GETTING STARTED

Every draqa sentence begins with a particle that describes the nature of the following information and how the information was acquired. These fall into 3 categories: Speech Acts, Evidentiality, Reality. Without a speech act, evidence or reality morpheme at the beginning of the sentence, you do not have a complete Draqa sentence. At best you will be looked at a little funny - at worst, your motives and credibility will be highly suspect. One useful fact is that not only can these particles introduce sentences, but they can also be complete sentences by themselves.

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Speech Acts

These particles indicate the type of sentence that is to follow:

xeh'a / yoi, a

Introduces a general question - e.g. xeh'a maga Are there any peanuts?

múu / má'a

I'm asking you a question about you - e.g. má'a gkane Are you hungry?

já / meeh

You, I'm talking to you (about you) - e.g. já fwae I like you ; You like

koi, a

Let's do it! - e.g. koi, a sowa Let's sleep

a'coi

I would do it! - e.g. a'coi sowa I'd go to sleep!

Evidence

These particles describe how you arrived at your information:

oia

I see that e.g. oia pnjea There's a full moon out

ámina

I smell, hear, taste, feel that - e.g. ámina sowa I hear her sleeping

abádi

From the evidence at hand, I can tell that - e.g. abádi jaka I can see there was violence

ahoa

I intuit that - e.g. ahoa sfea I can feel that she is sad

Reality

These particles describe how reliable you consider the information. They also include some particles that could be considered evidential.

a

I'm saying this is true, or commonly known - e.g. a liuc'fehi The Universe is beautiful

sehi / a san

It is not true that - e.g. sehi bua It's not good

éa

I know from personal experience that - e.g. éa sufa I feel contented

'hawi

I heard from a reliable source that - e.g. 'hawi íambeas I hear she is pregnant

axwena

I heard from a source who may or may not be reliable - e.g. axwena I heard something

apya

I heard from an unreliable source that - e.g. apya jaka I heard they were attacked

fo

Indefinite *

i

I'm not saying this is true or untrue - e.g. i láortofil Once upon a time

ehbabia

It is speculated that ...

mbaha

It is my opinion that - e.g. mbaha I believe so

* 'Fo' is used to introduce any sentence where the truth value is unascertainable due to the nature of the sentence. It roughly translates to "if", but introduces wishes and commands as well as conditional, speculative and other irrealis statements:

ámina sokorc'nayu (I taste that) the food is good (well-prepared, high quality)

fo sokorc'nayu:

• "If the food is good"
• "If the food were good"
• "Had the food been good"
• "I hope the food is good"
• "The food better be good"

In the last two meanings, there is an implied outcome ("If the food is good [it will comply with my wishes/ it would be best]"), thus the use of the indefinite morpheme.

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