User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/1-2

Lesson 2| Adjectives

Note: copy/paste from Latin wikibook to see what it looks like.

Overview of Adjectives

An adjective is simply any word that describes a noun, such as an object or subject in a sentence. Of course, whole phrases may be used to describe nouns, but adjectives are individual words. In English, for example:

The red dog attacked the crazy fox.

An adjective can also be used in a sentence opposite a form of "to be." (called a predicate adjective)

The boy is good.

In High Valyrian, the same is true.

Adjectives in High Valyrian

Like nouns, adjectives in High Valyrian are declined. The vast majority are of class I (kostōba -ys -on -or) and the rest are split rather evenly between class II (litse -ior) and class III (sylvie -ior). All such adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.

Class II and class III adjectives merge the lunar and solar, and the terrestrial and aquatic. Thusly, class II and class III adjectives have two genders as opposed to the four of a class I adjective.

Class I adjectives will look like the adjective rōva (big, large):

rōva (lunar), rōvys (solar), rōvon (terrestrial), rōvor (aquatic).

Class II and class III adjectives typically look more like sylvie (wise).

sylvie (lunar and solar), sylvior (terrestrial and aquatic).

Adjectives often come before the word they describe; this is called prepositive. However, they may come after the word in the more formal postpositive style. The main differences revolve around the prepositive form shortening case markings, which are clearer in the postpositive. The adjective must appear either before or after the noun it modifies.

For example:

Explanation- The good boy loves the silver wolf.
High Valyrian:	Taoba	sȳz	zokle(1)	gēlenke(2) (acc)	jorrāelza(3) (acc).
English:	[The] boy	good	[the] wolf	silver	[he] loves.

• ⁽¹⁾ zokla, wolf (1lun.). zokle, (acc.)
• ⁽²⁾ gēlenka, silver (adj. I). gēlenke, (acc.)
• ⁽³⁾ `jorrāelagon, to love. jorrāelza, [he] loves

Sȳz, a class II adjective, is singular, nominative, and agrees with the lunar taoba, the word it is describing.

Gēlenke, a class I adjective, is singular, accusative, and lunar to agree with zokle. Zokle is accusative because it is the object of jorrāelza.

Here is an example of plural adjectives:

Explanation- The good boys love the silver wolves.
High Valyrian:	Taobi (plur)	sȳri (plur)	zoklī (plur, acc)	gēlenkī (plur, acc)	jorrāelzi (3p plur).
English:	[The] boys	good	[the] wolves	silver	[they] love.

The word sȳz becomes sȳri to agree with the plural taobi and the word gēlenke becomes gēlenkī to agree with the accusative plural zoklī.

However, if a girl happened to love that boy:

Explanation- The good girl loves the good boy.
Latin:	Riña	sȳz	taobe (acc)	sȳz (acc)	jorrāelza.
English:	[The] girl	good	[the] boy	good	[she] loves.

Sȳz, like all class II and class III adjectives, has the same form in the accusative as in the nominative.

Finally, if the girl happened to be the silver wolf:

Explanation- The silver wolf loves the good boy.
High Valyrian:	Zokla	gēlenka	taobe (acc)	sȳz (acc)	jorrāelza.
English:	[The] wolf	silver	[the] boy	good	[she] loves.

Recall, High Valyrian does not have masculine or feminine words; a male wolf or a female wolf would be zokla. Don't assume an '-a' is feminine!

Adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case. There is no such concept as agreement in declension; an adjective of any class can modify a noun of any gender in any declination.

The Positive, Comparative, and Superlative Adjectives

The positive form of the adjective is the plain form of the adjective (e.g. good), the comparative form is used to compare two things (e.g. better), and the superlative form is used to compare more than two things (e.g. best).

To make most Latin adjectives comparative you add -ior to the adjective. To translate back into English you would say either the adjective -er (e.g. taller) or more the adjective (e.g. more tall). To form the superlative you add -issmus. This translates to either the adjective -est (e.g. strongest) or most the adjective (e.g. most strong).

However not all adjectives follow this rule; the following are irregular adjectives and their English translations:

Irregular Adjectives

English	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
good	bonus	melior	optimus
bad	malus	peior	pessimus
small	parvus	minor	minimus
large	magnus	māior	maximus
much	multus	plūs	plūrimus
thrifty	frūgī	frūgālior	frūgālissimus
worthless	nēquam	nēquior	nēquissimus

Exercise

Latin/Exercise|Translate|

1. est bonus. • sum ferox. • estis boni. • sunt bonae.

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1. He is good. • I am wild. • You (pl.) are good. • They are good.