Gerna Mohr Grammar

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Gerna Mohr is an agglutinative language. The word order is subject-object-verb (SOV) and the language is mostly head-final.

Nouns

Nouns decline for case, which is marked by means of affixes. The cases include genitive ("of"), dative/benefactive ("for, to," marked by -(a)t), locative ("at, in", marked by -ahl), ablative ("away from"), illative ("into"), and aversive ("avoiding").

Examples

• gernat "for the Earth"
• yahat "to the time," "before"
• nyagyesanks "by this path"
• magulnenya "into the cave"
• toda "multitudes, many, a lot"
• todanasa "more enemies, more invaders"
• nassa "threat"
• durahahl "at greatness"

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Like nouns, personal pronouns decline for case.

Demonstratives

Demonstrative determiners appear as proclitics on the noun they determine. They are also sometimes used with proper nouns.

Examples

• nguwas "away from us"
• awahl "(at) them"
• awassa "around them, avoiding them"
• ni- "this"
• nyiha "this's, of this"

Adjectives

Adjectives precede the nouns they modify.

Examples

• duraha "great"

Adverbs

Adverbs follow the verbs they modify.

Examples

• nyahenya "already"
• nyahahl, nyah "now"
• nyahl "here"

Verbs

Verbs in Gerna Mohr show polypersonal agreement. Many verbal constructions feature a verbal noun in an oblique case to convey information. For example, a verbal noun in the locative followed by the appropriately conjugated verb "to be under" conveys the sense of "must, have to."

Examples

• Shonji! "Hold them!"
• Shoguldani! "Stop them!"
• Shagukwamanji!" "Protect (him)!"
• Gi! "Move!", "Go!"
• Tagungi! "Fire!"
• Utwommani!" "Block!" (Do blocking!)
• oboldasa "have died"
• ojigli "cross over"
• ngugwa "we are under," "we must"
• ngugwi "we are under," "we risk"
• hafwa "(it) is over"

Verbal nouns:

• gudniyahl "at being ready"
• fowanjildiyahl "at losing everything"
• guldaniyahl "at stopping"
• ngubgukwamanjiyassa "(either) we protect ourselves, or..."