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Nacateca is spoken by
66 million atrei
(indigenous population) who live in the western
half of Bergonia. Nacateca
includes three dialects, which are mutually intelligible.
The degree of difference is about the same as between Italian
dialects.
These three dialects were once less intelligible to one another, but
they have converged in the last two centuries.
Many
linguists have speculated whether Nacateca bears enough similarity with any North American Indian languages to merit theorizing about any
common origins. Some speculate that Nacateca is related to either the Hokan
or the Uto-Aztecan families of languages
in Mexico & Southwest U.S.
The latter family includes Nahuatl, the primary language of
the Aztec's spoken in
the Valley of Mexico before Cortez’s conquest.
Nacateca does share with the Uto-Aztecan family three distinct
grammatical features:
(a)
Nacateca, proto-Uto-Aztecan (a theoretical construct) and most
present-day Uto-Aztecan languages put the direct object immediately before the verb.
(b) Nouns have distinct case forms for subjects and objects, but
Nacateca, proto-Uto-Aztecan and most Uto-Aztecan languages express the
subject of dependant clauses in the objective case.
(c)
Proto-Uto-Aztecan
nouns used a suffix called the “absolutive” when used by themselves,
usually involving either a “t” or “l.”
The suffix is usually dropped when the noun takes on other
inflections, such as possessive, objective or accusative affixes, or when the noun is compounded.
Likewise, Nacateca nouns often employ a suffix of “-l-“ to mark
an absolutive function.
While
the first two of these features also occur in other languages around the
world, the absolutive suffix is rather unique, and has most reliably guided
linguists in identifying Uto-Aztecan languages.
But while
these grammatical similarities suggest a link, Nacateca
shares hardly any vocabulary in common with any of the Uto-Aztecan tongues.
Obviously,
in order for a real relationship to exist, then once upon a time in the
remote past boats must have plied the waters between Bergonia and North
America. The theory draws
support from the small number of theorists-- regarded as oddballs by the
rest--
who contend that the Hopi tribe in Arizona descended from prehistoric
Nacateca colonists. Hopi is,
after all, a Hokan language. The
"oddballs" try to point to similarities between the Hopi myths and
the myths of the Ancita tradition out of which the Shufrantei religions
sprang. The theory has to
account for how the people who spoke Hokan and Aztec-Tonoan
languages—living in the southwest USA and northern Mexico—made contact
with Bergonians. Of course,
numerous Bergonian legends tell how the early Meinai civilization on
Bergonia’s west coast had seafaring contact with the Mexican coast.
Most archeologists admit that corn (maize) and squash were apparently
not native to Bergonia, but somehow became the staple of all Bergonian
lowland peoples in the last 4000 years.
Phonology-- The Sounds of Words
Nacateca
does not tolerate consonant clusters. All
consonants are separated by vowels or diphthongs, much like Japanese.
Never will two consonants occur together, one following the other,
unless the second is a semi-consonant, which include L, M, N or R.
Bergonian grammarians have always called these sounds “liquid.
In the same vein, they call vowels “air” sounds, and consonants
“solid” or “ground” sounds.
Rather
typically, syllables consisted of one of these combination, with “L”
standing for a semi-consonant, “liquid” sound:
C + V, or C + L + V, always ending with a vowel.
In this sense, “vowels” include the many diphthongs as well as
the five primary vowels.
All
consonants are "soft", or voiceless, e.g. P as opposed to B, or F
as opposed to V. Thus, the
sounds B, D, G, J, V and Z essentially do not exist in Nacateca.
Accordingly, a Nacateca speaker will pronounce the
name "Bergonia" as "Pereconia."
Nacateca
uses five pure vowels: A as in father, E as in bet, I as in bit, O as in
boat, and U as in boot.
Nacateca
also uses numerous diphthongs formed by the five.
The resonant melodic diphthongs that typify the lilting sound of
Nacateca to foreigners are most often heard in the Pueoi and Incuatati (i.e.
the Southern) dialects. In the
Ancita dialect, the core dialect that mothered all the others, many of the
diphthongs have contracted in recent centuries into single phonemes. For example, Fanisithia is the Ancita word for "deep love affair"
while the Pueoi word for the same is Faoiniseithia. Pefinia is the Ancita word for tragedy while Puefeinia
means the same in the Pueoi dialect.
To
a sympathetic foreign ear, Nacateca sounds very soft and melodious.
Derogatory stereotyping portrays Nacateca speakers hissing like
snakes.
Nacateca
words form around rather strict rules of pronunciation and phoneme use,
chief of which are these:
1.
Syllables
usually consist of a consonant followed by either a vowel or diphthong.
2.
Nearly
all words begin with consonants and end with vowels or diphthongs.
3.
Longer
words, which may include as many as six syllables, usually consist of
strings of consonant-vowel/diphthong combinations.
4.
The
accent usually falls on the next to the last syllable of a word.
However, no hard and fast rules govern this, unlike Italian, and
individual words may have their own personalities.
In fact, in 95% of all words the stress falls on either the first or
second syllable.
5.
Within
many compound words there lies a "root" word, in which event the
accent will always fall on a syllable within the root.
General Grammar
Nacateca
is an inflectional language.
In
“inflectional” languages, the function of a word can be determined from
its prefixes or suffixes. A
strictly inflectional language, such as Latin, so clearly labels its nouns,
verbs and modifiers with prefixes and suffixes that the words can occur
in practically any order within a sentence and a speaker of the
language will readily understand the sentence.
On the other hand, an “analytical” language like English
depends very little on inflections, so that words suffer few prefixes or
suffixes. Instead, analytical
languages reveal whether particular words function as subjects, verbs or
objects strictly by their relative order in a sentence, or by how they
modified by other words.
While
Minidun (S+O+V) and English (S+V+O) both use strict word order that allow hardly any
deviation, Nacateca allows words to flow in loose order, with inflections marking the parts of speech.
But Nacateca is not so loose as Latin in its word order or as strict
in its inflectional requirements.
For example, while Latin requires that adjectives "agree"
with the nouns they modify, Nacateca identifies adjectives in the service of
a particular noun by placing it immediately in front of the noun—as in
English-- without any . In Latin, the
adjective would carry an inflection that not only marks it as an adjective,
but also conforms to the "case" and the "gender" of the
noun it describes.
Nacateca
also has agglutinative features. Not
many of the world’s great languages are agglutinative.
Turkish is one. Agglutinative
languages use prefixes and suffixes, along with much word compounding to
construct long words of many elements.
Many of the grammatical inflections are particles that may exist as
independent morphemes, which is to say, as independent words.
Other inflections can appear only within a word as part of it.
Still others are “bound,” which is to say they cannot appear
except in conjunction with other elements within a big long word.
Nacateca employs so much compounding in its word formation that it
frequently appears to be agglutinizing.
But, unlike most of the extremely agglutinative North American Indian languages, a great many of the
morphemes used in compounding words can also stand alone as single-morpheme
words.
Syntax: Word Order in a Sentence:
Obverse
to the high degree of inflection,
Nacateca is rather loose and improvisional in the word order within a
sentence . The only consistent rule seems is that the object, including both direct and indirect
object, must precede the verb.
In the usual formation the
direct object nearly always immediately precedes the verb and sometimes (in
slang) drops from the objective case to the shorter subjective case.
The direct and indirect object always precedes the verb in sentences and
also in clauses within sentences, both dependent
or independent clauses.
The
subject usually precedes everything else, so that the most typical sentence
in Nacateca looks like this: S + O + V (subject + object + verb: “the cat
the mouse chases”). However,
sometimes to achieve emphasis of different sorts, Nacateca sentences may be
O + S + V, or O + V + S. But in
any event, the object always precedes the verb.
The
major part of a statement comes at the beginning of a sentence, usually followed by
modifying and qualifying clauses.
Postpositions
are used to signal indirect objects. (e.g. "I toss the ball to
you," is literally "I you-to ball-the toss")
Post-positions also signal the dependant clauses; however if the dependant
clause comes after the main verb the postposition can be switched around to
the front the clause to become a preposition..
Word Formation: Root Words and Affixes
Most
morphemes, both free and bound, consist of only a single syllable, which is
why early Nacateca writers made a swift transition from ideograms to a
syllabilary—a single symbol in one system of writing usually very neatly
translated into a single symbol in the other.
Most words that serve as verbs and nouns are multi-syllabic,
constructed from the more basic mono-syllabic elements by the processes of compounding and
affixation.
The
building of a noun or a verb starts with a root.
While some roots are uniquely nouns, and others verbs, a third very
large class of roots can transform by compounding and affixation into either
nouns or verbs.
Nouns,
verbs and modifiers include words built by compounding two or more root words.
Compounding occurs quite often in Nacateca, and Nacateca writers and masters
of elocution are not a bit chary of coining new compounds.
An erudite Nacatecan delights in inventive compounding.
The rash of compounding has occurred rather recently in the
history of the language.
Many
words, especially nouns, consist of a "double root," a compound of
two roots. The first root often
refers to the substance or quality of the thing (e.g. "wood,"
"spirit,” “liquid,” "milk"), thus making the word into
a nous, and the second refers to
the thing’s form (e.g. “long and slender,” “sharp,” “cup”) or
quality (“old,” “holy”) or motion (“away,” “north”).
Some such words translate into common English words consisting of a
single morpheme:
"wood"
+ "fragment" = "splinter."
“sand” +
“fragment” = “grain of sand.”
“wood” +
“long and slender” =
“stick.”
"spirit-creature"
+ "holy" = "angel."
“liquid” +
“engine” = gasoline.
"milk"
+ "cup" = a cup of milk.
“talk” +
“far” = telephone.
In English, compounding occurs with total ease.
If two words are compounded to form a new word, then neither words
suffers any alteration in the transformation.
"Base" is still "base" and "ball"
is still "ball" in the word "baseball".
Compounding
involves a transformation of the original words, with more complication than in English.
Some rule of
transformation is necessary since the compounding nouns and verbs carry
particular inflections that must be compromised. The
basic rule is that the compound word must be of the same part of speech as
the first word in the compound.
This
rule regulates the compounding of nouns and verbs together is a process the
grammarians call "incorporation".
Hence, whenever one compounds a noun and a verb with the intent of
creating a verb, then the verb comes first, with verb inflections attaching
to the noun-element at the end of the sentence.
Flio
= to attack (v.)
Crisa
= Iron (n.)
Fliocriso
= to attack hard and efficiently (v.)
Likewise,
when it is time to use the same two roots to make a noun, the order
reverses: so that the noun comes first, with noun
inflections attaching to the verb-element at the end of the sentence.
Crisaflia
= a special alloy developed in ancient times for sword blades (n.)
There
is a rather ad hoc method of compounding verbs that allows for concise
expression of action. Here are
illustrations. From these four words...
Cle
= “throw”
Pao = “strike, punch,”
Fra
= ram, crash into, come into direct contact, impact between one speeding
object and one stationary object.
Tra
= “break, shatter”
...come
these compound words.
Cletra
= “throw and break, break by throwing up against something.”
Paotra
= “break by striking.”
Fratra
= “break by bumping into”
Cuei
= boy
Pleti = vase
Cuei
cletra pleti
= “The boy threw the
vase and broke it.”
Lushi
= “hammer” Mo
= reposition meaning “by means of,” or “with the instrumentality
of,” more commonly translated as “with” or “by.”
Cuei pleti
paotra mo lushi. = “The boy broke the
vase with a hammer.”
Cuei
pleti fratra.
= “The boy knocked into the vase and broke it.”
Pleti
racletra
= "He
threw the vase and broke it."
Many
other rules govern compounding that the average Nacatecan uses without conscious awareness.
Most exist simply to polish off the rough edges of the words to
expedite the compounding. For
example, when a noun becomes the first and major element of a compound word
and when that noun ends in a diphthong, then the diphthong often reduces to a
single vowel, producing a rhyming word:
Shilia
("meal") and prose ("celebration") produce shiliprosi
("feast").
In
many cases the first word in the compound is shortened, abbreviated, by
dropping the syntactic suffix.
Shilia
("meal") and tei ("dawn") produce shitia
("breakfast").
lia
is cropped, while the declension suffix -ia is
transferred to the end of the new word, changing tei to
tia.
Other
compounding
drops the suffix rules govern the semantic combination of words.
For example, some rules exist to sort out what happens when two verbs
are compounded. The fundamental rule
here is
that when two verbs are compounded, the first will describe the motion
or activity of the subject while the second will describe the action as it
affects or transforms the object.
See treplaie,
which consists of treie
("choose, select") and pla
("elevate"). It means
"to elect.”
Parts of Speech
In
addition to connecting words such as “and” and “or,” Nacateca
grammar generally recognizes verbs, nouns and modifiers.
All three types can be compounded and inflected, although
modifiers usually are not. All
three usually start with a root. Simple
roots acquire specific meaning and become words by taking on inflections and
by sometimes compounding with other words.
Roots typically do not stand independently without the affixes that
make them function as either nouns, verbs or modifiers.
Roots
as Ver bs:
Just
as all root words may become nouns by the addition of the noun affixes, so may
they become verbs by use of the various verbal affixes.
The affixes establish tense and mood.
There are no declensions of verbs, so all verbs take the same set of
inflections.
The
verb root cannot occur alone. It always takes on affixes, and takes
them in a consistent order:
First comes the subjective pronoun prefix.
After the root comes the "modal" suffix that shows whether
the verb is used to indicate declarative action, conditional action, and the
like. Then follows the
objective pronoun. Lastly comes
the suffix that shows tense.
When
the object of a sentence can be indicated by a pronoun, then the objective
pronoun inflection occurs after the verb root, as in rafanafa "I love you (a woman)".
In a peculiar contrast, when the objective is a noun that requires
specification, the object noun in the standard syntax always precedes
the verb.
-fan- is the root meaning "love".
The
addition of certain suffixes “fix” the concept, producing a concept noun
that does not take noun suffixes:
fanei
-- Love, in general.
Some
suffixes turn verbs into nouns with specific meaning, which can take on noun
suffixes for plurality, etc.
fanlei -- love
affair.
Some
suffixes produce very particularized verbs:
rafasha kitele --
literally “(I+ love+
habitually) (melons)” = “I
love melons." Here is an idiosyncrasy;
because of common usage over the centuries, the construction is contracted: fan
+ sha = fasha. (kitele
means melons.)
Verb Tenses:
Verbs
have numerous, quite specialized tenses, all formed by suffixes.
Nacateca verbs use no auxiliary verbs, though verbs are often very
handily used to modify one another. Thankfully, all verbs tend to accept all
the same suffixes, and all verbs tend to follow the same rules.
For
purposes of illustration, etlu is the stem “write,” and tsetlu
means “he writes.”
The
tenses include:
1.
Characteristic,
repetitive or “habitive” present tense: -sha. "He writes for a living," "He writes in
his journal every night,” or "He is a writer." = Tsetlusha.
2.
Progressive
present tense: -pue,
sometimes -epue. "He is
writing," "He is writing right now,"
"Do you see him writing?"
= Tsetlupue
3.
Present perfect: -poa "He has been writing," "He is still
writing," Tsetlupoa
4.
Past tense: -ie ", often replacing the vowel on the end of the verb.
e.g. He wrote on the wall," = Tsetlie.
5.
Past perfect: -fle. "He had written his wife daily when he was in prison," Tsetlufle. Rafanaflefi means "I had loved her like a wife."
6.
Future: -re. "He
will write," Tsetlure. Future is used more often in Nacateca than in English,
because it is often used to express expectation and desire. Here are two main occasions:
a.
“I want to marry you” in English uses the infinitive form of the
verb “marry,” while Nacteca uses the future tense form.
Thus sare mean is the future tense form of sa, “to marry or wed.”
The sentence is raco
lasare,
which more literally translates “I want [that] we will wed.”
b.
“I am going to run
soon” would be rendered, “I will run soon” or “I will start running
soon.”
c.
The imperative form uses the future tense.
If in Bergonia a fire breaks out near gas tanks, people yell plaure,
“run,” which is the future tense of plau,
The speaker can sharpen the tenses by adding
other suffixes.
“He
starts to write.” Tsetlucra
“He
just started writing” Tsetlucrie
Immediate
Past Tense, usually denoting completion:
“He just finished writing” “He just started writing”
Tsetlulie
“He
is about to write.” Imminent
future tense, to describe something just about to happen:
Tsetlurue
He
is about to start writing.” Tsetlushrue
“He
is about to finish writing.” Tsetlucriei
Other suffixes
identify “modes,” as well, always after the root and before the tense
suffix. Sometimes the tense suffix will change in form depending on
the mode. For example:
-sha-
Conditional: “he may have just started writing” Tsetlushacra. Sha conveys the meaning of “may,” and the tense suffix
changed from crie to cra. The conditional mode, meaning that the action of the
verb occurs or will occur on if a condition were met. In English we call this mode the subjunctive.
-sa- Must, imperative, mandatory, as in inevitable, or
necessary, or physically required.
-sro-
the "obligative" mode, meaning that the subject performs
the action out of social duty or obligation, e.g. some functions of “must.” This
mode often is used to express orders by superiors to subordinates.
-sro-
Most definitely will; a
means of emphasis, emphasizing the willfulness of the act.
-sro-
Can, able, possible, the "abilitative" connotes that the
subject is able to perform the action. We frequently use "can" and
“is able” to indicate this mode in English.
A verb used to express regular and unconditional action has no
modal suffix. Grammarians
say that this is the declarative mode.
-rio-
The "interrogative" mode, which expresses a doubt as
to whether the action occurred.
This mode is used to express ignorance or
suspicion, not so much to ask a question.
-lo-
the negative mode, which simply states that the action did not
occur.
-se-
a "reflexive" mode, which shows that the subject also
was the object, e.g. ramuose
means
"I wash myself."
-flie-, a reciprocal
mode. For example, retitheoflie means "we help each other."
More
than one mode can occur together within a single word.
For example, retitheosroloflie
means
"we must not help each other."
Sro
means
“must” and lo
means “not.”
No verb "to be"
Nacateca
lacks a general
verb "to be". Nacateca
has no verb "to be" to function as an auxiliary to help perform
any grammatical functions, as it helps to form the passive voice in English
(e.g. "he was transformed") or the progressive mde (“he is
going”).
However,
Nacateca has two specific verbs which translate as "to be" in
English, each in a limited way. One
of these, clo, refers only to
attributes and it cannot exist independently of another morpheme, often an
adjective. In other words, this
verb is inalienable. Examples
of usage of are as follows:
Raclomeo
means "I am crippled."
Meo
means
crippled.
Ficlopure
means "You (fem.) are beautiful."
Pure
means
beautiful.
Prakai
clopetle
means "Prakai is very old."
Petle
means old,
aged.
The
second word is chi,
which means “feel” or “experience.”
“I am tired,” is expressed with a sentence that literally means,
“I feel tired.”
Another
verb that translators use in rendering the verb to be into Nacateca is sieia,
which means “appears” or “looks like.”
Sentences like “the dress is green” use sieia in translation, which means literally, "the dress looks/appears
green."
No
passive voice exists in Nacateca.
Passive constructions in Indo-European
and other languages are often translated into Nacateca by use of active
verbs and prepositional phrases: "He shattered the glass,"
translates as "Because of/by him the glass shatters."
Nouns:
Nacateca sorts all nouns into nine different classes or semantic
“genders,” which are utterly nonsexual in nature.
It is helpful to note that in English the word “gender”
originally did not refer to the sexes, but to grammatical classification of
nouns. It is because gender in
Romance languages (e.g. Italian, Spanish) is sexual (at least in their
labeling) that “gender” has become associated with sexuality.
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Chart
1. Noun
Classes or “Genders”
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#
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Semantic significance
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Examples
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1
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Inanimate objects, things in nature & in the
sky, inedible things, strange things.
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“rock, moon, stick, atom,”
|
|
2
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Plants, animals, food, people, things imbued with
animal spirit or personality, spirits, Gods.
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“cat, proletariat, boy, angel, bacteria,
organization,”
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|
3
|
Individual people, occupations, roles, classes of
men & women.
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“assistant, sinner, plumber, bag-man, sycophant,
president,”
|
|
4
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Kinship terms.
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“cousin, sister,”
|
|
5
|
Things made, used or owned by people, anatomy,
derivatives.
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“automobile, sword, heart, house, chronometer,
garbage, account”
|
|
6
|
Places, locations, directions, spatial things.
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“road, bridge, office, north”
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|
7
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Temporal words, time units, things to do with
death, dreams, memories, feelings, mental occurrences, events, names
for actions.
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“day, moment,” adolescence, recollection,
story, cremation, love, sickness.”
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The
seven Nacateca genders each carry semantic significance, at least in theory,
although the semantic lines are drawn rather oddly.
For example paoshinei means clock. Although a
clock is a manufactured item, which would seem to place it within Gender # 1
or 5 (see Chart 1), paoshinei is of gender #7, which contains words like “day,” “moment,”
“age,” and “memory.” Gender
class #4 includes kinship terms, but this class also includes words like
“servant” and “valet.” It
also contains a whole class of words pertaining to military rank and
political and criminal organization, all of which derived from medieval
names for banda warrior ranks and organization, which in turn derived from
ancient words for clan offices. Likewise,
chioe,
which means “hunger,” is of gender #2, which includes words for food,
although virtually every other word expressing an urge, feeling or desire is
of Gender #7.
After the noun stem comes a suffix to mark
case. Each gender has a
distinct set of case suffixes. Nacateca
has three cases.
a)
The absolutive case, for when the noun takes an intransitive verb.
(e.g. “The ambassador arrived today.”)
b)
The subjective (or nominative) case, to mark the subject of sentences
with transitive verbs. (e.g. “He presented his credentials to the
President.”)
c)
The objective (or accusative) case, to mark both direct and indirect
objects for use with transitive verbs.
(e.g. “He presented his credentials to the President.”)
The objective case is also used to mark the subject in dependant
clauses.
The objective case
suffixes are almost identical to the absolutive suffixes, since they were
once a single case.
The
case suffixes recognize number. Historically
a separate suffix indicated number, but over the years contraction occurred
between the suffixes for case and number, forcing a fusion into one.
Nacateca
has a dual number, as well as singular and plural.
To express an indefinite number, English speakers often use the
plural, as in “I love melons.” In
Nacateca one would use the singular.
kitele
Chart 2.
Noun suffixes for case and number
|
|
Gender
|
|
Singular
|
Dual
|
Plural
|
Adjective
|
|
Subj.
|
Obj.
|
Abs.
|
Subj
|
Obj.
|
Abs.
|
Subj
|
Obj.
|
Abs.
|
|
1
|
|
-i
|
-ili
|
-li
|
-ti
|
-itli
|
-tli
|
-io
|
-ilio
|
-ilio
|
-si
|
|
2
|
|
-e
|
-le
|
-le
|
-te
|
-tle
|
-tale
|
-eio
|
-leio
|
-leio
|
-isei
|
|
3
|
|
-tei
|
-tlei
|
-tlei
|
-tiei
|
-tlei
|
-talei
|
-tao
|
-tlao
|
-tlao
|
-shasi
|
|
4
|
|
-mi
|
-mili
|
-mili
|
-miti
|
-tli
|
-tali
|
-mo
|
-imlo
|
-imlo
|
-imsi
|
|
5
|
|
-ia
|
-ilia
|
-lia
|
-tia
|
-tlia
|
-tlia
|
-iao
|
-liao
|
-liao
|
-sa
|
|
6
|
|
-oi
|
-oloi
|
-loi
|
-otoi
|
-otloi
|
-atloi
|
-so
|
-lo
|
-lo
|
-soi
|
|
7
|
|
-ei
|
-elei
|
-lei
|
-tei
|
-etlei
|
-etlei
|
-sei
|
-lei
|
-lei
|
-sai
|
Plurality
is established by a general suffixation (as shown on the gender chart
above), and alternatively by a system of prefixes that establish specific
numerical meaning. The
prefixes, uniform for all seven of the noun genders, are: po- meaning "several" or "some", papo-
meaning "all" or "every", smo- meaning "a few" or "a small number," shlo-
or
shila-
meaning "many", keopo-
"a large number" or "a lot of", and shre- meaning a natural grouping, such as a flock or herd or grove.
When the prefixes are used, the noun takes the singular suffix.
Most
Nacateca nouns also take on prefixes that perform the function of reflexive
pronouns. See the following
chart:
|
Chart
3.
Noun
“Gender”
|
|
|
Noun Class or “Gender”
|
Prefixes
|
|
“some”
|
“the/
only”
|
already
ref’ed
to
|
“this/these”
|
“that/those”
|
honored
|
|
1
|
Inanimate objects, etc.
|
ni-
|
tli-
|
pi-
|
crai-
|
ere-
|
nisi-
|
|
2
|
Living things,
|
nei-
|
tlei-
|
pei-
|
cra-
|
ere-
|
nisi-
|
|
3
|
Individual people, occupations.
|
ni-
|
tlei-
|
pei-
|
trei-
|
isere-
|
nime-
|
|
4
|
Kinship terms.
|
nai-
|
tlai-
|
pei-
|
trei-
|
Isere-
|
came-
|
|
5
|
Things owned, made, dependant.
|
ni-
|
Tli-
|
pi-
|
crai-
|
ere-
|
(n/a)
|
|
6
|
Places, directions, spatial things.
|
noi-
|
tloi-
|
poi-
|
po-
|
ru-
|
nisoi-
|
|
7
|
Temporal words, time units.
|
nai-
|
tlai-
|
pai-
|
tru-
|
isu-
|
(n/a)
|
Pronouns:
Nacateca
has a system of very specific pronounal affixes for verbs.
The
pronouns do not stand on their own, but function strictly as prefixes and
suffixes of verbs. If a
father asks his children, “who wants to go to the store?” the son
doesn’t answer “me,” but “I do,” which is combining the pronoun
with a verb. The literal
Nacateca response to such a question is rucoi,
which means “I want to,” or literally “I want.”
There is a subjective case of pronouns.
Another form combines the objective and absolutive.
These pronouns are used as objects with transitive verbs, and as
subjects for intransitive verbs.
Both
the subject and object pronouns affix to the front of the verb, with the
subject coming first, and the object coming second, right before the verb
stem. For example,
tle
means "speak.”
Prakai
ratle means "I speak to Prakai."
(Here is an example of how the object precedes the verb.)
Prakai
rutle
thusly means "Prakai speaks to me.”
Tserutle
means “He speaks to me”
Ratlsetle
means “I speak to him.”
Number—Singular,
Dual and Plural: Pronouns,
like nouns, express the dual number as well as the singular and the plural.
The dual number reflects how much the Bergonia speakers regard
couples, particularly the married couple.
The same regard manifested in Shufrantei mythology of Arkan &
Icotesi, the Holy Couple. The dual number occurs in the pronouns systems of all other
Bergonian languages as well.
Relationships
of Others to the Speaker:
Nacateca includes special pronounal forms for people related to the
speaker, for people who are social superiors to the speaker, and who are
friends of the speaker. The
classification of friends usually embraces one's fellow clan members, as
well as coworkers. The pronouns
that specifically refer to kin, lovers and friends vary considerably among
the various dialects. Here are
the pronouns as they occur in the dominant Ancita dialect:
Chart 4.
Pronouns
|
|
|
Singular (1)
|
Duo (2)
|
Plural (3+)
|
|
Person
|
Subjective
|
Objective
|
Subjective
|
Objective
|
Subjective
|
Objective
|
|
1st
|
ra -
I
|
ru - me
|
ia - we
two (couple)
|
le - us
two (couple)
|
ro - we
|
lo - us
|
|
|
|
umo – we
family
|
umlo - us
family
|
|
thia - we
two
(friends)
|
lia - us
two
(friends)
|
era - we
friends
|
erlu - us
friends
|
|
2nd
|
si - you
|
sala - you
|
sa - you
|
sla - you
|
sro - you
|
slo - you
|
|
to - you
(masc.)
|
tala - you
(masc.)
|
tu - you
(masc.)
|
tol - you
(masc.)
|
tro - you
(masc.)
|
tolo - you
(masc.)
|
|
fi - you
(fem.)
|
fa - you
(fem.)
|
fita - you
(fem.)
|
fata - you
(fem.)
|
fro - you
(fem.)
|
fito - you
(fem.)
|
|
tsome -
you
(male kin)
|
tsole -
you
(male kin)
|
utse - you
(male kin)
|
ule - you
(male kin)
|
tsuome -
you
(male kin)
|
tsuole -
you
(male kin)
|
|
fime - you
(female kin)
|
fimle -
you
(female kin)
|
fiate -
you
(female kin)
|
fiatle -
you
(female kin)
|
fro - you
(female kin)
|
folo - you
(female kin)
|
|
sife - you
(lover)
|
sifle -
you (lover)
|
sate - you
(lover)
|
satle -
you (lover)
|
srefo -
you (lover)
|
sreflo -
you (lover)
|
|
ute - you
(friend)
|
utle - you
(friend)
|
uote - you
(friend)
|
uotle -
you (friend)
|
uoro - you
(friend)
|
uralo -
you (friend)
|
|
Misi - “Milord.”
|
Misli -
“Milord.”
|
Mati - “Milord.”
|
Matli -
“Milord.”
|
Mroso -
“Milord.”
|
Mrosalo -
“Milord.”
|
|
3rd
|
ko - it
|
klo - it
|
ote - two
things
|
klue - two
things
|
ke- they,
many things
|
kle- them,
many things
|
|
tse - he
|
tsle - him
|
true - two
people
|
tale - two
people
|
ro- they,
many people
|
ralo- them,
many people
|
|
fe - she
|
fle - her
|
|
tse - he
(kin)
|
tsle - him
(kin)
|
iato - two
kinfolk
|
iatlu - two
kinfolk
|
iamo- they,
many relatives
|
ialo- them,
many relatives
|
|
fae - she
(kin)
|
file - her
(kin)
|
|
safa - my
lover
|
safla - my
lover
|
sie - couple
|
sle - couple
|
|
ume - my
male friend
|
umla - my
male friend
|
uta - friends
|
utla - friends
|
uso - friends
|
ulo - friends
|
|
ufa - my
female friend
|
ufla - my
female friend
|
|
Niste -
male lord
|
Nistele -
male lord
|
Nite - two
lords
|
Nile - two
lords
|
Nio - two
lords
|
Nolo - two
lords
|
|
Nafa - female
lord
|
Nafla - female
lord
|
Possessive
nouns
are formed by prefixing an objective pronoun to a noun.
By this use of the objective pronouns, there is no need for a
separate class of possessive pronouns.
Mitoi
means "house" so rumitoi
means "my house."
Mi
means "mother," so umlimi
means "our mother.
The literal pronoun off the chart above is umlo, but is transformed to
rhyme with the vowel at the end of the modified noun.
Modifiers:
Verbs
and nouns may modify nouns and verbs. In
nearly all cases the modifier precedes the modified word.
A verb can serve as a modifier when the suffix -sa
is added to the verb root. A
noun serving as a modifier shall take on a suffix according to its case.
See chart above.
There
are a handful of words that operate as solely as modifiers, with no
particular inflection to mark them. Their
function is marked by their position in front of the word modified.
This is one of the few analytical features of the language.
[Rev. June 05]
|