Abbreviations
N noun: d definite i indefinite V verb: 1 1st person 2 2nd person 3i 3rd person, implicit subject 3e 3rd person, explicit subject PTC participle GND gerund PST past FUT future PSV passive IMP imperative LIQ liquid aspect TSE generic subordinate clause marker Prep Preposition: OBJ objective case PRE predicative case Adv adverb QF quantifier Conj conjunctionGrammar Sketch
This is a really skeletal compactification of Obrenje grammar... if you have the time and leisure, check out the grammar webpage at http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_index.htm
- Nouns do not inflect for number (singular/plural), but they do inflect for definiteness... for example, |romaj| means "worker/s" while |romaje| means "the worker/s". The inflection rules are quite simple, but you don't need to bother with them... all definite forms are marked with ":d" in the interlinear.
- The Obrenje language does not distinguish adjectives from nouns. Modifiers come after the head noun, so if |warve| means "dog" and |setam| means "guard", |warve setam| would have to be translated as "watchdog", not "dog watcher".
- The most basic word order is VSO(O). The verb usually comes first, then the subject, then the object(s).
- The subject is unmarked, while the objects are tagged with prepositions. Even the grammatical object cases of Obrenje (predicative, objective) are marked with prepositions: |i| for objective and |u| for predicative.
Example: |Powze u mej i warev|, lit: "give:1 PRE fruit OBJ dog:d", meaning "I give a fruit to the dog".
- Sometimes an object is placed *before* the verb in the sentence: OVS(O). In this situation, an unmarked object (no preposition) is taken to be in the predicative case. In other words, if you place the predicative object before the verb, you can drop the preposition |u|. Even though unmarked, it cannot be confounded with the subject, since that must always come after the verb. This object-fronting is even common with non-finite verbs, e.g. infinitives and participles. Observe:
Torva umae doljoa kwome man sea:d bathe:GND want:PTC Literally: "a [in] the sea to bathe wanting man" Meaning: "a man wanting to bathe in the sea"The following sentence means the same as the above one. The difference is that the predicate objects aren't fronted, but come after their verbs, and are marked with the predicative case preposition |u|.Torva kwome u doljoa u umae man want:PTC PRE bathe:GND PRE sea:d Literally: "a man wanting a bathing [in] the sea" Meaning: "a man wanting to bathe in the sea"- Note that there exist both active and passive participles for all verb tenses. (The default tense is present. It's not marked in the interlinear.) From |lonna-| "to sing", we can build:|lonnam| V:PTC "singing" |lonnum| V:PST:PTC "having sung" |lonnim| V:FUT:PTC "going to sing, about to sing" |lonnash| V:PSV:PTC "being sung" |lonnush| V:PST:PSV:PTC "sung; having been sung" |lonnish| V:FUT:PSV:PTC "going to be sung, about to be sung"Likewise, there are gerunds for all voice/tense combinations.- Modal verbs behave like regular verbs that take gerunds as predicative objects. Example: |kwoze u lonnae i lawne|, literally "I want a singing-a-song", meaning "I want to sing a song". This word order is not very popular though...
With modal verbs, the otherwise optional fronting of the predicative object is so common that one might regard it as mandatory. Therefore, you're much more likely to hear the sentence above in the form of |lonnae kwoze i lawne|. Each element still fulfills the same grammatical roles, the difference is simply that the gerund |lonnae| has been placed before the verb, where the predicative case marker |u| is no longer needed. The objective phrase |i lawne| is still the object of the verb |lonna-|, not of |kwoze|.
To make things more complicated, the gerund might have a predicative object of its own, which might or might not be fronted as well: |mej powa kwoze i warev|, fruit give:GND want:1 OBJ dog:d, or |powa kwoze u mej i warev|, give:GND want:1 PRE fruit OBJ dog:d, both meaning "I want to give the dog a fruit".
- For the roles of the two unconventional cases "predicative" and "objective", please consult http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_nouns.htm#2. It's explained in few words and some pictures. =P
- For verb conjugations, check out the following page (especially the tables): http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_verbs.htm. Don't despair, the interlinear identifies verb forms for you. =)
- In case you wonder why there are always two 3rd person forms for verbs... 3e stands for "3rd person, explicit subject" and 3i for "3rd person, implicit subject". You use the 3i form when the subject is not explicitly mentioned in this sentence, but appeared in an earlier sentence. It replaces the 3rd person subject pronouns of English. Compare: |Rolde torav| "The man walks" versus |Rolda| "He walks".
- For our purposes, the "solid" and "liquid" verb aspects correspond quite well to the English "simple" and "continuous" aspects.