Eroki Gǂama

[Shemtov]

The Gerund is formed by putting the Gender XIII marker <U> before a fully formed verb:
U!ogǂarǎdoñeñe
"His Falling"

This can take case markers, like any noun. It is rare to appear as a nominative, and if it is an agent, the sentence is ussually passive.
Ñugimibag!audowe u!ogǂarǎdoñeñeku
"I saw him falling"

Yegǂarǎdo yek'ouʘareku bǎrokiso uk'odagǃoǂ'uyubǎdoweg!a
"The girl went to the display of the yellow poppy"

The form NounX NounX-GEN.INSTR Gerund-GEN.INTR means "NounX did the action encoded in the gerund for the purpose of the main verb:
Yegǂarǎdo yegǂarǎdosa uyek'ouʘarekuso ñugiyebag!audowe bǎrokiso uk'odagǃoǂ'uyubǎdoweg!a
"The girl went to see the display of the yellow poppy"

[Shemtov]

Negation of Verbs is formed by the preverb (that can stack with other preverbs) <aro>:
Aroñugimibag!audowe u!ogǂarǎdoñeñeku
"I did not see them fall"

Conditinial Sentences require three moods be known: The Subjunctive, the Conditional, and the Alethic. Moods come after the tense marker.
The Subjunctive marker is ǂuma
The conditional- t'enǎ
The Alethic- Hemet'a

The conditional sentance diffrentiates between The Implicative, the Predicative, and the Counterfactual:

The Implicative takes the subjunctive in the Protasis and the alethic in the Apodeisis:
Bǎroki bǎǂ'uǂumat'aserare hat'aǂ'uhemet'afaʘareku fagibu!otaku
"If the Yellow Poppy grows, then [it is a sign that] Mountains [really] fell long ago."

The Predicative is formed with the subjunctive in the Protasis and the conditional in the Apodeisis:
Hat'a!ok'oǂumaʘareku !ogǂarǎdoñeñe, tuyutena!oñesera
"if the boys have fallen, Help them"

The Counterfactual is formed with a negated verb in the protasis and a conditional in the apodeisis:
Aroñugimibag!audowe u!ogǂarǎdoñeñeku, miyutena!oñesera.
"If I had seen them fall, I would have helped them"

[eldin raigmore]

Alethic isn’t one mood; it’s a type of moods.
(“Alethic” means “having to do with truth”)
It has three values;
* problematic aka possible (the underlying statement could be true but the speaker says nothing about whether it actually is true)
* necessitative aka necessary (the underlying statement must be true in any conceivable circumstances or any possible world)
* assertoric aka just so (the bare “underlying” statement; it happens to be true as a matter of fact, but the speaker says nothing about whether or not it could have been otherwise).

Whatever is so, is also possible; but some possible things don’t happen to be so.
Whatever must be so, is in fact so; but some things that happen to be so, could have been otherwise.

[Shemtov]

Alethic isn’t one mood; it’s a type of moods.
(“Alethic” means “having to do with truth”)
It has three values;
* problematic aka possible (the underlying statement could be true but the speaker says nothing about whether it actually is true)
* necessitative aka necessary (the underlying statement must be true in any conceivable circumstances or any possible world)
* assertoric aka just so (the bare “underlying” statement; it happens to be true as a matter of fact, but the speaker says nothing about whether or not it could have been otherwise).

Whatever is so, is also possible; but some possible things don’t happen to be so.
Whatever must be so, is in fact so; but some things that happen to be so, could have been otherwise.

It is really the Assertoric mood, but I call it "Alethic" as it is the only epistemic mood in the language. The next post was going to be a complete list of Moods and their non-conditional uses. The Distant Past, despite being a tense has some features of the necessitative , but as it patterns with the Tense-Aspects, I refer to it as "Past tense, Gnomic Aspect", though it may have more in common with a necessitative mood in this usage

[eldin raigmore]

Epistemic, eh? Hmm.

“Epistemic” is (as you apparently already know) the class of moods having to do with certainty.
This mood you’re talking about seems to be both the neutral alethic mood and the neutral epistemic mood.
Kind of an “I’m just sayin’” mood. It neither emphasizes nor attenuates certainty; nor does it express necessity nor possibility.

Maybe just call it “unmarked mood”?

——————————

Of course I’m aware what you call it isn’t as important as what it does.

—————————-

I’m looking forward to the complete list of moods! And eventually the complete list of verbal inflections!

[Shemtov]

Moods and their uses:
Verbs unmarked for mood are in the Indicative mood. This implies that the speaker knows, to the best of his/her knowledge that the statement is true. However, the Alethic mood (Hemet'a) implies that the speaker has no doubt that the event occured. Let's compare:
Indicative:
Hagǂarǎdo forahabag!aʘareku
"The boy lied down"
Alethic:
Hagǂarǎdo forahabag!ahemet'aʘareku
"The boy certainly lied down"
In certain social situations, this is required with an invocation of the spirits:
Uruhak'ǎsa, Hagǂarǎdo forahabag!ahemet'aʘareku
"By the spirits, the boy did lie down!"

We have already gone over the use of the conditional mood.

The Subjunctive mood is used as above, and in certain other syntactic constructions I won't discuss here.

The Optative mood is used in the past tenses for things people hoped occurred, or in the non-past as a future tense. Its marker is figǃa
Bǎroki k'odagǃoǂ'uyufig!abǎdowe
"The Yellow Poppy will be displayed"

Hagǂarǎdomo forahabag!afig!aʘareku
"I hope my son lied down"

The Debtitive (ñida) is used to marker necessity:
Bǎroki k'odagǃoǂ'uyuñidabǎdowe
"The Yellow Poppy must be displayed!"


Hagǂarǎdomo forahabag!añidaʘareku
"My son must have lied down [because I forced him]"

There is also an imperative, but I haven't worked through the details.

[Shemtov]

Numbers 1-10:
1. Moǃ'u
2. Seni
3. Gʘuk'a
4. Fǎdi
5. Baǂo
6. Sesa
7. Sebagǂa
8. Senit'idufaño
9. Mo!'ut'idufaño
10. Faño

Most numbers, except for one, take the plural marking of the noun they mark:

Wǎsesa wǎbit'u
"Six Rats"

Gʘafaño gʘaroki
"Ten Yellow Poppies"

One takes the singular marker, obviously:
Fǎmo!'u fǎhori
"One lake"

Mo!'u is also unique in that it takes the case of the noun:
Wigeforamik'osoʘareku somo!'uku sok'a!'ukemoku
"I have thrown down one of my arrowhead"

The language is undergoing a change in the numbers for younger speakers:
"Seni" "Two" often takes the singular of the gender:
Fǎseni fahori
"Two lakes"

Nouns marked with numbers 3+ are often unmarked for gender, the numeral showing that:
Wǎsesa bit'u
"Six Rats"

Note that most speakers, especially elders, consider this "wrong speech" and would use Faseni fahori and Wǎsesa wǎbit'u.

[Shemtov]

Higher Numbers:
Numbers 11-17 are expressed by last digit <hu Faño>, except for 14, which is Nisesǎ. 18 is Senit'iduhufaño and 19 is T'iduhufaño.
Numbers 20-99:
20. Senaño
21: . Mo!'u hu Senaño
22. Seni hu Senaño
23.Gʘuk'a hu Senaño
etc.
30. Gʘuk'año
40. Fǎdaña
50. Baǂaño
60. Sesaño
70. Sebagǂaño
80. Senit'idaño
90. T'idaño

100 is Fañopifaño. Numbers up to 999 are constructed by using <hu>and putting the first digit in front of Fañopifaño. They have no word for a thousand except <Mo!'ut'idufaño Fañopifaño hu T'idaño hu Mo!'ut'idufaño hu Mo!'u> Literally 999 and one.

[Shemtov]

Derivational Morphology:
Further Nouns from verbs:
We'll use the compound Verb "Wigeforaʘareku" "Throw" as an example throughout:
To form the "Person who does X" one adds the suffix "yetu", and the Gender I marker:
Hawigeforaʘarekuyetu
"Slinger"

To form the instrument used for it, one adds the suffix gʘumipi and the Gender X marker:
Sowigeforaʘarekgʘumupi
"Sling (weapon)"

To form the passive noun (that which undergoes the action), one adds the suffix kok'a and appropriate gender marker:
Sowigeforaʘarekukok'a
"Sling bullet"

[Reyzadren]

> Passive noun.

So much yes to this terminology, as in my conlang.