Mychai has several postural verbs that can double as copulae with certain nuances.
One such example is guta which can mean to stand or to be.
When it bears the meaning of stand it is used intransitively much like in English.
Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am standing with my wife.
It cannot be used in a transitive sense as Stand the lamp back up. For that see last week’s word: set
However, guta can also be used as a copula to express that the subject has some control over the relationship being described, or rather that the subject is very highly agent-like. While their is a sense of control, such statements are generally permanent or very long lasting.
These meanings can only be used for high animate subjects (people, gods, mystical creatures), and perhaps oddly tall subjects namely tall trees, buildings taller than three or so stories, and mountains. This probably comes from associations with the position of people when standing.
So that example above could have a second reading:
Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am with my wife forever, till death do us part.
Ed Thau nguiguta rala.
ed Thau nguiguta rala.
that tree has.been forever
That has been here forever and will be here for a long time.
Additionally, because guta‘s thematic vowel is u, and not a, it is an irregular verb:
Pfv. Ipfv. Retro.
Prs. —- guta nguiguta
Past gauta géunda nguigéunda
Fut. gusta géusta nguigéusta
Prec. guarta
