|
Introduction CHARACTER CHECK When you see ə, you should see a schwa (an upside-down e). When you see á, you should see an a with an accent. When you see é, you should see an e with an accent. When you see í, you should see an i with an accent. When you see ó, you should see an o with an accent. Old Sorcery is a language created for my unpublished Kalandaz Chronicles. It is spoken by the people of the land of Old Sorcery, although they do not call their own land that. They are referred to as that by the people of surrounding lands, who know only a few things about Old Sorcery: that it is the land that all the other cultures emigrated from years ago (hence old), and that people go there to train to become sorcerors (hence sorcery). Alphabet
Structure The basic structure of Old Sorcery is subject-verb-object, noun-adjective, noun-genitive, prepositional. However, since it is a highly inflected language, word order is not critical and can be varied to give emphasis. Pronouns are usually omitted and the “to be” verb (and occasionally “to have” and “to do”) can be omitted because it is implied. Verb Conjugation Past is simple past: kwon-e kurst, ‘the dog ran.’ Present, obviously: kwon-e kurs-ti, ‘the dog runs.’ Imperative is an order: kwon kurs, ‘run!’ Future tense is self-explanatory: kwon-e kurs-a-ti, ‘the dog will run.’ Any tense can be passive: me-a bheidt kwon-am, 'I was bitten by the dog.' Stative indicates a state resulting from past action, like English perfect, and can couple with aorist and future: kwon-e kurs-ti-ó, ‘the dog has run,’ kwon-e kurst-ó, ‘the dog had run,’ kwon kurs-a-ti-ó, ‘the dog will have run.’ However many endings are added to a passive verb, the -o- or -e- vowel is only added once, just after the stem. Most verb endings fit easily onto most verbs, but if the ending does not, an additional -a- is added to make it pronounceable: leikw-at-, ‘he leaves.’
Verb Modifiers Modifiers are sometimes coupled with tenses to give further information about the action. Causative indicates causation: me-a kurs-ehco-mi kwon-am, ‘I make the dog run.’ Inchoative indicates the beginning or occasionally the ending, and when used in the present tense, replaces the present tense indicator: kwon-e kurs-an, ‘the dog begins to run.’ Durative is continuing: kwon-e kurs-ah-ti-tó, ‘the dog will be running,’ and can be used without a tense to indicate an action that continues from the past into the future: kwon-e kurs-tó, ‘the dog was running and is still running.’ Optative indicates a wish: kwon-e kurs-ih-t, ‘may the dog run,’ and is strengthened by reduplication: kwon-e kurs-ih-uh-t, ‘the dog must run.’ Subjunctive is only used to indicate possibility: kwon-e kurs-ert, ‘the dog can run,’ and reduplicated subjunctive becomes ‘should’: kwon-e kurs-er-ur-ti, ‘the dog should have run.’ Iterative, while not really a mood, makes a verb out of an adjective or a noun: kwon-e bher-ə-ti, ‘the dog is brown.’
Irregular Verbs Only one at the moment, the 'to be' verb. Present stem: es-ə- Past/future stem: es- Imperative stem: est- Stative stem: e-stə- Noun Declension Old Sorcery has no articles. Instead, it uses noun endings to indicate case. Noun declensions are specified by the class of noun: humans, monsters, and God and other spirits are in the personal class, inanimate objects and unintelligent animals in the physical, and ideas, emotions, and other non-physical things (except for God and spirits) in the ideal. It is usually self-explanatory which class a noun belongs to, although you can use the declensions for another class of nouns to give it a different connotation. Nominative case is where the noun is the subject of the sentence: kwon-e bher-ə-ti, ‘the dog is brown.’ Accusative case is where the noun is the object of the sentence: me-a derk-mi kwon-am bher, ‘I see the brown dog,’ me-a derk-mi gwen-í, ‘I see women.’ Dative case is used indirect objects: me-a dó-mi kwon-am gwen-or, ‘I give the dog to the woman.’ Genitive case is often possessive, replacing ‘of’: kwon-e gwen-óm kurs-ti, ‘the woman’s dog runs.’ Ablative is used for objects of preposition: me-a kurs-m ksun kwon-es, ‘I run with the dog.’ Vocative is used when addressing the subject: gwen-or-u kous-ti, ‘women, listen!’ Vocative case, while existing for the physical class, is only used to give domestic animals instructions. The vocative for the personal class may be used on ideas or inanimate objects in an anthropomorphistic style, but it’s improper. Of course only the personal class has masculine and feminine, though masculine is used when either referring to someone of unknown gender or a group of mixed gender. |