User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/4-2
Lesson 2|Prefixes and Verb Derivation
Vocabulary
| Lesson Vocabulary | |
|---|---|
| High Valyrian | English |
| belmurtys (2sol.) | slave master, slaver |
| dovaogēdy (2lun.) | an Unsullied |
| gūese (4lun.) | tree |
| rōbir (5aq.) | fig |
| dorolvie (adj. III) | few, not many, not much, not a lot |
| nākostōba (adj. I) | weak |
| nāmorghūlilare (adj. II) | immortal |
| āmazverdagon (c-fin.) | to recreate, to remake |
| ezīmagon (c-fin.) | to split |
| jorepagon (c-fin.) | to pray, to pray to; to beg |
| mazōregon (v-fin.) | to accept, to take |
| mījāelagon (c-fin.) | to accept as a pledge, to accept as pawned |
| mīvindigon (v-fin.) | to taunt; to torture, to torment; to frustrate, to infuriate |
| ospȳnagon (c-fin.) | to squeeze |
| ossēnagon (c-fin.) | to kill, to slay |
| qrīdrughagon (c-fin.) | to give up, to abandon, to leave behind; to discard, to jettison |
| kesīr (adv.) | here, at this place |
Verb Derivation
High Valyrian features three forms of common verbal prefixes.
The instrumental passive describes actions from inanimate grammatical subjects, like "the knife cut the man."
The oblique applicative promotes an indirect object, a noun in the dative case, to the direct object, in the accusative case.
The locative applicative promotes the object of an adpositional phrase to a type of indirect object.
Instrumental Passive
The instrumental passive describes actions from inanimate grammatical subjects. Form it in the following manner:
| Instrumental Passive Prefix | Verb Begins With |
|---|---|
| s- | the consonants k, p, q, t |
| z- | the consonants b, d, g, l, r(1) |
| h- | all vowels except e and o |
| a- | all other letters |
- (1) Recall that the illicit sequence x zr becomes j.
Consider the following two sentences:
| High Valyrian | English |
| vala egromy rōbir ezīmza | the man splits the fig with a knife |
| rōbir egry aezīmza | the knife splits the fig |
The first has vala as the subject, the one who does the action. The second omits vala and focuses on the action of the knife. As knives do not have animacy, this sentence uses the instrumental passive. Note how the instrument promoted to the subject appears directly before the verb in contrast to the usual subject-object-verb order. Should one want to introduce the subject, the owner of the knife, use the postposition ondoso.
| High Valyrian | English |
| valo ondoso rōbir egry aezīmza | the knife of the man splits the fig |
Note how this sentence does not appear as x rōbir valo egry aezīma, with a genitive phrase, which one may assume as licit. Avoid confusing the instrumental passive with the passive voice, as they may occur together as in the following examples.
| High Valyrian | English |
| rōbir ezīmaks | the fig is split (due to someone) |
| rōbir aezīmaks | the fig is split (due to something) |
A nuance, use of the instrumental passive with the passive voice indicates that the action occurred upon the action of an inanimate.
| High Valyrian | English |
| rōbir valo ondoso ezīmaks | the fig is split due to the man |
| egromy rōbir aezīmaks | the fig is split with a knife |
Notice how the focus with the passive voice shifts to the fig and not the man in the passive voice with the postpositional phrase occurring after the patient. Then, in the second example, the patient appears directly before the verb.
Oblique Applicative
The oblique applicative promotes a noun appearing in the dative case to the accusative case. Form it in the following manner:
| Instrumental Passive Prefix | Vowel Begins With |
|---|---|
| i- | all consonants except h; the vowels a, e, o |
| j- | the consonant h; the vowels i, u, y |
The below example shows the difference with and lacking the oblique applicative. Notice how the first says "say to the" and the second with the oblique applicative says "tell the." Thusly, the dative case appears less frequently than expected as the oblique applicative appears commonly.
| High Valyrian | English |
| belmurtoti vestrās kesīr pōnte jiōrinna | say to the slavers I will receive them here |
| belmurtī ivestrās kesīr pōnte jiōrinna | tell the slavers I will receive them here |
A commonly used word iderēbagon has an oblique applicative and its object and subject may not appear intuitive.
| High Valyrian | English |
| vala rōbrȳti Aeri iderēbza | the man selects figs for Aerys |
As iderēbagon means to select for, the recipient appears in the accusative case and the object selected, in the dative case. Note that in the passive voice, iderēbagon will mean is selected for and not is selected.
| High Valyrian | English |
| Aeri iderēbaks | Aerys is selected for |
Of note, Aerys appears in the accusative case when typically, in the passive voice, the patient appears in the nominative case.
The postposition syt- may be added to an oblique applicative verb.
Locative Applicative
The locative applicative promotes an adpositional phrase with spacial reference to what is effectively an indirect object. The applied object will be in either the dative or the genitive, based on phonetic conditions: if the verb begins with a vowel, the dative case is used, otherwise, the genitive case is used. Form it in the following manner:
| Instrumental Passive Prefix | Vowel Begins With |
|---|---|
| b- | after a prefix that ends in a consonant, before i or u |
| o- | after a prefix that ends with a |
| u- | before a consonant; the vowels a, e, o |
| v- | before the vowels i, u, y |
The locative applicative provides two ways of expressing the same idea. Again, the object must appear directly before the verb.
| High Valyrian | English |
| guēso gō iōrilen | I was standing under a tree |
| guēso viōrilen | I was standing [under, on, inside] a tree |
| guēso gōviōrilen | I was standing under a tree |
| guēso bēviōrilen | I was standing on a tree |
One cannot reconstruct what the original adposition was in the non-applicative sentence. Viōrilen could mean "I was standing under," "I was standing on," or even "I was standing inside;" the only clue here is context: one typically stands under trees, not on top of them or inside them. Even this is not reliable: if the speaker was a sentry on watch in a forest, he may very well have been standing on the tree.
To resolve this ambiguity, one may add an adpositional prefix to the verb. These include:
bē- on.
gō- under.
hen from.
va to.
Prefixes
Prefixes append to the beginning of a word to form a new word. Understanding them can help guess the meaning of an unknown word and derive new words, an important skill when working with High Valyrian, an incomplete language, as you will find semantic gaps which mastery of prefixes and suffixes can help find new, accurate words.
| Prefix | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ā-/ar- | repetitive | āmāzigon āmazverdagon |
| do(r)- | negative | dorolvie dovaogēdy |
| jor- | continuative | jorepagon jorrāelagon |
| maz- | inceptive | mazemagon mazōregon |
| mī-/mīv- | temporary | mīvindigon mījāelagon |
| nā- | opposite | nākostōba nāmorghūlilare |
| oz-/os- | intensifier | ossēnagon ospynagon |
| qrin-/qrim-/qril-/qrīd- | perjorative | qrīdrughagon qrimpālegon |
The repetitive prefix means approximately "re-" or "again" and appears as ā- if the verb begins with a consonant and as ar- if it begins with a vowel.
The negative prefix means approximately "un-" and "non-". It appears as do- if the word begins with a consonant not r or z, and dor- if it begins with a vowel, r, or z.
The continuative prefix means approximately "to continue to" and may be appended to any verb to provide an altered sense of continuation. It appears as jo- if the word begins with a consonant not l or r, and jor- if it begins with a vowel or r, and jol- if it begins with l.