| Glossary/mini dictionary |
1 - VOCAB: NOUNS & ADJECTIVES
chanu - bed.
chanuhi - cushion.
chwiku - fear.
eku - lie, falsehood.
fruku - delay, lateness.
fu - walking.
gla - belief, faith, creed.
kachi - here, this place.
ko - food.
krovya - feather, plumage.
kwiku - slowness, long duration; du kwiku - lengthy, long, slow
kya - loneliness.
legu - god.
palya - virtue, good feeling; du palya - good, good-hearted.
pipra - puzzle.
ri - reason, motive, cause.
ryaku - mistake.
gro shi - death.
shiku - life.
tri - area above.
triku - area below.
va - will, desire, wish.
ve - tree.
vechi - grass, low vegetation.
wa - drink, liquid.
1a - VOCAB: SPECIAL NOUNS
ka (pron.) - this, this thing; du ka - this.
kadjo (pron.) - we, us.
kaze (pron.) - I, me (either man or woman).
la (pron.) - that, that thing over there.
laze (pron.) - he, him, she, her.
nacha (num.) - one.
ryu (pron.) - who, which, that, whose (explanation below).
taze (pron.) - you (singular, either man or woman).
vla (pron.) - oneself; ga vla - own.
2 - VOCAB: - VERBS
chwikun (v1 intr.) - to fear, to be scared, afraid.
chwikun (v1 tr.) - to scare.
fun (v2) - to walk, to walk (a distance).
glan (v2) - to have faith, to believe (in something).
juva - (see van, and 9e).
juvyu - (see vyun, and 9e).
kyan (v1 intr.) - to be alone, single.
kyan (v1 tr.) - to isolate.
len (v4) - to be.
nyun (v1 intr.) - to be recommended, suggested; nyun polye - should.
nyun (v1 tr.) - to recommend, to suggest (something).
prin (v1 intr.) - to be possessed, owned.
prin (v1 tr.) - to have, to possess.
pyan (v1 intr.) - to be allowed; pyan polye - can, to be allowed to.
pyan (v1 tr.) - to allow.
ren (v2) - to be thoughtful, to think (about), to concentrate (on).
ron (v1 intr.) - to exist, there to be.
ron (v1 tr.) - to create, to make, to make exist.
run (v1 intr) - to be in motion.
run (v1 tr.) - to move.
shikun (v2) - to live, to have a life (of).
shon (v1 intr.) - to happen, to occur.
shon (v1 tr.) - to cause, to make happen.
shun (v1 intr.) - to be intelligent.
shun (v1 tr.) - to know.
van (v1 intr.) - to be wanted, wished.
van (v1 tr.) - to want, to wish, to desire.
vren (v1 intr.) - to be transported, taken.
vren (v1 tr.) - to transport, to take, to carry.
vyun (v2 intr.) - to be talented, to be skilled.
vyun (v2 tr.) - can, to be talented at, to be able to.
yakun (v2) - to go away (from), to leave.
yan (v2) - to travel (to), to go (to).
zukun (v2) - to be the same (as).
3 - VOCAB: PARTICLES
du - (prep.) - (gives the meaning of an adjective to the following noun -- see
more below)
ga (prep.) - of (followed by a noun and never by a sentence).
gachi (prep.) - in, on, at.
gaki (conj.) - (before a sentence) of, in, at, with, etc. + (verb) +ing; dja
gaki dran ha, "success in building the house".
gaki (prep.) - (before a noun) emphasizes that the next noun would be the
object, and not the subject, if the preceeding noun were a verb, e.g.: bla gaki
zehi, "message TO the boss", and not "message FROM the boss" (he informs the
boss).
galo (prep.) - (before a noun) for, to.
gan (conj.) - introduces a relative clause. explanation below.
poge (prep.) - (before a noun) like; behaving in the same way as.
poki (conj.) - (before a sentence) that; as in "I know THAT you're right".
poki (prep.) - (before a noun) gives emphasis to the object, as in "it's THE
BALL what I want".
polye (conj.) - (before a sentence) that; as in "it's possible THAT you're
right".
polye (prep.) - (before a noun) gives emphasis to the subject, as in "it's ME
who wants the ball".
popye (conj.) - (before a sentence) so that, in order to (with the meaning of
purpose).
popye (prep.) - (before a noun) for (with the meaning of purpose).
pori (conj.) - (before a sentence) because.
pori (prep.) - (before a noun) because of.
4 - VOCAB: SPECIAL WORDS
ku - not, doesn't, don't (it goes before the verb or noun).
zyo - only, just, merely (it goes before the verb or noun).
zwa - or.
kyu - may (subjunctive mood -- it goes before the subject).
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| Grammar notes |
5 - WORD ORDER
The word order is SVO (IO) (Adv), but in some cases the adverb can appear before
everything too. In this order, the subject is unmarked as well as the object if
it's not a sentence. If the object is a sentence, it's preceeded by "poki"
(that). The indirect object is introduced by "po", whether it's a noun or a
sentence. The adverb is introduced by "po" or its compounds (pochi, podje, podo,
poma, etc.). The subject goes after the verb (and the objects, if they exist)
when introduced by "polye", whether it's a noun or a sentence. If both the
subject and the object are sentences, so the word order is: V polye (S) poki
(O), where V is the main verb of the sentence, (S) is a sentence as subject and
(O) is a sentence as object.
6 - THE NOUN
Nouns don't have any inflexion. Definiteness is taken from the context. Gender
is disregarded, unless there're the words for "man, male" and "woman, female",
and the number of the noun is taken from the counters, or context.
6a - COUNTERS
Counters are placed before the number. Some examples:
ni ga - every, each, all (lit. the totality of)
ye ga - some, a bit (lit. an unspecified amount of)
nacha ga - one (lit. one unit of)
and so on.
7 - THE VERB
The verb ends with "n" (note that this isn't an affix, it's just a transcription
of the nasalization of the last syllable). The verb often comes right after the
subject. Verbs don't have any inflexion. The tense of the verb is taken from
time adverbs or by context, as well as the aspect of the verb. Verbs don't
inflect for person or number.
7a - SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
The subjunctive mood is marked by "kyu". It can often be translated as "may". If
goes before the subject. If there isn't a subject in the sentence, then the
sentence is in imperative mood.
Subject Meaning
kyu kaze may I
kyu taze may you
kyu kadjo may we / let's
kyu (no subj) (imperative)
7b - VERB TYPES
There are four verb types:
Verb Type 1: It can be transitive or intransitive. The meanings of both forms
are often inverted. You can tell the meaning by the presence or absence of an
object.
Verb Type 2: It can be transitive or intransitive. The meanings of both forms
are quite similar.
Verb Type 3: It's an intransitive verb.
Verb Type 4: It's a transitive verb.
The only verbs that can be used in the passive voice are the Type 1 Verbs.
8 - PARTICLES
Particles are used to link a noun or a sentence to a noun or a sentence. As
follows:
ga - (noun) ga (noun)
gan - (noun) gan (relative clause)
du - (noun) ga (noun)
po - (sentence) po (noun) / (sentence) po (sentence)
ga[x] - (noun) ga[x] (noun) / (noun) ga[x] (sentence)
po[x] - (sentence) po[x] (noun) / (sentence) po[x] (sentence)
where ga[x] are the compounds of ga (gachi, galye, gaki, gado, etc.) and po[x]
are the compounds of po (pochi, polye, poki, podo, etc.)
The table above means that "ga" is used to link two nouns only, but "po" can
link a sentence to either a noun or to another sentence... and so on.
- The meaning of "ga" is "of".
- "du" indicates that the next noun is to be read as an adjective of the
first.
In other words, "du" can SOMETIMES be translated as "which has, which presents"
or "with".
- "polye" is used to mark the subject in four cases:
a) When emphasis on the subject is desired;
b) When there's already a subject; in this case, the phrase is in the passive
voice, and "polye (noun)" is the agent of the passive voice;
c) When the subject is a sentence;
d) When the subject is modified by a relative clause;
9 - SUBORDINATED SENTENCES
There are 4 types of subordinated sentences: sentences-as-object,
sentences-as-subject,sentences-as-everythingelse and relative clauses. The
sentence-as-object has a special case too: verbs-in-a-row sentences.
9a - SENTENCES-AS-OBJECT
These are introduced by "poki", that means "that" as in "I know THAT you're
right".
This sentence would be: kaze shun poki taze ryan.
9b - SENTENCES-AS-SUBJECT
These are introduced by "polye". In English there's little to tell this kind of
sentence from the one above. In mabri, it's used to translate sentences like
"it's hard to...", "it's possible that...", "it's understood that...". In order
to understand this, we could rearrange these sentences as: "the fact of ... is
hard", "the fact of ... is possible", "the fact of ... is understood".
One example: "It's understood that mabri is easy"
This sentence would be: fyan polye mabri glin.
9c - SENTENCES-AS-EVERYTHINGELSE
The simplest of these sentences is that introduced by "po". First, a sentence as
an indirect object:
For example: "I'm ready to start it."
This sentence would be: kaze dron po kaze jon ka.
We could drop the noun, once it's the same: kaze dron po jon ka.
"po" can also be used to introduce sentences as adverbs. This is similar to the
English suffix -ing attached to the verbs.
For example: "The plane flies surrounding my city."
vredri rudrin po nen si ga kaze.
9d - RELATIVE CLAUSES
This is maybe the most difficult kind of subordinated sentence, not because it's
complex, but because it works differently from English. In English, when we need
to link two clauses, we place the linking pronoun in front of the relative
clause, and if there's a preposition, it's optional to place it before the
pronoun or in the end of the sentence.
Some examples:
main clause: I want the ball.
rel. clause: you have the ball.
= I want the ball that you have.
main clause: I see the house.
rel. clause: you sleep in the house.
= I see the house in which you sleep.
= I see the house (which) you sleep in.
(this sentence can also be translated using the word "where", but it's not what
I wanted to show here)
main clause: He is the man.
rel. clause: the man is green.
= He is the man who is green.
main clause: I'm so tall.
rel. clause: you're so tall.
= I'm so tall as you.
In mabri, this inversion does not take place. The pronoun is "ryu", and the
sentences are linked with a particle: "gan".
main clause: I want the ball. (kaze van tu)
rel. clause: you have the ball. (taze prin tu)
= I want the ball GAN you have RYU.
(kaze van tu gan taze prin ryu)
main clause: I see the house. (kaze men ha)
rel. clause: you sleep in the house. (taze nun pochi ha)
= I see the house GAN you sleep in RYU.
(kaze men ha gan taze nun pochi ryu)
main clause: He is the man. (lato len to)
rel. clause: the man is green. (to zaven)
= He is the man GAN RYU is green.
(lato len to gan ryu zaven)
main clause: I'm so tall. (kaze vron po ja)
rel. clause: you're so tall (taze vron po ja)
= I'm tall so much GAN you're tall RYU much.
(kaze vron po ja gan taze vron po ryu)
9e - VERBS-IN-A-ROW
In English, when we have two or more verbs in a row, the first is conjugated. In
mabri, the opposite occurs. When the subordinated sentence has the same subject
as the main sentence, we add "ju-" before the main verb, without "-n".
English: He can swim.
mabri: lato juvyu ruwan. (he ju-can swims)
(mabri, long sentence: lato vyun poki ruwan)
English: I want to say that I can be happy.
mabri: kato juva juma juvyu glun. (I ju-want ju-say ju-can am happy)
(mabri, long sentence: kato van poki man poki vyun poki glun)
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