Xurnese grammar

Introduction	The language of Xurno — Typographical conventions — Family relationships
Phonology	Consonants — Vowels — Stress — Transliteration — Sound samples — Dialectal variations — Sound changes
Morphology	Nominal morphology — Plurals Adjectives Pronouns — Old Xurnese — Corauši — Variations — Other anaphora Verbal morphology — Indicative — Subjunctive — ize ‘to be’ — Irregular verbs — Negative verbs
Derivational Morphology	Nominalizations — Adjectivizations — Verbalizations
Syntax	Sentence word order Auxiliaries Noun phrases Pronouns — Proximative and obviative — Reflexives— Impersonal expressions Numbers — Postpositions — Conjunctions The verbal system — Indicative — Subjunctive — Simple auxiliaries — Negation — Subordinating auxiliaries — Compound auxiliaries — Imperatives — Copulas
Transformations	Simple cases — Yes-no questions — Interrogative pronouns — Conjunction — Conditional expressions Abstract transforms — Pronominalization — Infinitivization — The auxiliary transform — Nominalization Subordination — Sentential constituents — Coordinate subordination — Relative clauses — Causatives — Adverbial relative clauses — Adjective complements Topicalization — Fronting — Backing
Semantics	The meaning of meaning — Structuralism — Intention and utterance — Meanings upon meanings — Language and logic Semantic change Metaphor systems — Grammaticalized metaphor — Perspective Categories and prototypes — Basic categories Register Some semantic fields — Hours of the day — Days of the week — The seasons — Names and titles — Expletives and obscenities
Pragmatics	Deixis Implicature — Conversational maxims — Lexical implicatures — Presupposition — Language and logic Speech acts Discourse structure — Turn-taking — Adjacency pairs — Pre-sequences — Long turns — Greetings and closings — Repair — Pragmatic markers Narrative Politeness — Politeness strategies — A Xurnese view Real-world knowledge — Frames and metonymy
Examples	1. A Defense of Women
	2. Diary of the Prose Wars: Deru
	3. An infatuation with clocks
Writing
Lexicon

Xurnese, called by its speakers Corauši or Xornaurši, is the language of Xurno, the great Southern nation, and the southern anchor of the multilobed cultural unit which is Ereláe. It is spoken as a primary language by over sixty million people, and as an acquired language by many millions more, to say nothing of the influence it has had on other languages in the Axunaic cultural area (known as Xengiman, the Greater Xengi).

Xurnese is highly dialectalized; each province has its own distinct dialect, and those of the outlying regions (Xazno, Bolon, Jeor, Gotanel, Idenar) are virtually separate languages.

Corauši means ‘Curau speech’, referring to the imperial capital, Curau. Curau dialect is the standard for art, education, commerce, and government. As the fate of regional literature is national indifference, there is only a small amount of serious dialectal writing; most of this is concentrated in the largest cities, notably Inex, Lirau, Jinayzu, and Lij.

As a complication, the present capital is not Curau but Inex. The prestige of Curau as the Xurnese homeland and the home of its greatest writers has so far been sufficient to enforce a Coralaur rather than a purely Inegri standard on the nation; but of course a huge number of very influential speakers are native to Inex rather than Curau. As some have put it, the de facto standard is an resident of Inex attempting to speak Corauši.

The strength of the standard often leads both the Xurnese and outsiders to accord their language more unity than it really has. Xurnese nationalists even maintain that Čeiy speaks a form of Xurnese, although most everyone, especially the Čeiyu, considers Ṭeôši to be a separate language.

This document describes only standard Corauši Xurnese. There is a Language Agency (Šundaus) in Curau which defines the written standard. I’ve tried to follow actual usage rather than the Agency’s prescriptions; but its dictionaries and grammars are invaluable.

Typographical conventions

Boldface is used for standard Xurnese words, italics for other languages.
- As a corollary, boldface single letters or digraphs refer to graphemes; thus I write b or au instead of <b> or <au>.
Within the text, English glosses of single words are given in quotes (i.e. šun ‘language’), which extends without confusion to other langauges (Wede:i bo ‘one’). Phrases and sentences however are glossed in italics: Oyes ende yu šu May your path be pleasant.
Full sentences are normally accompanied by a morpheme-by-morpheme gloss, and a free English equivalent. In these glosses,
- Pronouns are abbreviated by person and number: 2s = second person singular. This is briefer and more accurate than using English pronouns.
- Grammatical elements are capitalized: e.g. PERF = perfective, SUB = subordinator.
- A hyphen separates morphemes; a dot indicates multi-word glosses. Thus not.know-PAST.3s for zeynuči indicates that zeyn- is a single morpheme meaning ‘not know’, while -uči is a fused morpheme expressing both past tense and third person singular.
Discussions of a linguistic feature generally use color to highlight instances of that feature. In the section on auxiliaries, for instance, the auxiliaries in a sentence are shown in green: Yes mavis šač I don’t love you. In the transformations section, green and blue highlight entire structures so it’s clear what moves where.

Family relationships

Xurnese, the language of their major rivals at sea, has been studied for many centuries by the Verdurians, who call it ahuenaš. They found it difficult but fascinating, and so little suspected its relation to Verdurian that it was used as an argument against the first philologists, who boldly theorized that all languages derived from one. “Show us how we’re related to that,” ran the taunt.

In fact Xurnese is a member of the Axunaic branch of the Eastern language family to which Verdurian also belongs. Modern linguists can trot out many similar words (e.g. rama/rana ‘frog’, tas/ta ‘we’, mul/mole ‘soft’) to show this, as well as dissimilar-sounding but related pairs (xu ‘bad’ / čelt ‘evil’, rae/lädan ‘go’, šic/hep ‘seven’).

The affinity has been disguised not only by sound changes, but by semantic and lexical divergence. Xurnese has inherited many words from the Wede:i civilization which preceded it in Xengiman (for details see the Axunašin grammar), as well as from the Skourene and Tžuro cultures it has interacted and struggled with.

Though we say Corauši derives from Axunašin, it’s actually more complicated than that. Before the rise of Axunai, Curau (then named Tural) spoke a variety closer to Mounšun, the dialect of Tannaza. During imperial times the speech of the delta supplanted local dialects throughout Šuzep, the middle Xengi, but without erasing some distinctive local vocabulary and language features. Old Xurnese, the language of the early Xurnese empire (fl. 2700) and the direct ancestor of modern Xurnese, derives from this somewhat divergent form of Axunašin.

Modern Inegri dialect was, in turn, strongly influenced by the language of Curau, which was for a time the larger city. So in some ways Inegri is not a purely straightforward descendant of Axunašin either.

The case is similar to that of Italian, which derives not from Rome but Florence.

PHONOLOGY

The Xurnese sound system is as follows:

corresponding to the transliterations:

Consonants

The b/v distinction is not phonemic; this is a single phoneme pronounced [b] initially and [v] between vowels. I write the allophones distinctly as a frank concession to English speakers (and in imitation of Verdurian transliterations).

The use of c and k does not follow Verdurian: c represents /ts/ and k is /k/. C is phonemic, though barely; cf. the minimal pair ceš ‘this one’ / teš ‘halves’. D and dz are also phonemic (cf. dus ‘house’ / dzus ‘in back of’) but even less so, since dz cannot occur finally. Using a digraph for dz reflects Xurnese usage; a word like jadzíes ‘sculptor’ may be written jad-zi-es, whereas c is never split up into *ts.

Somewhat confusingly, x and j generally derive from Axunašin x and j, but represent different sounds. J is /dʒ/ as in English, not Axunašin /ʝ/. X is /s/ initially and /ks/ (as in Axunašin) elsewhere.

(So, x and s have merged initially? Perhaps; but in Inegri initial x is pronounced /z/. Residents of Curau and Inex are aware of this difference and use it to imitate each other. Of course, only literate speakers do a good job of this; the writing system distinguishes between s/z/x.)

Vowels

e is closed [e] except in diphthongs; o is closed [o] unless followed by an r. However, both tend to be more open in closed syllables.

Common diphthongs are ay /aj/, ey /ɛj/, oy /oj/, au or aw /aw/, eu /ɛw/.

Stress

Stress placement is normally predictable: the final syllable is stressed if it ends in a consonant (excluding y), otherwise the previous syllable. If the stressed syllable falls elsewhere, it is indicated with an accent (in our transcription; Xurnese writing never indicates stress).

Examples:

Xurno ['sur no] Curau ['tsu raw] šeguac ‘bury’ [ʃe gu 'ats]

xurney ‘Xurnese’ ['sur nɛj] Corauši [tsɔ 'raw ʃi] jadzíes ‘sculptor’ [dʒa 'dzi ɛs]

xurnéy [sur 'nɛj] Endajué [ɛn da dʒu 'e] súmex ‘epoch’ ['su mɛks]

Meša ['me ʃa] Inex [i 'nɛks] cunde ‘thus’ ['tsun de]

Šuzep [ʃu 'zɛp] Čeiy [tʃɛj] midzirc ‘judge’ [mi 'dzirts]

Bolon [bo 'lɔn] cauč ‘dance’ [tsawtʃ] rešeji ‘looked’ [re 'ʃe dʒi]

Niormen [ni ɔr 'mɛn] Jeor [dʒe 'ɔr] Bezuxau [be zu 'ksaw]

Transliteration

The transliteration used here is essentially that used by Verdurian and Kebreni scholars, with these differences:

They use Ismaîn ç for my c (but sometimes use ts), and c for my k.
They use h for my x (which leads to borrowings like haleza for xaleza).
They mark stress accent following Verdurian rules, though this requires that many more words get an accent.
Sometimes they just get things wrong. I’ve had a devil of a time tracking down and fixing some of their errors— e.g. *Culau for Curau, *Bezuxao for Bezuxau. For years I even referred to *Xurnáš for ‘Xurnese’ without realizing that it was a Verdurian confusion of Xurno with ahuenaš (deriving from Axunašin).

(j) is borrowed from Flaidish, and

(w) from Ismaîn or Kebreni.

It’s a perfectly serviceable transliteration, and if the b/v distinction is bad phonetics, it helps the Verdurians and it will help English speakers too. Aw/au are merged in Corauši but not in Inegri.

The Xurnese script is part logographic, part syllabic. The syllabic portion is extremely archaic; e.g. Inegri is written <wei-ne'x-ri>, which matches <wei-ne'x> for Inex and Axunašin Weinex, but is hopeless for a transliteration. Fortunately the Xurnese recognize their pedagogic problem and dictionaries often provide ad hoc phonetic glosses for difficult spellings. These match the Verdurian transliterations in almost all cases, and I’ve used them to transliterate words not attested in Verdurian sources.

Sound samples

Corauši
Xurnese
Ir nevu jadzíes mnošuac.
My niece is dating a sculptor.
To am šus bunji dis kes denjic.
He hopes one day to govern a province.
Syu cu šus izrues šač.
Myself, I don’t envy that province.
pija, saučis, čaši, miruj
filth, die, helmets, brain - words from map below

Dialectal variations

The major dialect regions of Xurno are:

Dialect Region Provinces / States

Corauši the middle Xengi, esp. Corau Šuzep

Inegri the Xengi delta, esp. Inex Šiyku

Jimbri the Tanel peninsula Tanel, western Gotanel

Lejur the upper Xengi Rau Xengi

Evangri Lake Van and the southeast Nior, Idzinar, eastern Gotanel

Idestri the Ideis valley Niormen, Rau Niormen, Bukanel

Rajjari the Ran valley Rajjay, Bozan

Momori Jeor Tásuc Tag; eastern Jeor

Čimagri the Čiqay valley Čiqay

Bolongri Bolon Bolon

Xazengri the Hasun valley Xazno

The dialects largely correspond to provinces for good reason: these are the natural divisions of Xurno, largely defined by its river valleys.

The map shows the pronunciations of four words across Xurno: pija (Ax. pija) ‘filth’ , xaučis (xučik) ‘to die’, čaši (čiaši) ‘enemies’, miruj (meiruj) ‘brain’.

Some characteristics of the dialects, as exemplified by the sample words (but by no means an exhaustive description):

Inegri:

Medial č j are pronounced [ʃʃ ʒʒ] (thus, č still contrasts with š).
Initial x is pronounced [z]; this has spread to all the coastal areas (including Jinayzu but not inland Idestri).
The diphthongs au eu are rounded (and their offset is laxed). Some sort of rounding of these diphthongs is characteristic of all the eastern dialects. However, this doesn’t affect aw ew.

Jimbri:

Medial č j are pronounced [ʃʃ ʒʒ], and x- is [z], as in Inegri.
Diphthongs au eu become rounded and lose their offset: [œ ø].
Initial č becomes [ʃ], c becomes [s].
Ax. ei is subject to umlaut before u.
Final -j, -č are deaffricated.
Ax. final -k is lost.

Lejur:

Ax. diphthongs become long vowels.
a is backed when stressed, and raised finally.

Evangri:

Diphthongs au eu merge to long [y:].
Initial x- retains its Ax. value [ks].
Final -j, -č are deaffricated.
a is raised when stressed, laxed finally.
B/v remain phonemic; thus the local toponym Van.

Idestri:

Initial p before a high vowel fricativizes to [ps].
Initial x- is pronounced [kʃ] (though not in Jinayzu where it’s [z]).
Stressed vowels tend to break into diphthongs with a laxed offset. Perhaps to contrast, diphthongs such as au have a laxed onset and a strengthened offset.
Final -j, -č are deaffricated with compensatory lengthening.

Rajjari:

Medial č j are pronounced [ʃ ʒ] (thus č merges with š).
Ax. ei did not raise to i but became [ɛ]; this retention is shared with Xazengri and Bolongri, and affects ou as well.
High vowels lower before a final fricative or affricate.
Bozangri is sometimes distinguished as a dialect, though it is very close to Rajjari. Its primary distinction is that it was held by the royalists for longer than almost any other region, and never entirely adapted the Revaudo pronoun system (described below).

Momori:

š j are pronounced [ɕ ʑ] in Momori, like Jeori śź; medial č merges with š.
Initial x- is pronounced [z].
The offset on diphthongs is markedly lowered.
b/v remain phonemic, while ŋ has been borrowed from Jeori.

Čimagri:

Ax. final -k becomes [q]. Q is phonemic in this dialect, most likely borrowed from the Naviu languages; thus the toponyms Čiqay and Diqun Bormai.
Initial x- is pronounced [z].
Final -i was generally lost, but in most dialects it was restored in the plural by analogy. Čimagri is an exception.
Ax. ei did not raise to i but became [ɪ].
Final -a is weakened to schwa.

Bolongri:

Ax. ei did not raise to i but became [ɛ].
Ax. final -k is [ʃ], a more conservative form than standard [s]; compare Xazengri [tʃ].
Diphthongs tend to weaken their onsets.
Ax. x is pronounced [ç], similar to Xazengri [x] but more fronted.

Xazengri:

Stressed vowels tend to break, giving a distinctive drawl. Unstressed vowels weaken.
Ax. ei did not raise to i but became [e].
Ax. x is pronounced [x]. This seems to date back to Axunemi times, and to be responsible for Cađinor Aȟuenai.
Xazengri has acquired phonemic q from Verdurian.
Ax. final -k is [tʃ], a more conservative form than standard [s].
Medial -d- becomes r.

The Xurnese writing system is unable to represent most dialectal variation, inasmuch as it’s partly logographic, and partly based on Corauši syllables. Occasionally misspellings are used (rather haphazardly) to give a local flavor to a provincial character— e.g. xaučis might be written xiučis to suggset Evangri, kxeučis for Idestri, šiwčič for Xazengri. However, there is little attempt to write the dialects; even popular songs are written in standard Corauši.

As Tásuc Tag is a separate state, there is a little less pressure to use the standard, but this mostly means that more New Jeori words are used.

Sound changes from Axunašin to Xurnese

See the xurnese.sc sound change file.

MORPHOLOGY

Nominal morphology

Native grammars maintain that Xurnese nouns have dominant, subordinate, and genitive case, as well as civú, goro, and čeyke gender.

In fact these are archaizing fantasies— or at best aids for teaching Axunašin. The grammarians assign ‘case’ according to the Axunašin etymon, inasmuch as Xurnese nouns derive from either the dominant or subordinate case in Axunašin. For instance buma ‘cow’ derives from the subordinate case bouma, while bus ‘bull’ derives from dominant case bouz.

‘Genitives’ are rare, and are best treated as a form of derivational morphology.

‘Gender’ is even easier— e.g. buma and bus are both goro gender, like their etymons. There is no gender agreement in Xurnese, but admittedly the plural paradigms usually correspond to the ancient gender— e.g. nouns ending in -a pluralize in -i (koma ‘house’ → komi) if they derive from the civú gender, but in -ay (rina ‘river’ → rinay) if they were goro gender. But instead of learning an arbitrary gender for many words, why not just remember the arbitrary plural?

Plurals

Xurnese plurals are indeed difficult. There were already many irregular plurals in Axunašin, and these have been complicated by sound change and by derivation from different cases and genders, though analogy has also simplified the results somewhat.

The most common plural (about a third of all nouns) is added -i; e.g. raun ‘tongue’ → rauni.
The next most common (20%) is -ú; e.g. nusirc ‘doctor’ → nusircú.
The remainder mostly change the final consonant; e.g. dus ‘house’ → dum.
Some, due to piled up sound changes, are entirely opaque: ayu ‘owl’ → wiw; siwe ‘pond’ → suw; xayu ‘sky’ → xaul.

If that weren’t enough, many plurals incorporate a vowel change as well; usually u → au as in móruc ‘form’ → moraup or i → ay as in riju ‘room’ → rayjú.

The table below summarizes the most common patterns (excluding vowel changes). Quite a few plurals are predictable— especially for those with a good knowledge of Axunašin—but it may be easiest simply to memorize the plural for each noun. The lexicon gives plural forms for all nouns that have one.

Nouns in Plural Examples

-a -i
-ay koma → komi
rina → rinay

-c -p
-r
-y šuc → šup
gec → ger
juc → juy

-irc -ircú nusirc → nusircú

-č -š (but some -c) beč → beš

-d -c red → rec

-e -i nune → nuni

-i -w
-ú torei → torew
eči → ečú

-k -ki reyk → reyki

-um -we kasum → kaswe

-m -mi dum → dumi

-n -ni
-nú raun → rauni
meyn → meynú

-udo -udzú ammudo → ammudzú

-o -u goro → goru

-p -pi
-vú cip → cipi
teyp → teyvú

-r -ri
-rú ber → beri xor → xorú

-s -c
-
-si
-m
-sú ros → roc
ujes → uje
mis → misi
dus → dum
yeys → yeysú

-š -č
-ši ješ → jič
seš → seši

-u -ú saysu → saysú

-x -s aušex → aušas

-Vy -V’y zalay → zaláy

-z -zi
-zú xiaz → xiazi
moz → mozú

-C (vowel change) kon → keun

Adjectives

Adjectives do not have gender, but they do form plurals—matching the noun’s plural suffix rather than having one of their own. For instance:

saul xuma a young man
sauli xumi young men
saulú payvú young fathers
sauláy zaláy young warlords
saulé yaté young masters
saulwe edwe young slaves

The adjective does not attempt to match pluralization by consonant or vowel change:

saul emur young husbands
saul nyew young emperors
saul imimes young sea captains

Some adjectives (indicated in the lexicon) have a separate root in the plural: reu mes beautiful woman, reuri mesi beautiful women.

Use the singular form with pronouns or unexpressed subjects (e.g. Saul izom We are young).

Adverbs are formed with the postposition ga: reu ga ‘beautifully’. (Axunašin -oyo survives in a few words as -yo, as in rumyo ‘a long time’, but these are now just lexical anomalies.)

Comparatives are formed with pali, dopali ‘more, less’; superlatives with dzulé, dzudo ‘most, least’: pali saul ‘younger’, dzulé saul ‘youngest’. The term of comparison may be expressed by subordination: yuti na pali reu more beautiful than flowers.

Pronouns

The pronominal system shows considerable change from Axunašin. Only the first person pronouns are direct reflexes of their Axunašin equivalents.

Old Xurnese pronouns

It is useful to present the pronominal system first in an archaic form, that of Old Xurnese (c. 2750). This system underlies the later so-called dzunye ‘royalist’ system, and that of several modern dialects, notably Bozangri. For simplicity’s sake, only the nominative forms are given.

singular plural

high low high low

1 siu si tas ta

2 riezič ri miezič moš

3 tošezič to kiezič ke

In form the high 2nd and 3rd person pronouns derive from forms meaning e.g. ‘your greatness’ (Ax. rir ezičou), ‘his/her greatness’ (toiš ezičou). These are attested in many forms showing varying levels of abbreviation.

The usage of the high and low forms was quite complex. The grammarians’ explanation was that ‘high’ forms were used for superiors; ‘low’ forms for inferiors. Examples:

A noble speaking to a maid calls himself siu and the maid ri.
The maid would call herself si and her master riezič.
The same noble calls himself si when speaking to the Emperor.
The Emperor addresses him as riezič.
Addressing peers, socially elevated persons used the high forms, the masses used only low forms.

There were many exceptions: for instance, husbands and wives at home always used the low forms— except for nobles in arranged marriages, who used the high forms!

The grammarians’ explanation does not explain why nobles addressed lower nobles with ‘high’ forms, as if they were superiors; and does not provide much guidance for speaking to equals. A better formulation might be that the ‘high’ forms are court forms, used to refer to the noble and the educated in social situations.

The noble and the servant thus consistently use court forms for nobles, commoner forms for commoners.
The upper-class use of commoner pronouns when addressing their (few) superiors can then be interpreted as conscious self-abasement.
The domestic use of commoner forms was a form of linguistic relaxation; one put off court speech at home just as one removed uncomfortable court dress.

The Corauši system

Compare now the modern Corauši system:

singular plural

nom acc gen nom acc gen

1 syu i ir tas toy cir

2 yes yes oyes myes myes mir

3 pr toš toš tir, otoš kyes kyes xir

3 ob to to tir, oto

The high/low distinction has disappared, a victim of the egalitarian climate of the Revaudo revolution. Note that it was the high and not the low forms that survived— in effect, everyone would now address each other as peers of the educated class, which would have been how the Revaudo intellectuals addressed each other.

The accusative is retained only in the 1st person.

The genitives derive from Axunašin, with the 1s/2s -r ending generalized, except for the 2s and alternate 3s forms which consist of the adposition o plus the nominative form. (O is now a postposition, so these words are archaic in form.)

It is awkward to have just one 3s pronoun; Corauši has therefore innovated an additional one out of the archaic low form. Thus toš serves as a proximative, to as an obviative.

The 3rd person forms given above are used for animate referents only. For inanimates use ceš ‘this one’ or cuš ‘that one’ instead.

Variations

There is considerable dialectal variation in the pronominal system. Bozangri is noted for using the dzunye ‘royalist’ system, which retains the high/low forms:

singular plural

nom acc gen nom acc gen

1 syu ic ir ta to toyš

2 high yezič jezič jezič o mozič muzič muzič o

2 low ri ej rir moš mu mye

3 high toič toič toič o kezič kezič kezič o

3 low to toy toš ke ke key

As another example, Čimagri, in the far west, has generalized the low rather than the high forms:

singular plural

nom acc gen nom acc gen

1 si i ir ta to tei

2 ri ej rir moš mon mei

3 to to tir ke ken kei

Also of note are Evangri in the far east, which has collapsed the nominative/accusative distinction; and Lejur in the upper Xengi which has innovated masculine and feminine forms in the 2nd and 3rd person singular.

Other anaphora

Adjective Person Place Time Reason Manner

question ji ji • je jinar jideym tun jende

which who/what where when why how

this ci ceš inar idzum citun cinde

this this one here now for this this way

that cu cuš cinar cideym cutun cunde

that that one there then therefore that way

none do duox donar duoyo donde

no,
nothing nobody nowhere never no way

some bunji bunjisu amnar andeym amende

some,
something someone somewhere sometime somehow

many maus maussu mausinar mausiga mausende

many many people many places often in many ways

every ez ezisu eznar ezdeym ezende

every,
everything everyone everywhere always wholly

Of these anaphora only ji ‘who, what’ has an accusative form, je. There are no genitive forms; use the postposition o.

For inanimates (things), use ji / ceš / cuš (from the person column) but then do / bunji / maus / ez (from the adjective column).

The anaphora in the ‘some’ row can be translated ‘any’ in negative sentences.

Verbal morphology

Xurnese has both inflected and synthetic tenses. This section concentrates on the inflected forms; for their usage and other constructions, see the section on Syntax.

Conjugations

As in Axunašin, there are three conjugations; it’s effectively meaningless which one a particular verb is.

Verb agreement

Verbs must agree in person and number with the subject of the sentence.

Verbs no longer have second person forms in standard Xurnese. Third person forms are used with the second person pronouns (which, as we have seen, developed from respectful third-person expressions).

The following chart shows the three regular conjugations or verb classes, using the regular verbs kalis ‘please’, reše ‘look at’, and čir ‘cook’. Irregular forms are common, and will be discussed below.

(A few verbs have an infinite in -i; they conjugate with the verbs in -e.)

The indicative

Present Perfect

-is -e - -is -e -

1s kal-ú reš-ú čir-ú kal-ijú reš-ejú čir-ijú

3s kal-e reš čir kal-ije reš-ej čir-ij

1p kal-um reš-om čir-um kal-ijum reš-ejom čir-ayjum

3p kal-uc reš-ayc čir-uc kal-ijuc reš-ejayc čir-ayjuc

Past Future

-is -e - -is -e -

1s kal-ije reš-eju čir-ije kal-ip reš-eyu čir-iye

3s kal-ayš reš-eji čir-iji kal-ayp reš-ey čir-í

1p kal-ayjum reš-ejum čir-ijim kal-yum reš-eum čir-im

3p kal-ijayc reš-ejuc čir-ijeyc kal-yayc reš-euc čir-yeyc

Sound change rendered the ordinary past tense of Axunašin too close to the present, and it was replaced by the past intensive.

The present intensive became the perfect tense.

There are no 2s or 2p forms in Corauši. (There are in certain dialects, notably Bozangri and Xazengri.)

Some mnemonics:

Personal endings:
- 1s usually ends in -ú (present, perfect); or -e / u (other tenses)
- 3s usually has a null ending or a single vowel
- 1p always ends in -m
- 3p always ends in -c.
The perfect is formed by infixing -ij- or -ej; the only irregularity being the the change to -ayj- in the plural for the third conjugation.
The past is formed with the same infixes, but slightly different endings (different vowels).
The future derves etymologically from an infix -iv- or -ev, but the v was almost always lost, and the vowels have interacted to form something of a mess.

The subjunctive

Present Perfect

-is -e - -is -e -

1s kal-idú reš-imú čir-imú kal-ugú reš-ogú čir-uswe

3s kal-ide reš-im čir-im kal-uge reš-eux čir-aux

1p kal-idum reš-imom čir-imum kal-ugum reš-ogom čir-usum

3p kal-iduc reš-imayc čir-imuc kal-usuc reš-osayc čir-usuc

Past Future

-is -e - -is -e -

1s kal-idije reš-imeju čir-imije kal-anye reš-enyu čir-anye

3s kal-idayš reš-imeji čir-imiji kal-an reš-en čir-an

1p kal-idijum reš-imejum čir-imijim kal-anum reš-enum čir-anim

3p kal-idijayc reš-imejuc čir-imijeyc kal-anayc reš-enuc čir-anyeyc

Mnemonics:

The present is formed by infixing -id- or -im.
The perfect infixes are -ug- /-og- / -us (but the 3s is not quite regular).
The past does not derive directly from Axunašin at all; it’s the root from the present subjunctive (-id- / -im-) plus the endings from the past indicative.
The future infixes -an- or -en-; the endings are simplified forms of those in the future indicative.

ize ‘to be’

This verb has irregular present, past, subjunctive present, and subjunctive past forms.

Present Past Subj Pres Subj Past

1s zú zyu šui šuyu

3s ze zi šu šúe

1p izom ezum šuom šuum

3p ayzuc ezyuc šuayc šuyuc

The perfect and future forms are regular: izejú ‘I really am’, izeyu ‘I will be’.

The subjunctive perfect and future use the regular endings and the root šu-: šuogú ‘if I really am’, šuenyu ‘if I will be’.

Irregular verbs

The verb root is almost always that of the infinitive (minus the -is or -e ending). Irregularities concentrate in the present tense. Some examples:

Conjugation Infinitive 1s present 3s present 1p present 1s perfect

1 (-is) jausis jugú juge jugum jausijú

pudzis pudú pude pudum pudzijú

rues roú ruwe roum ruejú

2 (-e) jidze jidú jic jidom jidejú

mide midú mic midom midejú

3 (-0) baus bugú baus busum bausijú

dzaus dzusú dzaus dzusum dzausijú

aycaur aycorú aycaur aycorum aycaurijú

jec jetú jec jetum jecijú

kes kezú kes keyzum kezijú

As seen above, the typical irregularity is a different vowel and/or final consonant, and affects both the 1s and 1p.

The 3p will have the same root as the 1p (e.g. juguc, jidayc, keyzuc).
The lexicon will give the 1s form, in these cases.
In the rare cases where the 1s is regular and the 1p is not (keyzum), the lexicon will give the 1p form instead.
The perfect subjunctive will have the same root as the 1p present indicative (e.g. jugugú, jidogú, keyzuswe).

The 3s may follow the 1s/1p irregularity, may have its own irregular form, or may be regular.

The lexicon will give the 3s form if it is irregular (e.g. juge, jic), but not if it is regular (e.g. ruwe, baus).

Some infinitives are irregular; in this case the lexicon will give the root.

In the 3rd conjugation, the 3s singular form is identical to the infinitive (irregular or not).

De ‘give’ has an irregular present tense, shown below. Other forms are regular, based on the root d-, except for the present and past subjunctive whose root is dz-.

Present

1s dú

3s dzi

1p dom

3p dzayc

Negative verbs

The negative mood has disappeared from Xurnese, except for the following verbs, which are all auxiliaries. In effect these have all been lexicalized as independent verbs.

šače rugačis zenače rače xamače mojač

not be not want not know not go not come may not be

Present

1s šač rugač zenač rač xamač mojače

3s šači rugači zenači rači xamači mojači

1p šačum rugačum zenačum račum xamačum mojačim

3p šačuc rugačayc zenačuc račuc xamačuc mojačeyc

Past

1s šuč ruč zeynauč rauč xamauč mojuče

3s šuči ruči zeynuči rauči xamuči mojuči

1p šučum ručum zeynučum raučum xamučum mojučim

3p šučuc ručayc zeynučuc raučuc xamučuc mojučeyc

Šizenače ‘not be able to’, saragače ‘must not’, jidače the negative passive, and imišače ‘not begin to’ conjugate like zenače.

There is no negative perfect, future, or subjunctive.

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Derived words are often inherited from Axunašin, which can make the derivation less transparent: the derivation Curau + -ri = coralaur ‘of Curau’ makes sense only in terms of the Axunašin equivalent Turaluri. Changes in vowels are common (saul + -ayc → sulayc ‘youth’; cf. Ax. suli → sulito); changes in final consonants are also seen (dax + -iš → dásiš ‘imperial’; cf. dax → daxiš).

Nominalizations

Many derivational suffixes are not accented in the singular; e.g. réuric, brúndeč, símex. The plural has normal accent: reurir, brundeš, simas. Such suffixes are marked “unacc.” below.

General

1. Adjectives: -ic (unacc.; pl. -ir):

gisu heavy → gisúnic weight
reu beautiful → réuric beauty
saul young → sáulic youth

2. Simple actions: -u (pl. -ú):

pij fear → piju
orae leave → orau departure
rues desire → rou desire

3. A state, process, or activity: -udo (pl. -udzú), or -audo following a syllable containing a front vowel:

kuli gather → kuludo harvest
ize be → izaudo existence
revi new → revaudo newness

4. One instance of a repeated process, or one item from a mass: -uc (unacc.; pl. -aup). This is derivation has a pedantic feel and is mostly used in philosophy and science.

baus inform → búsuc report
payčis greet → páyčuc greeting
šone head of hair → šónuc one hair

5. The result of a process: -eč (unacc.; pl. -eš):

brunde promise → brúndeč a promise
pece sing → pídeč hymn
sune dream → súneč dream

Persons

6. A person with a particular quality: -ayc (pl. -aycú):

jis weak → jisayc wimp
reš tall → rešayc tall person
saul young → sulayc young person

7. One who does the action of a verb: -irc (pl. -ircú):

cauč dance → caučirc dancer
jausik lord it over → jausirc tyrant
kezi govern → kezirc governor

8. A follower (like -ist) or inhabitant: -su (pl. -sú), a contraction of xuma ‘man’:

Meša → mešasu follower of Mešaism
beyludo enlightenment → beylusu enlightened one
Jeor → jeorsu
Zešnam Dhekhnam → zešnasu Dhekhnami

9. Inhabitants and some occupations: -es (unacc.; pl. -é):

Asuna Axuna → asúnes Axunemi
Kuras Šura → kurázes Šurene
jadziac sculpt → jadzíes sculptor
uyku herd → úykes herdsman

10. Persons associated with a place (including some professions) may also use -iy or -ey (pl. -éy):

Xurno → xurney
Inex → inexiy
jen forest → jeniy woodsman
rina river → riney ferryman

11. Femininization: zim- or zin-. To be used sparingly; Xurnese is generally happy with unisex forms: šudzirc waiter, waitress; im prince, princess.

nye king → zinnye queen
šejis deer→ zinšejis doe

Objects and places

12. Object used for something: -ji (pl. -jú):

etešis whip → eteji a whip
jivi walk → jiviji cane
rim weave → rimiji loom

13. Collection: -ex (unacc.; pl. -as):

dzučuc ritual → dzučuex book of rituals
mnaur wear → mnórex clothes
sim glyph → símex writing system
šuš bone → šúšex skeleton

14. Study, thought, art (like -ism, -ology): -xau ‘study’:

Meša → Mešaxau Mešaism
bej shoot → bejixau archery
xayu sky → xayuxau astronomy

15. Language: -ši:

Asunai → asunaši
Curau → corauši
Berdura → berduraši Verdurian

16 Place: -nar:

kaym buy → kaynar store
šomis ship → šominar dock
bic grape → bicnar tavern

17. Lands are named with -nel:

edi Wede:i → Edinel Wede:i-land
Puro a river → Pronel
kazi Cađinorian → Kazinel Cađinas

Changes in quality

18. Augmentative: -uy (pl. -úy):

mes woman → mésuy big woman
jud hole → júcuy big gaping hole

The Axunašin suffix -i (pl. -w) has been borrowed or revived in some words:

nye king → nyei emperor

19. Diminutive: -is (unacc.; pl. -isi):

japu goat → jápis kid
nye king → nyeis kinglet
nuna street → núnis alley

For mass nouns, the diminutive can be used to name the smallest discrete unit:

nis snow → nísis snowflake
ruywen grass → ruywénis blade of grass
zu sand → zúis grain of sand

Adjectivizations

Adjectives can normally be used as substantives as well.

1. Adjectivization -ri (voices previous consonant; -gri after n or x, -bri after m or w, -tri after s or c; l + ri → -rri):

nye king → nyeri royal
xuma man → xumbri male
mayp mother → maybri maternal

The same suffix serves to create a present participle from a verb:

kis grow → kistri growing
sun dream → sungri dreaming
brešuac develop → brešuatri advanced (lit. developing)

and to form an adjective from a toponym:

Inex → inegri
Bolon → bolongri
Siyku Xengi delta → šiykuri

2. Another common suffix is -u:

baj four → baju fourth
Čeiy → čeiyu
dum hut → dumu homely
xus wonder → xumu wondrous

3. The unaccented suffix -eš or -uš, deriving from the genitive, has been lexicalized to refer to composition or legal ownership.

dax palace → dásiš royal
nan god → náneš divine
jud hole → júdeš lace

For nouns that were feminine in Axunašin , the suffix is -i:

šuke color → šuki colorful
paup stone → pui stony
xule wood → xuli wooden

4. A past participle can be formed by adding the suffix -aup:

čiri cook → čiraup cooked
jese kill → jesaup murder victim
reus imprison → rosaup prisoner

These adjectives are not pluralized: čiraup širvú ‘cooked vegetables.’

5. Personal qualities are often adjectivized with -mel:

boru true → brumel truthful
jis weak → jisimel timid, tentative
rac justice → raymel justice-loving
yuc oil → yucmel schmaltzy

6. An adjective can be weakened with -is (unacc.):

nulač sick → nuláčis unwell
rauj red → ráujis reddish
šum ugly → šúmis funny-looking

7. Quality of a noun: -moro:

niu grace → niumoro graceful
nue cat → nuemoro like a cat
mes woman → mesoro womanly

8. Follower: dzu-

nye king → dzunye royalist
bayl dissipate → dzubayl hedonistic
ródeš popular → dzuródeš conformist

9. The suffix -ač forms a negative:

gec mind → gerač insane
rile see → rilač invisible
mojuri possible → mojurači impossible

10. Patronymic. The clitic ma- (before a vowel, maz-) means son of, like Irish Mc- or Norman Fitz-; the female form is ne- (before a/e/o neg-, before i/u nes-).

Bezu ma-Veon Bezu son of Beon (Remember that b → v between vowels; ma-Veon is considered one word.)
Itep neg-Auliric Itep daughter of Auliric

Verbalizations

1. A verb may have the same lexical root with a noun, though the form is often obscured by sound change:

cuš dance → cauč dance
koma home → keum reside
yas hunt → yaš hunt

2. The process for creating a noun: -ac:

rema milk → remyac milk
pija filth → payjuac corrupt
jire wife → jireac marry

The same suffix turns an adjective X into a verb ‘to make something X’:

geun straight → gewmiac straighten
bip small → biac abase

3. Bestowal of an object or condition: -de:

nus name → naunde give a name to
nar place → mride grant
xe body → xede create

4. The suffix -šis roughly means ‘use X’; with body parts it often has a despective meaning:

gil stream → gilaušis ford
sou salt → solaušis add salt
raun tongue → raunešis slander, insult
jad butt → jadzišis move lewdly, live loosely

5. Added to an adjective, the suffix -bes (which is simply the verb ‘become’) forms a verb with the meaning ‘become X’:

caun rotten → caumbes rot
rauj red → raujives redden

6. A negative can be formed with -ač-; this is sometimes a survival of the Axunašin negative mood, sometimes formed by analogy. This suffix is not very productive; it’s generally preferable to use the auxiliary sače instead.

rues want → rugačis not want
zene know → zenače not know
gerizas understand → gerizagač misunderstand
sinde say → sindače not say

7. To undo an action, or remove something: o- (or- before a vowel):

naušvar approve → onaušvar retract one’s approval
jireac marry a woman → ojireac divorce
šeguac bury → ošeguac disinter
rízex testicles → orizas castrate

SYNTAX

This section will cover the basics of syntax: unmarked word order, constituent types, the extended verbal system. Transformations are covered in the next section.

Sentence word order

Simple sentences are, as in Axunašin, SOV (subject-object-verb):

Ir nevu jadzíes mnošuac.
my niece sculptor date-3s
My niece is dating a sculptor.
To tir mayp mausiga kalayš.
3s.OBV 3s.GEN mother much please-3s.PAST
He pleased her mother very much.

Auxiliaries

An auxiliary verb takes the final position, the infinitive appearing just before it.

S O V → S O V-Inf Aux
Toš to ray do šasaup rile šizen.
3s 3s.OBV in no flaws see can-3s
She can see no flaws in him.

If there are additional constituents between object and verb (e.g. adverbs or prepositional phrases), they remain between the object and infinitive.

S O ... V → S Inf O ... Inf Aux
To am šus bunji dis kes denjic.
3s.OBV one province some day govern hope-3s
He hopes one day to govern a province.

The Xurnese negative is an auxiliary, and follows this rule:

Syu cu šus izrues šač.
1s that province envy not-1s
Myself, I don’t envy that province.

Noun phrases

The noun always ends its noun phrase, thus following

Adjectives: mip xuma a rich man
Genitive pronouns: ir nus my name
Numbers: buma civel two horses
Subordinate clauses: cu xandze na nue the cat who fishes
Postpositional phrases: xauvisi tes xumi men without hats

Pronouns

Subject pronoun usage is as follows:

It is usual to omit the pronoun syu ‘I’, except for emphasis: Syu lumú As for myself, I bathe
Tas ‘we’, yes / myes ‘you’ and kyes ‘they’ must always be included. (They don’t need to be repeated within a sentence, however, and in very colloquial speech they are sometimes omitted.)
Toš ‘he/she’ is more often present than not.

Pronominal objects occur in the same locations as nominal objects (that is, after the subject):

Myes mavú, myes i mava, tas wéneš koros.
2p.acc love.1s / 2p.nom 1s.acc love.3s / 1p happy family
I love you; you love me; we’re a happy family.

The accusative form of pronouns is used with a postposition: toy eš against us.

2s pronouns take 3s verb forms, and 2p pronouns take 3p verbs.

Proximative and obviative

The obviative 3s form to is used to disambiguate two referents.

Sulayc li tir mayp mirileju; toš i šigosuac pel to šači.
youth and 3s.GEN mother met-1s.past / 3s 1s.acc bore-3s but 3s.OBV not-3s
I’ve met the boy and his mother; he bores me but she doesn’t.

If the topic switches to the referent of to— in the example, if the speaker went on to concentrate on the boy’s mother— then toš is used instead. Thus, toš is used for the first of two named referents, or for the main topic of the conversation.

If a sentence contasts toš and to, it may distinguish the genitives otoš and oto. If ambiguity is not likely, tir should be used.

Reflexives

Subject and object can be coreferential: Yes yes lajiji You hit yourself.

In the 1s/1p the subject is normally omitted: I lajije I hit myself.
The 3p Kyes kyes lajijeyc is ambiguous between They hit themselves and They hit some other people.
The 3s Toš toš lajiji He hit himself / She hit herself is not ambiguous, since if two people were involved it would be Toš to lajiji.

The adverb tirse can optionally be included to ensure a reflexive meaning; as the object pronoun is redundant it may be omitted: (Kyes) tirse lajijeyc.

Verbs of personal grooming are understood to be reflexive if no object is specified: Laumijú I washed myself.

Reflexives can never be used (as in Verdurian or Spanish) for an impersonal meaning (se habla español).

With plural referents, the reflexive always indicates that each person acted upon himself. The expression ceš playnu ‘this one the other’ indicates a reciprocal meaning. Compare:

Kyes kyes tirse jesejayc. They each killed themselves.
Kyes kyes čes playnu jesejayc. They killed each other.

Impersonal expressions

Impersonal verbs do not take a subject: Mojuri ze It’s possible; Nuw It’s raining.

The expression ros ‘people’ can be used much like an indefinite pronoun. In colloquial speech ros is often omitted, leaving an impersonal 3p verb.

(Ros) yajirc tom Yajirc naundayc.
(people) hunter to ‘hunter’ call-3p
They call the hunter ‘Hunter.’

Tas ‘we’ can be used as an inclusive impersonal expression: Tas toš Yajirc naundom We call him Hunter. Similarly myes ‘you’ can be used to refer to the listener’s people: Myes toš ‘yagom’ naundayc You (Verdurians) call him ‘Yagom’. This impersonal myes is always distancing; don’t confuse it with the informality of English impersonal you as in You know how women are.

Impersonal rile ‘see’ is used as an existential, rather than ize:

Buma edumi rilayc, li palači am zú.
two idiot.PL see-3p / and only one be-1s
There are two idiots here, and only one is me.
Niormen ray cu mavije na moz rilejuc.
Niormen in that love-PAST.1s SUB girl see-PAST.3p
There was a girl in Niormen that I loved.

Numbers

The numbers are:

cardinal ordinal +10 x10 1/x

1 am im andeš deš

2 buma puc bundeš pudeš teyeš

3 dzi dzim dzayndeš dzideš

4 baj cidzi bandeš cideš sumiš

5 peyk peykaur peygudeš peydeš

6 seči seyčaur semudeš sedeš

7 šic šizaur šimudeš šideš

8 yauš yusaur yumudeš yudeš

9 nep neyvaur naymudeš nedeš

10 deš deysaur sigac

The cardinal numbers are not declined: am yeys one feather, seči dim six days. Ordinals are regular adjectives and have plural forms: puc runi the second city, pucú runú the second cities.

Two-digit numbers are formed by concatenation (cidešdzi 43, šidešyauš 78) except for those with final 1, which becomes -mam (a survival of Ax. mu): pudešmam 21, and -6 which becomes -šeči.

Names of the hundreds use the same prefixes as the tens: pusigac, dzisigac, etc. Thus peysigač šideššeči 576.
Ezir ‘1000’ however is a separate word: seči ezir 6000.

Higher ordinals are formed by changing the last digit only.

Years are reckoned from the foundation of Xurno in 2530 (buma ezir peysigac dzideš); the current year, Z.E. 3480, is thus 950 (nesigac peydeš). Sometimes years are counted from the Revaudo revolution (3017), making the current year 463 (cisigac sedešdzi).

Postpositions

Xurnese has postpositions rather than prepositions. (Thus Xurnese is consistently head-final.)

postposition gloss

cumoro like, as

dmuro during

dzu between, among, on

dzus after; in back of

dzušši since

e to, toward

eš against

eši back to

eyka for, in return for

ga in, at, in the manner of

leš in front of

mu with

mutes despite

nao about, on

ney over, above

neyo across, beyond, except

o of, out of, from

ortes far from

peš near, around

pip before (in time)

pišši until

rameyn using, by means of

rano through, along

ray in, into

šaup under, below

tes without

tom to (marks indirect object)

xur beside, next to

Thus mes cumoro like a woman, rile eyka in order to see, bes rano along the road, Xurno ray ‘in Xurno’; cu rum eči dmuro during that long summer.

The Axunašin adverbial suffix -iwa survives in Xurnese as ga, but has been reinterpreted as a postposition: rey ga ‘newly’, dam ga ‘smoothly’, gisu ga ‘importantly’. It can apply to other postpositions, to indicate a direction: neyo ga ‘across’, ray ga ‘inward’, etc.

Ga can be applied to nouns as well. It is used with the plural form, though no plural meaning is intended:

rilúšeč appearance → rilušeš ga in appearance, seemingly
nox night → nozú ga at night
šec experience → šedzú ga in (our) experience, as experience shows

Possession is indicated using o, thus: Deru o dus Deru’s house. Colloquially the genitive pronoun may be used instead: Deru tir dus Deru his house.

Tom indicates the indirect object:

Šudzirc nízeš jerej kaymirc tom dej.
waiter nutty bag customer to give-PERF
The waiter gave the customer a bag of nuts.

Conjunctions

The most common conjunctions:

conjunction gloss

li and

ma(t) or

pel but

caunga rather, preferably

ciluk because

citun for this reason, therefore

cutun for that reason, therefore

jidil as a result, because of this

keno if / then

luk so, therefore

mucauč also, in addition

peyga on the contrary, however

dzunyo and then, afterwards

Conjunctions can be placed between constituents of any type:

nu li podi cats and dogs
baj ma peyk zinaup four or five articles
šizengri pel yucmel ševarirc an able yet cloying writer
Pidú bídeš caunga ricuka. I drink wine rather than rye beer.
Yes caučayš jidil yes neymoreji. You danced and then you slept.

The series can be extended if desired: nu li pido li japwe li rec cats and dogs and goats and rabbits.

The verbal system

The Xurnese verbal system consists of both inflected and analytic forms.

There are eight inflected forms, not counting the infinitive:

Form Example Gloss

Indicative

Present Aycorú I am reading

Perfect Aycaurijú I read (finished reading)

Past Aycauriji I was reading

Future Aycauriye I will read

Subjunctive

Present Aycaurimú I may be reading

Perfect Aycauruswe If only I read

Past Aycaurimije I may have been reading

Future Aycauranye I may read (later)

Indicative

The indicative is used for facts.

The present always indicates that an action or state is going on right now. It corresponds to various tenses in English.
- With states (‘be, please, believe, want, look at, understand, know’), it indicates an ongoing condition; we also use the present for these.
- With ongoing processes (‘date, study, travel’), actions that can be continued for some time (‘read, dance, walk, eat’) or weather (‘rain, be warm’), it indicates that the process is happening right now; we use the present progressive for this (I’m dating Itep; He’s dancing; It’s raining).
- With conditions that began in the past and still continue, Xurnese uses the present indicative where we often use the past perfect: Inex ray buma sum komú I have lived in Inex for two years.
- With simple actions, the present indicative has a progressive meaning: čirú I am cooking.
The past indicates that the action or state was happening at the time under discussion.
- With simple actions, the past normally serves as an imperfect: Borma resije I was climbing the mountain.
The perfect is prototypically used for completed actions.
- With simple actions, it indicates that the action was completed: Borma resijú I climbed the mountain (reaching the top); Šebreč aycaurijú I read the book (and finished it).
- With verbs of motion, it emphasizes that the motion is done— perhaps just this minute: Tas xamejom We’ve arrived, we’re here.
- For processes or ongoing states, the perfect has an intensive or emphatic meaning: nuij It was really raining, Dzusey bumeacú I fervently followed the teacher.
The future expresses events believed reliable. It may be used for intentions (raeyu I will go), but not for conditional or hypothetical situations.

Subjunctive

The subjunctive is used for counterfactual, desired, or dubious states. It can be used alone for potential or doubtful actions or states:

Pečrešey yes lešrilen.
editor you receive-3s.FUT.SUBJ
The editor may receive you (but probably won’t).
Berdura brešuatri ros šu.
Verduria advanced nation be-3s-SUBJ
It’s said that Verduria is an advanced nation.
Caučircú ammavri šuayc ma?
dancer-PL monogamous be-3p-SUBJ Q
You say dancers are monogamous??

In an emphatic sentence, the subjunctive alone expresses a wish:

Cu mul buma na pečrešey xauč šu!
that fat cow SUB editor dead be-3s-SUBJ
I wish that fat cow of an editor were dead!

More typically, the subjunctive is used with auxiliaries or in subordinate clauses to suggest that the described state is hypothetical, wished for, or doubtful.

Ševarirc maus niudo mu ci elas ševarij, cu tas cuš aycaurimum eyka.
author much kindness with this lines write-3s.perf SUB we that read-1p.SUBJ for
The author very kindly wrote these lines in order that we might say them.
Cu myes geun miw mu li geun ximaudo mu aycauryeyc citun bezzú.
that you correct words with and correct order with that read-3p.SUBJ therefore beg-1s
I beg of you, then, that you say them with the right words and the right order.

Simple auxiliaries

The verbal system is extended with a limited number of auxiliaries:

Auxiliary Negative Gloss Full Subordination

šače negative no

denjidze hope, expect to subjunctive

šizene šizenače can, is able to no

zene zenače know how to no

rae rače habitually do no

rues rugačis want to subjunctive

xame xamače intend to subjunctive

meuš mojač may, might no

šaras šaragače must, have to no

imiše imišače begin to no

jidze jidače passive no

The auxiliary is inflected, while the formerly main verb appears in the infinitive, just to its left. The subject, object, and any adverbials that are present are not affected, and in effect are shared by both verbs.

Yes mavyú → Yes mavis šač.
you see-1s → you see-INF not-1s
I love you → I love you not.
Maysu xivije → Maysu xip zeneji.
iliu swim-3s.PAST → iliu swim-INF know-3s.PAST
The iliu was swiming → The iliu knew how to swim
Ci sus o dzuzovugeš dzulé xu ize meuš.
this year of play-PL most bad be-INF may-3p
This year’s plays may be the worst ever.

Naturally, the auxiliaries may appear in the subjunctive.

Berdursú xudimayc → Berdursú xude raimayc.
Verdurian-PL cheat-3p.SUBJ → Verdurian-PL cheat-INF go-3p.SUBJ
They say the Verdurians are cheating → They say Verdurians habitually cheat.

The subjunctive softens the meanings of certain auxiliaries: zene ‘know how to’ → ‘know a bit how to; xame ‘intend to’ → ‘think about doing’; šaras ‘must’ → ‘should’.

Šukeac zenidú. Jadziac šarasidú.
paint-INF know-SUBJ.1s / sculpt-INF must-SUBJ.1s
I can paint, more or less. I should do sculpting.

Negation

As the first example shows, sentences are negated using the auxiliary sače.

Pipaup berdursu riju ray orkime šačum.
drunk Verdurian room in hide-INF not.1p
We are not hiding a drunk Verdurian in the room.

Šače is optional if other negative words are present.

Toš inar duoyo (zi / ize šuči), cu xunj na grišnar ray cinar nudzú.
he here never (be-PAST.3s / be-INF not-PAST.3s) / that snore-3s SUB closet in there point-1s
He has never been here, especially in that closet that is snoring there.

Sentences with auxiliaries are negated by using the negative auxiliaries (which are highly irregular; see the morphology section).

Maysu xip šučuc → Maysu xip zeynučuc.
iliu swim-INF not-3s.PAST → iliu swim-INF not.know-3s.PAST
The iliu wasn’t swiming → The iliu didn’t know how to swim

In English we can distinguish between negating the auxiliary and the main verb: I don’t know how to get noticed vs. I know how to not get noticed. This distinction is not usually made in Xurnese; the negative auxiliaries only negate the auxiliary itself. (It’s possible to use the -ač- suffix to negate any verb, but this is rather hifalutin, like coining a word: I know how to get unfamous.

Subordinating auxiliaries

In addition to the normal auxiliary structure, denjidze ‘hope’, rues ‘want’, and xame ‘intend’ can take a full subordinate clause, which must appear in the subjunctive; this is used when wishing or intending someone else to do something. Compare:

Xauč ize denjidzú.
dead be-INF wish-1s
I wish to be dead.
Cu ir emu xauč šu na denjidzú.
that my husband dead be-3s.SUBJ SUB wish-1s
I wish my husband were dead.
Ir šebreč imprimis xam.
my book print-INF intend-3s
He intends to publish my book.
Cu xamunar ir šebreč imprimide na xam.
that salon my book print-3s.SUBJ SUB intend-3s
He intends for the Salon to publish my book.

Denjidze ‘hope to’ does not have a negative form; but the subordinated clause can be negative.

Compound auxiliaries

Xurnese grammarians used to prohibit the use of more than one auxiliary in a sentence; but it’s clear that colloquial speech has allowed this for centuries, and it is now common in the written language as well. Some examples:

Deru yu šuema imise zene rap.
Deru good beer find-INF know-INF habitual-3s
Deru always knows where to get good beer.
Ševarirc toy grijil xame mojači.
writer us confuse-INF intend-INF may-NOT-3s
The writer may not intend to confuse us.
Cu šebreč aycaur rae xameju, pel i šigosuac.
that book read-INF habitual-INF intend-PAST-1s / but me bore-3s
I was fixin’ to keep reading that book, but it’s boring.

Uneducated speakers are known for conjugating all the auxiliaries rather than just the last one:

Toš imise zenú mojú.
3s find-INF know.how-1s may-1s
I might know how to find him.

Imperatives

In the standard dialect, commands are expressed using the infinitive:

Ci kasum oyes euma e čeji.
this basket your grandmother to take-INF
Take this basket to your grandmother.
Wes e xuxame pel teris.
artist to approach-INF but be.silent-INF
Approach the artist but be silent.

Colloquially, the present tense may be reduplicated to form an imperative:

Ir emu ujú— ra ra!
my husband hear-1s / go-3s go-3s
I hear my husband— Go!

Xurnese does not have the wide range of softened pseudo-imperatives that English does. When an imperative is softened, it is normally by use of diminutives:

Déruis, bic i de.
deru-DIM / grape me give-INF
Deru darling, pass me a grape.

Commands were given using the future and subjunctive, as in Axunašin, until the Revaudo revolution, when these usages were seen as hopelessly class-ridden. They still survive in some remote provinces (generally the same ones which still use the ‘royalist’ pronouns).

Copulas

Ize ‘to be’ is normally omitted in the present tense, in the second and third persons:

Ševarirc wéneš. Tir šebreč makri. Yes izruirc.
writer happy / 3s.GEN book successful / 2s envious
The writer is happy. His book is successful. You are envious.

It reappears in other tenses: Tir šebreč makri zi ‘His book was successful’.

The constituents can be swapped:

Wéneš ševarirc. Makri tir šebreč.
happy writer / successful 3s.GEN book
Happy is the writer. Successful is his book.

In the first person the verb is still required in the written language (Wéneš zú I am happy), but in colloquial speech it’s omitted (Syu wéneš).

The verb is not omitted in impersonal expressions: mojurači ze It’s impossible.

Ize is not used as an existential; see Impersonal expressions.

Peje ‘stand’ is used colloquially to express one’s current or temporary state; thus Wéneš pejú I’m happy right now, Toš braup pej He’s busy at the moment. It’s also used for time expressions: Nimala peje It’s market day.

With the past participle (not the infinitive) and in the past tense, peje indicates that the events described occurred at an earlier time, much like the English past perfect.

Jorumíex omeunijayc, pel jošmir oraup pejeji.
council deliberate-PAST.3p / but opportunity leave-PP stand-PAST.3s
The council deliberated, but the opportunity had past.

Transformations

This section discusses the main transformations of Xurnese.

Simple cases

Yes-no questions

Questions can be formed in four increasingly bookish ways:

1. By intonation alone

Yes xuxaleš?
2s crazy
You’re crazy?

2. By appending the conjunction ma:

Yes šuema imisej ma?
2s beer find-PERF.3s or
Did you find the beer?

3. By appending the phrase ma jende ‘or how’, the origin of the previous form:

Berdursu ez šuema picayš ma jende?
2s every beer drink-PERF.3s or how
The Verdurian didn’t drink all the beer, did he?

4. Using jic before the verb— an inheritance from Axunašin jiti:

Muré nanú dmuna jic gemayc?
Muran-PL god-PL still Q accept-3p
Do the Uṭandal still believe in gods?

Questions usually use the indicative, but the subjunctive can be used instead to suggest that the suggested state is absurd or unlikely.

In writing it’s still normal to respond to questions as in Axunašin, using the verb (imisejú I found it); but colloquially one responds cunde ‘that way, yes’, šači ‘it isn’t’, or donde ‘no way, not at all’.

Questions with interrogative pronouns

Interrogatives always appear just before the verb. (As ji ‘who/what’ has an accusative je, this causes no confusion as to whether the remaining argument is subject or obejct. Je is also used with postpositions.)

Ir jira tom jiváteč nao ji bausij?
my wife to liquor about who tell-PERF-3p
Who told my wife about the liquor?
Xauč peš pišši je etešayš?
dead near until whom whip-PAST-3s
Who did she whip senseless?
Xamunar o rireširc jideym xam?
salon from inspector when come-3p
When is the inspector from the Salon coming?
Mes i cunde tun rešeji?
woman 1s.ACC that.manner why look-PAST.3p
Why did the woman look at me like that?

The use of the subjunctive implies that what is questioned may not exist, or is unlikely to be known:

Peranagu e bes jinar šu?
Fananak to road where be-SUBJ.3s
Where is the road to Fananak?

In this case the subjunctive signals the absurdity of the question: Fananak is across the ocean, so there is no road there.

There are some dialects where interrogatives appear where the corresponding NP would: Ji i čaujeji? Who touched me? This sounds unutterably rustic to anyone from the Xengi valley.

Conjunction

Two sentences can be linked with a conjunction, e.g. S1 li S2 ‘S1 and S2’. As in Axunašin, a simple conjunction may be used where we use a subordinator.

Yes xaušmelač luk oraeyu.
2s disrepectful therefore leave-1s.FUT
Because you are disrespectful, I will leave.

(See also Coordination subordination below.)

Conditional expressions

The conditional is similar to Axunašin in that keno ‘if’ is a simple conjunction; but both clauses appear in the subjunctive.

subj S1 keno subj S2
Oyes mavirc xamim keno, zenaup ga kejideym šu.
your lover come-3s.SUBJ if / certain ADV dinner be-3s.SUBJ
If your boyfriend is here, it is surely dinnertime.

For past conditions, use the past subjunctive; there is no tense substitution as in English:

Ševarirc xorneacaux keno, tir emur jecaux.
writer err-3s.PERF.SUBJ if / 3s.GEN husband laugh-3s.PERF.SUBJ
If the writer had made a mistake, her husband would have laughed.

As there is no negative subjunctive, negative conditions and consequences are simply expressed using the negative auxiliary:

Kissu i raunešis šuči keno, syu toš yalu eš nejlaj šuč.
child 1s.ACC insult-INF not-3s.PAST.SUBJ if /
1s 3s.ACC knee against kick-INF not-1s.PAST.SUBJ
If the boy had not insulted me, I wouldn’t have kicked him in the knee.

For logical consequences of sure facts, Xurnese doesn’t use keno but simple conjunctions such as cutun ‘therefore’:

Pudim peje, cutun Rajjay ray izom.
week of second-day stand-3s that.reason Rajjay in be-1p
It being the second day of the week, this must be Rajjay.

Abstract transforms

Pronominalization

Pronominalization can be seen as a transformation: an NP is replaced by a pronoun. (However, I’ve never liked this way of looking at it, because it makes no sense as a theory of utterance generation. Why generate NPs (itself a complex process) only to throw them out? It might make more sense to posit depronominalization: deep structure has prounouns, or just referential indices, and some of these are expanded into NPs. This would also explain why pronominalization, unlike other transformations, continues into subsequent sentences, even those uttered by another speaker.)

S O V → to O V
→ S to V
Pečrešéy ševarirc ziduc.
editor-PL writer hate-3p
Editors hate a writer.
→ Kyes ševarirc ziduc. They hate a writer.
→ Pečrešéy toš ziduc. Editors hate him.
→ Kyes toš ziduc. They hate him.

The singular equivalent isn’t *Toš toš zic, but uses the obviative: Tos to zic or To tos zic. It’s also possible to pronominalize with ceš ‘this one’ or cuš ‘that one’, especially with inanimates, or when making contrasts between two referents.

Deru buma mozú mnošuac. Ceš zimaysu, li cuš isaur.
pname two girl-PL date-1s / this.one pretty and that.one smart
Deru is dating two girls. One is pretty, and the other is smart.

Infinitivization

Axunašin formed nominalizations using the infinitive, and this construction is imitated in Xurnese, though since Xurnese lacks Axunašin’s cases, the arguments are unmarked:

S O V → S O V-inf

Xamunar ir šu gemej. → Xamunar ir šu gemi
salon my uncle admit-3s.PAST → salon my uncle admit-INF
The salon admitted my uncle. → the salon admitting my uncle.

The infinitive expression can be used as a predicate, where we would use a subordinated impersonal expression:

Xamunar ir šu gemi mojuri.
salon my uncle admit-INF possible
The salon admitting my uncle is possible,
or, It’s possible that the salon admitted my uncle.

Or it can be used as an argument to a verb:

Xamunar ir šu gemi buguc.
salon my uncle admit-INF talk-3s
They’re talking about the salon admitting my uncle.

If the infinitive expression is used as the object, the subject must come just before the verb; Xamunar ir šu gemi Inex baus Inex is talking about the salon admitting my uncle.

The imperative, discussed above, uses the infinitive transformation.

The auxiliary transform

The use of an auxiliary can be considered a transformation. Adding the auxiliary, the underlying sentence is infinitivized, and its verb morpology is transferred to the auxiliary.

S O V-morph → S O V-Inf Aux-morph
Cu xušimirc etešip → Cu xušimirc etešis šarasiye.
that upstart whip-FUT.1s → that upstart whip-INF must-FUT.1s
I will whip that upstart → I’ll have to whip that upstart.

Nominalization

Xurnese also uses lexicalized nominalizations, much as English does; e.g. gemaudo ‘admission’. The arguments cannot be simply placed before the nominalization, but must be converted into postpositional phrases, using nao ‘about’ for the subject and e ‘to’ for the obejct:

Xamunar ir šu gemej. →
salon my uncle admit-3s.PAST →
The salon admitted my uncle. →
Xamunar nao ir šu e gemaudo
salon about my uncle to admission
the salon’s admission of my uncle

These postpositions must be used with pronouns as well: toš nao gemaudo his admission. (Don’t use the genitive: *tir gemaudo.)

Subordination

Almost all true subordination involves marking a constituent off with a cu...na block. Na is the subordinator; the demonstrative cu simply helps identify what is being subordinated.

Sentential constituents

x (y z V1) V2 → x cu y z V1 na V2

(y z V1) w V2 → cu y z V1 na w V2

An entire sentence can serve as the object or subject of the verb.

Cir šemilircú cu zešnasú boru ga Cuwoli ray reatuc na gejayc.
our agent-PL that Dhekhnami-PL true ADV Cuoli in move-3p SUB tell-3p
Our agents report that the Dhekhnami are indeed active in Cuoli.
Cu yes šwedze xam na i xušim.
that you argue-INF intend-3s SUB me amuse-3s
It amuses me that you wish to argue.

As noted above, the subordinated clause appears in the subjunctive if it is not a matter of fact.

With verbs of speaking or thinking, the subject is normally moved before the verb.

Cu braunic mavis na šuč na geyma sindej.
that truth love-INF SUB not-PAST.1s SUB lady say-PERF.3s
The lady said I did not love the truth.

This is indirect speech, and tenses match the narrative (e.g. the lady spoke in the past, so ‘love’ is also past). Direct speech omits the initial cu and replaces na with cuš ‘that’:

Píješ xaundirc ze, geyma cuš sindej.
filthy liar be-3s / lady that say-PERF.3s
The lady said, “You are a filthy liar.”

Coordinate subordination

As noted above, two sentences can be linked with a conjunction:

Yes xaušmelač luk oraeyu.
2s disrepectful therefore leave-1s.FUT
Because you are disrespectful, I will leave.

However, it’s also possible to highlight the subordination by enclosing the subordinate clause within a cu...na block. Formally this turns the conjunction into a postposition, and the subordinated constituent normally moves after the subject (and object if any) in the sentence:

S1 conj S2 → S2 O2 cu S1 na conj V2
Cu yes xaušmelač na luk oraeyu.
that 2s disrepectful SUB therefore leave-1s.FUT
I’ll leave, since you are being disrespectful.

It’s difficult to suggest the same effect in English; stylistically, the subordinate clause is less important, more of an adverbial comment than a structured logical argument. At the same time it’s more integrated into the sentence, and feels less spontaneous, more bookish.

Relative clauses

S O1 V1 & S O2 V2 → cu O1 V1 na S O2 V2
S1 O V1 & S2 O V2 → S2 cu S1 V1 na O V2

A clause is relativized with the cu..na block:

Cu am breši ma na xuma ir jira jesej.
that one arm have-3s SUB man my wife kill-PERF.3s
A man with one arm killed my wife.
Cu toš popej na breš dmuna mú.
that he lose-PERF.3s SUB arm still have-1s
I still have the arm which he lost.

Ci ‘this’ may be used where additional information is being offered about someone already referred to.

A clause cu NP V na is ambiguous between a reading where the NP is the subject or the object: cu mes jesej na could mean that killed a woman or that a woman killed. The clause can be disambiguated by including the obviative pronoun to in place of the relativized argument: cu to mes jesej na that killed a woman, cu mes t

Xurno ['sur no]	Curau ['tsu raw]	šeguac ‘bury’ [ʃe gu 'ats]
xurney ‘Xurnese’ ['sur nɛj]	Corauši [tsɔ 'raw ʃi]	jadzíes ‘sculptor’ [dʒa 'dzi ɛs]
xurnéy [sur 'nɛj]	Endajué [ɛn da dʒu 'e]	súmex ‘epoch’ ['su mɛks]
Meša ['me ʃa]	Inex [i 'nɛks]	cunde ‘thus’ ['tsun de]
Šuzep [ʃu 'zɛp]	Čeiy [tʃɛj]	midzirc ‘judge’ [mi 'dzirts]
Bolon [bo 'lɔn]	cauč ‘dance’ [tsawtʃ]	rešeji ‘looked’ [re 'ʃe dʒi]
Niormen [ni ɔr 'mɛn]	Jeor [dʒe 'ɔr]	Bezuxau [be zu 'ksaw]

Dialect	Region	Provinces / States
Corauši	the middle Xengi, esp. Corau	Šuzep
Inegri	the Xengi delta, esp. Inex	Šiyku
Jimbri	the Tanel peninsula	Tanel, western Gotanel
Lejur	the upper Xengi	Rau Xengi
Evangri	Lake Van and the southeast	Nior, Idzinar, eastern Gotanel
Idestri	the Ideis valley	Niormen, Rau Niormen, Bukanel
Rajjari	the Ran valley	Rajjay, Bozan
Momori	Jeor	Tásuc Tag; eastern Jeor
Čimagri	the Čiqay valley	Čiqay
Bolongri	Bolon	Bolon
Xazengri	the Hasun valley	Xazno

Nouns in	Plural	Examples
-a	-i -ay	koma → komi rina → rinay
-c	-p -r -y	šuc → šup gec → ger juc → juy
-irc	-ircú	nusirc → nusircú
-č	-š (but some -c)	beč → beš
-d	-c	red → rec
-e	-i	nune → nuni
-i	-w -ú	torei → torew eči → ečú
-k	-ki	reyk → reyki
-um	-we	kasum → kaswe
-m	-mi	dum → dumi
-n	-ni -nú	raun → rauni meyn → meynú
-udo	-udzú	ammudo → ammudzú
-o	-u	goro → goru
-p	-pi -vú	cip → cipi teyp → teyvú
-r	-ri -rú	ber → beri xor → xorú
-s	-c - -si -m -sú	ros → roc ujes → uje mis → misi dus → dum yeys → yeysú
-š	-č -ši	ješ → jič seš → seši
-u	-ú	saysu → saysú
-x	-s	aušex → aušas
-Vy	-V’y	zalay → zaláy
-z	-zi -zú	xiaz → xiazi moz → mozú
-C	(vowel change)	kon → keun

	singular		plural
	high	low	high	low
1	siu	si	tas	ta
2	riezič	ri	miezič	moš
3	tošezič	to	kiezič	ke

	singular			plural
	nom	acc	gen	nom	acc	gen
1	syu	i	ir	tas	toy	cir
2	yes	yes	oyes	myes	myes	mir
3 pr	toš	toš	tir, otoš	kyes	kyes	xir
3 ob	to	to	tir, oto

	Adjective	Person	Place	Time	Reason	Manner
question	ji	ji • je	jinar	jideym	tun	jende
question	which	who/what	where	when	why	how
this	ci	ceš	inar	idzum	citun	cinde
this	this	this one	here	now	for this	this way
that	cu	cuš	cinar	cideym	cutun	cunde
that	that	that one	there	then	therefore	that way
none	do	duox	donar	duoyo		donde
none	no, nothing	nobody	nowhere	never		no way
some	bunji	bunjisu	amnar	andeym		amende
some	some, something	someone	somewhere	sometime		somehow
many	maus	maussu	mausinar	mausiga		mausende
many	many	many people	many places	often		in many ways
every	ez	ezisu	eznar	ezdeym		ezende
every	every, everything	everyone	everywhere	always		wholly

	Present			Perfect
	-is	-e	-	-is	-e	-
1s	kal-ú	reš-ú	čir-ú	kal-ijú	reš-ejú	čir-ijú
3s	kal-e	reš	čir	kal-ije	reš-ej	čir-ij
1p	kal-um	reš-om	čir-um	kal-ijum	reš-ejom	čir-ayjum
3p	kal-uc	reš-ayc	čir-uc	kal-ijuc	reš-ejayc	čir-ayjuc
	Past			Future
	-is	-e	-	-is	-e	-
1s	kal-ije	reš-eju	čir-ije	kal-ip	reš-eyu	čir-iye
3s	kal-ayš	reš-eji	čir-iji	kal-ayp	reš-ey	čir-í
1p	kal-ayjum	reš-ejum	čir-ijim	kal-yum	reš-eum	čir-im
3p	kal-ijayc	reš-ejuc	čir-ijeyc	kal-yayc	reš-euc	čir-yeyc

	Present	Past	Subj Pres	Subj Past
1s	zú	zyu	šui	šuyu
3s	ze	zi	šu	šúe
1p	izom	ezum	šuom	šuum
3p	ayzuc	ezyuc	šuayc	šuyuc

Conjugation	Infinitive	1s present	3s present	1p present	1s perfect
1 (-is)	jausis	jugú	juge	jugum	jausijú
	pudzis	pudú	pude	pudum	pudzijú
	rues	roú	ruwe	roum	ruejú
2 (-e)	jidze	jidú	jic	jidom	jidejú
2 (-e)	mide	midú	mic	midom	midejú
3 (-0)	baus	bugú	baus	busum	bausijú
	dzaus	dzusú	dzaus	dzusum	dzausijú
	aycaur	aycorú	aycaur	aycorum	aycaurijú
	jec	jetú	jec	jetum	jecijú
	kes	kezú	kes	keyzum	kezijú

	šače	rugačis	zenače	rače	xamače	mojač
	not be	not want	not know	not go	not come	may not be
Present
1s	šač	rugač	zenač	rač	xamač	mojače
3s	šači	rugači	zenači	rači	xamači	mojači
1p	šačum	rugačum	zenačum	račum	xamačum	mojačim
3p	šačuc	rugačayc	zenačuc	račuc	xamačuc	mojačeyc
Past
1s	šuč	ruč	zeynauč	rauč	xamauč	mojuče
3s	šuči	ruči	zeynuči	rauči	xamuči	mojuči
1p	šučum	ručum	zeynučum	raučum	xamučum	mojučim
3p	šučuc	ručayc	zeynučuc	raučuc	xamučuc	mojučeyc

	cardinal	ordinal	+10	x10	1/x
1	am	im	andeš	deš
2	buma	puc	bundeš	pudeš	teyeš
3	dzi	dzim	dzayndeš	dzideš
4	baj	cidzi	bandeš	cideš	sumiš
5	peyk	peykaur	peygudeš	peydeš
6	seči	seyčaur	semudeš	sedeš
7	šic	šizaur	šimudeš	šideš
8	yauš	yusaur	yumudeš	yudeš
9	nep	neyvaur	naymudeš	nedeš
10	deš	deysaur		sigac

postposition	gloss
cumoro	like, as
dmuro	during
dzu	between, among, on
dzus	after; in back of
dzušši	since
e	to, toward
eš	against
eši	back to
eyka	for, in return for
ga	in, at, in the manner of
leš	in front of
mu	with
mutes	despite
nao	about, on
ney	over, above
neyo	across, beyond, except
o	of, out of, from
ortes	far from
peš	near, around
pip	before (in time)
pišši	until
rameyn	using, by means of
rano	through, along
ray	in, into
šaup	under, below
tes	without
tom	to (marks indirect object)
xur	beside, next to

conjunction	gloss
li	and
ma(t)	or
pel	but
caunga	rather, preferably
ciluk	because
citun	for this reason, therefore
cutun	for that reason, therefore
jidil	as a result, because of this
keno	if / then
luk	so, therefore
mucauč	also, in addition
peyga	on the contrary, however
dzunyo	and then, afterwards

Form	Example	Gloss
Indicative
Present	Aycorú	I am reading
Perfect	Aycaurijú	I read (finished reading)
Past	Aycauriji	I was reading
Future	Aycauriye	I will read
Subjunctive
Present	Aycaurimú	I may be reading
Perfect	Aycauruswe	If only I read
Past	Aycaurimije	I may have been reading
Future	Aycauranye	I may read (later)

Auxiliary	Negative	Gloss	Full Subordination
	šače	negative	no
denjidze		hope, expect to	subjunctive
šizene	šizenače	can, is able to	no
zene	zenače	know how to	no
rae	rače	habitually do	no
rues	rugačis	want to	subjunctive
xame	xamače	intend to	subjunctive
meuš	mojač	may, might	no
šaras	šaragače	must, have to	no
imiše	imišače	begin to	no
jidze	jidače	passive	no