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12. Vašt î Kûvik by Kelvin Jackson
Texts | Grammar Guide | Glossary
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Vašt î Kûvik Môg tâšî kam da kû kam ka dveh. Ol šlovik ôg kû î kâš si o tekr môg. Môg nyen âtra krî ol, a plisô ol môg. Môg spâc ol tl môg lâoft težl šlovik ôg kû. Tl to kâš si o yâš môg ka sr ka. Oft rok môg û câz dalok fî a težl šlovik ôg kû. Hear it! |
Smooth English I began to sit at the beginning of the water one time. A wave that was breaking itself down went over me. I did not try to resist, and I was pleased. I dreamed that I was running through the hill of water (wave). I feel that it breaks itself down at each moment now. If only I could go to that place far away again and go through the waves. |
Grammar
The grammar of Vašt î Kûvik is not entirely analytic, but it is close. Word order and prepositions ar used to indicate grammatical role?in general, agents/stimuli precede a verb and patients/experiencers follow. A verb with no agent is permitted?this is the equivalent of the passive voice. If a verb is intransitive, the one argument is placed before it. Number (on nouns and verbs) and tense (on verbs) are not grammatically marked, although aspect is shown by particles.
Nouns and verbs:
kâš to break down krî to resist kû water lâ to run plisô to please spâc to dream šlovik hill tâšî to sit yâš to feel*
*this verb has its argument structure reversed compared to the equivalent in English. Yâš has no good equivalent-the noun experiencing the feeling comes after, while the stimulus comes before.
Quantifiers:
fî many, much
A quantifier placed after an expression of time or distance indicates the magnitude of the time or distance.
Pronouns:
câz that/this dveh some, any (indefinite pronoun) môg I si reflexive sr each, every to he/she/it
When a non-personal pronoun is used with a preposition, it becomes a pronoun referring to whatever type of noun the object of the preposition must be. For instance, "at that place" would be simply "da câz".
Prepositions:
da at (spatial) ka at (temporal) ôg of (partitive) te past û to
If a preposition is used with no object, the default object is the present time or location. When modifying nouns, prepositional phrases follow their heads, but they may come anywhere in the sentence when modifying the verb.
Prepositional Suffixes:
-kr on the surface of -lok far from -žl inside
Aspect markers:
kam inceptive ol perfective rok repetitive
Aspect markers are placed after the verb to which they refer, or at the beginning of the sentence if there is no verb. They may also be used with nouns.
Modal verbs:
âtra to try
Modal verbs must immediately precede the main verb.
Verb suffixes:
-oft inaccessible/hypothetical
If there is no verb in a sentence, but a verb suffix is to be used, the suffix is placed at the beginning of the sentence, before any aspect marker that may also appear.
Miscellaneous:
a and î starts relative clause nyen not o ends subordinate and relative clauses tl starts non-relative subordinate clause
There is no relative pronoun. Instead, the slot in the relative clause which the head would have filled is left empty.
Not every sentence has a verb. If there is no verb, and a prepositional phrase is present in the sentence, a verb appropriate for said prepositional phrase may be inferred. This is how to have, to give, to go, etc. are rendered in Vašt î Kûvik.
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