overview | compounding | verbnouns | derivation | standin
Words of the open word classes of Taruven, that is: bare nouns, bare verbs and bare statives, can be compounded. The root meaning, the head, of the compound is always the rightmost word or compound.
Compounds are written as a single word, always.
Statives can be merged with a noun, the statives go first, and the result is a noun. Nouns can be merged with verbs, through incorporation which may wear down to a verbnoun.
Bare nouns, verbs, and statives can also change their meaning or word class through derivation, both with derivational prefixes and derivational suffixes.
Compunding is between two words of the same word class, or one or more statives followed by a noun.
Example 1) is the most common case, direct juxtaposition.
ksān + yélla star houseDyson sphere
If the first word ends in a vowel and the second begins in a vowel, it is not uncommon to add an epenthetic h, like in example 2).
bri + -aòy cloud + windstorm
When consonant meets consonant, it can get complicated. There might be sandhi, depending on which dialect the compound originated in, like in 3a) below, or they are simply juxtaposed, as in 3b).
bryal + thann field + wayway of the field, agriculture, farming
ran + faì 2 + parentgrandparent
Verbnouns are not compounds, they are fixed incorporations. Therefore, the verb goes first in the word. A common argument of the verb is incorporated so often that the combination takes on a life on its own:
Any object of the verb agrees with and must make sense with the incorporated object:
Example 5a) is also a very formal way of introducing yourself, while 5b) is slightly less formal.
As for the to be called-meaning of rīþann, it has worn all the way to the intransitive verb litann, which can only mean to be called.
The least formal way to introduce yourself is as in example 7), which uses no verb at all.
A short and incomplete list of verbnouns follow:
| VNC | Stems | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| riharra | rī + harra | laugh |
| rīkuì | rī + kuì | give birth |
| rīþann | rī + þann | name, baptize, call (vd.) |
| rīelle | rī + sïelle | hold a speech |
| rījar | rī + jar | surrender |
| rīxaì | rī + xaì | torture |
| takuì | ta + kuì | be born |
| tajar | ta + jar | arrest |
| tākri | ta + rī | holiday that resembles christmas |
| =aì | people of (Denmark → Dane) |
| =ax | individual member of set (forest → tree) |
| =džall | time of (gold → golden age, war → wartime) |
| =ferr | seem, appear (blue → apparently blue) |
| =ia | place, land, nation (potato → potatostan) |
| =iaì | person from place, land, nation (potato → potatostani) |
| =ji | name (dances with wolves → Dances with wolves) |
| =ka | technique (standing bird → technique of the standing bird) |
| =m | set of (tree → forest) |
| na= | house of (used in xaran) (Donald → MacDonald) |
| =na | subset of (box → subset of several boxes) |
| =ryss | art of (dance → the art of dancing) |
| sï= | generic (hammer → tool) |
| =vyšš | science of (life → biology) |
| -migh | manner (I → my way) |
| -a | comparative (blue → bluer) |
| -arre | superlative (blue → bluest) |
| -arrinn | hyperlative (blue → too blue) |
| -e | negative comparative (blue → less blue) |
| -eìre | negative superlative (blue → least blue) |
| -eìrinn | negative hyperlative (blue → insuffciently blue) |
| du= | male (human → male human) |
| ki= | female (human → female human) |
| ä= | doee, object of verb (love → beloved) |
| =adh | result of completed action (break → something broken) |
| =enn | doer, agent of verb (teach → teacher) |
| =ill | object is usable for (wash → washable) |
| =lann | agent is capable of (pass → passable) |
| =ssa | item which does something (to/with something) (dig → digging machine) |
| =aš | regular verb to complemented verb |
| =itarrun | swear, vow, promise (accomplish → vow to accomplish) |
| =lleŋ | ought (accomplish → ought to accomplish) |
| =nnim | allow (do → allowed to do, may do) |
| =rrun | swear, vow, promise (accomplish → vow to accomplish) |
| =skīn | counterfactual mood (explode → in case of explosion, ...) |
| =šeŋŋ | willing to (search → want to search) |
| =hux | exponentiation (math) (2 → x2) |
-vuh added behind anything is a way to make a very temporary stand in for something else:
Stand ins are most commonly used when the real word cannot be recalled in time:
Then we a... a... aga-word to the top of it... oh, go upwards you know but not by our own power... ascended! That was the word I was looking for.
The actual syllable or word in front of -vuh need not have anything to do with the missing word, it just has to be different from all other stand ins used in the same conversation or text that means something else.
Stand ins are exeedingly common in terminological discussions.
If we are to discuss the real meaning of antidisestablishmentarianism, hereafter adi-word...