Grammatical sketch
The points covered briefly in this section are dealt with in much more detail in the subsequent sections of the site... This is just an appetiser!
Qohenje grammar has some highly unusual characteristics that take a little getting used to (the whole point of creating it really...).
Words
The language has no sharp distinction between the word classes nouns and verbs. These categories are grammatically distinguished in terms of use, but any Qohenje lexeme can occur as either a noun or a verb, called nominals and verbals in the present notes, to distinguish this function in Qohenje from the morphosyntactic class in English.
In English we have a lot of words that can change categories like this (a record, to record; an insult, to insult; etc.) but in Qohenje, all words (all lexemes) can do this. So, for example, taking the lexemes and (with their nominal glosses), we can say in Qohenje, just as easily as
Aspect
All Qohenje lexemes, regardless of their incidental role (nominal / verbal) are marked for a kind of aspect.
In Qohenje, aspect is not restricted to verbals. All words in Qohenje are marked for one of eight aspects, highlighting the evolutionary state of the core meaning of the lexeme. The eight aspects are (see below for examples):
- Normal [NOR] (current, actual, normal or prototypical )
- Abnormal [ABN] (unexpected, unusual, incomplete or otherwise strange)
- Completed [COM] (finished, over, "no-longer-applicable")
- Enduring [END] (still current beyond expected limits)
- Projected [PRO] (imagined, planned or expected)
- Delayed [DEL] ("not yet current but should be")
- Aorist [AOR] (divorced from any evolutionary state)
- Attributive [ATT] (Not really an "aspect" - see attributives)
Words change shape to show these aspects, but they do so in different ways, depending on their declension. There are five such declensions. The aspects are distinguished by a combination of tone and consonanant/vowel variations.
Some examples of the meaning variations imparted by the different aspects:
Noun examples -
[ ] the woman (normal, heathy, older than 20) [ ] the deformed, mentally deficient, critically unhealthy or otherwise abnormal woman [ ] either the dead woman (primary meaning) / the decrepit old hag (very insulting) [ ] the very old woman (not insulting) [ ] the (teenage) girl (younger than 20, roughly) [ ] the childish/immature woman [ ] womanhood / women (in general no evolutionary state implied) [ ] womanly
[ ] the garden (normal, heathy) [ ] the diseased, odd or abnormal garden [ ] the dead or overgrown garden, (no longer cared for) [ ] the garden surviving beyond all expectation (despite neglect, for example) [ ] the planned, future, or intended garden / garden bed (unsown) [ ] the garden that has not flourished, despite attention [ ] gardens (in general) [ ] horticultural / garden-like
A verbal example -
[ ] currently reading [ ] reading strangely [ ] having read / finished reading [ ] still reading (against exp.) [ ] about to / intending to read [ ] not yet reading (against exp.) [ ] reading in general [ ] "readingly"
Aspect is not to be confused with tense, which is an exclusively verbal category (see Verbs below).
Nouns
What the language doesn't have...
Qohenje nominals do not show number (singular/plural), and the language has no genders (masculine/feminine etc). Words are categorized in terms of meaning into three groups: ANIMATE (AN - for all living things), INANIMATE (IN - for all physical non-living objects) and ABSTRACT (AB - for non-physical notions). These categories are not like genders, however, in that they are not arbitrary, and do not control any kind of "agreement" phenomena. They are purely meaning distinctions.
Qohenje has no articles (the, a), although there is a way of indicating indefiniteness for the direct object (only) if that is deemed necessary (by a prefix on the verbal). All nominals are naturally understood as being definite (as if they have an understood "the").
Cases
The language has a kind of case system. Cases are marks on nominals that show what grammatical role they are playing in the sentence (subject, object etc.). Unlike the cases of European languages, however, Qohenje cases are completely semantic: that is, they impart a certain meaning to the sentence, and are not grammatically determined — it's always a question of choice. For instance, taking the word and employing it as a verbal ("see"), with as the subject, we can mark the man using one of three cases:
- Agentive [acting with volition] (AG, marked with the prefix ): , (i.e. he is not only the subject of the verbal, but he is carrying out the action consciously and deliberately).
- Patientive [suffering/undergoing something] (PT, marked with the prefix ): , (something he does not want to see/something that shocks or otherwise affects him) .
- Accidental [implicated in the relation with neither intent nor affectedness] (AX, marked with the prefix ): , (he is neither active nor affected by the seeing - it is just happening.)
These "cases" show the energetic relationship of the nominal to its verbal, but do not show grammatical roles (subject, object). Grammatical roles are shown by word-order (see also below): Qohenje's basic word-order is Object-Verb-Subject. The Object of a verbal can take the same three case marks (although they look different on objects) depending on the meaning relationship implied. Although certain verbals tend to attract certain case marks, the choice is not determined by the verbal, but remains a question of expressive choice and intended meaning.
The cases vary not only for the three energetic types indicated, but also for animacy. It is not necessary to match the case mark to the inherent animacy of the nominal. Changing animacy on the case mark shades the meaning of the lexeme. Putting Inanimate case marks on an animate noun for instance gives it the meaning of an inanimate replica of the nominal in question. For instance,
- - ( is the AX Object case mark for Animates)
- - ( is the AX Object casemark for Inanimates)
- - ( is the AX Object casemark for Abstracts)
Verbs
Qohenje words become verbals when preceded by a verbal auxiliary. It is the auxiliary itself that defines the verbal role of the following word. The present tense, realis auxiliary (for current real events and actions) is , so while alone is a nominal meaning "sight", is a verbal formation meaning "is seeing". In addition to converting the following word into a verbal, the auxiliary also carries the tense, and the mood (real or non-real), as well as varying for animacy. Qohenje has 24 verbal auxiliaries. Here are some examples:
As the above examples show, like all Qohenje words, verbals vary for aspect.
Qohenje verbals do not vary for person or number:
etc.
The basic sentence (word-order)
The over-arching logic behind the organisation of Qohenje grammar is relational concepts with the background (landmark: L) element placed first, the relational element in the middle, and the profiled or foregrounded element (trajector: T) last.
L - REL - T
This arrangement pervades the grammatical organisation of Qohenje, and is visible throughout the language in its quite rigid word-order:
- Adjective + (Case +) Noun:
- Adverb + Verb:
- Noun + Postposition :
- Object + Verb + Subject:
In essence this produces sentence orders that are almost the complete reverse of English. A sentence like "I'll quickly put it in the box on the table" would be ordered in Qohenje "table on box in it will quickly put I".
Qohenje is a GWO language (grammatical word order) in that the basic grammatical roles (subject and object) are determined by the order of the words, as in English.