Sentence 1.2

The next sentence is A ítí ta chomú?, Who is there?

A is the normal word to introduce a question.

ítí means 'is'. It is only used when 'is' points out where something is, so it means 'is (at a location)'.

Ta is a pronoun. In this case it is used to mean 'there' and is the subject of the verb ítí.

Chomú means 'who?' It is the object of the verb ítí.

Unlike English chomú is not moved to the beginning of the sentence. Literally the sentence is translated 'Is there who?' which is a different order to English.

The stranger outside the door replies Ei'm, 'it is me'. Ei is the topic marker discussed previously used again. After the topic marker the pronoun in this case is reduced to 'm, 'me'. Note that in this dialogue the 'me' pronoun is only used by people in charge when they are talking to servants. There is another pronoun 'me' used for talking to friends which will be introduced in a later sentence.

Sentence 1.1 redux

I looked at this sentence again. Especially at the word piras. It is a survival from OT1.0 where it was pulta from porta, borrowed from Quechua or something like that I believe. Borrowing from the old form of the language did not satisfy me so I went looking through my notes again. I discovered the word drúí. It is a plural word 'double doors' which acts as a singular 'door'. Ghostian is not as particular or irregular at marking case in plurals as it is in singular nouns. The plurals appear to have leveled out. So the revised form of this sentence is: Ei chomú-dâ kú drúí.

Sentence # 1

I took a hiatus from this blog while I made new notes from two new grammars that I have bought: Living French and TY Italian. The notes are now finished although I haven't assimilated them yet. There is new material that I haven't included into the preposition list.

To resume activity I shall start revising the first dialogue.

The first sentence is Ei chomú-dâ kú piras.

Ei is a common word in the language. It marks the topic in a sentence, usually something that can be sensed by the speaker. In this case it is translated as 'there is'. In other sentences it can be used for 'about' or 'for'. It is included as a preposition. In this case it takes the place of a verb.

chomú means 'who', and with the ending dâ it means 'someone'. The dâ ending means the person is unknown.

kú is another preposition. It means 'at a location'. It is followed by the genitive case.

piras, 'door'. The -as ending marks it as a feminine noun in the genitive case.

Dialogue 1: A Friend Arrives

Host: Ei chomú-dâ kú piras	There is someone at the door
Servant: Chota ítí ta?	Who is there?
Friend: Ei'm	It is I
Visitor: Chota tí ta?	Who is it?
Host: Bodú úwedshim	I don't know
Visitor: Bodú ve kayir siestant	I will go see
Host: Kain gieruk. Bodú ve kabâm Shinuwin yirant	No need, I shall tell Shinuwin to go
Host: Shinuwin!	Shinuwin!
Servant: Íe!	Yes!
Host: Dâo dâ!	Come here!
Servant: Íe!	Yes!
Host: Ei chomú-dâ kú piras. Yirú siestant chota tí ta.	There is someone at the door. Go and see who it is.
Servant: Íe!	Right!
Servant: Korí ya, kakai sinú tí kembí?	What is your name, sir?
Friend: Moi sinú tí Trushikan. A ítí korí Kinig kú soi?	My name is Trushika. Is Mr Kinig at home?
Servant: Íe, taní ítí kú soi. Kulahú penyirant dâ	Yes, he is. Please come in
Friend: Âriget	Thank you
Servant: Korí Trushika ítí dâde	Mr. Trushika has come
Host: Kulahú ten penyirant dâ	Ask him to come in
Host: Korí Trushika ya, a ítí kembí duono ya?	Hello Mr. Trushika, how are you?
Friend: Duoní. Korí Kinig a koren Shirab ya, a ítí ba kembien duono	Quite well. Are you Mr. Kinig and Mr. Shirab, both well?
Host and Visitor: Duoní, duoní. Kulahú siedant súdakembí	Quite well. Please take a seat
Friend: Âriget âriget	Thank you, thank you
Host: Brobú chân!	Prepare tea!
Servant: Kembí guôt dâ nena dok bodú dâ	Coming in a moment
Host: Kulahú, korí Trushika, pihant chân	Take some tea Mr. Trushika
Friend: Âriget	Thank you
Host: A pohatíshim siedant súdakembí nidolgon bikkon	Can't you stay a little longer?
Friend: Púch! Ta tí chota-dâ so kapena bodú kiekant. Bodú múhe tai redyir	Sorry! There is someone waiting for me. I must return
Friend: Ûhim'na príantantie.	Don't get up.
Host and Visitor: Ishikude dât talik a nena!	Where do such words come from!
All together: Dua sieh, dua sieh	Good-bye, good-bye

Prepositions, again

I'm back at this for the holidays. I think prepositions ending with a dental stop are going to change their forms.

kot will become ko, from
nad will become na, above, over
niúrut will become niúru, in the middle
kaúrut will become kaúru, to the middle
ishiúrut will become ishiúru, from the middle

These forms will be used before consonants. Before vowels they will end in a d.

Feminine declension

The word ahbana, daughter, is regular, in as far as ghostian can be regular. Most feminine nouns follow after it.

ahbana, nominative

ahbanan, accusative

ahbanaga, nominative/accusative plural

ahbanas, ahbana, genitive singular, and plural

ahbana, ahbanan, dative singular, and plural

The feminine noun, including the -tas agent noun, does not have a separative form for the instrumental case, so prepositions that govern the instrumental case are always followed by wa. I haven't decided what form the noun takes, probably either genitive or dative.

nâshritas

Nâshritas looks like the final form for the word actor. In ghostian culture an actor always wears a mask. The ending -tas is used for agent nouns and overlaps with the feminine declension. The forms of the noun are:

nâshritas nominative singular
nâshritan accusative singular
nâshritú genitive singular
nâshrita dative/instrumental singular


The plural form has levelled out as nâshritaren.