Bindingverse (Current project is the Letic Dialects)

[foxcatdog]

Presentational and Copulative sentences.
Letic often introduces new topics via means of Presentational sentences. Generally these are unmarked for nominative case and are often introduced with a verb of motion or introduction. Note these examples are in the marine dialect given the greater variety of informal texts in that dialect.

kʷɛ̃n kʷuu na
dog come here
“The dog comes over here”

mɔ̃n cɛi
mother greet
“My mother greets (you)”

cɛi kʷẽní
greet friend
“I introduce a friend”

Note not all verbs can be used in presentational phrases

na lu vĩĩ si mi mã
NOM fish leap LAT LOC water
“The fish leaps out of the water”

Alternatively locative constructions are seen.

mi vaai tu
LOC vase shelf
“There is a vase on a shelf”

kʷa lu cui
ABL fish lake
“Fish from the lake”

These can be followed by another clause describing what is done with them.

kʷa lu cui u ɲo he
ABL fish lake DEM.1.INA 3.sg.NOM bring
“Fish from the lake, that is what she brings”

The verb *wii “about/concerning” is often seen in such sentences.

wii na kʷɛ̃ncœcœ́ sa tœ̃œ̃n
about NOM nikeeya GEN tail
“Concerning the Nikeeya’s tail”

This verb could also appear in the middle of a sentence

tœ̃œ̃n wii joi ɲɛ jo
tail about big over 3.sg
“The tail, about that, it is bigger than him!”

You can use a whole sentence for these phrases

mi ɔ̃sa cɛi jũn
LOC one+person call door
“There is someone knocking at the door”

You can also modify phrases with modal auxiliaries

lysi mi ɔ̃sa cɛi jũn
informative LOC one+person call door
“You know, there is someone knocking at the door”

And you can also further modify these sentences with responses with are often modified via the reflexive

ta mi ɔ̃sa cɛi jũn mããcɛi
son LOC one+person call door REFL+call
“Son! There is someone at the door, go greet them”

A note on dialectal variation here the lack of demonstrative would be considered informal, further south borderline ungrammatical while in the northwest it wouldn’t be considered to need a demonstrative at all.

Presentationals are also similar to Existentials statements of fact. The main difference is when a verb is present in an Existential sentence it must be in the imperfective form.

kʷa mã toi e
ABL water flow hole
“The water is gushing out”

mã totoi kʷa e
water IMPF-flow ABL hole
“There is a leak”

ɲo pɔ̃ tso ta
3.sg.NOM blood three daughter
“She traces her line through her three daughters”

ɲo pɔ̃pɔ̃ tso ta
3.sg.NOM blood three daughter
“She has three daughters”
“She is tracing her line through three daughters”

Pragmatics can also result in other interpretations

mi saa su ɔ̃ lawe pu suɔ̃ lawe hi
LOC sword write one magic+word fire write one magic+word wind
“On the sword, write a rune of fire and a rune of wind”

mi saa susuɔ̃ lawe pu susu ɔ̃ lawe hi
LOC sword IMPF-write one magic+word fire IMPF-write one magic+word wind
“On the sword is a rune of fire and a rune of wind”

na wa jííni mi saa susu ɔ̃ lawe pu susu ɔ̃ lawe hi
NOM 1.sg disciple LOC sword IMPF-write one magic+word fire IMPF-write magic+word one wind
“My disciple is writing on the sword a rune of fire and a rune of wind”

In many cases locative Presentational sentences can be converted into Existential sentences via a other modifications.

fø vee ɲɛjã
on rat table
“There is a rat on the table”

vee fø ɲɛjã
rat on table
“There is a rat on the table”

For example Presentational locatives require an initial locative.
In other cases you could drop the initial locative in an existential sentence when adding another.

fø vee ɲɛjã na
on rat table here
“There is a rat on the table, right here!”

vee ɲɛjã na
rat table here
“The rat is on the table right here”

When creating Presentational sentences out of Existential ones replace any non locative or motional verbs with with.

na saa øø ɔ̃ lawe pu øø ɔ̃ lawe hi
here sword with one magic+word fire with one magic+word wind
“Here is the sword with a rune of fire and a rune of wind”


Different kinds of sentences can result in different interpretations...

Presentational
mi ɣœyjũn na
LOC outside+door=gate here
“There is a gate right here (and we should use it/it is relevant to us)”

Existential
ɣœyjũn na
outside+door=gate here
“There is a gate here”

The sentences also differed in how you would convert them into past morphemes

Presentationals used *le

le ɣœyjũn na
PERF outside+door=gate here
“There was a gate here (and i would like to inform you about it)”

While Existentials used *waa

waa ɣœyjũn na
PAST outside+door=gate here
“There was a gate here”

To convert any of these sentences to a normal one simply readd the nominative”

na ɣœyjũn na
NOM outside+door=gate here
“A gate is here”
“The gate is here”


More Examples

kʷɛ̃ncœcœ́ kʷuu jo na fue mi tso jɔ mai
nikeeya come 3.sg NOM life LOC three ORD month
“A nikeeya entered my life on the third month of the year”

mi tu le tɛ̃ĩɲa wa na ɲõne
LOC week PERF seduce 1.sg NOM wife+near
“In a week he had seduced my wife-to-be”

na jo paar jo tœ̃œ̃n sa paivua
here 3.sg demand 3.sg tail GEN marriage
“Now he demands her hand in marriage”

u ju weena jo na mɔ̃n
DEM.1.INA go displease 1.sg NOM mother
“This will displease my mother”


si ta ɲo he
LAT gift 3.sg.NOM bring
“Gifts are what she brings”

nu pɛi łai tio nai łũ sasá
silk refined few/many form DAT pillow wrap+nominalised
“Fine silk in the form of pillows and scarfs”

na cííta fajá vi ʂea jĩ
NOM princess west do impress proficiently
“The western princess easily impresses”

ɲo te sa tervu
3.sg.NOM talk GEN state+hand=diplomacy
“She talks diplomacy”

li hei paivivu ti jo taajosai wa na ta si jo na pɔ̃n
following affirmative marry under 3.sg will 1.sg NOM daughter LAT 3.sg NOM brother
“And i agreed to marry my daughter to her brother under her will”


li lei kʷɛ̃ntœ́r
following girl nikeeya
“And the girl is a nikeeya”

nar tautau jo waiti
so hug+hug=embrace 3.sg difficult+VERB
“So it is hard to embrace her”

[foxcatdog]

I think Inuudho would use things like bone weapons (or at least ones with partial bone composition) to tap into their latent spiritual power due to them once belonging to living things. Bone weapons of relatives even through heirloom weapons passed down from relative to relative would also be used with their magic keeping them still strong as long as the relative is remembered vividly.

[foxcatdog]

jõ kʷɛ̃ncœcœ́ øø mãã su wa tui ta paivivu sa ciitɛ sa jõõ fajá mi sɔ̃nmi ta sau kʷala

jõ

DEM.2.ANI

kʷɛ̃ncœcœ́

nikeeya

øø

with

mãã

reflexive

su

write

wa

1.sg

tui

act

ta

DEM.1.ANI

paivivu

heart+join=marry

sa

GEN

ciitɛ

queen+daughter=princess

sa

GEN

jõõ

kingdom

fajá

dusk+ADJ=west

mi

LOC

sɔ̃nmi

day

ta

DEM.1.ANI

sau

change

kʷala

queen

“The nikeeya i correspond with has married the princess of a western kingdom on the day she became queen”

[Man in Space]

Does this yet live?

[foxcatdog]

Not currently i have moved on to other projects

[Man in Space]

I hope you’ll return to it someday.