Lesson II: Introductions and Basic GrammarFrom now on every lesson will consist of three parts: Vocabulary, grammar (which will in most cases also contain vocabulary) and writing.
Vocabulary: Today we will cover a very basic vocabulary set: pronouns. In Mor’osi nouns and pronouns are not inflected and do not change their form based on their function within the sentence. As such there is only one pronoun form for each person and number, except for the 3rd person singular, in which case it is delineated by gender. Also, plural pronouns are formed for the first and second person through
reduplication, that is repetition.
I: Sēv
We: Sēv sēv
You: Vī
You (plural): Vī vī
He: Kar
She: Kal
It: [N/A]
They: Shem
As you can see there is no word for “it” in Mor’osi. Instead the object is simply dropped from the sentence and is implied. This can always be done with any element of the sentence which is implied.
Grammar: Let’s look at a simple conversation in Mor’osi:
Dom’ail-sam: Man’az, Shausil-sam. Geng us sī īn?
Shausil-sam: A, man'az. Geng. Vī-sam sū?
Dom’ail-sam: Ad geng. Tler id vī-sam sū īn?
Minsil-sam: Sēv-cham on yūl dī hem sū. Inglo on.
Smith-sam: Satlau. Sēv-cham on na sū Smith.
Dom’ail-sam: Satlau. Dom’ail. Am, tle dī mī vī vī-sam sū īmden sī īn?
Mister Dom’ail: Good morning, Mister Minsil. How are you?
Mister Minsil: Ah, good morning. Well. And you?
Mister Dom’ail:
[am] also well. Who are you with?
Mister Minsil: This is my friend. He's Inglish
Mister Smith: It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Mister Smith.
Mister Dom’ail: It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Mister Dom’ail. So, what will you do today?
First Line
Man’az: Good morning. Generally used until noon.
Man: good
Az: morning
-sam: Roughly equivalent to mister in this case, it is placed after the name and can refer to both genders. Unlike mister or miss it cannot be used when referring to one’s self.
Geng us sī īn: Literally “Do you well?” it means the same as “How are you?”.
Geng: Well, Healthy
Us: With, means. It is a particle, and is placed after the word it modifies (See second line).
Sī: Do, Happen
Īn: This particle is placed after the verb of a sentence to form a question.
Second Line
A: Interjection. “Ah” or “oh”.
Geng.: Literally, “well”. There is no word in Mor’osi for “be”, and it is instead implied by the absence of a verb in the sentence, and the pronoun for I is dropped from the sentence as well as it is implied.
Vī-sam sū? Questions can be asked without “īn” through intonation, just as in English.
Vī-sam: In formal situations and to be polite, “sam” can be and is also affixed to pronouns as well as names.
Sū: Mor’osi makes use of what are known as particle words instead of pronouns. These indicate the role of a noun in a sentence, and are placed after the noun that they modify. The particle “sū” indicates the subject of the sentence.
Third Line
Ad: Also
Tler: Who
Id: With, accompaniment. Particle.
Fourth Line
Sēv-cham on yūl dī hem sū.: As you may have noticed, the syntax of this sentence is different from that of previous ones. Mor'osi does not employ any set syntax. Instead whatever point the speaker wishes to emphasize is moved to the beginning of the sentence.
Sēv-cham on yūl dī: For existential sentences no particle is necessary if the direct object falls at the end of the sentence. Otherwise, and with the direct object in all other sentences, it is indicated by the particle dī.
-cham: An honorific attached to one's own name as a sign of humility. In certain situations it may also be employed as a term of affection for another, but in most cases such a use is deeply insulting.
On: This particle indicates possession and is placed before the possessed and after the possessor.
Yūl: Friend
Hem: This. We will discuss demonstrative pronouns in more detail later.
On: A particle which indicates possession, it can be translated as both “of” and “‘s”. In Mor’osi though it is always positioned after the possessor and before the possessed.
Inlo on: Literally “of Inglo”, this can be translated as "Inglish". In Mor’osi nationality is indicated by placing on after the name of the country. For example, “Eluvataran” would be “Eluvatar on”.
Fifth Line
Satlau: Literally meaning “let us begin”, it is said upon meeting someone for the first time.
Na: Name
Sixth Line
Am, tle dī mī vī vī-sam sū īmden sī īn?
Am: So, as in “So, that’s it?”
Tle: What
Mī: Meaning "later on", mī is used to indicate the future tense if necessary. If tense is implied or irrelevant it need not be explicitly stated. Some particles nouns indicating time or place can be said without placing the particle et, "at", after them.
Īmden: Today.
Īm: Now
Den: Day
Writing: In the Mor’osi writing system letters are arranged in blocks, which indicate syllables. The way that a letter is written in such a block and where it is written though depends on the type of syllable and its pronunciation. Below are the eleven possible types of syllables.
Key: V = vowel C = consonant D = diphthong W = wide vowel T = tall vowel
“Vowel” indicates that it does not matter whether it is a tall or wide vowel. Whether a vowel is tall or wide has no effect on pronunciation, only writing.
V
W-T
W-W
C-W
C-T
C-D
W-C
T-C
D-C
C-V-C
C-D-C
Depending on the type of syllable and the letters position it will be written in one of three different forms: square (bok), wide (sech), tall (vet) or full (om). A consonant can be any of these forms. A wide vowel can be either square, wide, tall or full and a tall vowel can be either written as square, tall or full. The wide vowels are A/a, U/u, U/u, Ū/ū and O/o, and the tall vowels are I/i, Ī/ī, E/e and Ē/ē. A diphthong is composed of two vowels, always written small and always on the same row. All consonants can either be written as square, wide or tall.
On that note we will now discuss the actually arrangement. In each syllable the letters are written out on a grid, which is composed two rows and two columns. The two rows and the two columns intersect, forming four squares. This area is almost always filled when writing completely. The “flow” so to speak of these blocks is from left to right and from up to down, with the first phonetic sound of a syllable to the left and top and the last sound to the right and bottom. When reading, fluent speaker and reader will read however by block, not letter.
A small letter can occupy any of the four squares. A wide letter can be written in either row. A tall letter can be written in the columns. A full letter is written over the entire square. Remember, a diphthong is written with two vowels. Blocks of text are constructed as shown below:
As shown when a letter is placed in its wide form it is first rotated 90° counter-clockwise. All forms are “stretched” so to speak to fit all available space.
