To illustrate how relative clauses work in Taruven I will compare them to a boring example in 0) of a simple English relative clause, where the subject in 0a) is the head of the relative clause in 0b). Example 0c) shows a sentence containing the relative clause in 0b).
The English sentence in 0a) can be turned into the relative clause in 0b). "The cat" is the head of the relative clause, while "that sat on the mat" is the body or restricting clause. The relativized noun phrase itself can often be dropped in English, this is the case in example 0b) though it is symbolized as "[0]" in order to show how it will be marked in the Taruven examples. Next, "that" is the relativizer, explicitly pointing out that 0b) is a relative clause. The full sentence of 0c) is a "matrix clause" containing 0b), and these will not be marked in any special way.
In Taruven, modifiers can come both before and after the head, the core noun, in a noun phrase. If it immediately follows the head or is separated from it by other phrases, it must agree in case with its head as in examples 1a) and 1b). If it explicitly agrees in case it doesn't need to be adjacent to the core noun in any way, as seen in example 1c). Finally, example 1d) shows that as long as there is something marked for case in the (distributed) noun phrase, the noun phrase doesn't really need a noun.
vynne mirrō geìl geàl gavaþ vynne mirrō geìl geàl gav -aþ small cat eat big dog -PATthe small cat eats the big dog
mirrō vynne geìl gavaþ geàlaþ mirrō vynne geìl gav -aþ geàl -aþ cat small eat dog -PAT big -PATthe small cat eats the big dog
geàlaþ mirrō vynne geìl gavaþ geàl -aþ mirrō vynne geìl gav -aþ big -PAT cat small eat dog -PATthe small cat eats the big dog
geàlaþ mirrō vynne geìl geàl -aþ mirrō vynne geìl big -PAT cat small eatthe small cat eats the big one
A relative clause is just another modifier. As in Japanese there is no difference between a noun with an adjective and a noun with a relative clause, so 1a) to 1c) above could all be translated as "the cat that is small eats the dog that is big".
ugeìl geàl gavaþ vynne mirrō kru nīkeaþ u- geìl geàl gav -aþ vynne mirrō kru nīke -aþ REL- eat big dog -PAT small cat kill mouse -PATthe small cat that eats the dog kills the mouse
vynne mirrō ugeìl geàl gavaþ kru nīkeaþ vynne mirrō u- geìl geàl gav -aþ kru nīke -aþ small cat REL- eat big dog -PAT kill mouse -PATthe small cat that eats the dog kills the mouse
Example 2a) and 2b) show that
geìlry vynne mirrō geàl gav kru nīkeaþ geìl ry vynne mirrō geàl gav kru nīke -aþ eat this small cat big dog kill mouse -PATthe big dog that the cat eats, kills the mouse
geàl gav geìlry vynne mirrō kru nīkeaþ geàl gav geìl ry vynne mirrō kru nīke -aþ big dog eat this small cat kill mouse -PATthe big dog that the cat eats, kills the mouse
Example 3) shows that
gav geìl kru ry -aþ vynne mirrō nīke -aþ gav geìl kru ry -aþ vynne mirrō nīke -aþ dog eat kill this -PAT small cat mouse -PATthe dog eats the mouse that the small cat kills
gav geìl nīkeaþ kruryaþ vynne mirrō gav geìl nīke -aþ kru ry -aþ vynne mirrō dog eat mouse -PAT kill this -PAT small catthe dog eats the mouse that the small cat kills
nīkeaþ kruryaþ vynne mirrō gav geìl nīke -aþ kru ry -aþ vynne mirrō gav geìl mouse -PAT kill this -PAT small cat dog eatthe dog eats the mouse that the small cat kills
nīkeaþ gav geìl kruryaþ vynne mirrō talaþ nīke -aþ gav geìl kru ry -aþ vynne mirrō tal -aþ mouse -PAT dog eat kill this -PAT small cat REL -PATthe dog eats the mouse that the small cat kills
Example 4) is here to illustrate that
The explicit relativizer tal can be used whenever it is necessary to disambiguate or otherwise point out the end of the relative clause. In some cases it is mandatory, as described in the next sections.
rī gav mirrōaþ ryið tal nīke heal rī gav mirrō -aþ ry -ið tal nīke heal give dog cat -PAT that -BEN REL mouse restthe mouse that the dog gives the cat, rests
kru mirrō nīkeaþ ryes tal re geàl kru mirrō nīke -aþ ry -es tal re geàl kill cat mouse -PAT that -LOC REL place bigthe place where the cat kills the mouse, is big
kru mirrō nīkeaþ ryon tal dubh geàl kru mirrō nīke -aþ ry -on tal dubh geàl kill cat mouse -PAT that -INS REL knife bigthe knife with which the cat kills the mouse, is big
There is little to add for relativized obliques except to point out that
Before we go on to more marginal phenomena it is useful to look at what happens if the relative clause itself is not an agent. Example 2a) above has been copied to example 6a) below, while example 6b) is the same relative clause but this time as a patient.
ugeìl geàl gavaþ vynne mirrō kru nīkeaþ u- geìl geàl gav -aþ vynne mirrō kru nīke -aþ REL- eat big dog -PAT small cat kill mouse -PATthe small cat that eats the dog kills the mouse
ugeìl geàl gavaþ talaþ vynne mirrō kru nīke u- geìl geàl gav -aþ tal -aþ vynne mirrō kru nīke REL- eat big dog -PAT REL -PAT small cat kill mousethe mouse kills the small cat that eats the dog
Example 6) illustrates that
Chains of relative clauses of the "this is the house that Jack built"-variety are straightforward, as shown in example 7) below.
mirrō ugyaž gavaþ ušege šiggaaþ utaheì sïtaaþ utsen vuhaþen zigry jehan mirrō u- gyaž gav -aþ cat REL- dry dog -PAT u- šege šigga -aþ REL- bring foreigner -PAT u- taheì sïta -aþ REL- mount deer -PAT u- tsen vuh -aþ -en REL- wrote word -PAT -PL zigh ry jehan buy this Jehanthe cat that dried the dog that brought the foreigner that mounted the sïta that wrote the words that Jehan bought
The chain in example 7) is merely a more compact version of example 8).
mirrō gyaž gavaþ
gav šege šiggaaþ
šigga taheì sïtaaþ
sïta tsen vuhaþen zigry jehan
mirrō gyaž gav -aþ
cat dry dog -PAT
gav šege šigga -aþ
dog bring foreigner -PAT
šigga taheì sïta -aþ
foreigner mount deer -PAT
sïta tsen vuh -aþ -en zigh ry jehan
sïta wrote word -PAT -PL buy this Jehan
the cat dried the dog, the dog brought the foreigner, the foreigner mounted the
sïta, the sïta wrote the words that Jehan bought
In several of Taruven's daughter languages, the resumptive pronoun and the relativizer have merged into a relative pronoun.
It is very common that the oblique resumptive pronoun is worn down or eroded even in Taruven proper, the official forms are in the second column in the table below.
| Original | Worn form |
| ryið | riþ |
| ryes | res |
| ryon | run |
Looking backwards, both the explicit relativizer tal, the connector te, the possessor marker -eð and the inalienable possession linking word jï probably descends from the post-Tillach complemented verb * kallagh meaning approximately "to hold".