Nouns and Verbs

Here we will look into noun declension and verb conjugation. There are 4 different categories in noun with respect to how declension rules are applied. The next table is excerpted from the Appendix in the novel (Seikai no Monshou volume 3).

A big difference of nouns in English and Baronh is the scope of declension. In English, declensions occur only in pronouns. However, in Baronh all nouns including pronouns are subject to declension rules. For example, the Baronh word for the Hyde star system where Ghintec is from is Haïdec([haid]. But, the Earl of Hyde is Dreuc Haïder. Notice the change from Haïdec to Haïder (the possissive case). In Baronh, changes in spelling implies different pronunciation without exception. In this example, Haïder is pronounced as [haidər].

If you can at this point predict that there wouldn't be many prepositions in baronh, you are correct (and smart!). The well developed suffixing system in Baronh eliminates the necessity of prepositions in many cases. This is more or less similar to Japanese of Korean, which also have complex suffixing systems. The difference between Baronh and Japanese(or Korean) is that, in Baronh, there are very few irregularities in declension rules -- probably because Baronh is an artificially created language.

The significance of very functional suffixing system implies that the order of words in a sentence is not as important as we see in English. This is because inflected words themselves alone still conveys the grammatical roles in a sentence regardless of where they appear in a sentence. Detailed background information about this can be found at Pronunciation Basics.

The following table shows the four noun categories with respect to the declension rules.

*Even though I expressed this as "location", it could well be reason, source, destination, or others. It is one of the most confusing case for English speakers, unless they know Japanese already. There is no simple way to explain this. It is like saying in English, "why do you use 'at' in this case out of those many prepositions." See what I mean?

It might appear complicated, but not as much as it looks. First, you want to understand that in Baronh, a noun can be broken into the root part and the following suffix. The suffix is usually the form of -c or -ec, and the root is whatever placed before the suffix. When declension is applied, usually only the suffix part changes.

In terms of pronunciation, the suffix may or may not be muted depending on situation. Let's look when a suffix is muted: e or r after a consonant are not pronounced. For example, abe is [ab] rather than [abə], and lamr is [lam] rather than [lamr].

On the contrary, if the last letter of the root of a word is a vowel, r following the vowel is clearly pronounced. For example, The possessive case of duc [du] is dur, whose pronunciation is [dur], not [du].

Notice that the noun category 1 is quite irregular, while the other three are easily known. There is not enough information how exactly category 1 nouns are inflected. But don't worry. There aren't many nounn from this category -- probably abh is the only one you'll likely meet. Other than its mild irregularity, category 1 nouns also follow a unique syntax: if a modifying word belongs to category 1, it is placed before the modified word in a sentence, while nouns of the other categories come after the modified one.

Now let's look at some examples.

 

Frymec négr [frym neg]. Daughter(frymec) of love(négr). négr is the possessive case of négh ([neʒ]). négh is a category 2 noun. Therefore, it is placed after the modified word. Majority of Baronh nouns belong to category 2.

 

Bar Frybarec [bar frybar]. abh is Category 1 noun. So, its possessive case bar is placed before the modified word. the Abh's(bar) Empire(frybarec).

   

Frybarec gloer gor Bari [frybar glœr gor bari]. The Empire(frybarec) of Mankind(gloer) by(gor) Abh(bari). gloer is the possessive case of gloec [glo]. gor is a preposition similar to "by" or "with."

Pronouns are also nouns, so fundamentally the same declension principles are applied. However, attention is needed to their irregularity. The following table is taken from Seikai no Monshou Dokuhon.

1, 2In the original text, dal, sal are used instead. I believe they are errors of dar and sar.

 

F'a Bari [fa bari]. "I am an Abh." The nominative case fe is combined with a postposition a, then becomes f'a. The apostrophe is there just to help the readers. It is written in Ath as fa. bari is the complement of abh. Notice that there is no verb in this sentence. When the meaning can be conveyed without it, a verb is omitted in many cases. Here, the omitted verb is ane([an], to be).

 

Farer léssoth [farər lesoθ]. Our oath. Taken from the Imperial Anthem. Notice that the pronouns are placed before the modified word, similar to Category 1 nouns.

 

R'a ane [ra an]. It means "It is." or "That's it." r'a is the short form of re a. Refer to f'a above.

Let's take a look at the verb conjugation this time. The only noticeable difference with English is that the number of the subject does not affect conjugation. The following table is taken from Seikai no Monshou Dokuhon Like we've seen in noun declensions, the root of a verb does not change, while the suffix is conjugated. Verbs in Baronh generally have a suffix -re. (Don't forget the e is muted.)

The imperative suffix is -é except when the root of the verb ends with a vowel sound in which case -no is the suffix. This is to avoid two vowel sounds repeat each other. Then, let's look at some examples.

 

ïucrabh bïara [jukrav bjara]. ïucrabh means "battlefield." bïara is the participle of bïare ([bjar], to burn). Notice that the participle of a verb modifies another word; therefore, it is placed after the modified word as we saw in noun section. (Same principle applies to adjectives, too)

daïsairé [daisɛre]. da(to remove or to reverse) + isare(anchor). "Sail forward!" The infinitive form is daïsaire. Becoming the imperative form, the ending e is replaced with é.

   

Farh ïarto gacte ceurena [faʀ jarto gakt kørəna]. We(farh) will get(ïarto) ourselves a big(ceurena) house(gacte). The verb ïarto is the future tense of ïare ([jar], to have or to get). gacte is the objective case of gacth ([gakθ], house), and ceurena is an adjective modifying gacte.

In this article, we've looked at noun declension and verb conjugation principles. We will see more practical examples of these in advanced articles.

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