Lecture 8: Adjectives, Adverbs, and the Genitive

[Hooligan]

Hello again students —

I hope you all had a great celebration of our nation's Independence Day and of the other holidays that surround that day. Consensus seems to be that the lectures are beneficial for those who read them, although the class itself seems to have otherwise petered out. Here is the next lecture.

PART 1: ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS

Adjectives

Adjectives, of course, are words (like red and hot and sexy) that describe nouns. Talossan adjectives differ in their use from English adjectives in four notable (but not scary) ways:

• Adjectives May Be Used As Nouns. In Talossan, you can omit a noun being described if the context of the sentence allows it to be clear what the noun is. In English, typically a noun cannot completely disappear, but can be replaced with the word one. For example, in the sentence he is the thin one, it is clear that the reader knows what noun it is that the word "one" stands for (a man, a boy, a dog, etc.). In Talossan, you can simply say o isch el stiglh (= he is the thin). Don't go overboard with this -- it is certainly not wrong (or in any sense uncommon) to provide the noun: o isch el garziun stiglh (= he is the thin boy).
  
  
• Adjectives Typically Follow The Noun. As you've seen in numerous examples, including the last one given just above, an adjective in Talossan will usually follow the noun it is describing. This is different from English, in which the adjective precedes the noun. For example, la casa roxh, which literally translates to the house red, is how Talossan would express what English would say as the red house.
  
  If multiple adjectives are used to describe the same noun, this same rule is still followed, and the word es (= and) is used to separate them. That is, where English would say the red and green house, Talossan would say la casa roxh es virt (literally, the house red and green).
  
  It is common for new users of Talossan to ignore or forget this rule, and to position adjectives before the noun, as is done in English. You should be sure to get into the habit of using nouns before describing them. (And, in case you'd forgotten, this is also a good time to remind you that another related habit you should get into is to accompany your nouns with articles.)
  
  That said, there are times when adjectives do appear before a noun, instead of after it. (You had to know there'd be exceptions, didn't you?) Luckily, the two exceptions are fairly common-sense. The first exception is when the adjective is to be especially stressed, as being even more important in a sentence than the noun it is describing. For example, la roxh casa (= the red house) is not improper, but to use this phrasing will imply to the hearer or reader that the redness of the house is somehow shocking or surprising (to you). This is also why you see ¡Felicia Nadaliça! (= Happy Birthday!), rather than ¡Nadaliça Felicia!; the (wish for the) happiness of the event is more important than the event itself.
  
  The other exception is that when the adjective is describing how many of something there are, this adjective always goes before the noun. That is, you would say doua valeinas (= two whales), not valeinas douas (= literally, whales twos).
  
  
• Adjectives Pluralize. We have also seen examples of this, and this is a definite difference from English, in which adjectives do not take plural forms. For example, in English you would say both the red house and the red houses, but in Talossan, you would say la casa roxh and las casas roxhen.
  
  The plural form of an adjective is formed using the exact same rules that we went over concerning pluralizing of nouns. (This is why roxh took the suffix -en, above.)
  
  
• Some (but not all) Adjectives Have Feminine Forms. As we discussed, in Talossan, nouns are either masculine or feminine, a concept foreign to English. We have said that the gender of a noun affects what form of article (for example, el or la) is used with the noun. Well, it also affects what form of (certain) adjectives should be used.
  
  The vast majority of Talossan adjectives are like English in this respect -- they do not modify for gender. The adjective roxh (= red) is one such adjective. A masculine noun like tesch (= roof) and a feminine noun like casa (= house) would both use roxh.
  
  However, in five cases, an adjective will take a feminine form when used to describe a feminine noun. These cases are:
  • If an adjective ends with either -eu or -éu, then it has a feminine form that is created by changing that ending. The -eu ending changes to -a and the -éu ending changes to -ea. For example, el tesch braneu (= the brown roof) but la casa brana (= the brown house), and el tesch c'haléu (= the damp roof) but la casa c'halea (= the damp house).
    
    Notice that if the adjective ends with -ceu or -cheu (but not -scheu), though, the feminine form is modified so as to preserve the pronunciation of the consonant in that ending. The -ceu ending becomes -cia and the -cheu ending becomes -ca. For example, el garziun feliceu (= the happy boy) but la criança felicia (= the happy girl), and el tesch ambracafirancheu (= the reddish-brown roof) but la casa ambracafiranca (= the reddish-brown house).
    
    
  • If the adjective ends with -at, it has a feminine form -ada. Most (but not all) such adjectives are past participles (but whether it is a past participle or not, all such adjectives do see their endings change to -ada when referring to, or standing for feminine nouns). We haven't discussed the different forms of a verb yet, but the past participle is relatively easy to keep track of. That form is equivalent to the -ed verb-ending in English. That is, baked is the past participle form of the English verb to bake. (Note that English has quite a few irregular past participle forms, such as eaten, taken, etc.). In Talossan, the equivalent verb-ending is -at, with the feminine form -ada; you can usually recognize an adjective as being a past-participle form by this ending. For example, el tesch cursat (= the cursed roof) but la casa cursada (= the cursed house).
    
    Note that there is actually another, completely equivalent, form of the Talossan past participle (other than -at). This ending is -escu, and it has no feminine form. So if an adjective has the word-ending -escu, it does not have a different feminine form for use with feminine nouns. For example, el tesch apnescu (= the open roof) and la casa apnescu (= the open house).
    
    
  • Adjectives that end with -esc (which you might liken to the English "-ish" ending) take the -easca feminine ending. For example, el tesch amesc (= the lovely roof) but la casa ameasca (= the lovely house). [There are not very many adjectives like this in Talossan -- only about 75 or so.]
    
    
  • The adjectival ending -ös (which equates to the English "-ous" ending as in "curious" and "obvious") becomes -ösa in the feminine. This is actually because this ending was originally -öseu, but the -eu has dropped off over time (though it can still be seen in some words, such as nerligiöseu = unreligious). Notice that this dropping has caused stress to shift left by one syllable, though is is not uncommon to hear the -ös ending stressed (as it is in other Romance language cognates, like Spanish "-oso").
    
    
  • The adjectival ending -ic becomes -ica in the feminine. Again, is actually because the masculine ending has lost an original -eu ending (still seen in some words such as mediceu = doctor).
  
  Notice that feminine adjectival forms also will pluralize when used with plural nouns. So las casas ameascas.

Irregular Adjectives

Irregular Feminine Forms. As we discussed, most adjectives do not have distinct feminine forms. We also went over the rules for those adjectives having specific endings that do have feminine forms. There are a small set of others that have feminine forms that are irregular. We have run into some of these before. There aren't that many irregular feminine forms to remember, and quite a few of them are commonly used, so here they all are:

• acest (= this or that) becomes aceasta
• acû (= acute, sharp) becomes acüta
• bel (= beautiful) becomes bela
• bléu (= blue) becomes blua
• Européu (= European) becomes Européia (note that this is a historical remnant; all adjectives ending in -éu used to become feminine in this way)
• negreu (= black) becomes neagra
• nigüt (= zany) becomes nigüta
• noveu (= new) becomes noua
• nü (= nude) becomes nüda
• proxim (= near) becomes proxima
• prüm (= first) becomes prüma
• timit (= shy, timid) becomes timida
• vell (= old) becomes vea, and
• viens (= one, single) becomes viensa.

Irregular Plural Forms. We discussed how Talossan adjectives take a plural form when used to describe plural nouns. However, there are some adjectives that simply do not do so, and there are some others that have irregular plural forms.

First of all, the following adjectives do not take a plural form, ever:

• Adjectives of number (such as doua, tres, qátor, etc.). That is, you would say simca casas (= five houses), not simcas casas. Notice, however, that you would pluralize these words when they are used to refer to groups, such as chints dals casas (= hundreds of houses).
  
• Most possessive adjectives are often seen used in their singular form even when referring to a plural noun. This is now only optional, but is still seen. We will be discussing possessive adjectives in the second part of the lecture. For now, here is an example: both va casa (= my house) and va casas (= my houses) are proper -- the adjective va (= my) did not take a plural form, though it could have -- vaes casas is also proper.
  
• The following adjectives also never take a plural form: çaobén (= ‘how many’, ‘how much’), cacsa (= ‘such’, ‘quite’, ‘such a…’), embù (= ‘both’), ingen (= ‘any’), qetevri (= ‘whatever’), and qissen (= ‘whose’).

Secondly, there are nine adjectives that have irregular plural forms. These are:

• acest and its feminine form aceasta share the plural form acestilor (we have discussed these words before),
• fiir (= proud, loyal) has the plural form fiis,
• noastra (= our) has the plural form noschtri,
• po (= few) has the plural form pocs
• political (= political) has the irregular plural form politici, but the regular plural form politicais is also proper,
• proxim (= near) has the plural form proxins,
• quist (= the former) has the plural form quisten,
• viens (= one, single) has the plural forms dels and dals,
• voastra has the plural form voschtri.

Finally, in a weird little corner of our language, there are five adjectives that have a plural form that is irregular only in that the stress moves one syllable left. These are Belxhíc (= Belgian), evanxhelíc (= evangelical), matxentíc (= magical), öcümeníc (= ecumenical), and püblíc (= public). The stressmark is dropped from these words when they are pluralized, essentially moving the stress one syllable earlier in the word. That is, püblíc is stressed on the final syllable, but the plural form püblici is stressed on its first syllable.

Some Common or Notable Adjectives

Here are some adjectives you might want to make yourself familiar with:

• cacsa (= 'such a'). For example, c'e cacsa þonta (= it is such a shame). This adjective does not have a plural form, so os sint cacsa ardits (= they are such brave [men]).
  
• tal is another word that means "such a". You would use this one less sarcastically than you would use cacsa, though. For example, tal perziun riuschlarha (= such a person will succeed). For cases like this, though, the phrase com'acest (= like this) is more common. For example, perziuns com'acestilor riuschlarhent (= persons like that will succeed).
  
• The word altreu is used for "other". It has a feminine form altra. For example ¿dovestà l'altreu cióvec? (= where is the other man?) and ¿dove sint las altras frúlor? (= where are the other women?)
  
• The adjective cadascu means "each" or "every". It is often written (and spoken) in the shortened form ca'scu. For example, cadascu dels cioveci (= each [one] of the men) and ca'scu dels parleirs (= each [one] of the speakers).
  
• We have seen the word toct (= all) before. What is worth noting about it here is that in a phrase such as "all of us", you should remember to put the adjective after the pronoun, and form the phrase as "us all". That is, noi toct (= us all) is proper Talossan, while toct noi (which would literally be "all us") is improper.
  
• The adjective quançeu means "how many" or "how much". For example, quança lapta (= how much milk), and quançeux fis (= how many threads).
  
• To say "as much as" or "so much as", you would use the phrases tondavon qe, sa mült qe, and sa mûchet come. For example, téu sa mûchet dal apa come txamais (= I have as much water as ever) and a tent sa mült capacità qe tu (= she has as much talent as you). Notice that here is a case when a noun need not be accompanied by an article.
  
• The adjectives mült and muiteu (with its feminine form muita) are applied to singular nouns having the meaning akin to English "much, a lot of, or much of". For example, muita lapta tent estescu listrada (= much has been spilled). Notice that you should not modify either of these adjectives with the word tro (= too), as you would in English. That is, tro mült (literally "too much") is improper Talossan, in much the same way that "very lots" would be improper in English. To say "too much" or "too many", just use the single word tro. For example, c'e tro frü (= it is too early) and o reçaifeva tro criedit (= he received too much credit).
  
• We have seen the adjective po (= few) before. It has the irregular plural form pocs, and (just as in English) to refer to "a few" of something, you would use 'n po (= a few). For example, pocs garziuns lirent (= few boys read) and 'n po dels garziuns lirent (= a few of the boys read).
  
• In the previous lecture, we introduced pü (= more) and míus (= less). You would use these with da (= of) in comparative phrases just as in English, except that the order of the phrasing puts the noun first. That is, apa da phü (= more water), agogn da mhíus (= less agony), and þáriqeux da mhíus (= fewer beans).
  
• To indicate a negative in a descriptive phrase, use the word non (= not) to negate the verb, just like in English. For example, o non isch ardit (= he is not brave). There is also the negating adjective aucün, which has a meaning similar to "none" or "not any". When you use this word (which does not vary for number or gender), you typically would not also use non in the phrase. For example, éu téu aucün (= I have none) and aucün equas coriarhent (= no [not any] fillies will race).
  
• There are other negating adjectives too, such as nicacal (= no kind of). For example, ama nicacais vineux (= he likes no kinds of wine).
  
• Finally, there are some adjectives (often formed by a prefix akin to English "un-" or "non-") that have negative meaning, and which you would use in affirmative statements. This is just like in English. For example, a isch nereligiösa (= she is non-religious).

Adverbs

Just like English, Talossan has two kinds of adverbs. We'll discuss each of them now.

Primary Adverbs

Primary adverbs are words in and of themselves (that is, they are not forms of some other word). An example of such an adverb in English would be "seldom".

Some of the common primary adverbs in Talossan that you should learn are ocsà (= also), là (= there), aicì (= here), presca (= almost), imrè (= always), nun (= now), txamais (= never), sa (= so [very], as, thus), darar (= rarely, seldom), frü (= early), schpeit (= late), ingenpläts (= anywhere), piusutra (= ahead), entienþa (= afterwards), arüc (= backwards), ni (which means both "neither" and "nor").

The primary adverb detxa (= already) is often shortened, in both speech and writing, to simply txa.

We have discussed some of the special forms that the primary adverb dove (= where) takes when used with other words. Recall aduve (= to where) and daduve (= from where), dovestás (= where you are), dovestà (= where he/she/it is), and doveove, dovevri and dovesevol (all of those = wherever). Additionally, dove contracts, losing its letter "e", with any word that follows it and begins with a vowel. For example, dov'os sint (= where they are).

The word come (= like) is another extremely common primary adverb that loses its final "e" in contractions in the same way. For example, els méux sint com'els tuns (= mine are like yours).

The primary adverb ja (pronounced as English "yah") is equivalent to the English word "ago". For example, ja viensa seifetziua (= one week ago), and ja qátor ars (= four years ago).

Derived Adverbs

Derived adverbs are words that are formed from adjectives by applying a suffix to the adjective, creating an adverb. In English, the suffix is "-ly", and an example of a derived adverb in English would be "sadly".

In Talossan, the suffix used to form a derived adverb is -mint. Sometimes (but not always), it becomes -amint if the adjective being modified ends with a consonant.

Some examples of Talossan derived adverbs would be actualmint (= actually), certanmint (= certainly), fortünadamint (= fortunately), and gloriösmint.

One thing to be aware of, though, is that if an adjective has a feminine form, it is that form (and never the masculine form) that the adverb is created from. For example, because it ends with -céu, the adjective felicéu has the feminine form felicia. So the Talossan adverb that is derived from this adjective is feliciamint (= happily).

Notice, though, that just because there is an adjective that in English would take the auffix -ly to become a derived adverb, this does not mean that the same adjective in Talossan is made into a derived adverb by adding -mint. Instead, in Talossan, the equivalent adverb might be a primary adverb, so it is best to check. For example, you might think that the adjective desperadeu would be modified to become desperadamint (= desperately), but actually, in Talossan, that word is eflictim (= desperately).

PART 2: GENITIVE INDICATION

Just as in English, Talossan has three ways of expressing ownership.

Possessive Adjectives

Here are Talossan's possessive adjectives, which always precede the noun (just as in English). Notice also that when a possessive adjective is used, the noun should not be accompanied by an article.

• va (= my)
  
• tu (= your)
  
• sieu (= his, her, or its)
  
• ça (= its)
  
• ár (= our)
  
• noastra (= our)
  
• voastra (= your, referring to a plural owner ["you guys's"])
  
• lor (= their)

These adjectives are all invariable for gender.

Other than ár, all of these adjectives have plural forms (vas, tuns, sieux, ça'ns, noschtri, voschtri, and lors), but it is actually very uncommon to see any of these used, other than noschtri and voschtri, which must be used.

For example, both va vexhetal (= my vegetable) and va vexhetais (= my vegetables) are considered proper, although vas vexhetais is also sometimes seen. However, noastra vexhetais would be improper; this must be written noschtri vexhetais (= our vegetables).

The adjective va is the only one of these that elides, meaning that it loses its letter "a" and gets contracted to any following noun which begins with a vowel. For example, v'aic (= my horse).

Possessive Pronouns

Talossan's possessive pronouns are listed below:

• el méu (= mine). This has the plural form els méux.
  
• el tu (= yours). This has the plural form els tuns.
  
• el síeu (= his or hers). This has the plural form els síeux.
  
• el ça'n (= its). This has the plural form els ça'ns.
  
• el noastra (= ours). This has the plural form els noschtri.
  
• el voastra (= yours [referring to a plural owner]). This has the plural form els voschtri.
  
• el lor (= theirs). This has the plural form els lors.

For example, el criedit fost estarh el noastra (= the credit should be ours), and acestilor sint els lors (= those are theirs).

When used of owned nouns that are feminine in grammatical gender, in most cases these same words are retained, simply with the change of article (that is, la noastra, las voschtri, las tuns, etc.). However, in four cases, the pronoun (as well as the article) changes as shown below (in some cases to a word exhibiting consonant mutation) when referring to a owned-noun that has feminine gender:

• la mhía and las mías (= mine); recall that mhía is pronounced as the English "VEE-uh",
  
• la thu (= yours); recall that this is pronounced as the English "HOO",
  
• la tsía (= his or hers) and las sías; recall that tsía is pronounced as the English "TEE-uh", and
  
• la lhor (= theirs), with the "lh" pronounced like the "th" in the English word "father".

For example, la querela fost estarh la mhía (= the blame should be mine), and c'e la lhor (= it is theirs).

The Genitive Mark

The final way to indicate ownership in Talossan is known as the "genitive mark". This is very similar to how English uses the apostrophe-s in phrases like "John's house" and "my sister's hair".

In Talossan, the genitive mark is a word, sè, which goes in between the owning noun and the owned noun. For example, Ian sè casa (= John's house) and va soror sè caveglhen (= my sister's hair).

When the owned noun begins with a vowel, then sè elides with it, losing its letter "e". For example, Ian s'uglh (= John's eye) and va soror s'atitüd (= my sister's attitude). So you see what is "apostrophe-s" in English is often "s-apostrophe" in Talossan!

As always, I am available to answer questions about this lecture if anyone has any.

There probably will not be any exercises, though, since time for and interest in student-professor interaction has waned. Hopefully, the interested student can provide himself or herself with independent exercises to increase his knowledge and proficiency. Feel free to post them if you wish to share for the good of your fellow students and posterity.