Author: Sylvia

The next set of sentences in Gary’s list are:

3. The sun shone.
4. The sun will shine.
5. The sun has been shining.
6. The sun is shining again.
7. The sun will shine tomorrow.

OK. More tense and aspect distinctions. sodna-lɛni doesn’t actually distinguish tense (this is an experiment on my part), which means that there is no difference in 3 and 5.

3|5. loho logɨdiya tavi.

4. loho logɨdiya evi dɛga.

6. loho logɨdiya evi iyɛ iyɛ.

7. loho logɨdiya evi dɛga lannal.

tavi is the perfect form of evi.

dɛga is the future modal, and it denotes certainty in one’s prediction.

iyɛ iyɛ and lannal are both time adverbs.

In Kēlen, again 3 & 5 are the same:

3|5. te anlōki;

4. la anlōki rēha;

6. la anlōki ī;

7. la anlōki lānnāl;

(And, yes, the words for ‘tomorrow’ in both languages are related.)

The first two sentences in Gary’s list are:

1. The sun shines.
2. The sun is shining.

Now, for me, the difference between the two sentences is that the first is in the habitual and the second is in the progressive. OK. No problem. sodna-lɛni makes that distinction:

1. loho logɨdiya evna.

2. loho logɨdiya evi.

logɨdiya is the class IV noun meaning ‘light, rays of light’ in the motile plural. It’s the subject of both sentences.

loho is the class II noun meaning ‘the sun’ in the motile singular. It acts as the source or point of origin for the subject. It can be motile because class II nouns are higher up in the animacy hierarchy than class IV nouns.

evi is the verb in use. It means that its subject is moving out in all directions from a grammatically required point of origin. In the first sentence evi is in the iterative, and in the second, the imperfect.

In Kēlen, the two sense are conflated and the easiest way to express the concept is in the sentence:

1|2. la anlōki;