Word Formation - Ershánsës Ñevá

 Alurhsa is a very synthetic language, allowing new words to be created easily out of roots and affixes.  Although these constructions often follow very straightforward rules, there are still irregularities, especially in the process of combining two or more roots.

 It is important to note that word formation is a fundamental component of the Alurhsa language.  Affixes are added to roots with sufficient frequency and flexibility that dictionaries and wordlists are unlikely to contain all possible options.  Thus it is essential that the student of the language understand the process of word formation in order to determine the meaning of compounds encountered in texts and conversations.

 Fundamental Roots

The Alurhsa language is built up from a collection of roots, some of which are referred to as fundamental roots meaning they may not form words by themselves, but the same pattern of letters is found throughout a collection of roots which all have similar meanings.  Examples of fundamental roots are:

*zhy - knowledge

*tr - draw, bring

*gv - dwell

*gn - know, recognize

*sálq - tell, story

*vrit - turn, twist

The above occur in various forms in a number of roots, such as *ánzhy to learn, *dezhy to know (facts), *ántr to attract, *vùtr to bring, *gev to dwell, *sígv house, *gnerhev or *gnev to know, recognize.

It is often useful to watch for such patterns in related roots, and in words.  For example, cëlâ is to give, cálám grace is a gift, cádezhyen information is knowledge or a fact (dezhyen) that is given.  The c- at the start of each is a fundamental root meaning give.

Unfortunately there is currently no complete list of fundamental roots, so the student is encouraged to pay attention to patterns as they are discovered.

Affixes

The table below lists the prefixes used to modify the meaning of words and to construct new words.  Prefixes are, for the most part, added to existing full words, meaning a root that is complete with whatever endings or suffixes, if any, are being used to form a full noun, verb, descriptive, etc.  Note that some prefixes may have more than one meaning depending on the type of word to which they are added, eg. el- means out of when added to anything but a numeric, but as mentioned in the numerics section means multiplied by four when added to any of the powers of ten.

Also note that some prefixes are listed with letters in parentheses.  These are interposed when required for euphonics.  Thus, the prefix meaning replace or change is bhé- before consonants but bhés- before vowels.

Finally, it should be stated that the hyphen listed is not part of the prefix, and is not used in adding them to words or roots.

Some examples might be useful at this point:

bhéhìnâ - to change clothes from bhé- and hìnâ (to wear).

bhényír - hostage from bhé- and the root *nyír (prisoner).

shávëzhensës - déjà-vu from shá- and vëzhensës (experience).

tsúdívâ - respond from tsú- and dívâ (to say).

ñápáláñ - ex-headman from ña- and páláñ (village leader, headman).

Suffixes are somewhat more difficult to give exact rules for.  Some, such as -áçlá, are usually added to an existing complete word, and produce a similar meaning, but with some specific coloring, in this case a pejorative context.  Others, such as -ä, should be considered more a primary word ending added directly to a root.  Unfortunately there are times when any given suffix may be added either to a root or a full word form, depending on the speaker, the context, and common usage.  The best advice for the student is to listen and read, use combinations that have already been encountered, and if a new combination is required, try adding it to a full word.  Natives will understand, and will likely correct the usage if it is not the norm.

There are many more suffixes than prefixes, and like prefixes native speakers will often join them to existing terms to add a particular shade of meaning, or to form a new word.  A good example of the flexibility this provides is the suffix -ä, which means emotion.  It is quite possible to produce a word like likä (happiness) from the root *lik.  But it is equally possible to produce a word like vrejä (the emotion of working) or even ávrejä (the emotion of working on something in particular) from the root *vrej.  The Alurhsa language is very flexible, and not all such possible combinations will be listed in dictionaries or vocabularies.  Thus, recognizing at least the most common suffixes is very important to determining the meaning of words as they are encountered.

It will also be noted that in the table below some suffixes have both a leading and trailing hyphen.  These suffixes are normally used with other endings to form words.  For example, -únt- means spread widely.  It can be used with -á which is a common way of forming adjectives, -â as a verb (with appropriate verbal endings applied as it is conjugated), -ës to form an abstract noun, or -en to form a specific noun.  Examples of each of these: náshúntá (on display), náshúntâ (to display), náshúntës (a display event), náshúnten (a specific display).  Unfortunately it is also possible to add these endings to suffixes that already have their own endings, such as gesáqen (weapon) which is formed from the root *ges (struggle, fight), the suffix -áqá (tool), and the concrete noun ending -en.  While it is possible to recognize such words and understand their formation and their meaning, it is difficult for the non-native to truly predict their formation.  However, this circumstance is no different than English, where many times it is difficult or impossible for the non-native to predict the formation of words, thus postpone means to push to a later date, but to move the meeting to an earlier time is not prepone.

As previously mentioned, the affixes can are often combined at will by native speakers to form words that carry the exact shade of meaning desired.  For example, one could talk about nyegevónjá meaning a so-called move or change of dwelling referring to someone’s statement that they had moved when they really had not.  This word is formed from the prefix  nye- (change), plus the root *gev (dwell), and the suffix -ónjá (so-called).

Another example is ávrejelshá (worth working on) from á- (focused on), *vrej (work), -elsh- (worthy), and -á (adjective).

Compounds

Perhaps the most difficult type of word formation for which to give rules is that of compounds.  Compounds are words formed by joining together two roots or two fully formed words, for example ódáreg (peninsula) from ódá (limb) and reg (island).  Unfortunately euphonic reasons often cause the individual roots to lose sounds or even entire syllables.  And, the euphonics in question do not appear themselves to follow well documented rules.  It is as though the words simply evolved by connecting the two roots and then dropping whatever did not seem to fit.

Examples:

shhúlúván - candle, from shhúlá wax and lúván light.

thívresk - base, foundation, from thír at the bottom and the root *vresk build, construct.

nyátísh - bat, a flying mammal, from *nyásh fly and petíshá a mouse-like mammal.

óñentránsës - gravity, from óñen planet, the fundamental root *tr draw, bring, the suffix -áns- causing, and the suffix -ës abstract noun.

ánzhyálek - textbook, from the root *ánzhy to learn (which itself is from the prefix án- meaning “towards, unto” and the fundamental root *zhy to know) and the word sálek book.

As can be seen by the above, the individual elements of compound words can normally be identified, and thus the meaning of the word determined, but this often requires some knowledge of basic Alurhsa vocabulary and roots.  And certainly construction of new elements is best left alone until the student has reached near native proficiency.

Opposites of Many Descriptives

Although not exactly word formation in the strictest sense, it is possible to recognize many pairs of opposites because they all follow a similar pattern in their root construction.  Many negatives begin with L, often followed by E, and take some but not all of the root of the positive opposite.  The following pairs serve as examples:

zále/lezá - good/bad.  Although it would appear lezá is an anagram of zále, in fact it is the negating prefix le- plus the first two letters of the root/word zále.

qálsá/lesqá - fast/slow.  Again, lesqá is not an anagram, but rather le- followed by a piece of the root qál(s)-.  It is likely this word was originally *leqsá or even *leqlá and the swap of q and s occurred for euphonic reasons.

qensá/leqá - long/short.  leqá is le- followed by only the q of the root qën-.

qórsá/lórqá - long/short (time).  lórqá is le- merged with the root qór-.  The letter swap is, again, for euphonic reasons.

Another common method in which opposites are constructed is with the negating prefix ve-, or simply v-.  This prefix is a shortened form of the word veñ (without), which can bee seen in some of the pairs below.  Again, the root of the positive opposite is modified, often dramatically, for euphonic reasons.  Examples:

dlúná/vedlá - tall/short.  vedlá is ve- followed by only the first letter of the root dlún-.  It is possible this would have been *vedlúná and shortened by dropping the ú, causing the n to fall away.

álská/veská - wet/dry.  veská is also often seen as veñská revealing the full prefix.  The ál- at the beginning of álská falls away for euphonic reasons when ve(ñ)- is added.

There are many, many pairs that follow one or the other of the above constructions.  When trying to determine the opposite of a positive descriptive, it is often good to start by assuming it will begin with either L or V.