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Sentence Construction:Sentences in Tigerian follow a subject-verb-object pattern. For example, "I see the cat" becomes "(Ha) Rusinata san athana." In reforming their language, the Tigerians had to decide what order seemed most logical. Well, it seemed to them of no use to give the action before you know about what you are talking. In addition, it seemed useless to give the object before you know what is being done to it, so they decided on the Subject-Verb-Object pattern. In Tigerian subject pronouns are unnecessary, however, as verb conjugation indicates person. Verbs - Nehesin:Conjugation: To conjugate verbs, remove the final e (all verb infinitives end in -ne) and add on the ending. It goes like this:
Tense: In Tigerian, there are seven tenses: the present, the present being, the past, the past being, the continuing, the future, and the general. To conjugate for tense, first conjugate for person and add the corresponding tense ending: Tense
Ending
Present
no ending
Present Being
-tea
Past
-n
Past Being
-ti
Continuing
-vau
Future
-va
General
-vai
Now for the explanation:
Example: Rusine, "To see"
To say "should" as in "should do something", put the word "nesan" in front of the conjugated verb. Example: "I should have slept" becomes "Nesan risanatan." "May", as in "may do something", is indicated in a similar way. Place the word "shan" in front of the conjugated verb. Example: "I may do that" becomes "Shan shenata shun." "Must," as in "must do something," is indicated also in the same way, but with the word "Vuisan." Example: "I must destroy the enemy" is "Vuisan garahadanata san aihana." Commands: Tigerian verbs form commands by conjugating in the 3rd person singular or 3rd person plural tenses for singular you and plural you, respectively. This is the only time Tigerian distinguishes between plural and singular you. Tense endings are regular. Reflexive Verbs: Reflexive verbs "reflect" the verb back upon the subject, such as in "I washed myself" or "He killed himself." Those who have studied Spanish are likely familiar with these verbs. A reflexive pronoun is used in Spanish along with the verb to signify reflection. In Tigerian, there are special reflexive pronouns. I say special, but in reality, if you know the basic pronouns, it's easy to get the reflexive ones. For the most part, just change the initial h to n. For the full list, go to the Tigerian Dictionary, downloadable from Tigeria Online. Anyway, to use reflexive verbs, just place the reflexive pronoun immediately before the conjugated verb. Examples: "I will wash myself" is Na
Honanavat(a). Verbals Verbals are verbs used as a different part of speech. Tigerian has two types: the Participle (verb used as an adjective) and the Gerund (verb used as a noun). Participles, the term for verbs used as adjectives, are formed by taking the infinitive form of the verb (ending in -ne) and adding the suffix -tha at the end. This is the only time you will see an adjective ending in -tha. They are used just like other adjectives. Example: "The running cat" becomes "San athana telanetha." Gerunds, verbs used as nouns, are formed from participles by changing the -tha ending to -ta and adding -na. Example: "My running" would become han talinetana. *Note on external history* -- This construction replaced the earlier "'to be + verb' construction." *Note*: This is the form used when saying something like "the man was killed," which would be san nemana sameni habinenatana. Remember that this is because predicate adjectives do not exist in Tigerian. Examples: "I was seen" is Samenatan rusinenatana. "It will be done" is Sameniva shenevatana. *Note*: If you are using a verbal that does not refer to the present tense, add the tense endings. Example: "The killed man" is san nemana
habinenatha. (Adding an "a" to stay within the consonant
rule.) Personals Personals are nouns that signify a person who carries out the action of the verb. Example: "fighter" from "to fight" They are created by changing the -ne ending of the verb infinitive to -she and adding the noun suffix -na. Example: "fighter" is caleshena, from calene, "to fight."
Nouns - NasinPlurals To pluralize a noun, add -sin to the end. Example: "houses, friends, and years" are "tehanasin, matenasin, an hadainasin." Possession ••To show possession, put -sai after the possession,
followed by the possessor. OR Use the possession, followed by the word saie, followed
by the possessor. ••To show that a thing is from or of/originating from somewhere or something, add the suffix -nai to the end of the something or somewhere, followed by the thing. Or use the somewhere or something, followed by the word naie, followed by the thing. Example: a man from Athanire is "ina nemana Athanirenai" or "ina nemana naie Athanire" Note: When adding the -nai suffix to a noun ending in -na (almost all of them), remove the -na ending first. Also, you cannot add this suffix to a pluralized noun. Note: The latter construction in both cases is technically the poetic form, used in poetry and proper names. It can be used in common speech, however. Likewise, the former construction in either case can be used in poetry nowadays.
Vowel Modifiers - Gender and Size The noun is modified to mark differences in gender through the use of stem vowel changes, changes made to the last vowel in the noun before the -na ending. Gender Chart:
In the case of diphthongs, change both vowels. Size: Diminutive : shi Larger : sho Slightly/Comparative Larger - shoa Superlative Larger : shoanu Extreme Largest : shai Example: Adjectives - Tasin:Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. In Tigerian, adjectives come after the word they modify. All adjectives end in -ta, unless they are function words. Examples: "the good cat" is "san athana
denata." •In Tigerian, there is no equivalent to the predicate adjective. Instead, Tigerian uses the verb samene, "to have," plus the noun form of the adjective being used. Thus, a Tigerian would not say, "The day is good," he would say "The day has goodness." •Adjectives are only used immediately after the nouns they describe, as in "The fat cat," san athana vethata. •The standard way to make a regular adjective into a noun is by removing the -ta ending and adding -na. Making nouns out of verbal adjectives, or participles, is discussed above in the verbs section. •To make an adjective into a noun meaning "[adjective] one", change the -ta ending to -tha and add -na to the end. Thus, "Good one" is Denathana, from denata. You will notice that this is identical to the making of nouns from verbs. This is idiomatic. Don't worry about it. Just look for context clues to tell the difference. •Any noun that could make sense can be used as an
adjective. Modifiers Gender: As all nouns are inherently male, all adjectives are inherently female. A male noun must be described by a female adjective, but a female noun must be described by a male adjective. To change an adjective to male form, use the following chart.
Also, to be nominalized, modified adjectives take an infix before the -ta ending to indicate the size instead of the modifier word. less - shi, -nio-
Adverbs - Tesin:Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. In Tigerian, adverbs come after the verb(s) and adverb(s) they modify but before OR after the adjective(s) they modify. All adverbs end in -te unless they are function words. Example: "It lives forever" is "Hemoni hanarate." "You know so many things" is "Setunea enasin sun sinata." Size Size in adverbs is shown exactly as it is in adjectives, but adverbs have no gender, so they do not have the gender modifiers.
Pronouns - Nierashenesin:Personal pronouns are not usually used, as verb conjugation usually indicates what pronoun is understood. However, as they are also used for objective pronouns (i.e., him, her, etc), it is important to know them. The Tigerian Dictionary has a list of all pronouns. Now I shall explain the chart, found in the dictionary. It is self-explanatory, mostly. The only confusing part is the possessive forms of "you". Here I have a singular and plural form for it. But wait, doesn't that mean it goes in the Plural Possessive column? No. The Plural Possessive is the form used when describing a plural possession, like "his shoes" or "its feet." "Heanin" is equivalent to Spanish "de ustedes," only it uses the same verb ending as singular you. The rest should be self-explanatory. NOTE: Unlike other "adjectives," Possessive pronouns come before the noun modified.
Function Words - TurabashenasinFunction words are just what their name says. They can function as adjectives pronouns, or conjunctions. Their distinction is the lack of endings. They share this feature with pronouns, but it should be easy to spot the difference when looking at a sentence. For grammatical purposes, use them as their part of speech. I.e., if it functions as an adjective, use it as an adjective, etc. When using an interrogative function word such as "How," "Who," or "Where," the sentence order changes. Place the function word first, followed by the verb, followed by the subject. Example: "How was your day" is Conun rusinin hean arehana? (literally, "How saw your day" The Tigerian Dictionary contains the list of function words.
Other SuffixesIn Tigerian, several suffixes which may be added to the end of a word in place of a prepositional phrase. Here are a few: about - ham Add these endings to the end of the word which would come last in the prepositional phrase. Example: "with a cat" is "in athanafir." *As a rule of thumb, when in doubt as to whether an ending exists, assume it does not and use the traditional construction. In poetry and formal writing, these endings are not used at all anyway, except for -nai and -sai, so why not seem educated and take the extra effort. This is really a conversational help to lessen the strain of the "highly-advanced and beautiful" language of the Tegirenai.*
Numbers - IranasinPlease refer to the dictionary for a list of numbers. Now I'll give the explanation. The prefix column can be attached to any noun in place of the full word as long as it would not violate the consonant rule. When they are used in full, they come BEFORE the noun they describe. Examples: "two days" is either alarehanasin
or alir arehanasin. I am not exactly sure how to explain how numbers are constructed, except that the last word in a phrase ends in -an (literally, and). I hope these examples will be of help. twenty-three - alair haliran
Get it yet? It may seem complicated at first, but with practice, it becomes very easy. To form cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) into ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), add -ena to the end of the number. Literally, this interprets as [number]-thing, from the word ena, meaning "thing." When used as ordinals, they come after the noun like adjectives.
I hope this has been and will be a useful resource to all students of san Nahadana Tegirenai. Sucane shun tunin an tuniva in suroduna setunai curin thurushenasin suneta naie san Nahadana Tegirenai. -Jonathana Tegire |