Seuna nouns
Nouns in Seuna has a lot of old ideas. Seuna suffixes and some grammar has an old idea. Seuna rubbish the same.
plural
The plural is formed by adding a final "n". In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark :, not by the soundmark n.
kloga = shoe, klogan = shoes
There is a subgroup of nouns that become plural by changing internally.
| man | bla | men | bala | male(adjective) | obla |
| woman | gla | women | gala | female(adjective) | egla |
position.tags
Eight tags are front.stuck to nouns.
bali = above
keja = below
fas = in front (i.e. this side of)
cimo = behind (i.e. at the far side of)
ni = on (covers about the same semantic space as English "on")
tian = beside
pi = in
mu = out
There is a special symbol given to each of these tags, that is in text, they are never spelled out phonetically but their special symbol is used.
role.tags
Nine role.tags are end.stuck to nouns.
u = "by"
yo = "to" or "upto"
ji = "for"
fi = "at"
ge = "of"
le = "from"
s ... can be said to show the accusative case. Also used for the vocative case.
wa = "towards" or "about"
ho = "with"
yo is used to indicate the receiver of a gift.
wa also corresponds to English "about" as in "I think about you".
fi is often eroded to f if the word ends in a vowel or n. The eight position.tags can be thought of as a semantic expantion of fi. You normally use fi along with one of the position.tags.
The nominative is unmarked. Also the nouns that follows all prepositions are unmarked ???
There is a special symbol given to each of these tags, that is in text, they are never spelled out phonetically but their special symbol is used.
Some attrition
na go dwolopiyo (S/he goes into the house) => na go dwolopyo
na come dwolopile (S/he comes out of the house) => na come dwolople
cat jumped wallniyo (The cat jumped onto the wall) => cat jumped wallnyo
cat jumped wallnile (The cat jumped off the wall) (The ni bit is ofter missed out)
Apart from the above 4 cases, you do not often get spacial and role tags in the same word.
When two nouns come together
possession
As mentioned above the endtag -ge is translated by "of" in English. However -ge actually functions in a smaller range of situation than "of". In actual fact it is only used when "possession" is involved. For the many situations in which one noun qualifies another and ownership isn't involved, we use the particle ta between the nouns.
For example;-
book mige = my book (a book owned by me)
book ta mi = a book written by me
inalienable possession
baba yu = your father
noga mi = my leg
?? could it become incorporated ?? nogami = my leg, nogamin = my legs, nogaminfi = at my legs ??
other associations
door ta room
paper ta today
table ta wood
three litres ta milk
ta can be used withiut a proceding noun.
ta room = the one of the room
ta today = the one of today
ta wood = the one of wood
ta hia = the red one
tan hia = the red ones
ta wood = the one made of wood
tan piboatfi = the ones in the boat
ta mige = that one of mine
tan mige = those ones of mine
two nouns together
In Seuna when to nouns come together, they can be translated into English with an "and" between them. (Same also for verbs).
?? Stand-together ?? what is the correct technical term ?? Juxtaposition ??
This is not allowed in Seuna - you can not have "Obama, the president" but must insert a ta between the two nouns, introducing the second element, in a relative clause. Similarly "William the Conqueror", Alexander the Great"
In theory this could cause some confusion when you have nouns with inalielable possession. But in practice it doesn't. My father and I = mi baba mi or baba mi mi. The timing --- we have one comma - one pause between different items.
Co-ordinative compounds ( motherfather = parents, swordspear = weapen, armleg =limb) when both words contribute equally to the compound. Called Dvandva in Sanskrit.
My son, the doctor, went to town My son, the doctor, and I went to town
compounds
senai.tolno = windmill ... writen as senai.tolno but pronounced senaindolno
mose.tolno = watermill ... writen as mose.tolno but pronounced mosendolno
?? We need an example with second word k... and p.. etc ??
After the nasal all unvoiced stops turn to voiced stops.
Actually it would be better if "l" was used for this link phoneme. "n" is already used in many functions and "l" is comparatively idle. However the "l" gesture is just too awkward and the nasal gesture too easy. (The moral is - if you want restful life : act awkward)
There are many compounds. The compounds are head final. More than 50% are attributive compounds. Compounds have a nasal inserted between the two components. In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark . (actually it should be mid-level). If the second component begins with a unvoiced sound, it changes to voices in the compound
The same method of compounding is used for object incorporating in verbs.
I hunt deer => I deer.hunt
hand.makeoi = handmade
wife.beatgu = wifebeater
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
