CULTURAL CONTEXT
The following brief description of the world of the Ebisedi may be helpful in understanding the intent behind some of the words used in the text.The Ebisedi live on island continents (mini-planets) called the Lands, suspended in space. In the sky between the Lands are diverse cosmic objects, among the most prominent of which are the _3Kal3rii'_ (singular: _Ka'l3ri_ ["k_hal@\r`i]), "starburst", an explosive phenomenon akin to supernovae in the Terran universe. A _Ka'l3ri_ ejects matter into space, often raining ejecta on nearby lands. Depending on its rate of eruption, it may appear as a swirling, rainbow-colored sphere, or a blinding disc of flashing colors, or a wild explosion of destructive fire. Some _Ka'l3ri_ are cyclic, cycling between different phases of activity at regular intervals.
Because there is no equivalent of Sun or Moon in the Ferochromon (and hence no day/night or months/years or seasons), the Ebisedi use objects like a cyclic _Ka'l3ri_ as a reference object for keeping time. A large _Ka'l3ri_ has a long cycle which corresponds with a "season" or "year" in the Ebisedi calendar. Different parts of the local "year" corresponds with different stages in the cycle of the _Ka'l3ri_. When the _Ka'l3ri_ burns out, the Ebisedi would switch to another reference object. Hence, it is common for the Ebisedi to refer to "the time of Shining Fire", or "the time of Majestic Ka'l3ri", etc., which are the periods of time in history when the named _Ka'l3ri_ was used as the reference object. It is also common to refer to specific events associated with such _Ka'l3ri_, e.g., "the time when Shining Fire ceased", or "the time Death Fire consumed (a previous land)", etc..
On a much smaller scale, the _Ka'l3ri_ may also appear on land as a fountain or volcano-like phenomenon, or even under the ground, causing mountains to appear.
EBISEDIAN CRASH COURSE
NOUNS ----- Nouns have 3 attributes: gender, number, and case. There are 5 genders: masculine, feminine, epicene, neuter, double. - Noun gender always reflects biological gender. - Epicene is used when the noun referent is either masculine or feminine - Neuter is for genderless things and abstract concepts. - Double is for hermaphroditic creatures and collective nouns referring to couples. (Does not occur in present text.) There are 3 numbers: singular, plural, nullar. - Plural is often used as an intensive ("much" or "very"). - Nullar indicates the absence of the noun referent. Where possible, the nullar is preferred over verb negation ("I see none-of-him" is preferred over "I do not see him"). When you see a nullar noun, it is very likely that the intended meaning is to negate the sentence. There are 5 cases: originative, receptive, instrumental, conveyant, locative. - Noun case is semantic, and operates according to the Noun Case Model (see below). IMPORTANT: understanding how noun cases work is *ESSENTIAL* to making any sense of Ebisedian. VERBS ----- Verbs in Ebisedian describe *state changes*. They do NOT describe a static state of things; for that, nouns are used, and possibly, gerunds derived from a verb are used. Verbs have 3 attributes: domain, focus, aspect. There are 3 domains: physical, introvertive, abstract. - Physical is for physical events - Introvertive is mainly for psychological events, although it can also refer to actions performed for one's own sake (similar to Indo-European's middle voice). Introvertive verbs are often cognate with physical verbs; the physical equivalent is a metaphoric description of the psychological action. - Abstract is for "collective" events (e.g. verb "to plan" is abstract; it consists of other actions such as talking, writing, drawing, thinking, etc.) There are 3 focii: incidental, deliberative, consequential. - Incidental is for events that just happen - Deliberative marks events that happened "for a purpose" - Consequential marks events that result from preceding events. There are 3 aspects: inceptive, progressive, perfective. - Inceptive is for events that are starting, or about to start. It is also used sometimes as an imperative (as in, "start doing this!", or "may this start happening!"). - Progressive is for events in progress, either interrupted or simultaneous with another event. It is NOT used for uninterrupted, isolated, continuous actions; for that, the gerund is used instead. The progressive is only used when (1) describing "while X is happening, Y also happened" (2) the event is interrupted. - Perfective is for complete events, even if completion is in the future. If an event is complete or will be complete, the perfective is used, even if it is not yet complete at the present time. Verbs do not inflect for tense. Whether an event is in the past, present, or future would have to be deduced from context (or, occasionally, explicit temporal nouns). NOUN CASE MODEL (VERY IMPORTANT) --------------- Understanding of this model is essential to understanding the meaning of sentences in Ebisedian. Every sentence fits in the following "mental model": Originative: the originating point of an event Receptive: the destination point of an event Instrumental: the thing "fuelling" the current action from origin to destination. If a verb is present, instrumental often used as adverb. The instrumental case of a gerund acts as a participle of the verb it is derived from (although it may also function as an adverb if a verb is present). Participles are frequently used to describe a continuous, unchanging action. (Unchanging in the sense that it is continuing indefinitely.) Conveyant: the thing being propelled, the thing undergoing change. Locative: the place where the conveyant noun is in currently. To visualize this, think of the conveyant noun, currently sitting in the locative noun, having come from the originative noun, and heading towards the receptive noun, being propelled by the instrumental noun (and verb, if there is one). This mental model applies both to physical descriptions as well as abstract concepts. See also the section on Stative Sentences to get a feel for how this works. SENTENCE TYPES -------------- There are a few distinct sentence categories which one should be familiar with. Nominator Sentence: ------------------- Single locative noun or noun-phrase. Sets the topic of subsequent discourse. Often used as a title, but also used when the speaker wishes to make several statements about a single topic. A favorite Ebisedian construct is: <locative noun>. kili <comment>. kili <comment>. E.g., "That house. It is red, it is big, it has many rooms." (_kili_ is the back-referencing particle, inflected for two cases.) Stative sentence: ----------------- Describes a continual state of things. Stative sentences do not have verbs. Very idiomatic interplay between noun cases. Common idioms: 1) noun A locative, noun B locative: A is B. 2) person A, originative; adjectival noun B, conveyant: A shows forth B. (B is "expressive" attribute) 3) noun A conveyant, noun B locative: A is in B. Or, B belongs to category A; B is an instance of A. 4) adjectival noun A conveyant, person B receptive: A is a "receptive attribute" of B. (E.g. th0't33 ebu' - I(rcp) am tall(cvy).) 5) thing A conveyant, person B receptive: B is the owner of A (possession). 6) person A conveyant, person B receptive: A is B's special friend / spouse. Additionally, a verbal sentence (see below) may be turned into a stative sentence by replacing the verb with a gerund in the instrumental case. The arguments to the gerund usually appear in the same cases as they do in a verbal sentence. Verbal sentence: ---------------- Only used for events (changes of state). For unchanging state of things, stative sentences are used instead. Verbal sentence consists of verb with any combination of nouns. NOTE: multiple nouns in the same case has "implicit conjunction": _A B_ = "A and B". For example, biz3t33' pii'z3d3 --> the woman(cvy) AND the man(cvy). Noun cases are chosen according to Noun Case Model. Things to watch out for: 1) _fa't3_ "to see" -- the seer is in the RECEPTIVE, the thing seen in the ORIGINATIVE. 2) _zota'_ "to look" -- looker in ORIGINATIVE, thing looked at in RECEPTIVE. 3) _le's_ "to go" -- the thing/person going is in the CONVEYANT; originative and receptive marks the source/destination of the journey. As an aid to beginners in Ebisedian, the following rules of thumb may be helpful: - in verbs of motion, the moving thing is in conveyant; the origin of the motion is in the originative, and the destination of the motion is in the receptive. - the party that receives something or gains the benefit of something or is at the receiving end of something is usually in the receptive. Similarly, the party towards which something goes is usually in the receptive. - the party that causes an event or from which something goes is usually in the originative. - the party that undergoes a process (in the sense of being changed, moved, or affected) is usually in the conveyant. It would be instructive for the reader to note the following semantic pairs, which demonstrate how noun cases are selected in Ebisedian: Verb Originative Conveyant Receptive 1) To look looker - thing looked at To see thing seen attribute seen seer 2) To listen listener - thing listened for To hear sound source sound itself hearer 3) To reach reacher - thing reached for To take original place thing taken taker 4) To seek seeker - thing sought To find - thing found finder SUBORDINATE CLAUSES ------------------- Because of the flat structure of sentences in Ebisedian, almost every noun modifier has to expressed using subordinate clauses. Subordinate noun-clauses are marked by the particles _ni_ and _di_. The clause appears between these two particles. _ni_ introduces the clause, and _di_ terminates the clause. The clause itself may contain nested subclauses; it is never ambiguous because the particles always match up. (In practice, however, it rarely goes beyond two levels.) _ni_ is inflected for number and case, which must agree with the noun being modified. _di_ is inflected for case. This case marks the function of the modified noun within the clause. For example: ni juli'r d3 biz3tai'. (loc) (loc) (cvy) (loc) "The woman in the house." (Literally, "the who-is-in-the-house woman".) Here, _ni_ (singular locative) matches biz3tai' (feminine singular locative). The function of the modified noun (biz3tai') in the subclause is the conveyant case, because _d3_ is the conveyant of _di_. Therefore, the subclause is equivalent to: juli'r b3z3t33'. (loc) (cvy) The woman is in the house. (See examples from the "Noun Case Model" section.) CORRELATIVES ------------ Correlatives are sentences parallel to each other, that either describe a chain of successive events, or different views/aspects of the thing being described. It is similar to the English "on the one hand ... on the other hand ...", except more concise and elegant. Ebisedian has two kinds of correlatives: the dichotomy (equivalent to the Classical Greek correlatives _men_ and _de_) and the trichotomy. Correlatives are marked by correlative particles, which appear at the *end* of a sentence. Dichotomy particles are _Ke_ and _ve_ (in that order), and trichotomy particles are _ke_, _ce_, _re_ (in that order). PRONOUNS -------- Ebisedian has an unusual pronominal system. It has first person singular pronouns as usual; but the other pronouns are not divided by person. Instead, they are classified as "intimate" or "distant". Intimate pronouns are always used to refer to those whom the speaker regards as close to him, on his side of a debate, in his "inner circle" of friends, regardless of whether he is addressing them or not. Similarly, distant pronouns are used for those he regards as distant and impersonal, regardless of whether he is addressing them. Distant pronouns are also used in formal settings, where intimate pronouns are deemed inappropriate. Pronouns are frequently used as a form of address. When used in this way, it establishes the terms on which the speaker will deal with the audience; whether he regards the addressee as distant or intimate, whether he will speak to the addressee intimately or impersonally. The intimate pronoun may be (very crudely) understood as "my dear" or "my fellow"; and the distant pronoun may be (very crudely) understood as "my dear stranger" or "my dear opponent". The neuter pronouns have a similar meaning: the neuter intimate pronoun refers to something the speaker owns, or regards as close to him; whereas the distant pronoun refers to something the speaker is indifferent about, or something which he does not own. This should be enough to get going with Ebisedian. If you're stuck, ask a local Bisedi, or consult your interpreter at [email deleted]. Also, the following resources might be helpful: 1) Ebisedian Tutorial: an introduction for beginnners. This is highly recommended reading if you're new to Ebisedian. http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/tutorial.pdf 2) Ebisedian Lexicon: if you need more than what the glossary contains: http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/lexicon.pdf 3) Ebisedian reference grammar: if you're really stuck and need to find a definitive answer to a grammatical issue. http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/grammar.pdf