BATESON PROJECT WORLDBUILDING TEAM Gang of Five: Poul Anderson, Karen Anderson, Paula Butler, Ctein, Al Harrison THE ET LANGUAGE GRAMMAR This grammar is based on Turkish, with infixes for voice, mood, and tense, and suffixes for person, number and case. Turkish does not, as I recall, have gender, which we certainly don't need anyway. I am going beyond Turkish in giving mood and tense to nouns and adjectives. I don't see any role for voice outside the verb, but I'm open to suggestions. 1. The Verb Consists of stem + infixes + suffix. Infixes show voice, mood, and tense in that order. The suffix shows person and number, or forms the infinitive, participle, etc. Suffixes of person and number: Singular: it, ik, is Plural: igd, izd, ig, iz (you&I, they&I, you, they) Stem: ok have Aorist (a "timeless" tense, though not the same as in Greek): okit I have okigd ye and I have okizd they and I have okik you have okig ye have okis he, she, it has okiz they have (For the sake of clarity, the infixes for voice and mood have been omitted: okit would actually be okimalit in the active voice and the declarative mood, okomulit in the passive reportative ["I am said to have {a book"}] etc.) Voices Active: im The subject is in the nominative case, and if the verb is transitive, the object is in the accusative. Interactive: am Denotes reciprocal action. Used with two subject/object nouns in the relative case. Passive: om The subject is in the nominative, and if there is an agent, it is in the ablative; no preposition is necessary. Moods Declarative: al okimaliris He has (a book) at-this-moment. Reportative: ul okimuliris He allegedly has (a book) at-this-moment. Optative (for possible states) If he has a book, he knows his lesson. Subjunctive (for conditions contrary to fact) If he had a book he would know his lesson. Imperative: found in 2nd, 3d person; get a book! let there be light! Interrogative Has he a book? Intentional He would have a book; The man who would be king Tenses Simple present: Use aorist Present instant: "Even as we speak", ir Present habitual: sir Examples: okimalirik you have at this moment, okimalsiriz they usually have Past instant: or Past habitual: sor Examples: okimalorit I had at that moment, okimalsorigd ye and I usually had Future (no examples prepared) 2. The Noun Mood and Tense: Future: The medalist-to-be Yamaguchi was born in Fremont. Past: The former medalist Witt appeared on CBS. Intentional: The would-be medalist Bonaly was dressed as a bullfighter. Number and Case: Number is singular or plural. Cases are nominative, genitive, relative, ablative, and accusative. Nominative edat (a) stone edad stones Genitive edata of (a) stone edada of stones Relative edati "with" (a) stone edadi "with" stones Accusative edato direct object edado direct object Ablative edatu used w. prepositions edadu used w. prepositions Example: Okirit edato, I right-now have a stone. Uzhi igiriz edati, with-person throw-right-now with-stone (the person throws the stone/the stone is thrown by the person) VOCABULARY: ET-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-ET ET-ENGLISH ak adj. not; akan without an prep. with ar adv. very; arel. adj.very big; aron adj. very small avat n. finger azhat n. land, island; azhulat reported island; arelazhat very big island (continent) edat n. stone efat n. sun, star ek prep. on el adj.big en v. inter. bear, engender; enat, parent et adj. more; etel bigger, eton smaller enat n. (fr. en, bear) parent ezat n. water ig v. inter. throw irr v. int. be (exist). See also ok izhat n. hand ok v.t. have, possess; used like Sp. tener, e.g. tener frio, to be cold (of persons) on adj. small orat n. water uk three up one us four ut two uvat n. world uzhat n. person; onuzhat, onat uzhat small person, child; aronuzhat, aronat uzhat very small person, baby yalat n. plant yerat n. dirt, soil yilat n. cloud yobat n. sibling yoth v. inter. nourish yub conj. and yul v.t. see ENGLISH-ET and yub be, exist irr bear, engender en big el cloud yilat continent n. arelazherat (very big land) dirt, soil yerat finger avat four us hand izhat have, possess ok land, island azhat more et; bigger, etel not ak nourish yoth on ek one up parent enat person uzhat; onuzhat, onat uzhat, small person, child; aronuzhat. aronat uzhat very small person, baby plant yalat sea ezat see, observe yul sibling yobat small on stone edat stone edat sun, star efat three uk throw ig two ut very ar; very big, arel water orat with an without akan world utat SENTENCES 1. The plant is large. The plant is small. They are plants. Yalat elat irrimalis. Yalat onat irrimalis. Yalad irrimaliz. 2. The stone is large. The plant is small. The plant is not big. Edat elat irrimalis. Yalat onat irrimalis. Yalat akelat irrimalis. 3. The plant is large. The stone is small. The stone is not big. Yalat elat irrimalis. Edat onat irrimalis. Edat akelat irrimalis. 4. The plant is larger than the stone. The stone is smaller than the plant. Yalat etelat edato irrimalis. Edat etonat yalato irrimalis. 5. The person is larger than the plant. The person is larger than the stone. The plant and the stone are not big. Uzhat etelat yalato irrimalis. Uzhat etelat edato irrimalis. Yalat yub edat akelad irrimaliz. 6. One person is big. Two persons are small. Three plants are big. Four stones are small. Upat uzhat elat irrimalis. Utad uzhad onad irrimaliz. Ukad yalad elad irrimaliz. Usad edad onad irrimaliz. 7. Big person nourishes small persons. Big person is parent of small persons. Small persons are siblings. Eluzhati onuzhadi yothamalid. Eluzhat enat onuzhada irrimalis. Onuzhada yobad irrimalid. 8. Plants nourish person. Stones not-nourish person. Yaladi uzhati yothamaliz. Edadi uzhati akyothamaliz. 9. Plant is on stone. Stone is on plant. Yalat ek edatu irrimalis. Edat ek yalatu irrimalis. 10. Plant and stone are on dirt. Yalat yub edat ek yeratu irrimaliz. 11. Parent nourishes small person. Parent nourishes child. Enatu onatu uzhatu yothamalis. Enatu onuzhatu yothamalis. 12. Two parents engender very small person. Two parents engender baby. Utadi enadi aronati uzhati enamalaz. Utadi enadi aronuzhati enamalaz. 13. Dirt nourishes plant. Stone not-nourishes plant. Yeratu yalatu yothamalis. Edatu yalatu akyothamalis. 14. Dirt and stone are land. Land nourishes plants. Yerat yub edat azhat irrimaliz. Azhati yaladi yothamaliz. 15. Person has four hands. Hand has four fingers. Uzhat usado izhado okimalis. Izhat usado avado okimalis. 16. Water is {hydrogen hydroxide}. Cloud has water. Orat {HOH} irrimalis. Yilat orato okimalis. 17. Water and water is sea. Land and sea is world. Orat yub orat ezat irrimalis. Azhat yub orat utat irrimalis. 18. Person with child. Person not-with child. Uzhat an onuzhatu. Uzhat akan onuzhatu. 19. Person is parent of two children. Children are siblings. Uzhat enat utada onuzhada irrimalis. Onuzhad yobad irrimaliz. 20. Parent world with cloud. Parent world without cloud. Enat utat an yilatu. Enat utat akan yilatu. 21. {Symbol} is star. Parent star has sibling. {*} efat irrimalis. Enat efat yobato okimalis.