| Henrik Theiling | Sat, 8 Nov 2008 12:39:27 +0100 (CET) |
Terkunan is quite a typical Western Romance language, the most different feature being isolating morphology and lack of palatalised consonants.
The standard word order is SVO, but in some sentences, the verb may be fronted to focus the subject and in imperatives (the subject is often not dropped in imperatives, but this is no strict rule: often it is dropped).
Terkunan has optional definite and indefinite articles, which are often inserted to separate two noun phrases instead of to stress definiteness. The indefinite article is also the number word 'one'.
Number is not marked on nouns, but only on pronouns, articles, and number words. A typical noun phrase without article is, therefore, underspecified wrt. number. Translators should beware of overusing the singular just because there is no plural ending in Terkunan.
Adverbs are usually fronted, but may also be in final position. Fronted adverbial phrases are usually separated from their clause by a comma.
Adjectives usually follow nouns.
There are no compound verb forms in the text, so I'll drop anything about verbs.
| -(a)ment | suff | -ly {adverb suffix} |
|---|---|---|
| ariva | v | arrive at; become |
| dev(a) | v | have to, must |
| es | v | be |
| flaska | n | failure |
| kambi | v | change |
| ke | conj | that |
| kentra | n | center |
| komu | conj | as, like |
| kulmin | v | culminate |
| kuprotament | n | behaviour |
| kus | n | cause |
| li | det | the |
| manari | n | manner |
| mpurtant | adj | important |
| no(n) | adv | not |
| pika | conj | because |
| pi | prep | to, for, into, onto |
| riligiun | n | religion |
| rutim | adj | ultimate |
| tau | adj | such a |
| tau | adv | so; likewise |
| tutalitat | n | totality |
| tu | pron | you, your {also impersonal 'you' like French 'on'} |
| vit | n | life |
| adj | adjective |
| adv | adverb |
| conj | conjunction |
| det | determiner |
| n | noun |
| prep | preposition |
| pron | pronoun |
| suff | suffix |
| v | verb |
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page started: 2008.Dec.01 Mon
last modified: 2008.Dec.09 Tue
form originated by qiihoskeh;
content copyright Henrik Theiling.