Anatomy of a Kaelic Sentence
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An overview of Ancient Kaelic syntax
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 23 Jun 2020, 03:15.
[comments] akaelgrammarsyntax
Ancient Kaelic has a fairly strict word order. Basic clause structure is SVO (subject verb object).
Each noun phrase is in the following order: number/determiner noun-adjsuff adjective adjphrases(conj noun verb)
Each verb phrase is in the following order: verb adverb advphrases(conj noun verb)
The overall sentence structure is:
| conjunction | num/det subject-adjsuff adj adjphr | verb adverb advphr | num/det object-adjsuff adjective adjphr | appending clauses |
Example:
El-ka temola amulo demul sae miem-yen lo('el)
Translation: "The boy traveled quickly to the river with his elder sister"
Ancient Kaelic has a lot of affixing, whether it's "li-" meaning "and," "zi-" indicating questions, or "lo-" indicating possession.
A full breakdown of order looks like this:
| conjunction | num/det zi+li+ve–noun+'m–ke/se/ye+pela/mene/adjsuff pela/mene/etc+adjective+an lo'[possessive noun phrase] | si’+verb+conjugation–advsuff pela/mene/etc+adverb | num/det zi+li+ve–noun+'m–ke/se/ye+pela/mene/adjsuff pela/mene/etc+adjective+an lo'[possessive noun phrase] | conjunction [appending clause] | zae |
Example:
Zilive-arum-ken sheol lo'maeyam-yen lo('kore) zae*
Translation: "but not my mothers’ white female puppies?"
* This particular sentence would be referred to as "tipping the word" (voshevi kuro), which is when a phrase is so bogged down by additions and descriptors that the original noun gets confused and "tips" toward its add-ons. Usually, if you cannot say a noun or verb phrase in a single breath, you're probably tipping the word.
These affixes are unique in that they can affix to the front of most words to indicate meaning.
Zi: add to a word to indicate that the word is uncertain or in question. Paired with "zae" at the end of the clause, this leads to question sentences.
Example: Pola zi-tata zae? - "Did you walk?" (whereas "Zi-pola tata zae?" is "Was it you who walked?")
See the article on questons for more.
Li: add to each word in a list to indicate an "and" connecting them
Example: Li-aru li-nyalo li-purit e palakam - “The dog, cat, and bird are animals”
For "but not..." use "live-"
Example: Li-aru li-nyalo li-purit live-esheva e palakam - “The dog, cat, and bird are animals, but not the tree.”
Ve: negates the word it's attached to
Example: El-sen ve-tateo - “She will not walk.” (whereas "Ve-el-sen tateo" is "It's not her who will walk.")
When you have multiple hyphens attached to a word, note that there is only ever one directly before the head and one directly after. Zi, li, and ve will attach to one another, in that order. Apostrophes are separate from this rule.
Putting it all together...
Combined example:
Li-kore li-pola zi-kureteo zi-chateo zi-arum live-sheo live-vet zi-nyalo-zikenzika lo'li-maeya-yen–li-maeya-ya.*
“You and I will either catch or fight either the non-black-and-white dog or my mother’s and father’s kitten who is either male or female.”
*This is also "tipping the word."
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