Niđalosa Dovart - Nithalosian Verbs: view article

Menu 1. Suffix stacking 2. Potential -ša 3. Past -va 4. Future -đa 5. Aorist -la 6. Negative -yo 7. Conjunctive -ya 8. Relative -na This article aims to cover the way in which Nithalosian verbs conjugate. The first thing to know about Nithalosian verbs, is in the infinitive form, these always end in -i.

[top]Suffix stacking

Nithalosian verbs are agglutinative - meaning that all additional information that can be added, is added directly to the verb. In Nithalosians case, this is done at the end of the verb.

But how you decide which order these go in? Simple, Nithalosian employs a suffix stacking order. What this means, is that each suffix is given an 'order', which is basically a measure of its heirarchy. The lower the order number, the earlier in the order of suffixes it must appear.

There are three levels of orders: first, second and third. Below is a list of the different suffixes used, and their 'order' number. Note that there are three forms that are not shown through suffixes: passive voice, active voice and present tense.

Order #	Function	Suffix
1	potential (can)	-ša
1	past	-va
1	future	-đa
1	aorist	-la
2	negative (not)	-yo
2	conjunctive	-ya
3	suggestive (should)	-om
3	imperative	-o
3	relative	-na

[top]Potential -ša

The potential form shows that the ability or potential to do something exists. It is best translated into English as 'can' or 'able to'. It also expresses that an event is very likely to occur.

Niđalos vaš vomi I (am) speak(ing) Nithalosian

Niđalos vaš vomiša I can speak Nithalosian

[top]Past -va

This is quite simply the past tense of the verbs. It is always used when showing that an event happened in the immediate, or distal past, and is always formed by adding -va to the infinitive verb. The past tense constrasts with the Aorist -la in that it shows that an action is not necessarily complete, or that it is not necessarily a permanent thing. When there is no need to specify completeness, -va is preferred.

Koa negau yomeiva I read [part of] this book / I was reading this book

[top]Future -đa

The future tense -đa in Nithalos can only be used when the event will definitely happen in the future. When something is unsure, the present/infinitive verb is preferred, and sometimes the potential can also be used.

Koyen taprau kutniđa Tomorrow I will buy food

[top]Aorist -la

This is similar to the past tense -va in that it shows an action that happened in the past. However, the Aorist -la is used when you want to specify that an action was completely done, or that it is a permanent change (or unchangeable), or that something is unfortunate (used only in very negative contexts).

Koa negau yomeiva I read [part of] this book / I was reading this book

Koa negau yomeila I read [all of] this book

[top]Negative -yo

This is quite simply the suffix used to negate a verbal phrase. Please note that in some super formal or super old texts the modal preposition 'on' is used instead.

Niđalos vaš vomišayo I can not speak Nithalosian

Niđalos vaš on vomiša I can not speak Nithalosian

[top]Conjunctive -ya

The conjunctive suffix is used in Nithalos for joining two listed ideas together, or associating a secondary verb to the same sentence. In simple terms, when you're listing actions, or using multiple verbs in one sentence, use -ya. In the below example, the speaker is listing things they did. Notice that all the sentences are past tense, but only the final verb needs to reflect this. The -ya shows that these are related ideas - including temporally.

Kona toaš to eštiya, yuda go iriya, draseu nomiva. Today I went to town, met a friend, and drank beer.

These examples show a second verb used with the first. In some cases, the auxiliary form is preferred (where one exists), otherwise the infinitive of the verb is to be used. Whichever is the primary action should be said first with -ya, then the second action second (simple really!)

Koal ogramviya ehen You are not allowed to smoke here

Koal ogramviya vupora. Smoking is forbidden here.

Note that 'ehen' is a modal, and 'vupori' is a verb. In a sense, the -ya can be seen to nominalise the primary verb in order for it to be used with the secondary verb.

[top]Relative -na

Nithalos uses a verb suffix in order to use relative clauses. The suffix -na effectively turns the preceeding clause/sentence into the adjective to describe the following noun. For example:

An taprina tiša The cheese that I ate

The colours show above that in Nithalos, the fragment is reversed. Using this in a full sentence might look something like this:

An taprina tišau vromiva. I liked the cheese that I ate

This still shows that compared to the English, the sentence is reversed. The only exception to this is with stative sentences where the parent sentence is effectively split into two (these are often marked with commas).

Kou an taprina tiša This is the cheese that I ate

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