I am using the Oynprith corpus and random word generator to create some short, simple phrases for a client. As a result I am extending said corpus slightly, to expose a grammatical element, so I can express these phrases. Your comments are welcome.
It's sort-of a genitive construct. Maybe you can call it a descriptive, where a noun is modified by another noun. Not an adjective really. Somewhat like a possessive, and somewhat like a preposition. One example phrase is "lord of moons".
Traveller languages so far are agglutinating or inflecting, so I'm just going to assume that Oynprith is isolating, with some synthetic elements where convenient (and since canon Droyne words are more than one syllable, there will have to be at least a little synthesis going on).
So to say "lord of moons", we need words for "lord", "moon", a pluralizer (maybe), and a possessive. And some structure.
Lord: /vastay/, made up of an adjective and a noun: /vast/ 'strong' and /ay/ 'person'.
Specific: /ayo/, comes before noun (i.e. a specific thing as opposed to a vague set of things).
Moon: /ostax/, made up of an adjective and a noun: /ost/ 'minor' and /tax/ 'satellite'.
Pluralizer: /-(i)n/, plural suffix, becomes -n after a vowel
Possessive: /moy/ (or /akemoy/), genitive marker. Moy X Y = X owns/refers to Y. "Y's X", or "X of Y".
So, "lord of moons" is the same as "a moons' lord", or: "genitive <specific> <lord> <moon + plural>"
A more generic phrase, "moon-lord", can be built as "generic lord of a generic moon", simply stated as:
Generalized Structure
That handy genitive structure (MOY X Y) could extend to sentence structure in general: VERB SUBJECT-PHRASE OBJECT-PHRASE INDIRECT-OBJECT-PHRASE. That probably means there's at least an object "holding space" which "demotes" a direct object to indirect.
Note If Oynprith "inflects" for a class-based "gender", then consider this work to be of the 'Sport and non-Droyne' grammatical gender.
It's sort-of a genitive construct. Maybe you can call it a descriptive, where a noun is modified by another noun. Not an adjective really. Somewhat like a possessive, and somewhat like a preposition. One example phrase is "lord of moons".
Traveller languages so far are agglutinating or inflecting, so I'm just going to assume that Oynprith is isolating, with some synthetic elements where convenient (and since canon Droyne words are more than one syllable, there will have to be at least a little synthesis going on).
So to say "lord of moons", we need words for "lord", "moon", a pluralizer (maybe), and a possessive. And some structure.
Lord: /vastay/, made up of an adjective and a noun: /vast/ 'strong' and /ay/ 'person'.
Specific: /ayo/, comes before noun (i.e. a specific thing as opposed to a vague set of things).
Moon: /ostax/, made up of an adjective and a noun: /ost/ 'minor' and /tax/ 'satellite'.
Pluralizer: /-(i)n/, plural suffix, becomes -n after a vowel
Possessive: /moy/ (or /akemoy/), genitive marker. Moy X Y = X owns/refers to Y. "Y's X", or "X of Y".
So, "lord of moons" is the same as "a moons' lord", or: "genitive <specific> <lord> <moon + plural>"
Code:
Moy ayo vastay ostaxin.A more generic phrase, "moon-lord", can be built as "generic lord of a generic moon", simply stated as:
Code:
Moy vastay ostax.Generalized Structure
That handy genitive structure (MOY X Y) could extend to sentence structure in general: VERB SUBJECT-PHRASE OBJECT-PHRASE INDIRECT-OBJECT-PHRASE. That probably means there's at least an object "holding space" which "demotes" a direct object to indirect.
Note If Oynprith "inflects" for a class-based "gender", then consider this work to be of the 'Sport and non-Droyne' grammatical gender.
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