I've thought about doing this for a while, and kudos to people who have done this for other languages... this is NOT easy. Saede has tackled "Northern Sebiestor" before, but bits of it just did not sound right to me. This leans on what she's done, but, I wanted this to reflect a very demanding, difficult language, which retains quite a bit of inflection in both nouns and verbs; such languages sound "purer" to me. Maybe I am just a linguistics snob, I dunno.
The story behind the language is pretty simple; the "northern Sebiestor", i.e., the people that Ava and a few others hail from, were quite isolated by both geography and, later, by the Amarr, having extremely limited contact with any other Sebiestor groups. This led to a linguistic shift, or, rather, a lack of one; being simply left "alone", they just plodded on through life, doing more or less what the Amarr asked, but being more or less left alone. The language, while still being heavily influenced by Amarrian, of course, retained much of its earlier grammatical structure due to this isolation, much as languages like Icelandic or Romani have done.
What follows is a short excerpt from a basic primer, written by an Amarrian holder, about the Sebiestor language: I hope people get a kick out of it. No, I dont intend to "expect people to use it". Ava says the few things she really is likely to ever say; "Hvit" and so on.
As I wrote this, I kept something in mind that Adreena said; "Does it sound like a cat coughing up a hairball and purring at the same time? Yep, that's Northern Sebiestor".
Without further delay, have fun.
Northern Regional Sebiestor - Sebiestaaspjak
Noun cases are described first; Northern Sebiestor retains much of its original case system, consisting of nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental, and vocative cases, which many “modern” languages have lost. The locative only remains in a few idiomatic forms in Northern Sebiestor's current form. Noun cases are not used in many modern languages, and are often the reason non-native speakers simply never learn Sebiestor.
There is no indirect object (( “a” and “an” in English )) in Sebiestor. The direct object (( “the” in English )) is a simple letter “e” for singular objects of both genders, and “eki” in the plural. A pluralized noun usually simply has a longer vowel sound at the end, which can make comprehension very difficult for non-natives.
Nominative: The “dictionary” form of a word, and usually used for the subject of a sentence.
Avlænkaa saeni e matia. Avlynka sees the dog. Here, Ava is the subject, or performer, of the action.
Accusative: The object of a verb, the receiver of an action.
Avlænkaa saeni e matia. Avlynka sees the dog. The dog is the thing being seen, the direct object. It is in the accusative case. The nominative form of this word is mati.
Dative: The indirect object of a verb, the person who the thing receiving the action passes or is directed to, at, or by.
Avlænkaa sutieki matiui a beinia. Here, the dog is the receiver of the thing being given, the bone. The bone is in the accusative case, and the dog is in the dative case. This sentence can also be written as Avlænkaa sutieki e beinia matiui, the meaning being preserved absolutely through a change in word order, though this will have more emphasis on the thing being given than the target.
Genitive: The possessive form of a noun, indicating that something belongs to something else.
Avlænkaanamati bidura e kanda. Avlynka's dog bites the boy. Here, “Avlynka” is in the genetive, with the next noun, “mati”, being the possessed thing, as one word. The boy, of course, is in the accusative case, as it is the thing being bitten.
Ablative: Indicates movement from something or causation of something.
Kand ligka e matia. The boy runs from the dog. Here, boy is in the nominative, as he is now the subject, and dog is inflected to the ablative, as the dog is the cause of the running. Had it been more than one dog, it would have been Kand ligka eki matiia. This case is identical to the accusative case in form.
Vocative: A form of address, used only in commands, poetry and songs, or in exclamatory sentences.
Avlænkaa rekatia, “heimska matiaja!” Ava yelled, “stupid dog!” Here, mati is in the form of the vocative, who's form is often hard to predict, and is one of the more difficult nuances of Sebiestor for non-native speakers.
Instrumental: Indicates how or with what an action was performed.
Avlænkaa nukentii e matia a henket. Avlænkaa hits the dog with her hand (by hand, this is the instrumental of hand, henka, not a possessive, “her hand” ). Henka, “hand”, is in the Instrumental case.
Verbs
Verbs have, as would be expected, a very rich system of inflection, just like the nouns. Verbs are inflected (conjugated) according to person, mood, tense, and aspect, and many will have transitive and intransitive forms. Some verbs have a passive and active voice, as well.
(( In the interest of not having Backstage rise against me, I am NOT developing every verb form. I am just giving an idea of how I have imagined the language behaving and sounding, a very, very skeletal framework. We will just worry about a couple verb forms for now ))
There is no “infinitive” of the verb in Sebiestor; “to want, to have, to see” and so on. The verb is always conjugated for person, and the “dictionary” form is the third person feminine singular of the present indicative form.
Avlænkaa nori rili bjumaa. Ava wants to see a movie. Literally, “Ava wants she sees a movie”. The “who” in “she sees” is clear, due to lack of the use of a subject change, and subjunctive form, of the verb “to see”. Had Ava wanted, say, Adreena to see a movie, it would read: Avlænkaa nori ta Adreena rilijt bjumaa.
The verb stem will be the third person, minus the letter “i”; In the case of “nori”, “she wants”, the “i” is dropped, leaving the stem “nor-” and the following table in consulted for the present tense, indicative mood form:
1st person singular/plural; (( I / we)) norja / norime
2nd person singular/plural; (( you / you )) noriti / norisi
3rd person singular fem/masc/plural (( she / he / they )) nori / nora / norei
For the perfective past tense, an extra “a” is added to the end of the above form; norua, norimea, norita, norisia, noria, noraa, noreia. These cover the two most common verb forms used in every day speech by the Sebiestor, along with the future tense and their passive equivalents.
Some very common verbs, as in many languages, are rather irregular:
To be (( am, are, is, etc... )) er, arum, erdi, arji, eri, era, aru
To have (( as in “to have to do” something, not a posessive )) tir, tiru, tirdi, tiriji, tiri, tira, tirei
To make / to do: ger, geru, gerdi, geriji, geri, gera, gerei
To go: fer, ferum, ferdi, feriti, feri, fera, ferei
Pronouns
Sebiestor is a “pro-drop” language. There is no need to say “hen feri” when “feri” can only be “hen”, though it is often done for emphasis, clarity, and of course, any time there is a subject change. “Han saena hin geri ka. He sees her do it.
Pronoun Table in Nom/Acc/Dat/Gen/Abl/Inst (( The vocative has no pronoun forms ))
1st Person sing: men / mej / min / minta- / mej / met
1st Person plural: mena / meja / mina / mintaa- / meja / meta
2nd Person sing: den / dej / din / dinta- / dej / det
2nd Person plural: dena / deja / dina / dintaa- / deja / deta
3rd Person fem: hen / hej / hin / hinta- / hej / het
3rd Person masc: han / haj / hon / honta- / haj / hat
3rd Person plural: hena / heja / hina / hintaa- / heja / heta
These words behave just as any other noun. For the pronoun “it”, the masculine verb form is used unless the thing being referred to is obviously female, such as a woman, animal, spirit, and so on. Sebiestor has lost much of its grammatical gender with regard to normal nouns; it remains only in certain words, idioms, and, of course, verbs.
A short sampling of Sebiestor Phrases
Hvit nott! (Or simply “Hvit” )) Hello; a greeting. Lit: “White night!”
Jav erdi den? How are you?
Men er vei / oki / slaut / ausi. I am well / okay / bad / awful!
Hva eri dani nari? What is your name?
Meni nari eri Avlænkaa. My name is Avlænkaa.
Jav mej kainuri / kainurei? How much does this cost / these cost? Lit: “What (for) me does this cost?”
Hvar er? Where am I?
Hvar ferdi? Where are you going? (( The pronoun is not required in simple sentences ))
Men er veika. I am sick / I feel sick.
Men er alkaana. I am hungry.
Men er fjura. I am thirsty.
Takurii dej aiganei. Spirits guide you. (( A farewell ))
Hvar rjuditi? Where do you live?
Den noriti dansiti met? Do you want to dance with me?
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Topic: Sebbiespeak. (Read 1120 times)