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Greyfolk language’s monosyllabic roots and words: roots 6–11

In my previous post, I covered the first five monosyllabic roots. In this post, I will cover the next six.

«me»
«se»
«ke»
«tle»
«yel» «yil»
«nel» «nil»
«ten» «tin»
«lem» «lim»
«pem» «pim» «pum»
«pli» «plu»
«min» «mun»
«kyu»
«kul»
«num»
«sul»
«lun»
«yum»
«myu»
«hu»
«syu»

«nel» translates into English as ‘past’ as in ‘the past’. So, «nil» is the modifier form that, as an adverb, functions as the past tense.

«ten» translates into English as ‘present’ as in ‘the present’. So, «tin» is the modifier form that, as an adverb, functions as the present tense.

«lem» translates into English as ‘future’ as in ‘the future’. So, «lim» is the modifier form that, as an adverb, functions as the future tense.

These “tenses” are optional. Context clues usually make up for a lack of tense. But what tense is an un-tensed sentence in? It’s not really a tense, it’s more of a [su_tooltip style=”dark” position=”north” content=”This is a link to ‘Grammatical mood’ on Wikipedia“]grammatical mood[/su_tooltip]. Specifically, I’d say this specific mood in my conlang is the indicative, declarative, or [su_tooltip style=”dark” position=”north” content=”This is a link to ‘Realis mood’ on Wikipedia“]realis mood[/su_tooltip]. More or less, it expresses something true. When we say something like ‘I love you’, it doesn’t necessarily express the present tense like ‘I love you right now‘. It tends to be more of a declaration of the truth—the truth being that I love you.

«pem» translates into English as ‘what’ or ‘whom’, «pim» translates into English is ‘which’, and «pum» translates into English as ‘?’. That last one is literal. In the greyfolk language, this root indicates a question. If «pem» or «pim» isn’t used, then the particle «pum» is used. For example, let’s say «kyola» is a verb that means ‘to want’. «se kyola pem» means ‘you want what?’ or ‘what do you want?’ «se kyola ke pim» means ‘you want which one?’ or ‘which one do you want?’ «pum se kyola ke» means ‘you want it?’ or ‘do you want it?’ In the case of «pum», it can kind of be stuck anywhere in a question, but it is usually the first word. If it follows a word, it puts emphasis on that word.

«pli» translates into English as ‘yes’. «plu» is a little different—it translates into English as ‘with’. These are related concepts for a reason that I’ll probably talk about in the future, but all that matters is that they came from the same root. Also, while it’s not on the list, «plo» would translate into English as the verb ‘to be’. It’s not on the list because I didn’t focus on verbs.

«min» translates into English as ‘no’ or ‘not’. «mun» is a little different—it translates into English as ‘without’. Likewise, «mon» would mean ‘to not be’.

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