Lucarian (The World)
| Lucarian LΙΝҀΟΥΑ LΟΥϹΑΡ | |
| Spoken in: | Merecun, Cartadash, Pharaonic Empire of the Rumiyya, the realms of the Levant, the Solomonic Empire of Ethiopia, Kingdom of Saba, some lands beyond the seas |
| Timeline/Universe: | The World |
| Total speakers: | c. 4 crore, give or take |
| Genealogical classification: | West Aryan, Puntic, Creole |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | ? |
| Created by: | |
| Elemtilas | 1990s |
Lucarian (native name LΙΝҀΟΥΑ LΟΥϹΑΡ) is thought to be a naturalised creole language derived from the ancient traders lingua franca used in the early centuries of the age along the coasts of the Middle Earth Sea, from the Pillars of Herakles to the Pillars of Senruset and down the coasts of the Sabaean Sea and well into Nubia. While the vocabulary of Lucarian is quite varied, taken as it is from Helladic, Carthaginian, Coptic and Ethiopic, the majority of words are Italic in origin. Of this last, most are Latin, while some words are taken from Oscan and Etruscan. It is now the common language par excellence in northern and eastern Lybia and the Levant of the Uttermost West of the World.
Verbal and nominal morphology are much reduced: the nouns to two cases and the verbs to conjugationless simple tense and aspect forms. Perhaps in compensation, the use of adpositions (pre-, post- as well as peri-) and adjunct auxiliaries has become common. Reduplication is much in evidence, and often denotes emphasis or inspecificity: enamverver = whenèver, quisverver = whoever, fesfestinas = much speed.
Word order is generally SVO in declarative sentences: timet cvercato adis minam al bibliam, you gave towards me the book. Interrogatives and imperatives invert to VSO: cvercare tim adis minam al bibliam!, give towards me the book!
By in large, Lucarian is written with a slightly modified Coptic-Helladic script. Many texts, usually shorter commercial texts, are written in a modified Roman script. Very little (reputable) literature has been written in Lucarian given that Helladic, Latin, Coptic and Ahmaric are or have historically been strong classical languages with good philosophical and academic foundations. Lucarian has long been the language of popinas, taverns, port facilities, warehouses and diplomatic salons. As a language of expedience, it hasn't gotten much exercise among the more elevated tongues of the region. Some scholarly interest has been generated, however, in a recently rediscovered manuscript of the Gospel of the Worldsource. Originally dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Agustas, this gospel stands as a mute testimony to the meeting of three great Asian religious streams: Therapeutic Buddhism, Kristian and Jewish. As such, the Gospel of the Worldsource, and its immediate descendant works, such as the Gospel of the Wellspring and the Gospel of the Signs, along with the independent Gospel of Thomas, represent the oldest Kristian literature in the world. The present manuscript was copied in the 19th century from much older sources and was discovered in a Sabaean Baptist monastery. It is thought that the Lucarian text dates back to perhaps a 16th century original, though some parts seem to point to a much older Lucarian source. The manuscript places the Lucarian text on one side and the (rather poor) Latin text on the other side.
The paternoster:
- ΝЄΜЄΤ ϚΟϚΠЄІΤΟ ΠѠΔΙϹ ῙϹ ϹΑΤΑ ΜΑϹϹΑΡЄΙΡЄ : ЄΤΤΙ ΠЄJЄΤΟ ῙϹ:
- ЄΝΑΜϜЄΡϜЄΡ ΤΙΜ ΜΑϹϹΑΡЄΙΡЄ ϹΟΥΔЄΙЄΡЄ ΙϹΑN:
- JЄNI ΑΒΒΑ ЄΝ ϚΑΜΑΥΑΝΑΜ ΝΑ
- ϘЄΔΔ ΑL ICCA ΝΟΜOΝ
- ϚѠΠΠЄΡЄ ΑL ICCA ΝΟΥΜΜЄΝ ΠѠΔЄϘϹ ΦЄϹΤΙΝΑΜ
- ΟΥΤΤΑΤΟ ϜΑΔ ΑL ICCA ΑLΦΑϹ ЄΙΜ ЄΝ ΑL ΤΙΡ ЄΙΜ ЄΝ ΑL ΠΑΡΑΔЄΙϚΙΑΜ
- ϹϜЄΡϹΑΡЄ ΤΙM ΑΔΙϹ ΝΑϚϚЄΡ ЮΤΙΜ ΑL JЄNIM ΠΟΥΝΤΙΜ ϹΑϚϹΟΥΜНΝЄM
- ΔЄΜЄΤЄΡЄ ΤΙΜ ΑL JЄNIN ΝΟΒЄC ЄIΜ ΝΑϹ ΔЄΜЄΤЄΡЄ ΑL JЄNIN ΝΑΜΑΔЄΡΑΜ
- ΜΙΡЄ ΔΟΥϹЄΡЄ ΝΑϚϚЄΡ ΑΔΙϹ ΠЄΙΡΑϚΜΟΜ
- ΜΙΡЄ ΔН ϹѠΙΡЄ ΤΙΜ ΝΑϚϚЄΡ ΑΔ ΙΝJΟΥΔΙϚϚΙΑΜ. ѨΜΙΝ.
- They ask at-towards Jesus concerning to pray; and said Jesus:
- Whenever you pray say this:
- Father of us in-heaven-in
- holy the name of you
- become the heavenly-realm of you with fast
- go done the will of you as in the earth as in the paradise
- give you towards us today the bread of-everyday of us
- wipe-away you the this-here sin of us as we wipe-away the sinship of them
- do-not lead us towards temptation
- do-not but put you us to trial. amen.
- nemet sospeito pôdis IC cata maccareire; etti pejeto IC:
- enamverver tim maccareire coudeiere ican:
- jenì abba en samayam na
- qedd al iccà nomon
- sôppere al iccà noummen podeqc festinam
- outtato wad al iccà alfas eim en al tir eim en al paradeisiam
- cvercare tim adis nasser hotim al jenìm pountim cascoumênem
- demetere tim al jenìn nobes eim nas demetere al jenìn namaderam
- mire doucere nasser adis peirasmom
- mire dê côire tim nasser ad injoudissiam.
- nemet - 3pl nom. personal pronoun, emphatic: they
- sospeito - past perfect: asked
- pôdis IC - prepos. + name: towards Jesus
- cata maccareire - prep. + infin.: about praying
- etti - conj.: and
- pejeto - past perfect: said
- IC - monogram in common use for IЄSOϓC
- enamverver - indefinite pronoun: whensoever
- tim - 2s nom. pers.pron.: thou (prob. a scribal error for "vas")
- maccareire - pres. indef.: pray
- coudeiere - imper.: say
- ican - s.obl. demonst. pron. near: this
- jenì - 1pl. poss. pron. primary form: our
- abba - voc(?).sing.: father
- en samayam na - locative peripos.phrase w/ obl.s.: in-(the) heavens-in
- qedd - adj.: holy
- al - art.: the
- iccà - 2s.poss.pron.: thy
- nomon - nom.s.: name
- sôppere - imper.: come
- al iccà noummen - art. + 2s.poss.pron. + nom.s.: the+thy+heavenly realm
- podeqc festinam - phrasal.adv. consisting of prep. + obl.s.: with+speed
- outtato wad - passive imper. consisting of past.ppl. + modal quasi-verb: go accomplished
- al iccà alfas - the+thy+will
- eim en al tir - conj. + prep.phr. + art. + obl.s.: as within the world
- eim en al paradeisiam - conj. + prep.phr. + art. + obl.s.: as within the paradise
- cvercare tim - imper. + 2s nom.pers.pron.emphat.: give thou
- adis nasser - prep. phrase motion towards w/ 1pl.obl.pers.pron.: towards us
- hotim - adverbial oblique: today
- al jenìm pountim - art. + 1pl.poss.pron. + obl.s.: the our bread
- cascoumênem - adverbial oblique: daily
- demetere tim - imper. + 2s.pers.pron.emphat.: erase/forgive thou
- al jenìn nobes - the our sins
- eim - conj.: as
- nas - 1pl.pers.pron.: we
- demetere - pres.indef.: forgive
- al jenìn namaderam - the our debtors
- mire doucere - neg.imper.: do-not lead
- nasser - 1pl.obl.pers.pron.: us
- adis peirasmom - prep.mot.toward + obl.s.: towards temptation
- mire dê côire - neg.imper. w/ infixed conj.: but do-not put
- tim - 2s.nom.pers.pron.emphat: thou
- nasser 1pl.obl.pers.pron: us
- ad injoudissiam - perp.phrase: at legal trial
SUBSTANTIVES
Nouns are of two declensions, a vocalic/nasal declension, -as, -os, -es, -is, -ous, -ion, -um and a liquid declension., -(e)l, -(e)r. Only the nasal subdeclension lacks distinct case terminations. Case distinctions other than pure agency and objectivity are shown by the use of adpositions.
The variety of forms of the vocalic declension is a relic of the Italo-Helladic ancestor of Loucarian. Those languages had several nominal declensions that differed based upon the stem vowel: -a, -o, -e, -i, and -u, etc. In Loucarian, not only have all the distinct vocalic declensions been compressed into a single declension, but in many cases, the original stem vowel has been changed: follas from Latin follis, a coin; jestes from Latin gesta, a deed.
It will become immediately obvious that the vocalic declension has two distinct forms: the pure vowel stems and the nasal stems. The nasal subdeclension is the direct descendant of the old Latin neuters in -um and Greek neuters in -on. It should be noted that while the nominative and oblique are identical (like the old nominative and accusative were in the parent languages), there is no assignment of “neuter gender” to these words.
Vocalic Liquid s. pl. s. pl. nom. narsas iconion narse iconia efanjil efanjilar obl. narsam iconion narses iconia efanglem efangles
The -m of the oblique singular is not always pronounced in spoken Loucarian. In most texts, it is also rarely written out; in stead, a long bar is placed over the preceding vowel or syllable: an narsā rather than an narsam. This practice is descended from ancient scribal practice, where the accusative singular of nouns would be so written. The M is more often heard as a kind of elision sound: an narsam ican, this here man, and will often be written out if the next word starts with a vowel; as opposed to an narsā demetet, the forgiven man.
Feminine declension. A feminine declension exists whereby certain substantives of a natural feminine gender are especially marked to denote the gender. That is, only words that exhibit a sensible natural gender can be affected, e.g.: al sounous versus al sounet; al paidos versus al paidet. Actually, the distinction is one of epicene vs. feminine genders, since paidos refers to a child of either gender, not a boy child specifically. The use of the feminine declension is optional. That is, if the writer or speaker wishes to note the feminine gender of a word, the notation would be a marked departure from the usual epicene / gender neutral declension. Feminine nouns are marked by an extended stem in -et-, to which are added peculiar feminine case endings that differ quite markedly from their epicene counterparts.
s. pl. s. pl. child girl child nom paidos paide paidet paidetu obl paidom paides paidetam paidetim physician female physician nom sounous soune sounet sounetu obl sounoum sounes souneti sounetim
Regulated, Construct and Absolute States. Nominal states refer to the forms of inflection used in certain circumstances. Nouns are generally found in the “regulated state”, the state in which they are declined to show the usual facts of gender, number and case, as above described. The “absolute state” is a root form of the noun bereft of its usual endings, which marks the predicative of a nominal phrase or sentence: sarcq al ica narsas means a thief this man in the inverted order that is typical of the construction; but can also be expressed in the usual sentence order: al narsas ica sarcq, meaning the man he (is a) thief. While this effectively makes the noun look like an adjective, since adjectives are also endingless, it isn’t functioning as an adjective. The reason being that such a predicate phrase shows the equivalence of the two words, not the description of a main word by another, auxilary word. The “state” of the man is “(being) a thief”; while a tall man doesn’t describe his state. Adjectives may also be used as predicatives, but since they have no endings to begin with, there is no difference between normal and predicative adjectival use. Nouns in the construct state are used to modify other nouns, making them into compounds. The definite compound is formed by using first the possessive in the construct state, followed by the possessed. The indefinite compound is formed by using first the possessed noun, followed by the main noun in the construct state:
indefinite definite bele al fattorea al fattorea al bele (a) boss of the factoy = a factory boss of the factoy the boss = the factory boss
Archaic & residual case forms. Curie and Qriste are two old vocatives, of curios and Qristos respectively. Custantiye, Alescandariye and Ierosolume are old locatives. A select class of nouns of location can be used adverbially simply by removing the nominal termination, leaving the bare stem. These are remnants of an ancient zero ending locative and mean roughly “at the” or “in the”. Dem, home (from demis); for, at the threshold (from foris); qithôn, on the ground (from qithônis); neb, in the sky (from nebes); mor, in the water (from mores); qeir, in hand (from qeiros).
Descriptives, or adjectives, are undeclined and therefore have no case endings like nouns. When derived from Latin or some other inflecting language, they are typically used in their bare root form: fort, strong, demetet, forgiven. If the adjective was borrowed from a quite foreign source, its ending may be borrowed intact, but is of course not recignised as an ending and would thus be nonfunctional. Nouns can be used as attributives, in which they are in the absolute state. Otherwise, a noun used as a proper adjective is often given the prefix (i)sta-, thus istapapir, papery; istanars, manly, like a man.
Adjective comparison is never shown with morphology, but always with auxilaries: gran, big; lus gran, bigger; gran amplus, biggest. The verbal particle wad can serve to show intensification or emphasis: hoi! tim’ fort wad!, wow, you áre (really) strong!
The equative is quen...quen; thus, ‘l ica quen gran quen al assa, this one is as big as that one. More and less are similarly constructed: ‘l ica lus gran quen al assa, this one is bigger than that one; ‘l ica min gran quen al assa, this one is smaller than that one; ‘l ica naquen gran naquen al assa, this one is not as big as that one.
Old irregulars are often levelled by use of regular comparison: Latin bonus, melior, optumus becomes bon, lus bon, bon amplus. But there are also lus optim, “more better” and meyor amplus, “morest”. For all intents and purposes, the old irregular forms melior and optumus have simply been levelled to mean “good”.
Participles are verbal adjectives. The present and past participles can be used nominally or adjectivally. When used adjectivally, the usual rule of truncating the final vowel is in play: nouêment, saving; nouêmit, saved. If the adjective is used as a noun, the usual nominal terminations apply: al nouêmites, the saved. See under Verbs for greater detail.
Reduplication of a noun (quite rare), adjective or adverb generally signifies intensification of quality: cicivas, big city; ematematemantam, exceedingly; pocpocq, quite small; grangran, very big; fortfort, very strong. The intensified adjective may be compared in the usual fashion: grangran, lus grangran, grangran amplus. When a noun undergoes reduplication, only the first consonant is taken, to which is added a reduplicative E, forming the reduplicative syllable. When an adjective or deadjectival adverb is reduplicated, often the whole word is doubled.
Pronouns are those substantives that indicate a thing without naming it or ascribing any quality to it. A pronoun is almost always linked to an antecedent noun that has already specified the nature of the object and clearly the pronoun refers back to this as its antecedent. This is not always the case, however. The antecedent may be left undefined or unspecified, for example. A sentence begining with qouisverver, whoever, almost always links to an unspecified antecedent.
There are several types of pronouns, each with their particular function. The personal pronouns refer to persons, “I”, “you” and “we” for example.
Emphatic forms. Pronouns, and the personal pronouns especially, often have -m or -met appended, which serve to emphasise the pronoun.
I II III he, she they nom mi nas ti vas ica ne obl mina nasser tina vasser ican nesser
Reflexive pronouns refer the object of a verb back to the subject. Usually, such pronouns are associated with verbs that naturally reflect back towards the subject, the ancient middle voice verbs: washing, dressing, obtaining, doing something for oneself, etc. The reflexive pronoun has no distinction of case, it being sensibly an oblique.
I II III s. pl. s. pl. s. pl. full mam nam tam vam sam sam abbreviated m’ n’ t’ v’ s’ s’
The full forms are found before words begining with consonants, the abbreviated forms are found before words begining with vowels.
Reciprocal pronouns. Answering to “among ourselves” or “between themselves” or “one another”, combining meita with the plural reflexives yields these reciprocals. Thus: nas maccareire meitanam, we pray among ourselves or nas maccareire pros meitanam, we pray for one another.
Possessive pronouns are formed by combining the demonstrative pronominal roots ic- and is- with peculiar possessive endings that denote the person of the possessor. The accent falls quite strongly on the ultima, or else on the penult in trisyllabic forms.
primary secondary s. pl. s. pl. I icì jenì(N.1) issì isnì(N.2) icìn jenìn issìn isnìn II iccà iccòn iscà isqînna iccàm iccônum iscàm isqînnum III iscò(N.3) iscòn issò issîna iscòm iscônum issùm issînam
NOTE: an old attested form of jenì was egeni, pointing back to an earlier vowel insertion of the protoform *icnì. A common sound change in Old Loucarian is the voicing of a mute stop before a nasal: icnì becomes ignì which is then separated by an epenthetic schwa, igenì; the first I thereafter becomes unstable, weakening into a schwa before disappearing. The spelling of G before E or I is regularly J. NOTE: as with stops, the voicing of mute sibilants is common before a nasal. This, however, is still a relatively recent progression in the language, and it is still common to find the spelling SN rather than ZN. As late as the last quarter of the 20th century of the present age, a few aged Loucarian speakers have only the voiceless S in this position. Modern texts often show considerable hesitation between isnì and iznì, even in the same line of text. In contrast, the voicing of mute stops before a nasal was accomplished by perhaps the sixth or seventh century of the present age. NOTE: while unattested, iscò must represent an ancient metathesis of CS for SC; the ancient form must have been *icsò.
Demostrative pronouns are those pronouns that point towards some object in space or time. There is a deictic continuum showing a fourfold division ranging from close by, middle distance, far to very far.
this near this mid. that far that v. far s. pl. s. pl. s. pl. s. pl. nom ica icei ina inei ita senei isa isei obl ican iceis inan ineis itan seneis isan iseis
It can be said that the demonstrative ipso, self, is part of the deictic continuum, being the pronoun of identity.
unemphatic emphatic s. pl. s. pl. nom ipso ipse ipsime ipsimei obl ipsan ipser ipsiman ipsimos
With the exception of ipso, which has some ancient and ideosyncratic emphatic forms, the demonstrative pronouns are emphasised most usually by reduplication, rather than by appending -met to the stem: icaica rather than *icamet. Whenever icamet is encountered, chances are good that it is the emphatic of the third person personal pronoun rather than the demonstrative pronoun.
Interrogative pronouns
Although qouis on its own can be used interrogatively, it is quite common to show the interrogative form by using the particle ahero. Ahero can be prepended to nouns or pronouns, and has even been found with the occasional verb: aheroquis, whó? aherobiccas, whàt reward?
Qouis is an unusual Loucarian pronoun in that it retains a number of archaic case forms, though these are used as specialised correlatives. Qouis may take -met as an emphatic form, although ahero- is also found.
s pl s pl nom qouis qoues qouismet qouesmet obl qouem qoues qouemmet qouesmet acc qouen qouos (acc. of exclamation: qouen theatrum! = what a play!) instr qouei qoueiso (answers to “by what means”, “how”) pos qoueias (whose?)
Several variants include the indefinites: qouisqouis, whoever and qouives, whoever you like. In the case of qouisqouis, both elements are declined.
Another interrogative pronoun occasionally met with is ipa, which answers mostly to “what” or “which”, pointing towards things rather than persons:
s. pl. nom ipa ipe obl ipan ipser
Ipa takes neither -met or ahero-, and thus has no emphatic forms.
The locative interrogative pronouns are pir, where and enam, when; along with their reduplicative inspecifics pirpir, wherever and enamenam, whenever: Neither has a plural form; and neither take -met, though both rarely take ahero-, since each already has an emphatic form.
where when s. s. s. s. nom pir pirpir enàm enamenàm obl piran pirpiran náman namnáman
The curious stress pattern of enam causes its ititial vowel to drop off in the oblique case.
Qoualis answers to “what kind”.
s. pl. nom qoual qouale obl qoual qouale
Intensive Pronouns This pronoun answers to “the same”. Being weakly emphatic, oud rarely takes -m or -met, and never ahero-.
s. pl. nom oud oude obl oud oude
Another intensive pronoun is indeclinable: esmod, of that sort.
Indefinite Pronouns Reduplication in pronouns indicates inspecificity: qouis, who; qouisqouis, whoever. Another indefinite pronoun is qouisqouem, everyone.
Numerals Cardinals: 0, sifra; 1, êwas; 2, douo; 3, trais; 4, tethris; 5, pumpe; 6, hescis; 7, heptis; 8, octo; 9, nawis; 10, dessas; 100, heccaton; 1000, milia; 10000, muriadis.
Ordinals: sifrim, preim, douim, traim, tethrim, pumpim, hescim, heptim, octim, nawim, dessim, heccatim, milim, muriadim.
-im is the usual ordinal termination; it replaces the noun-like endings of the cardinals.
Reduplication of cardinal numbers yields a distributive: êwasêwas, one by one, etc.
Numeral adverbs (once, twice, thrice): touier, salier, siuier, houtier, maccier, sayier, semfuier, sesuier, nourfier, sarier
Multiplicatives (onefold, twofold, threefold):
VERBS
Voice, Mood, Tense, Aspect, Person & Number. Loucarian verbs conjugate to show voice, mood, tense and aspect. The voices are active & passive. Modal auxilaries are used to indicate the moods which are: progression, volition, preference, ability and existence. The verbal tenses are three: past, present, and future. The aspects shown by verbal inflection are the stative / momentary, the continual (or progressive) and the inchoative (or inceptive). Loucarian verbs do not inflect to show person and number, therefore personal pronouns are required to show who is acting and how many verbal agents there are.
Three stems, one conjugation. The four conjugations of Latin, in -āre, -ēre, -ere and -īre are continued in the Loucarian conjugation as the infinitive/present/imperative forms in -are, -ere and -ire. Thus, Latin amāre becomes Loucarian amare. Since Loucarian has no inflection for person or number and has done away with the vagaries of the Latin tense system, the old infinitives don’t imply differences of conjugation in the modern language. Amare, clevere and ajire are “conjugated alike”.
There is a “mixed conjugation” in -eire who takes some parts of its conjugation from the verbs in -ere and others from -ire.
Modal auxiliaries: iere, wadere, velere, nelere, melere, potere, avire, fiere
Impersonal / emotional verbs with dative: miserere mi = it grieves me as opposed to mim miserere = I grieve; pingere, disgust; repentitare, repent; poundere, shame.
Impersonal verbs. Impersonal and null subject verbs have no logical subject, and in general there is not even an empty subject pronoun associated with them. The impersonal verbs form a small group that include: pelasere, please; licinere, allow; vidure, it seems; necessere, needs or necessitate; interesere, interest or concern. Of the null subject verbs, these are primarily weather or natural event verbs such as: pelivere, rain; fortunare, storm; zifrare, blow (of the wind); tunare, thunder; and fougere, lightning.
infinitive forare mosere arcire past forato moseto arcito contin forforando mosmosiendo ararciendo present forare mosere arcire contin forando mosiendo arciendo future eioforare eiomosere eioarcire contin eioforando eiomosiendo eioarciendo command forare mosere arcire
The so-called “mixed” conjugation comprises verbs in -eire. For the most part, all forms show the -ei-; but often the past form follows the -ire conjugation: ispêreire, ispêrito.
Reduplicated verb stems indicate the continual aspect of the past tense. Anciently, it was not uncommon to find simple past tense forms reduplicated in like manner: amamato, cecleveto, etc. Some philologists have suggested that the reduplication served to differentiate the verbal from the participial forms which would not be reduplicated. The rule for reduplication is simply to take the first syllable of verb stem, or the “simple” form if there is a consonant cluster, and readd it before the stem. Thus: amare gives a first syllable of am-, which is doubled to amam- and yields amamato when given the past tense termination. The “simple form” of consonant clusters, like cl-, pl-, st- and the like are simply the first consonant and the letter E: cecl-, pepl-, sest-, etc. Verbs whose stems begin with a prosthetic i- before sigmatic consonant clusters, sp-, st-, etc. do not reduplicate the prosthetic I. Thus, sespereito .
Passive Verbs are formed quite differently from the active verbs. While the active verbs have a nominative subject, an oblique object and the verb itself, the passives have an oblique subject, the passive verb and then the logical agent of the verb in the oblique with the preposition accas.
infinitive ieranawuro + accas al anoursas past mina + ieretanawuro + accas al anoursas present mina + ieranawuro + accas al anoursas future mina + eioieranawuro + accas al anoursas command ieranawuro + tina + accas al anoursas
(To be seen by the guard; I was seen by the guard; I am seen by the guard; etc.)
The passive verb itself is composed of iere, to go, plus a contraction of the old passive participle. The passive participle’s basic form is the verbal root + -turo. If a consonant precedes the participial ending, the T of the ending is assimilated into the consonant of the verbal root: agapere yields agap- + -turo > *agapturo > agappuro > agapuro. However, if the verbal root ends with a vowel, the original T of the ending remains: amare yields ama- + -turo > amaturo.
If the verbal root begins with a consonant, the -e of iere is evident: iere + mosere > ieremosuro. However, if the verbal root begins with a vowel, the -e of iere is assimilated into the vowel: iere + amare > ieramaturo.
The final -o of iereto simply disappears in the past passive form: ieretanawuro; ieretmosuro.
What kind of passive construction is this?? Maybe a dialect form? Al aquia wadere pipato, the water is all drunk.
Inchoative verbs are formed with the auxiliary fier(e), to become, with the passive participles.
past al piscatina fieretaqouaturo means the basin was becoming full present al piscatina fieraqouaturo means the basin is filling / becoming full future al piscatina eiofieraqouaturo means the basin will become full
The copula. Loucarian is a zero copulative language, in that for the most part, there is no linking verb “be” to connect a substantive with its description. Thus, pethooues an narsas means the man (is) evil. In order to emphasise the situation, the particle wad, from wadere, to go, can be used as a copula: pethooues wad an narsas, the man ìs evil. An adverb can also be used in place of a formal copula: an narsas sart pethooues, the man is certainly evil. Notice the inversion; an narsas pethooues means the evil man.
There is / there are can be expressed in a number of ways depending on intent and context. The verbal avir (from avire, to have) covers most uses.
- avir al diner accas mi, I have money (lit., there is money at house (of) me); this yields a generic, non-specific form
- eh!, acco al diner di tina!, ah! there is your money right here! (i.e., it’s right in front of you); this is used when a more specific form is required
- uh, assa al diner di tina..., er, there ìs money for you...but it’s not exactly “here” at the present momet; this is used when the object in question is more of a hypothetical nature
Avire expresses a dual function depending on whether its order is normal or inverted with respect to the subject. SV = someone has / owns / holds; while VS = there is no one, etc.
- aheroquis avire al paidon?, who has the child?
- avire aheroquis pod al paidon?, is there no one with the child?
Subordinate clauses. Loucarian lacks relative pronouns and relative clauses. In order to express a relative, the main clause is closed with an interrogative pronoun, such as qouem, and a new independent clause is introduced that answers the question: mi velere sabire qouem, avir ica narsas etti ica iere ekis agoram; I want to know who? There is this man and he is leaving the square. An alternative is to use the oblique + participle subordinate construction: mi velere sabire al narsam ientem ekis agoram; I want to know the man leaving out of the square. When using pronouns in this construction, either the personal or possessive forms may be used, with slight change in meaning: ne velere nasem sistentem aninere al aqouiam; they want our stopping to fetch water and ne velere nasser sistentem aninere al aqouiam; they want us to stop fetching water. There is no distinction of tense in the second clause, instead there is a timeless “narrative tense”; the actual time of the secondary clause depends on the time of the primary clause. So, ne veleto nasser sistentem aninere al aqouiam; they wanted us to stop fetching water and ne eiovelere nasser sistentem aninere al aqouiam; they will want us to stop fetching water. If a distinction is required, a temporal adverb would have to be added to the secondary clause: ne velere nasser sistentem aninere mitin al aqouiam; they want us to stop tomorrow fetching water.
Nominal, verbal and adjectival forms. Strictly speaking, the infinitive is an abstract noun describing or naming the action itself without regard to the other attributes of the verb such as mood, voice, person, number and tense. Thus, amare mean to love. An old nominal form is the gerund, amandam, and is rarely met in the modern language. Its use was largely restricted to constructions of necessity, obligation, duty and worthiness. Thus, addendam al itan cosam means that thing should be added (to a list, e.g.), literally, “a to-be-added (thing is) that thing”. The verbal forms of the participles act as true verbs. The gerund only survives in its counterpart adjectival form: amand which means lovable or worthy of being loved. The adjectival forms of the participles behave like any other adjective and thus lack a vowel ending. Thus, amante is the verbal present participle while amant is the adjectival form; amato is the verbal past participle while amat is the adjectival form; amaturo is the passive participle while amatur is the adjectival form.
A distinction of meaning is made when the present participle is used verbally versus adjectivally: mourant al Iesous; Jesus is living, is alive and al Iesous al mourante; the living Jesus, the Jesus who is alive. The present participle is found in its accusative form in the oblique + accusative subordinate clause construction.
PARTICLES
Articles. The article has two basic forms. One is the full form, either al or ‘l; the other is the assimilated, where the L is assimilated or mutated to correspond to the initial consonant of its associated noun. Generally speaking, texts are found with either unassimilated articles with assimilated articles. Rarely are the two styles mingled in a single text. Examples of assimilation: al nasas versus an nasas; al fleresar versus af fleresar.
Peripositions. Case relationships are demonstrated by adpositions which may precede, follow or surround the oblique form of the noun. A system of deictic reference evolved to make good use of the preposed and postposed adpositions. In this way, information about motion and location are encoded.
en civam na in the city location within en civam (with)in the city motion within enis civam to(wards) the city motion toward ek civam ca outside the city location outside ek civam outside the city motion outside ekis civam out of the city motion away from or out of
Apart from the obvious distinction of location and motion, certain semantic distinctions can also be made. Derived from the idea of location versus motion, avors, against, can make the distinction between a static element versus an adversarial force: ne sathando 'l ipendimentum avors nasser ver, they are setting up a means of blocking us; ne sathando 'l ipendimentum avors nasser, they are continuing to actively block us.
Not all adpositions may sensibly express the full paradigm of deixis:
accas civam owned by the city motion, descent or procession from
Adverbs. Prepositional phrases often are the equivalent of an adverb: podec carem, gracefully. A relic “ablative absolute” can serve as an adverb: fortimantam, strongly or boldly. Most simple adjectives can also serve as adverbs without any further modification: narsas al bon, the good man; bon sabit, well known. Notice that the adjective follows the noun while the adverb precedes the adjective.
The demonstrative adverb shows deixis: (ve)cco, look here; (ve)ssa, look there. Acco & assa, there is / are.
Nan, the negative particle, can appear as a separate word or as a verbal prefix: nan arcito ica versus nanarcito ica, he did not begin. Nan tends to assimilate towards m- of the following word: namoseto ica, he did not walk.
Adverbs in -tous. Many common adpositions can be combined with -tous to form locational adverbs. en + tous = entous, within; ek + tous = ektous, outside.
What about enis + tous = ensous?
Conjunctions are small, uninflected words that connect groups of words, phrases or sentences together in sensible units. Literally, they “conjoin” words into groups. They may be categorised into any of several subtypes and any given conjunction may fall into several of them. There are two great kindreds of conjunctions: the coordinative, those that connect similar constructions; and subordinative, those that connect subordinate clauses to the independent clause upon which they are dependent.
Exclamations are small, uninflected words that, as a group, form utterances of emotion, such as surprise, joy, sorrow, etc. Various curses and invectives would fall under this category. Some exclamations are in fact the remnants of anciently inflected words, but any meaning once ascribed to their inflection has long since been forgotten, and they would thus be “frozen forms”.
SELECTED TEXTS
Kristian source:
Qouen loucariam! ica vindere al suam pneumam niscam enccanemôn en al icaica anouram an; orimdê eiodipositare al enccanemôn qouem, ica forato itan, meita qouemver etra; etti ica sa laptato al suam pneumam. Men dê semoudat al narsas qouis, ica accoreire al suam pneumam; etti ica perfere pro al ican per empodoc pro al icaica anouram per.
What a businessman! he sells his soul in exchange for everything in this world; then he will leave everything which, he bought it, with somewhom else; and he himself-ruined his soul. But truly blessed the man who, he saved his soul; and he prefers it in place of this world.
POIC Avir trais dieyes en al icaica anouram an: acco: histenumver etti vas nan poudire moutasiare ican; eiomver etti vas nan sabire ai vas eiothayare enis ican swe nan eiothayare enis ican; mendê hotimver etti vas melere moulvaniccere al agathom en ica na.
There are three days in this world: look, a yesterday and you can not alter it; a tomorrow and you don’t know if you will enter into it or if you will not enter into it; but indeed a today and you should do good within it.
En matinamver na, IC pirperato sarccim pros iscòm mathêtes; ett’ ica pejeito adis nesser: acco, qouem mi moulvaniccere pros vassermet, qouem, moulvaniccere vas itan pros al pouvres.
One morning, Jesus prepared food for his disciples; and he said to them: look, what I do for you, that, you do it for the poor.
Therapeutic source:
ai vas nan va courare, qoues eiocourare pros vassermet? ai vas velere courare pros mina, preim men courare vas pros nesser eigrout.
If you do not care for each other, who will care for you yourselves? If you would care for me, first care for them who are sick.
ai avir meita vasser qouisverver pouver al narsas; laslasicmantam awonere vas al vasem qeirom pros ican.
If there is among you some poor man; very widely open your hands to him.
qouis lus bon qouen al hecaton accas proll al annossion? nouôt al prollos accas al agapam.
What is better than a hundred of senseless words? One word of love.
qouisqouis pethou al jestes dorire esqis al intum; ai de al intum ieretraspornaturo, orim poudire pethoou al jestes ammanire?
Each wrong doing arises up from within; but if the within is transformed, then can wrong doing remain?
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