Sasmin:Grammar
The city for conlangs
Contents |
[edit] Personal Pronouns
The Sasmin language breaks the personal pronouns down into first, second and third person, singular or plural, and masculine, feminine or undetermined.
m f u 1st s I bé abé bé 2nd s you nu anu nu 3rd s he/she/it hi ahi gi 1st p we bésh abét bésh 2nd p you nush anut nush 3rd p they hishi ahit gish
The word ‘gi’ corresponds with the English ‘it’, but you could also use it if you don’t know the gender of the person you’re talking about; ‘gi’ is not necessarily impersonal when you would use it for people, unless you know their gender (and the person you’re talking to knows that you know). A woman could use the word ‘bé’ for herself, but in formal speech and in writing – formal or informal - she would have to use ‘abé’. The same goes for ‘nu’; address a woman with ‘anu’ in formal situations or writing, but female friends and family members may be addressed with ‘nu’. In the cases of ‘abét’ and ‘anut’, it’s best to only use them when the fact that you’re talking about a group of women is important. Otherwise, use ‘bésh’ and ‘nush’ respectively. ‘Gish’ is mostly used for the plural form of the English ‘it’, but you could also use it for a group of people (‘they’) where gender is not important or unknown. Only use ‘hishi’ if you know the group is male and only use ‘ahit’ if you know the group is female.
[edit] Inclusive and exclusive 'we'
In the personal pronouns table you'll find the word 'bésh' for 1st person plural. This word is the 'exclusive we', which means in refers to 'me and my group, but not you'. There is also an 'inclusive we' form, which refers to 'me and you (and our group)'. The Sasmin form for this personal pronoun is: jósh.
bésh ojolti dha hiko we read a book (exclusive) jósh ojolti dha hiko we read a book (inclusive)
[edit] Nouns
Sasmin has two groups of nouns; the masculine and the feminine nouns. Masculine nouns have an ending in a vowel, feminine nouns have an ending in a consonant. The way they conjugate is different. There are no irregular nouns. The word ‘thanho’ – meaning ‘house’ – is masculine. This is the conjugation table for masculine words:
singular plural neutral - -sh definite article (the) mo - mo -sh indefinite article (a) dha - *
If you want to say ‘the house’, you would say ‘mo tanho’ in Sasmin. If you want to say ‘a house’ it would be ‘dha tanho’. There is no plural form for the indefinite article, instead use the neutral plural. The word ‘whip’ – meaning ‘horse’ – is feminine. This is the conjugation table for feminine words:
singular plural neutral - -et definite article (the) -ta -etta indefinite article (a) -nu *
‘The horse’ would thus be ‘whipta’, ‘a horse’ would be ‘whipnu’. Again, there is no plural form for the indefinite article, use the neutral plural.
[edit] Negation of nouns
To negate a noun, you place ‘iniem’ – meaning ‘none’ or ‘no’ – before it. The noun will be in its neutral form.
iniem hiko no book iniem whippet no horses
[edit] Cases
Sasmin has 10 cases; the genitive, accusative, inessive, elative, addesive, allative, ablative, essive,instructive and the passive cases. Each will be explained below.
[edit] The genitive case
The genitive case marks belonging. Every personal pronoun can be put in the genitive case by adding -'(i)c, as you can see in the table below. When an ‘i’ follows the apostrophe, you should pronounce that apostrophe as a glottal stop.
m f u 1st s my bé’c abé’c bé’c 2nd s your nu’c anu’c nu’c 3rd s his/her/it’s hi’c ahi’c gi’c 1st p our bésh’ic abét’ic bésh’ic 2nd p your nush’ic anut’ic nush’ic 3rd p their hishi’c ahit’ic gish’ic
inclusive 'we' jósh'ic ajósh'ic jósh'ic
A noun following the genitive case of the personal pronoun will receive the suffix –‘(o)j. This is demonstrated in the table below.
bé’c hiko’j my book gish’ic whipet’oj their horses
[edit] The accusative case
The word order in Sasmin can be stretched to OSV (object-subject-verb), in that case, the object receives the accusative: -'(e)m.
Dha hiko’m bé joltit. It is a book I read.
Now you emphasize the fact that you read a book.
[edit] The inessive case
The inessive case is translated with the English prepositions 'in' or 'into', depending on the context. Every noun (singular or plural) can be put in the inessive case by adding -'jjo.
mo thanho'jjo in(to) the house Abé shemt mo thanho'jjo. I am in the house. Abé anot mo thanho'jjo. I walk into the house.
[edit] The elative case
The elative translates into English with the preposition 'out of'. After the noun the suffix -'jji is placed.
mo thanho'jji out of the house Abé shemt mo thanho'jji. I am out of the house.
[edit] The addesive case
The addesive case translates as 'near' or 'next to', it is formed by placing -'tte after the noun. Sometimes it can also mean 'on top off' but usually the allative case is used.
mo thanho'tte near the house/next to the house
[edit] The allative case
The allative case translates as 'onto', it is formed by placing the suffix -'ppa after the noun. It can also mean 'on top off'.
mo thanho'ppa onto the house/on top of the house
[edit] The ablative case
The ablative case means something like 'from off of'; it is formed by placing the suffix -'ppi after the noun.
whipta'ppi off the horse (action)
[edit] The essive case
The essive case translated with 'like' or 'as', you use it to say that something is similar. Place -'bi after the noun.
mo hiko'bi like the book
[edit] The instructive case
The instructive case translates with 'by means of' or 'with', it is formed with the suffix -'whó.
gosnu'whó with a pen
[edit] The passive case
This case is only used in sentences in the passive form; it marks the object and is translated with 'by'. It is formed with the suffix -'ró.
Hanta le-tölak abé'ró. The bread was eaten by me.
[edit] Verbs
There are three groups of verbs in the Sasmin language; the masculine (ending in a vowel), the feminine (ending in a consonant) and a few irregulars (like ‘shem’ (‘to be’)). ‘Masti’ (‘to sleep’) is a masculine verb.
1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular 1st/2nd/3rd plural Present -t -n -g o(l)- Past -ta -na -ga a(l)- Future -ti -ni -gi i(l)-
abé mastit I sleep hi mastiga he slept gish imasti they will sleep
The ‘l’ in the plural inflection occurs in front of words that start with a vowel. (Like ‘ano’ (‘to walk’).) ‘Töl’ (‘to eat’) is feminine.
1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular 1st/2nd/3rd plural Present -ot -on -ok o(n)- Past -at -an -ak a(n)- Future -it -in -ik i(n)-
anu tölon you eat hi tölok he ate bésh itöl we will eat
The ‘n’ in the plural inflection occurs in front of words that start with a vowel. (Like ‘up’ (‘to drink’).)
The verb ‘to be’ is irregular. It inflects like this:
1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular 1st/2nd/3rd plural Present shemt shen shek eshem Past shamt shan shak esham Future shimt shin shik eshim
[edit] The negation verb
To negate an action, you should use the negation verb. It’s stem is ‘we’. It’s inflected like a regular masculine verb. The verb following this negation verb is the stem of the verb plus ‘-(r)y’. The irregular ‘shem’ becomes ‘shym’.
Abé wet shym. I am not. Nu wena töly. You didn’t eat. Gish iwe mastiry. They won’t sleep. (future)
[edit] The progressive, perfect and passive forms
The verbs 'shem' (= to be) and 'hir' (= to have) are auxiliary verbs. They are used to form the progressive (continious) form and the perfect form, quite like in English.
The conjugation of 'shem' is shown above, 'hir' conjugates as a regular feminine verb.
[edit] The progressive form
The progressive form is used to describe an ongoing action, either in the present, the past or the future. The verb 'shem' is used as the auxiliary verb.
I am reading. Abé shemt jolti. I was reading. Abé shamt jolti. I will be reading. Abé shimt jolti.
The verb after the auxiliary is just a simple stem.
[edit] The perfect form
The perfect form is used to describe an action that is completed, either in the present, the past or the future. The verb 'hir' is used as the auxiliary verb.
I have read. Bé hirot jolti. I had read. Bé hirat jolti. I will have read. Bé hirit jolti.
Again, as with the progressive form, the verb after the auxiliary is just a simple stem.
[edit] The perfect progressive form
To form the perfect progressive form, the auxiliary verbs are combined. The verb 'hir' is conjugated, the stems of 'shem' and the other (main) verb follow.
I have been reading. Abé hirot shem jolti. I had been reading. Abé hirat shem jolti. I will have been reading. Abé hirit shem jolti.
[edit] The passive form
With the help of the prefix 'le-' verbs can be made passive. When a sentence is made passive, the object of the sentence becomes the subject and vice versa. The new object can be deleted. The new object receives the passive case -'ró in the passive form, indicating 'by'.
I wrote the book. Abé jahóta mo hiko. The book was written. Mo hiko le-jahóga. The book was written by me. Mo hiko le-jahóga abé'ró.
This sentence can then be inverted to a OSV order to emphasize the fact that I wrote the book:
Abé'ró'm mo hiko le-jahóga. By me the book was written.
The passive form in English implies that the action is completed, in Sasmin this does not have to be the case. If you want to explicitly say that the action (eg. the writing of the book, the eating of the bread) is finished, combine the perfect form with the passive.
I have written the book. Abé hirot jahó mo hiko. The book has been written (by me). Mo hiko le-hirok jahó (abé'ró). You will have eaten the bread. Nu hirin töl hanta. The bread will have been eaten (by you). Hanta le-hirik töl (nu'ró).
In all sentences the action has clearly been ended (or will end): the book has been written completely, the bread will be eaten completely.
Off course you can also make a progressive sentence passive:
I am eating the bread. Bé shemt töl hanta. The bread is being eaten (by me). Hanta le-shek töl (bé'ró).
Or a combination of the progressive and the perfect in the passive form:
I had been eating the bread. Bé hirat shem töl hanta. The bread had been being eaten (by me). Hanta le-hirak shem töl ( bé'ró).
[edit] The imperative
To form the imperative, place –‘o after the stem of the verb. Sentences with the imperative always end in an exclamation mark.
Vim’o! Look! (Nu) töl’o nu’c han’oj! (You) eat your bread!
[edit] Adjectives
Adjectives in the Sasmin language always end in –i. They follow the noun they modify.
Whipta gaci. The strong horse. Ferta howhi. The beautiful woman.
Adjectives can turn into nouns by adding –‘sa to them, this makes them masculine nouns.
gaci’sa strength
howhi’sa beauty/beautifulness
Nouns can also turn in adjectives by adding –‘i to them.
fer’i feminine gari’i masculine whipta gari’i in gaci the strong and masculine horse
[edit] The word order
In the Sasmin language the primary word order is Subject Verb Object: ‘Bé joltit dha hiko.’ (= ‘I read a book.’) You can however put the object of a sentence in the front, in order to place emphasis on the object. In this case the object will receive the accusative case:’Dha hiko’m bé joltit.’ (= ’A book I read.’) The new order will thus be OSV. The accusative case is -‘(e)m; the vowel is placed only when a word ends in a consonant (whip’em, thanhosh’em, …). Personal pronouns can also get the accusative:
Abé vimot nu. I see you. Nu’m abé vimot. It is you I see.
In the first sentence the standard word order (SVO) is used, ‘nu’ can only be the object of the sentence. In the second sentence the OSV order is used, ‘nu’ is marked with the accusative and thus it is clear that we’re dealing with the OSV order and ‘nu’ is emphasized.
[edit] Correlatives
The Sasmin language has a simple system of correlatives.
Interrogative Demonstrative Indefinite Universal Negative
(What) (That) (Some) (Each, Every) (No)
j- tr- pl- dhom- ini-
Kind of, sort of -ot jot trot plot dhomot iniot
Reason -ir jir trir plir dhomir iniir
Time -yn jyn tryn plyn dhomyn iniyn
Place -én jén trén plén dhomén inién
Manner -ös jös trös plös dhomös iniös
Person -ul jul trul plul dhomul iniul
Genitive case -óc jóc tróc plóc dhomóc inióc
Independent determiner -ar jar trar plar dhomar iniar
Amount -em jem trem plem dhomem iniem
This table roughly correspons to this English equivalent:
Interrogative Demonstrative Indefinite Universal Negative
(What) (That) (Some) (Each, Every) (No)
Kind of, sort of what a such a some sort of every kind of no kind of
Reason why therefore for some reason for all reasons for no reason
Time when then sometime always never
Place where there somewhere everywhere nowhere
Manner how, as thus, as somehow in every way no-how, in no way
Person who that person someone everyone no-one
Genitive case from what/whose that one's someone's everyone's no one's
Independent determiner what, which that something everything nothing
Amount how much that much some, a bit all of it none
The independent determiner 'trar' indicates a neutral distance, to make it proximal it has to be followed by '-so', to make it distal it has to be followed by '-ma'. (But trar often suffices.) The proximal and distal suffixes also work for the other demonstratives. Neutral distance means that the distance isn't important information for the listener, this could mean for instance that the object being talked about isn't present during the conversation, or that the listener already knows where the object is. In case of the latter, 'trar' functions as an emphatic definite article; more emphatic than just the definite article. The noun in case is not conjugated.
trar thanho this/that house (neutral) trar-so thanho this house (before me, proximal) trar-ma thanho that house (before you/far away, distal)
Abé'c thanho'j shek trén. My house is there (eg. at the place we're talking about, neutral) Nu'c thanho'j shek trén-so. Your house is here (before me, proximal) Hi'c thanho'j shek trén-ma. His house is there (before you/far away, distal)
