last three. These are the Voice, Deixis, and Class of the "on" and "off" sides. "On" and "Of" are used instead of "subject" and "object" because sometimes they behave in ways quite subjects and objects! For now - even though this is completely wrong - let's equate "on" with subject and "off" with object. Voice lets you know the intentionality or passivity of the subject/object. Deixis is a fancy word for 'this' vs 'that', but in Syreni it's a lot more complicated! Class is short for "classifier" which lets you know what kind of thing you're dealing with: person, animal, thing, etc. (Technically, you could have as many as four sets of voice-deixis-class-person on each side, but we won't talk about that!)

Preposition is a kind of clarifier for the verbal-root. Why aren't they part of the verb? Consider the English verb "to turn into". It's quite different from "to turn" and yet all manner of things might come in between "turn" and "into" in any given sentence (e.g. "Frankie turned very slowly but nevertheless deliberately into pickled cod.") "Into" is crucial to distinguish a very different meaning for "turn", but it is separated from it. That's how the prep. spot functions in Syreni. There are a great deal many "prepositions" in Syreni. So many, in fact, that some linguists think that they were originally noun that got incorporated into the endless verbal stew! This happens a little in English. (e.g. "I was picking berries" can turn into "I was berry-picking.")

The Plural slot can be ambiguous as to whether it is marking the "subject" or the "object" as a distributive plural. It may only be applied to very animate subjects and is usually quite clear from context. There are two other infixes that can go here, so that some people prefer simply to call it 'slot 6', but we will continue to use the original name. The "energetic/inert" markers also go here and they are also ambiguous as to whether they refer to the "subject" or "object". This is also the slot for negation of the verbal idea.

The Person marking is generally required. In English, we talked about First (I or We), Second (You or Y'all), and Third (He, She, It, They) Person. Of course, Syreni has more! We kind of have the Zeroth Person in English. Consider the sentence "It is raining." Who or what is raining? The sentence doesn't mean anything more than "There is rain" but again, what is 'there' doing there? These are actions without actors. Syreni can do this with almost any verb. It is usually best to translate the Zeroth Person as "There is/was/will be ...". Third person means neither of us talking right now, and the fourth person is usually handled by "the other one" in English. Here are the personal affixes:

Indicative

	General	Dual
0	bə̣-	No
1	di-	r̀-
2	tzí-	ŋòj-
3/4	ı̣n-

Interrogative

	General	Dual
0	bb̀	No
1	dụì-	ẹʊ̪-
2	tzí-	ǝ̪ò-
3/4	mn̄ǹ-

Lastly, we look at the root itself. Just as you have to learn in English that "sink, sank, sunk" are all forms of the same verb, you'll have to learn several forms of each verb in Syreni. The names of the principle parts of the verb roots are:

• Imperfective,
• Perfective,
• Future, and
• Subjunctive.

The imperfective is used for incomplete or ongoing actions. The perfective implies a finality or unity to the action. The future is ... future! And the subjunctive is used to make a verb dependent upon the preceding one, much like English "to" or "that" (e.g. "I know that you did it" or "I want to eat sushi"). The dictionary form of the word is the imperfective, but the other forms are typically listed after it.

It's not very nice to talk about, but the simplest verb we can test-drive is -ko, which means 'to slap' or 'to strike with the open hand', 'to body glove'. It's pronounced just like the English verb "go", but be careful not to make a diphthong out of it (normally English speakers say /gou/). It has no accent marker written, so it is middle tone. (That means, if you think of tone as a song in C Major, this one ends on C!) You should be able to put together six almost-right sentences about slapping now.

Indicative

	General	Dual
0	bə̣ko /ˈvɵ˧.go˧/ - "There is slapping"	No
1	diko /ˈzi˧.go˧/ - "I slap"	r̀go /ˈr̩˦.go˧/ - "We slap"
2	tzígo - /ˈdr̝͆i˦.go˧/ - "You slap"	ŋòjgo -/ˈŋoʒ˩.go˧/ - "You'all slap"
3/4	ı̣ŋ.go /ˈɪŋ˧.go˧/ - "He/She/It/They/The other(s) slap"

Notice how almost nothing has changed as we mashed up these two sets. That is because the indicative affixes are strong, as are the principle parts of the root.

Also notice, in the IPA transcription, we put the stress on the first syllable. This is indicated by length of the vowel/tone (as in English), not by pitch (unlike English). In my classroom, we practice with xylophones, hitting a low 'G' for low accent, 'C' for middle accent, and a higher 'E' for high accent. If you have access to a musical instrument and the ability to play while speaking, it really helps.