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Word order

Aktualisiert: 3. Aug. 2023

Quertílian syntax revolves around the following basic rules.


Verb position

The finite verb is always in the second position of a clause and the first position can be occupied by one word only (not a whole phrase!).


Andé em ai amin. He is a king.

Lisuneiu si. I was sleeping.


If the finite verb is missing, the infinite form takes the second position.


Sali lémiaseiu o ingq, lonhiasaio sem. If he saw her, he would feel happy.


In avalent sentences with only one word and no subject, the anaphora amiol ("so") is used in the first position.


Amiol sangqem. It rains.


Articles

Articles are inseparable from the noun or pronoun - they always precede it and no word can come between them. They are obligatory for all nouns and nominal pronouns apart from names in nominative and nominal pronouns in nominative. That's why only names and nominative nominal pronouns can be fronted:


Andé lisunem. He sleeps.

Qaranglin lisunem. Qaranglin sleeps.

Ingq lisunengq te amin. The king sleeps.


Pro-dropping

Personal pronouns can be dropped only if the first position is filled with another word.


Andé esiwem o amqíten. He visits the(his) sister.

Oli'erw esiwem o amqíten. He visits his little sister.


Adjectives

Adjectives are separable from the noun they modify and can be fronted, if the meaning is clear. If there are more nouns in the clause, the fronted adjective belongs to the direct object. It belongs to the subject only if there are no more nouns in the clause.


An unfronted adjective follows the noun it modifies.


Oriaw sem wanté te ili o qe ai want. The boy gave me a big gift.

Tonriw sema te amin admieiu. The old king died.


For adjectives in copula sentences, see below.


Copula sentences

In copula sentences, adjectives in predicative function are fronted, in attributive function, they follow the noun (see article on adjectives).


Andé em ai qlúr oli'erw. It is a small table.

Oli'erw em te qlúr. The table is small.


If both the predicate of the copula sentence and the subject is a noun, the predicate stands before the subject:


Ingq ema ai utuini'en te aldi'en noiw. My wife is a teacher.


A fronted adjective relates to the predicate:


Lonw ema ai utuini'en te aldi'en noiw. My wife is a good teacher.


Prepositions

A preposition occupies one place. A special feature of Quertílian are fronted prepositions, i.e., they are separable from the referent.


Mi si iqieiu o sit la ingq. I got the book from her.


The mi preposition "from" occupies the first position. It is clear to which component the preposition refers to, because it is in the prepositional case. If there are more prepositions in one clause, they precede the prepositional article and one of them may be fronted. Usually, the preposition of the new, most important information gets this treatment:


Idi si di'esweiu engséra mi la nartéra la rítwon qu'as. I had to run from the enemies even before the battle.


Coordinating conjunctions

The most important coordinate conjunctions are:

  • is and

  • qiela whatsmore, even

  • mong or

  • ra it follows that

  • but

  • faiu despite

  • intíl in order to.

Coordinating conjunctions between clauses are not a syntactical member of the connected clauses and don't influence their word order. That's why even after the conjunction, the verb is at the 2nd position (not counting the conjunction).


Ingq lisunem te amin is ngiw rítwu te fqemielmíra. The king sleeps and his servants are fighting.

Wanteiu sem te ili mi qe o want qiela frileiu sem o qe. The boy not only gave me a gift, he even kissed me.

Aqeiu si o andé sé frapteiza sem. I believed him but I got hurt.

Ir sem sizaoleiu ir la qil intíl andé awurem o ingq. He came into town to find her.


If in the coordinate sentence the auxiliaries in the two clauses are the same, it can be dropped in one of them:


Faiu eaneiu sem sathwéra qi (sem) sonhiaseiu. Despite that I had the luck to win, I felt bad.


If a coordinating conjunction connects two words or phrases in a clause, they are counted as a position. Two adjectives or adverbs can be combined with into one word, which only takes up one position:


oriaw-is-gurqiw big and stupid

etímtiw-qiela-doenw beautiful and even wise

lonw-ra-gurqiw good and what follows, stupid


Dependent clauses

Dependent infinitives are to be preffered to subordinate clauses, whenever possible.


Pa'aqi'eiu sem aldi'en déw o andé dwirli'éra lowéran ne inthit e'unqli amiol.

His wife didn't believe him that he had to stay in the office so late.


Nominal relative clauses, i.e., relative clauses which work as a noun in the main clause, are formed by replacing the supposed noun with the subordinate sentence introduced with midé or mingi, but preserving the article in the main sentence:


Pa'aqi'eiu sem aldi'en déw o midé sem dwirli'eiu lówera ne inthit e'unqli amiol.

Pangotheiu olem te midé olem robaieiza. Who won't obey, will be punished.


Please note the article is part of the main clause and the relative pronoun part of the relative clause. That's why the midé/mingi takes only one position of the relative clause.


Other types of subordinate clauses are fronted by a conjunction or relative anaphora with the finite verb immediately following.


Mias si lapheiu o marqhi, lanteiu si inthéra ne qil. When I left school, I began working in the town. (temporal clause)

Lapheiu si o marqhi, miang si eleiu baliw. (clause of reason)


If the relative anaphora is inflected (mostly in the prepositional case), it cannot be fronted:


Frapteiza sem mi la mias einge la elamon, andé paelamem o sínis. Since the time he was injured after drinking, he doesn't drink anymore sínis.


Compounding and shortcutting

In Quertílian, compounding is very often used to shorten long names of places, instruments, processes, historical events, sciences, etc.,...

Gradation

In Quertílian, adjectives, some adverbs and numerical anaphora of identity can be gradated. There are five levels of gradation: For...

Derivational suffixes

Here are some of the most important derivational suffixes of Quertílian. -ér (shortens the preceding vowel) - someone who does or is...

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