C. Teonaht Adverbs |
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This page on adverbs gives information on the following topics:2. Modal Adverbs.
- 1. Prepositional Adverbs.
- 2. Modal Adverbs.
- 3. Temporal Adverbs.
- 4. Deictic Adverbs.
- 5. Adverbial Formations.
- 6. The Verbal Adverb.
- 7. A List of Common Adverbs.
Brief Introduction:
As a rule, adverbs precede the verbs and adjectives they modify, with the exception of vera, "not" in simple negating sentences:
Li etõn ven rendaruon.In imperatives, though, the vera precedes:
"The tree well grows."
Li tamol poy pamuis.
"The child very sick (is)."
Õl elfy den vera.
"You did not tell me. (Me you told not)."Vera vektof!1. Prepositional Adverbs.
"Don't scowl."And the most common way to change an adjective into an adverb (equivalent to our "strangely," "quietly," "suddenly," etc.) is to put the preposition õ in front of it. This is explained in adverbial formations below."
Adverbs share an overlapping relationship with both prepositions and modals. As we have seen in the section on prepositions, the motive preposition can function adverbially with transitive and intransitive verbs:
Le gwenda cely ennyveThese constructions bear a similarity to the prepositional verbs described in the section on prepositions. Differences, though, should be noted:
The girl inside eats; "the girl eats inside."
Lo hman le betõ amny ennyve
His bread the boy afterwards eats.
Le vaiua zeaamny uafla.
The bird beyond flies.
Le ykwa preby (limny) teo.
The horse beforehand runs.
Li milika darny glisan.
The brook alongside flows.
Li kyam hyny menddohtan.
The book throughout instructs.Ain elo amny fen (as adverb--motive)The distinctions between the preposition used adverbially and the preposition used in a verbal compound can sometimes be subtle and idiomatic. Compare:
It did he behind put. "He put it last."
Amna il nikkably ain elo fen. (as preposition--static)
Behind the table it did he put. "He put it behind the table."
Ain elo amfen. (as prepositional verb)
It he behind-put. "He forgot it, he ignored it."Ril gwendan le betõ amny teo.
With respect to the girls the boy afterwards runs. I.e., the girls run first, and then the boy runs.
Ril gwenda li betõ amtteon.
"The boy lags behind the girls." (note the non-volitional construction) Amnyil gwendan le betõ teo.
Behind the girls the boy runs. (He's losing the race)
Il gwendan le betõ htesa
The girls the boy chases. "The boy chases the girls."
The modal, which is covered in the section on verbs, is actually an adverb, which is why it precedes the active verb form. Compare:
Uaflarem ry dehsan.The other modal/adverbs are as follows:
Flying I desire, "I want to fly" (auxilliary used with infinitive/gerund as object).
Ry dihs uafla.
"I want to fly" (modal/adverbial used with active verb form).tal, expresses ability to do something: "can."These words acquired gerundive endings and are treated as volitional and non-volitional verbs:
hme, expresses compulsion or obligation to do something: "must," "should."
ves, expresses permission to do something: "may."
wem, expresses probability of doing something: "may, could, might."
dihs, expresses desire to do something: "want."
beg, expresses cessation of an action: "stop."
mip, expresses inception of an action: "begin."
uab, expresses continuation of an action: "keep."talrem, "be able to." Volitional.Examples:
hmened, "be required to." Non-volitional.
vesned, "be permitted to." Non-volitional.
wemned, "be in a probable position to." Non-volitional.
dihsrem, "want to." Volitional.
begrem, "stop doing." Volitional.
miprem, "begin doing." Volitional.
uabrem, "keep doing." Volitional.
Lo uab teo, "he keeps running," "he still runs."
Ry wem eua,, "I might/may/could go."
Ely ves htindel,, "she was allowed to sing."
Der uarsy hdar beg uahza?, "have you stopped hating him?"
mal, now. Used to express progressive action in the present tense:
Sy dhar mal ennyve? "Are you eating now?"When it is used in the present perfect, it means "just":Y mal enyveuar, uary mal ennyve. "I have just eaten."lal, then. Used in the past tense to mean "then, at that time," corresponding with mal to express progressive action:Elsy dhar lal kwecy ran nely fyl nantry sedpom?zal, then. Used in the future exactly as it is in the past:
"Were you cooking when you mother was with you?"Esy dhar zal kwecy? "Will you be cooking?" (lit. will you then cook?")NOTE: "Then" as the conjunction "afterwards," or "thereupon," is expressed by ban below.man, when. Used in all tenses to express the time of an action:
Jõven taitaf man kloika volwen.ban, then (afterwards). Used in all tense:
"The young man laughs when the old man stumbles." Early Welsh proverb.Ain elry gombre, ban elry ain kleua.ran, while, during. Used in all tenses:
"I bought it, then I broke it."Li zef nelo sõmfy ran ely thindel le uehar.
"The man snored while the woman sang."Prepositions that describe directional motion (towards or away from something) can also function adverbially:
elwy, "away" (a motive preposition, shows motion away from)
Ry elwy atwa, "I walk away."
ary, "towards" (a motive preposition, shows motion towards)
Ry ary atwa, "I walk forward."
tandy, "from" (a motive prepoition, shows motion from)
Ry tandy atwa, "I walk from out."NOTE: How does this differ from the simple preposition? With an object, it's exactly the same thing, isn't it? Ary il aoto ry atwa. "I walk to the car." The difference is in the use of a patient, wherein ary precedes the object, and the use of ary in a sentence without a patient, in which it precedes the verb. The fact of the matter is, Teonaht confuses categories. Prepositions are adverbs, modals are adverbs, too.
The following are explained in length in the chapter on Prepositions, but I recap some of them here. The -ary and -andy prepositions qualify as adverbs of direction:
limnnary, "to the front,"4. Adverbial Formations.
limnnandy
, "from the front,"
limnnelwy, "away from the front."
hsinvvary, "to the left,"
hsinvvandy, "from the left,
hsinvvelwy, "away from the left."
tessary, "cityward,"
Ry tessary eua, "I to the city go."
tessandy, "from the city,"
Li pelnarn tessandy glisan, "the river from the city runs."
tesselwy, "away from the city."
" Sy tesselwy wem tittalt meuualuo, "You away from the city could perhaps rest."
Õ
Nouns and adjectives may be used in "adverbial formations" to function as adverbs. The most common way to turn an adjective into an adverb is precede it with the particle õ I(from õm, "of," "from"):
L'ykwa õ nimra teo "The horse of quick (quickly) runs."
õ tystra, "suddenly (of sudden)"
õ meua, "quietly,"
õ hadoht, "darkly," "clandestinely,"
õ vlarent, "loudly," "brightly,"
õ dasrydel, "enchantedly."-lo
A poetic way to turn an adjective into an adverb is with the more recent suffix -lo, implemented for metrical reasons. Õ meua gives you a penultimate rhythm, whereas meualo euanef provides a pleasing dactylic with its antepenultimates. Many constructions in Teonaht capitulate to poetic demands.
vul-
This prefix turns a noun into an adjectival formation to express "with respect to," or "concerning." It functions much like our English suffix -wise--"That was helpful, ideawise"--and it differs from most other adverbs in its occasional position before the subject instead of before the verb. Here are some examples with 1) an intransitive, 2) a copula, and 3) a transitive verb:
1) vulkkempa ly tafwyrn, "Headwise she hurts."
ly vulkkempa tafwyrn, "She headwise hurts."
2) Tokkleuan vulrim lo, "Bonewise fragile he."
Vulrim tokkleuan lo, "Fragile bonewise he."
3) Il belreg elry vuloffikya tazzanda, "The struggle I jobwise won."
Il belreg vuloffikya elry tazzanda, "The struggle jobwise I won."A rare, and poetic, formation is the development of the adverb out of the "stative verbs" or "verbal adjectives" described in the Chapter on Verbs. Here, the adverb takes the form of an -ndi verb and the verb, in its infinitive/gerund form, becomes the false object:
Neomrem delo fon (from fondi, "be deep."
"Breathing did he "deep." I.e., "he deeped breathing," "he breathed deeply."
Celil memwa nwehtrem delry nimin (from nimindi, "be swift."
"In the water swimming did I swift." "I swam swiftly in the water."This is the only time the -ndi verb takes an object, of sorts.
- amny, sooner, beforehand. See preby below.
- be-, un- (reverses an action, suggesting cessation): beggarne, "stop-liking."
- brin, extremely (this prefixes some verbs and nouns made from verbs to suggest an intensification of an action that goes beyond what poy ("very") can express. For instance, brinravo, literally "extremely love" can in some instances mean "rape"; brinennyve, "over eat," "gorge."
- hdo-, as, like, so (modifies an adjective): dho mohsa, "as big, so big."
ta...hdo, "as...as (expresses the equative): ta dyssamy dho myeebi ai,
"it's as red as an apple" [lit.: "as (an) apple as red it (is)."] See ta below.- hse, most (modifies an adjective and an adverb): hse venda, "most good," "excellent," "superlative." Yields the word hsvenda, "excellent." See ykhsa, "least," below.
õm hse (expresses the superlative using partitive õm): Õm nihhovik
hse mohsa al hovik, "my house is the biggest of houses."- hterme, again. hterme hterme, "again and again."
- htre-, again (prefixed to a verb, it has much the same sense as our re-): htreddey, "repeat," "redo."
- limny, beforehand, before.
- lum-, self (prefixed to a verb it expresses reflexivity and is used in place of an object pronoun when that would be the performant): lo lumssilin, "he washes himself"; Li zef elo lumkkabma, "the man killed himself," etc.
- maka, more (modifies an adjective/adverb): maka venda, makavent, "more good," "better"; o maka nimra, "more swiftly."
ta...maka (expresses the comparative): ta fyl hovik maka mohsa al
hovik, "than your house bigger my house (is)."- manuoban, when/then (an emphatic form of ban, "then": Ain elry manuoban bittai, preby vera! "I brought it then, not afterwards!"
- minuovinlo, every now and then (adverbial phrase)
- mrel-, together (prefixed to a verb it expresses reciprocity and is used in verbs where two or more are engaged: mreljjane, "speak together," mrelttavim, "meet each other," etc.
- nõ, enough (modifies both verbs, adjectives, and adverbs): nõ dey, "do enough." nõ mohsa, "big enough." It is not quite the equative; it suggest equitability, but something that is good enough for the task at hand. See vynõ, "not enough" below.
- nwetis, many, much (normally an adjective--memwa nwetis, "much water"--this also has adverbial force and is a slight intensification of poy): eldwav nwetis dihs, "they much lack/want."
- oba, too, over (preposition oba used adverbially to suggest superfluity): oba mohsa, "too big."
- poy, very (modifies adjective/adverb/verb): poy mohsa, "very big." O poy linda, "very wisely." Der ry poy garne, "I very much like him." See vopua, "not very," below.
- preby, afterwards, later.
- ta, a "resultative" preposition meaning "for," and frequently an adverb meaning "than" or "how"; in these adverbial constructions it functions to mean "as" in a link with hdo, maka, vekra to express the equative.
- tittalt, perhaps, maybe. From ty talaht, "if able."
- tyr, also, too.
- uinse, only, merely: omlo jane vera; omlo uinse krespr. "He doesn't speak, he only writes."
- vekra, less (modifies an adjective): vekra venda, vekravent, "less good, worse." See maka, "more," above.
ta...vekra (expresses the negative comparative): ta fyl aoto vekra mohsa
al aoto, "my car is not as big as your car."- ven, well (expresses the competency of an action): ven garne, "be good at liking, like with success"; ven htindel, "sing well," "be good at singing."
- vera, not (follows the verb): lo ennyve vera, "he doesn't eat." Except when issuing a command: Vera ennyvef.
- vil, badly (expresses incompetency or evil intent of an action): vil ravvo, "bad at loving."
- vo-, not (prefixes to verb): voggarne, "not like," "dislike."
- vopua, not much (modifies verbs): Der ry vopua garne, "I don't much like him."
- vul-, a preposition meaning "concerning"; "with respect to. It prefixes to a noun, functioning much like our English suffix -wise: vulletõn oronyandeht li hovik: "tree-wise, the house is splendid"; "the house is splendid with trees."
- vynõ, not enough; something that is not quite up to the task at hand: vynõ mohsa, "not big enough."
- ykhsa, least (modifies an adjective): ykhsa venda, "least good," "worst" (yielding the word ykhsavent, "terrible"): Õm nikkyam ykhsi venda al kyam, "my book is the worst of books." Modifying an adverb: õ ykhsa nimra, "least swiftly."
ANECDOTE:
Rin euab ouaruo vopua vytssema tohda uo zef: nar al aippara brottwav; ad kempan naril yllefo brotwav fenom; vybbrysan brotwav an; he ad edirmerem brotwav krõnom.
"A cat and a man are not all that different. Both are on my bed; both lay their head on their arm; both have mustaches; both purr when they are asleep."