LIMBAWA ... Chapter 2

R-form of the verb

Above we have discussed the R-form of the verb.

However there are other verb forms.

S-form of the verb

This is the subjunctive form. You change the "r" to an "s" basically. Nothing comes after the "s". So there is no tense/aspect or evidentiality expressed on this verb form.

doikais = Let's walk

ME-form of the verb

This form is used when one action is dependant on another action having taken place.

As with the s-form, there is no gwomai or evidentiality expressed on the verb.

MI-form of the verb

The same as the me-form but irrealis. With the me-form there is doubt as to when (and indeed if) the thunder/lightning will happen.

With the mi-form it is accepted that there is no chance of thunder/lightning ... the storm has passed.

YA-form of the verb

This form is used for giving orders. When the s-form is used in a main clause, it is gently urging some action. With the ya-form you definitely want some action to happen (and you don't expect a discussion about it).

Up until now, 7 protagonists have been expressed in every verb. With the ya-form however only two protagonists can be expressed.

doikiya = walk (when talking to one person)

doikeya = walk (when talking to more than one person)

An alternative way to analyse this is to say that there is an iya-form and an eya-form. How you choose to analyse it doesn't make any difference to the reality of the situation.

AI-form of the verb

This is used for when two or more verbs are happening simultaneously. He second verb is the gamba shorn of its last vowel (or diphthong) and with ai stuck on.

passorli singai = He is passing by singing

You can add as many verbs as you want. The added verbs are understood to have the same protagonists, gwomai and evidentiality as the r-form verb (or the s-form verb) (or the ??? )

passorla singai kite flyai = He is passing by singing and flying a kite

It is very common to have the following verbs in their ai-form.

= to be at (bia) ... this can be interpreted in English as "still" ... or as "not yet" in negative sentences. For example ;- passorla bai = "he is still passing by"

= to come

= to go

= to rise

= to descend

= to enter

= to go out

= to return

= to do something in a haphazard manner, to do something in an unsatisfactory manner

= to scatter about

= to hurry

The above are often stuck on the end of an utterance ... like a sort of afterthought. They give the utterance a bit more clarity ... a bit more resolution.

BIA ......... a copula of location

bia means "to be at"

For example polo bori london = Paul was in London

polo barta london = Paul has been to London

auto bor. lelce = The car is in the street.

pele boru genhu = Paula will be at home

bia. is the rarest of the copulas and has no irregular forms.

It is often supplanted by sau ... but if this happens a locative particle must be suffixed to the noun (the noun after the copula). For example ;-

polo ri london.pi = Paul was in London

auto (ro) lelce.la = The car was in the street (literally "on the street")

pele ru genhu.zo = Paula will be at home

The three verbs sau, gaza and bia. are special verbs. (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... They are called copulas... in Latin "copulare" meant "to tie", so a copula is a verb that ties. The appropriateness of this is obvious for sau and bia) In Limbawa they differ from normal verbs, in that they require a specific word order. Also s is never suffixed to a noun, as normally happens when a verb is associated with two nouns.

GAZA .... a copula of existence

gaza takes only one noun. It is how you say "there is ... "

gaza is similar to sau in that it takes the 12 verb modifiers but 3 of them are wildly irregular. It is the same 3 tense/aspect forms that are irregular. Namely ;-

*gazor => @a. meaning "there is"

*gazori => @ai. meaning "there was"

*gazoru => @au. meaning "there will be"

Actually while theoretically gaza can have the full range of modifiers enjoyed by a normal verb, in reality all forms other than @a., @ai. and @au. are extremely rare. Occasionally you come across the "infinitive" gaza (which is actually as a noun).

There is no word that corresponds to "have". The usual way to say "I have a coat" is "there exists a coat mine" = @a. kaunu pan

For some reason the internal possessives are not allowed with gaza. That is you can not say @aᴴ kaunapu, but must say @aᴴ kaunu pan

As I said above, gaza always comes with one noun. If it comes with an adjective, then that adjective can be considered a noun (well this is one way to look at it)

pona = cold (an adjective), ponahe = coldness (a noun)

@a. pona = "it is cold" ... not *@a. ponahe

@a. pona pan meaning "I feel cold" (word for word ... "there is coldness mine")

There is fixed word order : it is always gaza followed by the noun.

A little quirk of this verb, is that the negation particle mo comes immediately after instead of immediately before.

@a. mo pona = "it is not cold"

The particles loi. (probably) and mas (maybe) come as normal, before the verb.

loi. @au. pona = It will probably be cold

Also the evidentials are affixed to the wild forms. Just as with sau.

loi. @aun. mo pona = They say it will probably not be cold

loi.foi @aun. mo pona = Do they say it will probably not be cold ?

SAU ....... the main copula

sau is the LIMBAWA copula. That is it is the equivalent of "to be" in English, whish has such forms as "be", "is", "was", "were" and "are".

a special verb. When it comes to tense/aspect markers ( 'modifiers'), sau keeps the 12 (( .... part (way ??) ... division of an angle ... nuance .... )), the same as a regular verb, however the meaning is skewed somewhat in 9 cases(instances) and the form is wildly irregular in the other three cases.

This verb is slightly irregular in LIMBAWA as well. The three forms *sari, *saru and *sara which you would expect to see, are replaced with ri, ru and ra Instead they are realised as ri, ru and ro

Notice that the cenʔo is not included in these forms. Hence it is sometimes necessary to have a pronoun or noun explicitly mentioned when using these forms.

ra is usually missed out completely.

It is mostly used for emphasis; like when you are refuting a claim

Person A) ... gi mo ra moltai = You aren't a doctor

Person b) ... pa ra moltai = I am a doctor

Notice that ra is always used when you have mo the negative particle. This particle must always be directly in front of a verb, so ra must be expressed. (OR MAYBE WE CAN HAVE A DIFFERENT NEGATATOR ??)

Another situation where ra tends to be used is when the subject or the copula complement are long trains of words. For example ????????

The evidentials are appended to the wild forms as normal. So we have ran, ras, rin, ria, ris, run, rus,

..... Three infixes for Verb => Verb

Limbawa has a three process for generating new verbs from existing verbs. These three processes can be done to any verb.

.... -el-

If you split a verb and insert el between the final vowel (of the gamba) and the rest of the word, you give the added meaning of "to begin", "inception" or "to start off". For example ;-

sàu = to be

selau = to become

bía = to be at

belia = to arrive at

doika = to walk

doikela = to start to walk

logo doikorwi = Roger used to walk ...

logo doikelorwi = Roger used to start walking ...

gazelari = I was born

à ri kiʔo = it was yellow ... remember that ri is an irregular form. The regular form would be *sori.

à lori kiʔo = it became yellow ... selau is irregular. If it were regular we would have the form *a selori ki@o

So there are thee irregular verbs in Limbawa (well if you count selau as a different word from sau) ... sàu, bía and selau.

.... -ow-

If you split a verb and insert ow between the final vowel of and the rest of the word, you get the meaning that you are making somebody else do the verb. For example ;-

ò timpiri = you hit him

(pás) gís ò timpowari = I made you hit him

A gamba form exists for this construction also. For example;-

doikowo = to make (somebody) walk

gasowa has the special meaning "to give birth" and doesn't mean "to create".

.... -ay-

If you split a verb and insert ay between the final vowel of and the rest of the word, you get the meaning that the verb is being attempted. For example ;-

selbaru à = I will drink it

selbayaru à = I will try and drink it

..... Two affixes for Verb => Adjective

LINGUISTIC JARGON ... these two transformations are called "participles". Limbawa has two participles (as has English). The Limbawa and the English participles share the exact same function. In English these 2 participles are usually called "the present participle" and "the past participle" although "active participle" and "passive participle" would be far more appropriate. In Limbawa there is no special name for these 2 transformations.

solbe = to drink

heŋgo = to live (or it could mean "a life")

soŋkau = to die (or it could mean "death")

glabu = person

moʃi = water

moʃi solbi = the drunk water, the water that has been drunk ... an example of the so-called "past participle".

glabu solbana = the drinking person, the person that is drinking, the person that drinks ... an example of the so-called "present participle".

heŋgana = alive, living

soŋki = dead

..... Eight infixes for Noun => Noun

In the above section we learnt how to say "mine", "yours", etc. etc.. But how do we say "my", "your", etc. etc.

Well these words (which would be considered adjectives in the Limbawa linguistic tradition) are represented by infixes. The table below shows how it works.

my coat	kaunapu
our coat ("our" includes "you")	kaunayu
our coat ("our excludes "you")	kaunawu
your coat	kaunigu
your coat (with "you" being plural)	kauneju
his/her coat	kaunonu
their coat	kaununu

It can be seen that the infixes are the same as the plain pronouns, but the order of the consonant and vowel are swapped over.

There could also be another entry in the table above. That is the infix -it- (this is the possessive equivalent of the reflexive pronoun ti. (see above). It is probably easiest to explain -it- by way of example;-

polo ?osoru @autito = Paul will drive his car (In English we would normally interpret this to mean "Paul will drive his own car". In Limbawa polo ?osoru @autito must ALWAYS be interpreted as such.

polo ?osoru @autono = Paul will drive his car (In English, this COULD be interpreted as "Paul will drive someone else's car". In Limbawa polo ?osoru @autono would always be interpreted as such.

.....Two prefixes for Noun => Noun

genhu = house

ju.genhu = a mansion

ti.genhu = a cottage

Please note that I am just inserting the period, to make it easy to see the two components of the word. It is a single multi-syllable word, so of course is in the neutral tone.

..... Getting the opposite by adding "u"

.... A prefix for adjectives

taitau = many

utaitau = few

mutu = important

umutu = unimportant

.... and a prefix for adverb

toke = exactly

utoke = approximately

nan = for a long time

unan = not for a long time

unanu => momentarily ... (maybe derived from unan unan originally)

.... and a prefix for nouns

mezna = to fight

meznana = combatant

umeznana = non-combatant

As in English, not found that often. Sometimes found in rule books.

.... but an infix for verbs

There is a reason why we do not simply prefix u to the verbs also.

kanja = to fold

kunjana = "folding" (an adjective) or "one that folds" (a noun)

ukunjana = "one that doesn't fold"

Suppose we did simply prefix u to the verb. Then "to unfold" would be ukanja, and hence ukanjana would be a noun meaning "one that unfolds". But if you look up a bit, you can see that this form (ukanjana) already has the meaning "one that doesn't fold". This would cause confusion.

kunja	to fold	kunjua	to unfold
laiba	to cover	laibua	to uncover
fuŋga	to fasten, to lock	fuŋgua	to unfasten, to unlock
benda	to assemble, to put together	bendua	to take apart, to disassemble
pauca	to stop up, to block	paucua	to unstop
sensa	to weave	sensua	to unravel
fiŋka	to put on clothes, to dress	fiŋkua	to undress
tasta	to tangle	tastua	to untangle

Note that in any other form but the gamba, the u changes to a w. For example ;-

fiŋkwori = he undressed