This lesson deals with some basic points regarding the use of nouns, including number, definiteness, and the accusative case. It also covers basic use of transitive verbs (ie., verbs that take a direct object). Finally, this is the first lesson to include some short exercises at the end. The ones in this lesson cover the grammar points and vocabulary from lessons 1-3.
3.1 Consonant mutations (sandhi)
As promised in the last lesson, we must first consider the details of consonants turning into other consonants when suffixes are added. This is a process called sandhi, named after certain rules along the same lines in Sanskrit. In High Eolic, sandhi occurs for certain final consonants of nouns – namely s, l, n, and m. That is, for nouns that end in s, l, n, and m, these consonants change when any kind of suffix is added.
Let us take the noun párun ‘house’ as an example. As mentioned in the last lesson, noun-final -n turns into -nd whenever a suffix is added. So if one wants to put párun into the essive case, the resulting form (adding -es) is párundes (rather than *párunes). In a similar way, any noun-final -m turns into -mb: thus the essive form of hám ‘gold’ is hámbes.
Noun-final s and l geminate and become ss and ll, respectively, whenever suffixes are added. However, this does not happen if the vowel preceding them is long. In this way, the essive form of cel ‘arm’ is celles, while the final l of cál ‘blue-eyed’ does not change, because it is preceded by a long vowel – so the essive form is cáles. It is exactly the same with s: pas ‘thought, idea’ becomes passes, while pús ‘horse’ becomes púses.
To summarize:
1) when they appear as the final consonants in a noun, n, m, s and l change whenever a suffix is added to the noun;
2) n and m change into nd and mb, respectively – thus párundes, hámbes;
3) s and l change into ss and ll, respectively – thus celles, passes – except when preceded by a long vowel – thus cáles, púses.
3.2 Grammar: number and definiteness
In addition to sandhi rules, there are two major and very important grammatical points in today’s lesson. The first concerns how nouns are used in HE. As you may have noticed, names of persons often appear with the suffix -ut. You should note that -ut is a singular definite suffix – used similarly to English the.
High Eolic nouns in their dictionary form are inherently indefinite – that is, -ut needs to be added to make them definite. As an example, let us again take the noun párun ‘house’:
1) in its dictionary form párun, this noun is indefinite, and has the meaning “a house” or “some houses” (see below);
2) when the suffix -ut is added to form the definite singular form párundut (note the n > nd change), it has the meaning “the house”.
There is one other suffix that should be noted here. This is the suffix -á, which roughly marks a noun as definite plural: so páruná means “the houses”. Note that you can never use -á and -ut together; the use of one excludes the other.
You will also have noted that there is no way to say simply “houses” in HE; you have to say “the houses”. This is why the dictionary form of any noun (which is always indefinite) is undefined with regard to number: it can mean “a house”, “houses”, “some houses” etc. You have to tell from context which meaning is the most appropriate! Initially, this may seem difficult, but you’ll get a feel for it quickly.
One further important point is that the number and definiteness suffixes -á and -ut can be used together with case suffixes. Here, case suffixes always precede the number and definiteness suffixes. So, for instance, if putting párun into the essive case, but also making it singular and definite, we get:
párund-es-ut ‘the house’ (essive)
as opposed to
párund-ut ‘the house’ (nominative)
párund-es ‘a house’ or ‘some houses’ (essive)
To summarize, there are the following points to be memorized regarding the number/definiteness suffixes -á and -ut:
1) -á marks the definite plural, while -ut marks the definite singular. Nouns with neither of these suffixes are indefinite, but can be understood as either singular or plural – so párun can mean “a house”, “some houses” etc.;
2) only one of -á or -ut can appear on any noun;
3) case suffixes can appear together with number/definiteness suffixes; in this case, the case suffix always precedes the number/definiteness suffix (e.g. párundesut).
3.3 Grammar: the accusative case and transitive verbs
It’s time to bolster your armory of HE cases through introducing the accusative case. This is the case used to mark direct objects – that is, objects of verbs that are directly affected by the event that the verb refers to. Consider the following sentence:
you saw him
In this sentence, you is the subject, and him is the direct object. In HE, all objects in this position are in the accusative.
Similar to English, accusative objects in HE follow the verb directly, while subjects – standing for the agents of the verb – precede the verb, as in the following example with the verb ngúrnam ‘to see’:
send ngúrnam mál
you see.PERF he/she.ACC
“you saw him/her”
mál is the accusative form of már ‘he/she’. Thankfully, most nouns add a regular case suffix to form the accusative, namely the suffix -al. Look at the following example:
ca ngúrnam yunándalut
I see.PERF doctor.ACC.DEF
“I saw the doctor”
In yunándalut, of course, both the accusative suffix -al and the singular definite suffix -ut are present – as already noted above, the case suffix always precedes the number/definiteness suffix.
There are two important points that you should note about using verbs like these the accusative:
1) The vast majority of verbs that take direct objects in the accusative – that is, transitive verbs – end in -am, or -m. This is because, for a verb to be understood as transitive, it has to appear with the transitive suffix -am. Other kinds of verbs get other kinds of suffixes. This is a slightly complicated point, but very important to understanding the HE verb system, and will be dealt with in full in a few lessons’ time.
2) You should also be aware that ngúrnam is the perfective form of the verb ‘to see’ (like ngá and erc from the previous lesson are the perfective forms of the copulas). This means that the action it denotes only took place at one specific point in time, and is usually understood to be in the past – that’s why it’s translated in the past tense in English. Again, you shouldn’t worry about all this too much yet; just note that ngúrnam (and all the other verbs provided in this lesson) is in the perfective. The differences between the imperfective and perfective, and how to form them, will be discussed in the next lesson.
3.4 At the market: using nouns and transitive verbs
Now, we’ll put all this knowledge to use through looking at some very basic sentences describing a hypothetical person’s trip to a typical Eolic marketplace (nattúc). (The next lesson will consider market etiquette and dealings in more detail – including how to ask for price.) In addition to ngúrnam, two other verbs will be used:
tendápam – bought
sicándam – sold, traded (something)
You might also find useful the following market-related nouns:
handarc – honey
laren – flower
mbevánd – wood
mullat – bread
rápa – meat
sác – milk
yangar – apple; fruit
Finally, memorize the following expressions:
essát – then, after that
nattúcúninut – at the market (literally “on the market” – in the superessive case, which will be covered in a few lessons’ time)
tavunga – yesterday
From all this, and using our knowledge from the previous lecture, we can compose a nice simple story about Andárut, a doctor who went to the market!
Andárut civa yunándes.
Tavunga ngúrnam mullatal nattúcúninut.
Már tendápam mullatalut.
Essát már sicándam hámbalá.
(Listen to the entire story here!)
Translation:
Andárut is a doctor. Yesterday he saw some bread at the market. He bought the bread. Then he sold the gold pieces.
Note how mullatal is used without a number/definiteness suffix – with the meaning “some bread”. mullatalut and mullatalá, by contrast, have the respective meanings “the bread” and “the pieces of bread”. Compare also with how hámbalá is translated – it has the specific meaning “the gold pieces”, that is, with both a plural and a definite meaning (the understanding is that the gold pieces had already been mentioned at some earlier point in the story).
3.5 Exercises
Translate the following five sentences from High Eolic:
Ca civa nírcas.
Ma-carnut civa máru-láyurces.
Tavunga ca tendám yangaralá.
Már ngúrnam vicúsasal.
Ca sicándam mbevándalut.
Translate the following five sentences into High Eolic:
He is a farmer.
You are 36 years old.
She saw the market yesterday.
You bought a flower.
The warriors sold some milk.
You can also write a short story (4-5 sentences) about your experiences at the market yesterday.
3.6 Summary of new vocabulary
cál – blue-eyed
cel – arm
essát – then, after that
hám – gold
handarc – honey
laren – flower
mál – he/she (accusative)
mbevánd – wood
mullat – bread
nattúc – market
nattúcúninut – at the market
ngúrnam – saw (something)
párun – house
pas – thought, idea
pús – horse
rápa – meat
sác – milk
sicándam – sold, traded (something)
tavunga – yesterday
tendápam – bought
yangar – apple; fruit
