Showing posts with label particles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label particles. Show all posts

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Usage: particle shu

The perfective particle "shu" has an ample usage in everyday Kareyku. It's main function, as has been pointed out, is that of marking the perfective. It is mainly used with the past, but it can also be used with other tenses to give the idea that the action has been done entirely or has been done as a single complete event.

Also it can be used in composition with "yori" meaning "much, a lot" and in this case it has the meaning of "too much" and indicates that the grade of the adjective is excessive. In this case it denotes insatisfaction on the part of the speaker. As in these examples:

1. uwa yaran yori kolom shu.
[u.'wa ja.'ran yo.'ri ko.'lom ʃu]
"you are too phony for me"

It can even be used with some nouns, specially when talking about weather phenomena.

2. pokolyo yori are shu!
[po.ko.'ljo yo.'ri a.'re ʃu]
"It's too hot at home!"

The use of the many evidentials and particles may add different shades to the sentence, as in the case of the intensive particle "ya".

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Particle wan

Today's entry is about the particle wan which means "it is needed, it is necessary". This particle is used in Kareyku in a similar way as the English construction "it must needs", but with some differences due to Kareyku's own grammar phenomena.

It is an invariable particle which precedes the verb it modifies. So for example the following sentence:

pile qappakas
[pi.'le qa.ppa.'kas]
I eat fish.

Turns to:

pile wan qappakas
[pi.'le waŋ qa.ppa.'kas]
I need to eat fish.

Just as easy. The question now is how to create a sentence of the likes of "I need you to eat fish", in this case we would change the flow of the verb (the suffix) but include a pronoun with topic marker preceding the particle. So:


pile ikejen wan qappadas
[pi.'le i.'ke.jen waŋ qa.ppa.'das]
I need you to eat fish.

The meaning here that it is one's need that the other person do the action, note that the flow is quite simple "you eat fish", and the pronoun would be modifying the particle, the needing of something. So it is my needing that you eat it, or "to my mind it is needed that you eat it".

arejen wan osha tanakash
[a.'ɾe.jen wan o.'ʃa ta.na.'kaʃ]
I think he needs me to speak to them.

This one is more complicated, but the analyses is the same. It is his need / I speak (to) them. The transition of the verb marks a flow from a 1st person singular to some other person, which is being explicitly marked by the pronoun "osha" (they) in this case.

A simple lesson for today and one more particle to get to know.

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Relative clitic

The equivalent of a relative clause is dealt in Kareyku with a Relative clitic. The clitic is attached as a normal suffix at the end of the noun and the declension if any. The clitic is -ja and such examples exist as:
vineru-ja       kevire       qappa-ta-l     pile
person-REL    never       eat-4T-EVD     fish
"A person who is known to never eat fish"
The clitic is highly productive and somewhat related to the topic marker, -ejen.
Karey-ja            tan-ey-ta          poko-lyo
Kareyku-REL     speak-IMP-4T    house-LOC
"The Kareyku spoken at home" or "The Kareyku as spoken at home"

Thursday, 26 August 2010

The Topic Marker


Kareyku employs what is called a Topic Marker. This marker varies greatly depending on the language, in the case of Kareyku it not only serves to mark the topic of a statement, but also can be translated as "in regards to" or "talking about...", so for instance you can use it in a sentence like

mas-ejen    qappa-ka-l        pilé
food-TOP   eat-2TR-EVD    fish
Regarding food, I'm known to eat fish

It can also mean "I prefer fish" or "I like fish the most". The topic marker being -ejen and replacing any final vowels, it can also be used with pronouns, in which case they have some different kind of forms, so ikan '1st sg.' would turn into ikejen and pen '2nd sg.' would be pejen. So, as can be seen it is used to specify.

kar-ejen       tana-ka-ch        Karey-qa
speech-TOP   speak-2TR-EVD   Kareyku-INSTR
As regards to languages, I speak Kareyku

This last one uses the suffix -qa which means 'by means of' and is used in such constructions. Note that the name Kareyku will be rendered Karey- when any suffixes are used. It can also be used in other senses, for example with the question adverb to specify the subject of the question

Cham-ejen   tana-da-s?
what-TOP      speak-3EV-EVD?
What are you talking about?

And this would be answered of course using the topic marker, so

pok-ejen
about a house/houses

Always remembering that it can refer to a single house previously mentioned or maybe to houses in general, depending on the context.

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Declarative particles

As Kareyku lacks a copular verb it relies in declarative particles. This particles are used to express a state or mood, there are three declarative particles in Kareyku. The first particle is la which mean a 'state or mood in which the subject is feeling or being', so, for example, to express such a construction as 'I'm happy' would be realized in Kareyku as

wilé la
happiness DECL
I'm happy or I feel like happiness


In this particular case the person feeling happy is gathered from context. If I express it, or declare it, I am the one who must be happy. The second particle is ku which means 'to be in a stance for' barely.

tanaka ku
speak-1T DECL
I'm ready to speak to you


To express you are ready to engage some activity. It also depends on the context, but in this case the one who is ready is the same as the subject of the verb. There is a subtle difference between the two of the above expressed declarative particles. For example to express to different things about one verb

qappaka la
eat-2T DECL
I feel like eating or I'm hungry/I want to eat


compare to

qappaka ku
eat-2T DECL
I'm ready to eat


The first could be understood to mean 'I'm hungry' or 'I'm in the mood to eat (something)' this relies heavily in context, while the second can be said when you take your sit at the table and want the feast to commence, or maybe when you want someone to start serving the food. You can always add evidentials to these. The last declarative particle is shu this is not really a particle in the same sense as the others, but Kareyku grammarians still do group it as a declarative particle. It means completion of an action or to do something until the end. This is mostly used when ordering something to be carried through.

qappada shu!
eat-3T DECL
Eat up! or eat it all!


You can hear a mother say to her child. Needless to say it has some other uses, such as if someone wants to tell you something but takes a lot to finally say what he means to say, you can always snarl

ikan tanada shu!
1st say-3T DECL
Tell me already!


In this sentence the meaning is the same as the translation, and you can thus see how important context is in Kareyku specially in relation to the declarative particles which are widely used. This is the same kind of particle you use in the respectful greeting pendibeki wilé ladome, the evidential always attached to the declarative particle.