CONTENTS

 

1. INTRODUCTION

 

2. THE SOUNDS of THOSK

 

2.1. Script

2.2. Phonemes

            2.2.1. Consonants

            2.2.2. Vowels

            2.2.3. Diphthongs

2.2.4. Phonemic Distribution

2.2.5. Stress

2.2.6. Sound Changes

2.3. Dialects

2.4. “False Friends” in Thosk

 

3. NOUNS

 

            3.1. Simple Nouns

            3.2. Derived Nouns

            3.3. Compound Nouns

            3.4. Definiteness/Indefiniteness of Nouns

            3.5. Plural of Nouns in -e

 

4. PRONOUNS

 

            4.1. Personal

            4.2. Possessive

            4.3. Demonstrative

            4.4. Interrogative

 

5. ADJECTIVES

 

            5.1. Simple Adjectives

            5.2. Derived Adjectives in -i and -vag

            5.3. Comparison of Adjectives

 

6. PREPOSITIONS

 

7. ADVERBS and CONJUNCTIONS

 

            7.1. Adverbs

7.1.1. Simple Adverbs

7.1.2. Phrasal Adverbs

            7.2. Conjunctions

 

8. VERBS

 

            8.1. Tenses

                        8.1.1. Present Tense in -e

                        8.1.2. Past Tense in -ev

            8.2. Participles

                        8.2.1. Past Passive Participle in -un

                        8.2.2. Past Active Participle in -viz

                        8.2.3. Present Active Participle in -end

            8.3. Causative verbs in -ak

            8.4. Intransitive/inchoative Verbs in -ne

            8.5. The Indefinite

 

9. SYNTAX

 

            9.1. Verbless Sentences

            9.2. Yes/No questions and the verb bu

            9.3. Possession with bu be- + noun

            9.4. WH-questions

            9.5. Word Order

            9.6. Direct Object with tha-

            9.7. Indirect Object with be/dil-

            9.8. Gerunds in -d/t

            9.9. Clauses

            9.10. Genitives with go- + noun

 

10. DERIVATION and WORD-FORMATION

 

11. NUMBERS and COUNTING

 

11.1. Numbers

            11.2. Numbers with Quantities

 

12. SOME GREETINGS and EXPRESSIONS

 

13. NAMES

13.1    Family Names

13.2    Given Names

13.3    Full Names

13.4    Place Names

13.5    Countries, languages and peoples

13.6    Parts of the Body

13.7    Miscellaneous

 

14.  THOSK DIACHRONIC PHONOLOGY

 

15. OLD THOSK

 

1. INTRODUCTION

 

            This Thosk grammar is intended to provide an overview of the language for English speakers and more generally for speakers of western European languages.  Typically, learners of Thosk are heartened by the fact that its grammar is quite regular, its spelling and pronunciation are straightforward, its transparent derivations allow for reasonable acquisition of a solid reading vocabulary, and its speakers are wonderfully welcoming and supportive of beginning speakers.

 

 

2. THE SOUNDS of THOSK

 

2.1. Script

 

            Thosk is most commonly written in the Roman alphabet, though it has also been rendered in a modified Cyrillic script. During the early years of the Thosk revival, some alternative scripts were proposed, but the survival of Thosk, given the limited means available, clearly necessitated a Roman orthography readily adaptable to existing European typewriters, and later, computer keyboards. The wisdom of this choice is reflected in the fact that the Thosk community, once widely scattered and isolated, today is in part an electronic one, and Thosk thrives by email. As the script is largely phonemic -- there is almost a one-to-one correspondence between sound and symbol -- the spelling of Thosk words is generally quite straightforward.

 

2.2. Phonemes

 

            Thosk has 17 consonants and 5 vowels -- a total of 22 phonemes.  Most of the phonemes, and the permissible consonant clusters, will be familiar to a speaker of English. A few of the latter, such as /zd/ and /gv/, are typically intervocalic (i.e., between vowels) and therefore usually do not cause significant difficulty. 

While learners of Thosk should of course strive to pronounce Thosk well, Thoskije are generally quite tolerant of an accent, in part because many younger speakers are learners of Thosk as a second language, and typically they enthusiastically welcome anyone who makes the effort to speak even basic Thosk.

 

2.2.1. Consonants

 

            The 17 consonants are b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, th, v and z.  The Thosk script is almost completely phonemic, and there are no silent letters.

 

• g is always a voiced velar stop, a hard g as in get, never as in general, rouge or stage

 

• h is a voiceless velar fricative, the final sound in Bach, Loch, etc.  Note that h never occurs finally in native Thosk words.

 

• j is a palatal glide, the “y” in English “yes.”

 

• th, a voiceless interdental fricative, the initial sound in “thick,” “thin,” is written as digraph th. It occurs only as a morpheme-initial. In one dialect of Thosk, this phoneme is an affricate /ts/.

 

• s is always a voiceless dental (alveolar under English influence) fricative, as in English “hiss,” never voiced as in English “rose, wise.”

 

• f and v are properly labial fricatives in the speech of older speakers, but often labiodental with younger speakers, under influence from English.

 

• the entire dental series (t, d, n, s, z, l) is often alveolar with younger speakers, again under influence from English.

 

• z occurs in native Thosk words only as a medial/final and before a voiced consonant, as in mezg (MEHZG) “brain,” huzd (HOOZD) “treasury,” etc.  Fergunin’s manuscripts inconsistently use both s and z where this text employs z.  (There continues to be scholarly discussion about whether there are in fact only 16 Thosk consonants, with s and z in complementary distribution.)

 

• the digraphs sj and zj represent the sounds in “fish” and “azure,” and occur only in foreign loanwords. EX: sjofer (SHOH-fehr; stressed on the first syllable, like all Thosk nouns) “chauffeur”; masjin (MAH-sheen) “machine”; zjurnal (ZHOOR-nahl) “magazine”; enzjenir (EHN-zheh-neer) “engineer.”

 

2.2.2. Vowels

 

            Thosk has five vowels, often called the “cardinal” vowels: a, e, i, o, u. Unlike their English counterparts, however, they do not have off-glides, but are “pure,” single vowels.  (English know, for example, does not end in o but in a w or u.  You can see this by watching your lips in a mirror as you pronounce the word.  Many speakers of Irish and Scots English, however, do use pure vowels – this is one of the characteristic qualities of the Irish English “accent.”)

The approximate English equivalents of the five Thosk vowels a, e, i, o, u are father, get, machine, close, food.  The “imitated pronunciation” supplied in parentheses after Thosk words in the first several sections of the text below follows these spellings:

A as in father:  Thosk ba (BAH) “yes”

E as in get:  Thosk ne (NEH) “no”

I as in machine:  Thosk mir (MEER) “good”

O as in close:  Thosk o (OH) “he, she, it”

U as in food:  Thosk kurne (KOOR-neh) “thanks”

 

2.2.3. Diphthongs

 

            In most dialects of Thosk there are 7 diphthongs, /aj, ej, oj, uj, au, eu, iu/, which are combinations of the five vowels and an off-glide, either j or u.  Some analyses, however, list only two diphthongs, au and eu, regarding aj, ej, oj, uj, and iu (= ju) as vowel + consonant (or consonant plus vowel in the case of ju).

 

2.2.4.  Phonemic Distribution

 

INITIAL                                  MEDIAL                                FINAL

 

a          aban “after”                          had “desire”                          ba “yes”

b          ba “yes”                                 aban “after”                          rob “good”

d          deze “put”                             badal “story”                        did “perception”

e          even “air”                              deze “put”                             ne “no, not”

f           fir “through”                         theft “warmth”                     --

g          gelen “green”                        igun “liver”                           kurag “hungry”

h          hever “ north”                      noht “night”                         --

i           iven “young”                        gim “winter”                         neri “male”

j           jedel “spear”                         annujake “renews”              uj “egg”

k          kume “come”                       oken “fire”                            Thosk

l           liti “playful”                          milast “softness”                   migel “cloud”

m         mir “good”                            kumake “brings”                 gim “winter”

n          ner “man”                             kind “birth”                          dezun “placed”

o          ot “smell”                               holan “mountain”                no “in”

p          pal “strong”                           elpe “kisses”                          --

r           rot “heart”                             kurne “thanks”                    tever “brother in law”

s           sez “six”                                 bast “appearance”                bas "bus" (loanword)

sj          sjok “shock”                          masjin “machine”                --

t           ta “give”                                 uten “water”                         rust “frost”

th         thu “you”                              --                                              --

u          uten “water”                         huzd “treasure”                    hutu “when?”

v          vrite “laugh”                         even “air”                              erev “evening”

(z)        zjurnal “magazine”             ezun “autumn”                     boz “naked”

 

2.2.5. Stress

 

Stress in Thosk is word-initial, whether on single words or compounds. In the imitated pronunciation, stressed syllables are capitalized.  Thus, tingu (TEEN-goo), Gimboli (GEEM-boh-lee), etc.  In prepositional phrases, the noun or pronoun is always stressed, even if the preposition is written with the pronoun to form a single “word” (a style called in Thosk honjuhti or honskrifti).

EX: ro gurmod or rogurmod (roh GOOR-mohd) “before summer”; be men or bemen (beh MEHN) “to me”; dil tho or diltho (deel THOH) “for you”

 

            Stress in Thosk is phonemic; it distinguishes a phrase such as ro kud (roh KOOD) “before a speech” from a noun like rokud (ROH-kood) “preface, preamble.”

 

2.2.6. Sound Changes

 

            Thosk evinces several largely predictable sound changes. 

 

2.2.6.1. Prepositions

 

Prepositions ending a vowel typically insert a consonant before a following word which begins with a vowel. 

            EX:  be “to”;  be men “to me”; bev o “to him”

            tha direct object marker; tha men “me”; than o or thav o“him, her, it”

            go “of”; go men “of me”; gon o “of him, her, it”

 

2.2.6.2. Gerunds

 

            Because of inherited sounds changes from Indo-European, Thosk gerunds formed from verbs ending in e + a sonorant (r, l, m, n) typically change the root vowel e to i. 

            EX:  o mene “she thinks”; mind “thought, thinking”

            EX:  thu bere “you carry”; bird “portage, carrying”

 

            But gerunds formed from non-sonorant verb stems remained unchanged.

            EX:  vaz deze “you place, set”; dest “placing, setting”

 

2.3. Dialectal Variation

 

            The standard on which this grammar and accompanying dictionary are based is that of Gimboli speakers. A second dialect is reported to exist which is not well documented. It apparently palatalizes some pronunciations of velars (k, g, h) in the environment of front vowels, such as Gimboli hi (hee) “who” --> shi (shee), kikne (KEEK-neh) “know” --> chikne (CHEEK-neh).  Also, th à ts/s: thu à tsu “you,” thir --> tsir “three.”

 

2.4. “False Friends” in Thosk

 

            A number of Thosk words can initially mislead the speaker of English, because they are spelled the same as English words but have wholly distinct meanings.  Here is a partial list of some 70 of the most frequent.  Distinguish them carefully by giving them their Thosk pronunciations.

 

 

 

 

3. NOUNS

 

            Nouns in Thosk can be simple, derived or compound.

 

3.1. Simple Nouns

 

            Simple nouns exist as integral units, and cannot be broken into smaller roots or affixes.

EX: kun (koon) “woman,” ner (nehr) “man,” oken (OH-ken) “fire,” erev (EH-rev) “evening.”

 

3.2. Derived Nouns

 

            Derived nouns, consisting of at least two parts, are formed by the addition of an affix to a root and sometimes by a change in the form of the root.

EX:  und (oond) “desire” [ven/un + -d]; koragast (KOH-rah-gahst) “hunger” [korag + -ast]; smird (smeerd) “memory” [smer + -d].

 

3.3. Compound Nouns

 

            Nouns may combine with other nouns to form compound nouns.

EX:   gim “winter” + boli “flower” --> gimboli (GEEM-boh-lee) “winter flower”; banhuzd (BAHN-hoozd) “word treasury, dictionary”; had “desire” + rud “collapse” --> hadrud (HAHD-rood) “disappointment.”

 

3.4. Specificity

 

            Thosk has no indefinite article corresponding to English “a/an.”

EX: Ner giz kumev be thok. (NEHR gheez KOO-mehv beh THOHK) “(A) man came to (the) house yesterday.”

 

If number is important, however, en “one, (a) single” is used.

EX: Bu be men en brad. (BOO beh-MEHN ehn BRAHD) “I have one/a single brother.”

 

NOTE:  The demonstrative adjectives o and e assume many of the roles of English articles.

 

3.5. Plural of Nouns in -e

 

            Nouns in Thosk regularly form their plurals in -e. 

EX: ner (NEHR) “man,” nere (NEH-reh) “men”; smird (SMEERD) “memory,” smirde (SMEER-deh)“memories”

 

After numbers (and in colloquial speech), however, the singular form of a noun often appears instead of the expected plural. 

EX: Ta be men tha fengi kilo rov. (TAH beh MEHN thah FEN-gee KEE-loh ROHV) Lit., “Give me five kilo meat.”

 

            When an adjective is used as a noun, it may be pluralized like a noun.

            EX:  Tige be men tha brune. (TEE-geh beh MEHN thah BROO-neh) “Show me the brown ones.”

 

            Nouns ending in –i (and adjectives ending in –i functioning as nouns) form their plurals in –ije.

            EX:  bastmindije (BAHST-meen-dee-yeh) “self-conscious ones”; vi, vije (VEE, VEE-yeh) “power, powers”

 

 

4. PRONOUNS

 

Pronouns in Thosk are relatively straightforward for speakers of English.  The one exception is the Thosk equivalent of the English relative pronoun introducing a relative clause.  For more information, see 9.9. Clauses.

 

4.1. Personal (subject/object)

 

            Thosk pronouns are invariant* – they do not change form, whether they are subjects or objects.

Singular                                  Plural

men “I”                                  naz “we”

            thu* “you”                             vaz “you”

            o** “he/she/it/that”                one “they; that”

 

EX: Men giz tergev tha tho*. (MEHN geez TEHR-gehv thah THOH) “I saw you yesterday.”

EX: Bev o to brade. (behv OH to BRAH-deh) “He has two brothers.” Lit., “To him [are] two brothers.”

 

            *Thu has what appears to be a dialectal alternative for its object (suffixed) form: -tho. Both forms are prevalent in speech; -tho seems preferred in older writing, but thu is always correct.

 

**E “this” and ene “these” are also occasionally used as 3rd person pronouns.

            EX:  E bu hun or?  (EH boo hoon OHR) “What time is it [lit., this]?”

 

With the direct object particle tha- or a preposition, these pronouns form oblique cases:

EX: Tige than o be thev ate. (TEE-geh thah NOH beh thehv AH-teh) “Show it to your father.”

EX: Naz giz tergev tha tho. (Nahz gheez TEHR-ghehv thah THOH) “We saw you yesterday.”

 

4.2. Possessives

 

mev(e) “my”                         nazi “our”

thev(e) “your”                      vazi “your”

sov(e) “his, her, its”              sov(e) “their”

 

            The forms in -e may optionally occur when the following word begins with a consonant; they are also more frequent in the speech of older Thoskije.

 

4.3. Demonstratives

 

            Thosk uses the third person pronouns e(ne) and o(ne) as demonstrative adjectives and pronouns.

EX: O ner bu meve doktor. (Oh nehr boo MEH-veh DOHK-tohr) “That man is my doctor.”

EX: E bu meve kun. (Eh boo MEH-veh koon) “This is my wife.”

EX:  Ene smirde entu go vedz ankume.  (EH-neh SMEER-deh EHN-too goh-VEHDZ AHN-koo-meh) “These memories return once a year.”

 

4.4. Interrogatives

 

            Hi “who” and hun “what” are the principal interrogative pronouns.  Note that their presence does not trigger a change in word order as it does in English and other European languages.  That is, in Thosk, the interrogative usually occupies the same position as the answer in a declarative sentence.

            EX:  Thu bu hi?  (Thoo boo HEE) “Who are you?” Lit., “you are who?”

            EX:  E bu hun?  (Eh boo HOON) “What is this?”  Lit., “this is what?”

 

Like other pronouns, they take the prefix tha- when functioning as direct objects.

EX: O ha tha hun? (Oh hah thah-HOON) “What does he want?” Lit., “He wants what?”

EX:  Vaz tergev tha hi?  (Vahz TEHR-gehv thah-HEE) “Whom did you see?”  Lit., “You saw whom?”

 

Also like the demonstratives, the interrogatives may function as adjectives:

            EX:  Sot bu hun tilgod?      (SOHT boo hoon TEEL-gohd) “How long is the trip?” Lit., “Journey is what length?”

 

 

5. ADJECTIVES

 

            Thosk has both simple and derived adjectives.

 

5.1. Simple Adjectives

 

            Simple adjectives are without affixes that specifically identify them as adjectives.

EX: ri “friendly,” gurm “hot,” and lon “full.”

 

5.2. Derived Adjectives

 

Thosk adjectives are often derived from nouns by the addition of the suffixes.

EX: mind “thought” + -i “possessing, characterized by”:  mindi “thoughtful, conscious of”

balst “worship, reverence” + -i:  balsti “worshipful, reverent, pious”

and “breath” + -vag “lacking, without”:  andvag “breathless”

rot “heart” + -vag:  rotvag “cruel, heartless”

beze “touch, contact” + -duj “subject to, tending to”:  bezduj “tangible”

 

5.3. Comparison of Adjectives

 

            To express the comparative degree, moi “more, -er” precedes the adjective, and fo “from” precedes the noun which is the base of comparison.

EX: O (bu) moi megel fo men. “He (is) bigger than me.”

 

            To express similarity, sem “like, as” precedes the noun which is the base of comparison.

EX: Thu bu arkendmin sem o. “You are as rich as he.”

 

            A less common, more formal alternative uses the noun form of the adjective of comparison.

EX: Thu bu seneg.  Thu (bu) go som senegast be men. “You are old.  You are as old as I.” Literally, “you (are) of like age to me.”

 

Another related expression also uses sem:

EX: Bev o meglast sem be men. “I am as big as he.” Literally, “To him is size as to me.”

 

 

6. PREPOSITIONS and VERBAL PREFIXES

 

            The following approximately 30 prepositions and adverbs are in common use: aban, an, be(v), dil, ed, fi(j), fi tilht, fir, fo(v), gir, go(n), hom, is, medeg, neden, no, nut, red, ro, sem, sevend, som, thereg, tun, tuz, u(v), umedgi, ur, ut, vi(j).  Many of these prepositions and adverbs also serve as derivational prefixes on verbs and nouns.  The direct object marker tha (than, thav) may be included among the prepositions becausem although it of course never serves as a derivational prefix, syntactically it functions as other prepositions do.

aban:  after

Prep: Aban third or o kumev. “After the third hour he came.”

Adv:  O menev aban. “He thought afterwards.” More commonly: abanmene.

Pfx: abanmind “afterthought”

 

an: again

Adv: Kov an tha bane. “Say the words again.”  More commonly: ankove

Pfx: angund “return”

 

be: to(ward)

Prep: Bu be men to brade. “I have two brothers.”

Pfx: betug “attraction”

 

dil: for; in order to

Prep: Bu to histe dil tho. “There are two boxes for you.”

Pfx: dilkud “advocacy, support”

 

ed: beyond, ultra, over-

Prep: ed theve moht.  “Beyond your power/ability.”

Pfx: edmed “excess”

 

fi: on

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx:

 

fi tilht(e): along, while, during

Prep: fi tilhte noht “during the night”

Adv:

Pfx:

 

fir: through

Prep:  snad fir uten  “swimming through the water”

Adv:

Pfx: firbast “transparency”

 

fo: off, away, from

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: foskid “separation”

 

gir: without, unless

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx:  girnomi “nameless”

 

go: of

Prep: go vedz “of a year; yearly”

Adv: --

Pfx: --

 

hom: together, with

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: honkud “conversation”

 

is/z: out of

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: istuht “extraction”

 

medeg: between. See u

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx:  medegvil  “interim, meanwhile”

 

neden: under, beneath

Prep: neden fot “under foot”

Adv:

Pfx: nedenstad  “substructure, foundation”

 

no: in

Prep: Men ta tha moi urht bev ahi jen o sumbe no klas.  “I give more work to anyone sleeping in class.”

Adv:

Pfx: nospog “insight”

 

nut: with, using

Prep: nut brist “with speed, quickly”

Adv: --

Pfx: --

 

red/t: against

Prep: Fransage gunev red Doitsage tun ani Gumal Gund.  “The French fought against the Germans in the second World War.”

Adv: --

Pfx: retkud “opposition”

 

ro: before

Prep: ro fordbaj “before dawn”

Adv: --

Pfx: rotirht “foresight”

 

sem: as, like

Prep: rimvag sem steren “countless as stars”

Adv: --

Conj.  skuni sem naz hurev than one “beautiful as we made them”

Pfx:

 

sevend (tha-): according to, following

Prep: sevend tha tevi bane “according to the divine words”

Adv:

Pfx: --

 

som: like, equal(ly)

Prep: --

Adv: One urkev som dil hold tha stok.  “They worked equally in order to finish the roof.”

Pfx:  sommedri “commensurate, equal”

 

thereg: across

Prep: thereg fole “across fields”

Pfx: theregmorki “transnational”

 

tun: during, for (a time)

Prep: Uten thorzne tun tin.  “The water dried up during the day.”

 

tus/z: ill-, badly

Adv:

Pfx: tuznut “misuse”

 

u: near, by, at

Prep: u mor “by the sea”

Pfx: ustad “proximity”

 

umedgi: among

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: umne: remain

 

ur: (1) over, above (2) wide

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: urdeze “superpose, stack”

 

ut: up

Prep: ut holan “up the mountain”

Adv:

Pfx: utstaje “get up, rise”

 

vi: dis-, un-

Prep:

Adv:

Pfx: vismird “forgetting, oblivion”

 

 

7.0. ADVERBS and CONJUNCTIONS

 

7.1.1. Simple Adverbs

 

            Here is a partial list of some temporal adverbs. Note the -tu suffix characteristic of many temporals.

EX: mengetu “often”; fevtu “rarely, sometimes”; netu “never”; moz “soon”; giz “yesterday”; nuk “now”; entu “once”; rotu “formerly”; totu “twice”; abantu “subsequently, afterward”

 

7.1.2. Phrasal Adverbs

 

            Many Thosk adverbs are expressed phrasally, with the equivalent of a prepositional phrase.

EX: nut brist “quickly, with speed”

EX:  go vedz “of a year; yearly”

 

7.2. Conjunctions

 

            Here are a few of the most common Thosk conjunctions:

EX:  aban je “after”; i “and”; iri je “because”; meg “but”; ro je “before”; tajun je  “although” lit., “that given”; tun je “while.” 

 

 

8. VERBS

 

            The simple verb in Thosk is often distinguished from its related noun only by the presence of tense suffixes and its use in the sentence: kove “speak,” kov “speech.”  The form of the Thosk finite verb does not distinguish either person or number.

 

8.1. Tenses

 

            Thosk has two morphological tenses, present and past, and other tenses formed by various grammatical and syntactic means.  Occasionally the old future in -iz may be heard among the speech of older speakers, usually in fixed expression such as proverbs.

 

8.1.1. Present tense: -e

 

            Most verbs end in -e in present tense, which does not change for person or number. However, in rapid speech, this -e is often elided, especially if the following word begins with a vowel. A few verbs ending in a vowel or glide use as their standard present tense a somewhat irregular, colloquial form without the -e ending. The older forms in parentheses are typical of more formal speech.

EX: ta: give (taje)

EX: ej: go (eje)

EX: bu: is (buje)

 

8.1.2. Past tense: -ev

 

            Past tense is formed by adding the suffix -ev to the verb root (without present tense -e).

EX: O buje. O bujev. “He/she/it is/exists. He/she/it was/existed.”

EX: O deze. O dezev tha fodel. “He placed the cup.”

 

            As with the present tense, a few common verbs form their past tense somewhat irregularly. The forms in parentheses are typical of formal speech.

EX: tav: give (tajev)

EX: jev, iv: go (ejev)

EX: buv: is (bujev)

 

8.2. Participles

 

            Thosk has three participles, all in active use: the past passive, corresponding largely with the English past participle; the past active, similar to “having + past participle” in English, and the present active, similar to the English present participle.

 

8.2.1. Past Passive Participle: -un

 

            The Thosk past passive participle, corresponding most closely with the English past participle in -ed/en, is formed by suffixing -un to the verb root.

EX: terge “see”

EX: tergev “saw”

EX: tergun “seen”

As in English, this participle can function as an adjective modifying a noun:

EX: Netergun vi bez tha nazi kivode. “An unseen power touches our lives.”

 

8.2.2. Past Active Participle: -viz

 

            The past active participle, usually equivalent to English “having + past participle,” is formed by suffixing -viz to the verb root:

EX: ete “eat”; etviz “having eaten”

 

            This -viz participle may function as an adjective modifying a noun, in which case it often corresponds to a relative clause in English:

EX: Etviz kun izejev. “The woman who had eaten left.”

 

            The –viz participle may also take a direct object:

            EX:  etviz tha lef “having eaten bread”    

 

When a -viz participle and its object modify a noun, they may either precede or follow the noun.

EX: Ner tergviz thav o kun ne un tha suft. “A man who has seen that woman doesn’t desire sleep.”

 

8.2.3. Present Active Participle: -end

 

            Thosk forms the present (active) participle by suffixing -end to the verb root.

            EX:  foje, fojend “drink, drinking”; et, etend “eat, eating”

 

As in English, active participles may take direct objects, indicated in Thosk with the object marker tha-.

EX: kiknend tha nom “knowing a name”

 

Unlike English, Thosk does not form continuous tenses with the –end participle.  Instead, Thosk would typically use a simple tense.

 

As with the –viz participle, when an –end participle and its object modify a noun, they often follow the noun.

EX:  Men ta tha moi urht bev ahi sumbend no klas.  “I give more work to anyone sleeping in class.”

 

8.3. Causative Verbs: -ak

 

            Causative verbs in Thosk are regularly formed with the suffix -ak. The addition of the causative suffix also serves to change intransitive verbs (verbs which do not take a direct object) and adjectives into transitive verbs (verbs taking a direct object).

EX: Men bu korag. “I am hungry.”

EX: Urht koragake tha men. “Work makes me hungry.”

EX: O berev tha hagel. “She carried the stone.”

EX: Thu berakev thav o nut hagel. “You made her carry the stone/You burdened her with a stone.”

 

Verbs derived from adjectives in -u form a causative in -uvak or -vak.  Likewise, verbs derived from adjectives in –i form a causative in -ijak or -jak.

 

8.4. Intransitive/inchoative Verbs: -ne

 

            Thosk forms intransitive verbs (principally from adjectives) with the intransitive/inceptive suffix -ne.

EX:  Sup bangune. “The soup thickens (intransitive)/becomes thick.”

 

Compare the corresponding transitive causative verb:

EX:  O banguvak tha sup. “He thickens the soup.”

 

8.5. The Indefinite

 

            To express an unknown subject, and most of the senses covered by the English passive voice, Thosk generally uses a sentence with an indefinite pronominal subject. Note that no passive exists in modern Thosk.

EX: Ahi giz tergev tha tho. “You were seen yesterday.” Lit., “Someone saw you yesterday.”

 

            Another alternative to the English passive is a Thosk absolutive phrase with the past active participle:

            EX: men tergviz than o “with me having seen it.”  Lit., “I having seen it.”

            EX:  Bur eredvihurviz tha nav, o thehtev than ani.  Lit., “(A) storm having half destroyed [his] boat, he built another.”

 

 

9.  SYNTAX

 

9.1. Verbless Sentences

 

            Grammatically complete sentences in Thosk may consist of a noun or pronoun followed by an adjective, or by a prepositional phrase (a preposition and a noun).

EX: Men korag.  “I’m hungry.”

EX: Thu u skol?  “Are you (sing.) at school?”

 

9.2. Yes/No Questions and the verb bu

 

            Yes/no questions are distinguished from statements by rising intonation in speech and by the question mark in writing.

EX: O bu seneg ner? “Is he an old man?”

EX:  Thu moge kov tha Thosk?  “Can you speak Thosk?”

 

 

9.3. Possession with bu be- + noun

 

            Thosk expresses possession through the “bu be- + noun” construction. The possessor is expressed by a prepositional phrase, typically with be “to.” The possessed thing is the grammatical subject of the verb bu “be, exist.” In colloquial speech bu is often omitted.

EX: Bu be men to duktere. “I have two daughters.” Lit., “Is to me two daughters.”

EX: Bu suzast/koragast be/no men. “I'm thirsty/hungry.” Lit., “Is a thirst/hunger to/in me.”

EX: Bev o surt ev. “He has a black horse.” Lit., “To him black horse.”

 

9.4. WH-questions

 

            Word order in Thosk does not normally change for WH-questions. The interrogative is placed in the same syntactic space as the answer.

EX: Etin bu hun? “What day is this?” (Lit., This day is what?)

EX:  Etin bu Hedurtin.  “Today is Thursday.”

EX: Thu vez u huz? “Where do you live?” (Lit., You live at where?)

EX:  Men vez u Nuj Jork.  “I live in New York.”

 

9.5. Word Order

 

            In general, Thosk word order is subject-verb-object. Adjectives precede nouns, and adverbs precede verbs.  Word order does not change for questions, but is indicated in speech by intonation.

 

9.6. Direct Object: tha-

 

            The direct object is prefixed with the particle tha which, like the prepositions, may be written separately from or conjoined to the following object noun or pronoun. Note that stress is never placed on the particle, but on the object.

EX: Ta tha fadal be men. “Give me the cup.”

 

Tha takes the form thav or than before a word beginning with a vowel:

EX: Men terge thav o/than o. “I see him/her/it.”

 

Because the present participle is active, it takes a direct object with tha-:

EX: Fadakend tha dur, o vitev tha nehun. “Opening the door, he saw no one.”

 

The active past participle in Thosk may also take a direct object with tha-:

EX: Berviz tha hagele, o buv lat. “Having carried the stones, he was tired.”

 

9.7. Indirect Object: be-

 

            We have already encountered the indirect object in the bu be- construction for expressing possession.  Like tha, be takes the form bev or ben before a vowel.

EX: Thu deze tha nom bev o dil tho. “You name it for you(rself).”

EX: Thu deze tha theve nom bev o. “You give it your (own) name.”

 

9.8. Gerunds: -d/t

 

            Thosk forms from verbs a regular gerund in -t/-d, which can be used in many ways like the English infinitive. The Thosk gerund, like its English counterpart, may take an object.  Regular sounds changes occur in roots with sonorant stem endings.  See section 2.2.6.

            EX:  Men smerev tha nome.  “I remembered the names.”

EX:  Smird tha nome bu vihti. “Remembering names is important.”

 

It may also take a possessive pronoun.

EX:  O folev tha kar.  “He bought a car.”

            EX:  Sove fold tha kar buv therzakend.  His buying a car was wonderful.

 

9.9. Clauses

 

Thosk forms clauses using the particle je.  This clause marker signals the beginning of a new clause, which typically ends with a resumptive pronoun or adverb.  When the subject of the relative clause is the relative pronoun in English, the structure is similar to English.

            EX:  O ner jen o bu meve doktor giz snubev.  (Oh NEHR jeh-NOH boo MEH-veh DOHK-tohr gheez SNOO-behv) Lit., “The man that he is my doctor got married yesterday.”

 

Note however that the particle je (jen before vowels) indicates merely the beginning of the clause, and is only a subordinator.  If the relative pronoun in English would appear in any other case, then in Thosk a resumptive pronoun must appear later in the sentence, with the appropriate preposition.

EX: O bu ner je men giz tergev thav o. “He is the man whom I saw yesterday.” (Literally) “He is man that I yesterday saw him.”

            EX:  Ev je men folev thav o bu surt.  (EHV jeh-MEHN FOH-lehv thah-VOH boo SOORT) Lit., “The horse that I bought it is black.”

            EX:  Thok je thu kenev nov o bu meglakun.  (THOHK jeh-THOO KEH-nehv noh-VOH boo MEH-glah-koon) Lit., “The house that you lived in it has been enlarged.”

 

            In some cases, the subject pronoun may be repeated after the dependent clause:

            EX:  Ner jen o i sove kun snubev o giz kumev. Lit., “The man that he and his wife got married [he] came yesterday.”

EX: Drajev thereg fole jen o est vezev kun je men lubev thav o. “I ran through the fields where the woman lived whom I loved.” [Drajev thereg fole je kun je men lubev thav o est vezev.]

EX: E bu thok je men est vezev. “This is the house where I lived.”

EX: E bu marak je nehi est ne mere. “This is the country where no one dies.”

 

Temporal and causal clauses function in straightforward ways. 

EX:  Tun je men etev, thu sumbev.  “While I ate, you slept.”

EX:  Ro je thu kenev, thev ate ugev tha gurvist u Morgi Megel Skol.  “Before you were born, you father studied biology at the National University.”

 

9.10. Genitives: go + noun

 

            The particle go is often expresses the partitive genitive -- a part of a whole.

EX: Rim go sterene enoht bu megel. “There are a lot of stars tonight.”  Lit., “The number of stars tonight is great.”

 

However, the incidence of go-genitives is lessened due to a tendency toward noun-compounding, as this alternative shows.

EX:  Sterenrim enoht bu megel.

 

 

10. DERIVATION and WORD-FORMATION AFFIXES

 

            Thosk derivation and word formation are active processes in the modern language.

10.1. Prefixes

 

            The following prefixes are in active use:

 

aban-:  abanmind “afterthought”

be-:  betug “attraction”

dil-:  dilkud “advocacy”

hom-: homurht “cooperation”

is-: istuht “extraction”

ro-:  roknod “foreknowledge”

sem-: senkud “conversation, dialog, colloquium”

 

10.2. Suffixes

 

            The following suffixes are in common use.

 

-ag: agent noun

-ak: causative verb

-ast: abstract noun

-d/t: noun/gerund (-od)

-dvi: “-able”

-e: noun plural

-e: present tense

-end: pres. part act.

-ev: past tense

-i adjective

-min: adjective

-ne: inchoative

-un: past passive participle

-vag: lacking, less

-viz: past active participle.  Variant form: -ju

 

 

11. NUMBERS and COUNTING

 

            The Thosk numbers are cognate with their English equivalents and should not pose especial problems for English speakers to learn.

 

11.1. Numbers

 

1 en; 1st fird/rom

2 to[v]; 2nd tod, ani

3 thir; 3rd third

4 hedur, hudur; 4th hedurd

5 fengi; 5th fengid

6 ses; 6th sest

7 seft; 7th seftind

8 oht; 8th ohtod, ohtov

9 emven; 9th emvend

10 teg; 10th tegind

 

The “teens” are formed by joining teg “ten” and the appropriate number.

 11 tegen; 11th tegrom, tegfird

12 tegto; 12th tegtod, tegani

13 tegthir (tekthir)

14 tegedur

15 tegfengi

16 tegsez

17 tegseft

18 tegoht

19 tegemven

 

            The multiples of ten are formed by joining the multiplier to teg “ten.”

20 toteg

30 thirteg

40 hedurteg

50 fengiteg

60 sesteg

70 seftteg

80 ohtteg

90 emventeg

100 hind; 100th hindod

1000 gezel; 1000th gezeld

 

11.2. Numbers with Quantities

 

            In Thosk the number, together with a measure, if any, directly precedes the noun without the equivalent of English “of.”

EX: Ta be men tha fengi kilo rov. “Give me five kilos of meat.”

 

 

12.0.  SOME GREETINGS and OTHER EXPRESSIONS

 

            Competence in common phrases and question-and-answer structure is key to mastering basic Thosk.

 

Mir(e) ejen. “Good morning.”

Mir(e) tin. “Hello. Good day. Goodbye.”

Mir(e) erev. “Good evening.”

Mir(e) noht. “Good night.”

Kurne. “Thanks.”

Megel kurne. “Thank you very much.”

Anze be men . . “Please . . .”  Lit., “Favor me.”

Is thev anst . . . “Please . . .”  Lit., “From your favor.”

Seve tha thirft. “Suit yourself.” Lit., “follow pleasure.”

Vituz (tha men). “Pardon (me). Excuse/forgive (me).”

E/o bu hun? “What is this/that?”

E bu hun ora? “What time (hour) is it (now)?”

Thu bere tha hun nom? “What’s your name?/What name do you carry?”

(Bu) be thu hun nom? “What’s your name?”

(Bu) be men nom Mihel. “My name is Michael.”

Thu bu korag? “Are you hungry?”

 (Thu) ha ete than ermiz? “Do you want to eat breakfast?”

Theve brat (bu) u huz? “Where is your brother?”

Thu beke dil hun? “Why are you running?”

Thu kum is huz? “Where do you come from? Lit., “You come from where?”

O (ei) be huz? “Where is he (she/it) going?”

Tinmiz bu hutu? “When is dinner?”

Sot bu hun tilgod? “How long is the trip?” Lit., “Trip is what length?”

 

 

13.  NAMES

 

When two Thoskije meet, they often offer their family names first in conversation – Thosk speakers like to begin by placing a person if possible in a community of families.  With the smallness of the Thosk community, the chances are good that each knows or at least has heard of the other’s family, and so both people already share a connection that they can subsequently build upon in conversation.

 

13.1. Family Names