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. In fact the first consonants of every pair are related, the first vowels of every pair is related and so on. As stated in the section "Word ordering" in "Seuna word shape", there is a proper order for listing the consonants and a proper order for listing the vowels. The relationship between the sounds is that they are reflected about the middle member of each series; about "l" for the consonant series and about "a" for the vowel series.
Not all antonyms are formed in the above manner however. Some are derived from the positive "pole". For example;-
important | mutu |
unimportant | umutu |
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 | 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.
Adjectives and nouns
For antonyms, the "positive" member of a pair is used as a noun of state. The noun is formed by adding un.
tujuun = size haueun = beauty
The vowel strings in the above look quite daulting. However, using an apostrophe to represent a glottal stop, they are tuju'un and hau'e'un
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