LIMBAWA ... Chapter 2

Three Untypical Verbs - "sau", "gaza" and "bia"

"sau"

sau is 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.

The w-modifiers (habitual aspect) can interpreted as "to be usually/generally". The l-modifiers (progressive aspect) can interpreted as "is in this state but must continually strive to keep in this state" or even "to try and be". The t-modifiers (perfect aspect) ... well for a normal verb this form emphasises "state". When used with sau the emphasis is skewed towards "reason".

The meaning of 9 of these 'angle intervals' is skewed. For 3 ((angles)) the meanings are spot-on, however the forms are wildly irregular.

Let's go over all the forms(( .... part (way ??) ... division of an angle ... nuance .... ))

Past time

sari boi. = I usually was good

sari boi. = I was being good (but it took effort on my part)

*sari boi. = I was good

sari boi. = I had been good (so the teacher gave me a gold star)

Future time

sarwu boi. = I will be good (mostly)

*saru boi. = I will be good

sarlu boi. = I will be good (hopefully)

sartu boi. = I will have been good

Present time

sarla boi. = "I am good but it is difficult" or "I try and be good"

sarwa boi. = I am generally good

sara boi. = I have been good

Their house sarwa dirty but today clean.

Timeless

*sar boi. = I am good

The wild forms

In the above, you will see 3 forms that are marked by an asterix. The asterix means that these forms don't exist.

These 3 forms that don't exist are *sari, *saru and *sar

Instead they are realised as ri, ru and ro

Notice that the protagonist part ??? is not included in these forms. Hence it is necessary to have a pronoun when using these forms.

For example ;-

sorlu boi. = He will try and be good ... The subject is indicated by the o in the verb.

no ru boi. = He will be good ... The subject is not expressed in the verb, so it must be expressed by a pronoun (no = he or she)

In fact ro is usually dropped completely.

no boi. = He is good

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

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

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

Notice that ro is always used when you have mo the negative particle. This particle must always be directly in front of a verb, so ro must be expressed.

Another situation where ro 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 ron, ros, rin, ria, ris, run, rus,

"gaza"

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 ?

"bia"

bia means "to be at"

For example polo bori london = Paul was in London

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

pele boru briga = 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) greta.la = The car was in the street (literally "on the street")

pele ru briga.do = Paula will be at home

The three verbs sau, gasa 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.

Other Verb Forms

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

However there are other verb forms.

S-Form

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

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

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

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

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 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.

The 13 pilanagu

These are what in LINGUISTIC JARGON is called "cases".

The word pilanagu is built up from ;-

pila = to place, to position

pilana = positioning (this is an adjective made from pil + ana, in LINGUISTIC JARGON it is called a "present participle")

pilanagu = the positioner (i.e. the thing that is positioning ... by the way pilanabo = the person that is positioning)

Actually only 2 of these forms can be said to live 100 % up to their names. But never the less, the whole set of 13 are called pilanagu

1) pi = in

2) la = on

3) su = to

4) fi = from

5) alzo = onto

6) alfe = off

7) -s ... the "ergative marker

8) -n ... the "genitive marker"

9) do = at

10) ho = with

11) @u = with/by ... the instrumental marker

12) wa = "with respect to"

13) yo ... "the dative marker"

These markers are stuck on the end of the noun phrase if the noun phrase is a single word. If the noun phrase comprises more than one word, then these markers are "stand alone" preposition. When 5) and 6) are affixed, the a is dropped.

Three Infixes

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 ;-

sau = to be

selau = to become

bia. = 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 ...

gaselari = I was born

a ri ki@o = it was yellow ... remember that ri is an irregular form. The regular form would be *sori.

a lori ki@o = 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) ... sau, bia 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 ;-

no timpiri = you hit him

(pas.) gis. no 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 a = I will drink it

selbayaru a = I will try and drink it

Three Prefixes

Two for Noun => Noun

ju.xxxx = a mansion

ti.xxxx = a cottage

One for Adj. => Adj.

ukaya = few

umutu = unimportant

utoke = approximate

Adjectives

big	jutu	small	tiji
beautiful	hau@e	ugly	aiho
wide/broad	juga	narrow	tisa
hot	fema	cold	pona
fast	saco	slow	gade
neat	hili	untidy	@ulu
heavy	hobua	light	@ekia
strong	yubu	weak	wiki
soft	@uje	hard	hito
high, tall	hai	low, short	@au
deep	gubu	shallow	siki
good	boi	bad	keu
empty	fene	full	pomo
long	yau	short	wai
white	@ai	black	hau
open	nafa	close	mapa
parallel	tona	perpendicular	jema
contiguous, touching	yotia	apart, separate	wejua
near	nia	far	mua
rough	ga@u	smooth	sahi
simple, easy	baga	complex, difficult	kaza
tight	taitu	slack, loose	jauji

Pronouns

Limbawa is what is called an ergative language. About a quarter of the world languages are ergative or partly ergative. So let us explain what ergative means. Well in English we have 2 forms of the first person singular pronoun ... namely "I" and "me". Also we have 2 forms of the third person singular male pronoun ... namely "he" and "him". These two forms help determine who does what to whom. For example "I hit him" and "He hit me" have obviously different meanings (in English there is a fixed word order, which also helps. In Limbawa the word order is free).

timpa = to hit ... timpa is a verb that takes two nouns (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... a transitive verb).

pas. no timpari = I hit him pa nos. timpori = He hit me ... OK in this case the protagonist marking in the verb also helps to make things disambiguous. But this will not always help, for example when both protagonists are third person singular.

So far so good. And we see that English and Limbawa behave in the same way so far. But what happens when we take a verb that takes only one noun (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... a transitive verb). For example dono = "to walk". In English we have "he walked". However in Limbawa we don't have *nos. donori but no donori (equivalent to saying "*him walked" in English). So this in a nutshell is what an ergative language is.

If you like you can say ;-

In English "him" is the "done to" : "he" is the "doer" and the "doer to".

In Limbawa no is the "done to" and the "doer" : nos. is the "doer to".

Below are two tables showing the two forms of the Limbawa pronouns.

I	pas.	we (includes "you")	yuas.
		we	wias.
you	gis.	you (plural)	jes.
he, she	nos.	they	nus.
it	as.	they	as.

me	pa	us	yua
		us	wia
you	gi	you (plural)	je
him, her	no	them	nu
it	a	them	a

There could be another member it the above table. When a action is performed by somebody on themselves, a special particle ti. is used.

Just as in English, we do not say "*I hit me", but "I hit myself" ... in Limbawa we do not say *pas. pa timpari, but pas. ti. timpari.

LINGUISTIC JARGON ... "myself" is what is called a "reflexive pronoun". In English there are many reflexive pronouns (i.e. "myself", "yourself", "herself", etc. etc.) : in Limbawa only one.

One other point ... Limbawa has generally a pretty free word order. But in a sentence such as jene ti. laudori (Jane washed herself) it would be pretty unusual to have the ti. before jene

relating one noun to another noun

The particle na before a noun makes a sort of adjective construction (which is used to describe another noun). For example kolo na kaunu di. = "the collar of this coat".

The particle ni before a noun, behaves in a similar way. However with ni the meaning is strictly "possession" and the noun must be human. For example kaunu hia ni jene = Jenny's red coat

When the noun is a single word (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... that is when it is a simple noun instead of what is called "a noun phrase". kaunu di and kaunu hia are two example of what is called a "noun phrase". kaunu hia di "this red coat" is another example) -n can be stuck on to the end of a word (instead of na or ni going before the word) to give an adjective.

So instead of saying kolo na kaunu we would say kolo kaunun

Instead of saying kaunu ni jane we would say kaunu jenen

(LINGUISTIC JARGON ... In the above 2 examples kaunu and jane would be said to be in the genitive case. Many languages have a similar system, particularly in European)

When the noun is a pronoun the same thing happens. As in Limbawa it is extremely rare for a pronoun to appear in a noun phrase ...

*kaunu ni pa => kaunu pan ... *ni pa is not allowed and the form pan must be used. We call pan a possessive pronoun (more LINGUISTIC JARGON)

Below is a table showing the Limbawa possessive pronouns ;-

mine	pan	ours	yuan
		ours	wian
yours	gin	yours (plural)	jen
his, hers	non	theirs	nun

possessive pronouns and "gamba"

This is a special construction that relates pronouns to the infinitive form of the verb (or the gamba form as we say in Limbawa). For example ;-

wi. = to see polo = Paul timpa = to hit jene = Jenny

wori timpa polon = He saw paul hitting

wori timpa na jene = He saw Jenny being hit

wori timpa polon na jene = He saw Paul hitting Jenny ... it is actually pronounced as wori timpa polonna jene with the -nn- pronounced the same way as you would pronounce -nn- in the English word "keanness".

In the above constructions the word order must be as shown above. Also the gamba can never be split and an infix inserted (see next section).

... 7 or 8 noun infixes

In fact instead of saying kaunu pan (if you came across kaunu pan in isolation you would normally take it as meaning kaunu ro pan = "the coat is mine") it is usual to bury the possessor inside the noun as an infix. So kaunu pan is usually expressed as kaunapu.

Below is a table showing the possessor infix paradigm.

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

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

ki- and we-

The we prefix produces adverbs (from both adjectives and nouns).

wesaco = quickly ... actually if saco came immediately after the verb it was qualifying, it would always just be plain saco. However as the form we.saco the adverb can move around the utterance ... wherever it wants to go.

When we is prefixed to a noun, it can not be dropped if the resulting adverb immediately follows the verb.

deuha = soldier

doikor wedeuha = he walk like a soldier

The ki prefix produces adjectives (from both nouns and adjectives).

ki.gla = effeminate

ki.bau = butch ... slightly negative connotations for most of these ones.

hia = red

kihia = reddish