Introduction

Let's work on forming slightly more complex sentences. This time we'll focus on specifying time, plurals, and another way of using adjectives.

When?

Immediately after your Speech Act Morpheme, you can add a word to denote the time. This sentence structure is symbolized as [(Auxiliary) Verb (Negation) CP-S]. The tense is an auxiliary that goes immediately before the verb. The auxiliary will never change its form (no affixes).

Here is a list of the tenses:

Examples

	Láadan	English	Vocab words
	Báa aril yod ne?	Are you going to eat?	aril = future, yod = to eat, ne = you
	Bíi aril yod le wa.	I will eat.	aril = past, le = me
	Bíi eril yod le wa.	I did eat.	eril = past
	Bíi eríli yod le wa.	I ate a long time ago.	eríli = far past
	Bíi aríli yod le wa.	I will eat, a long time in the future.	aríli = far future
	Bíi rilrili yod le wa.	I would eat...	rilrili = hypothetical

Adjective with a Noun

We know how to say something to the extent of, "Grandmother is old" (Bíi balin hothul wi.), with the adjective being used as a verb (balin = to-be-old). Here, we're simply describing the grandmother.

But, perhaps we want to describe granny but also talk about what she is doing, such as "The old grandmother sews."

The form is similar to our descriptive sentence, but we add the wo- prefix to both the adjective and the noun.

Note: This can only be used if you have one verb (e.g., "to be beautiful", "to be red", the adjective-verb). As an example, you cannot use this wo-* prefix pattern to translate a sentence like the "little red brick wall", which multiple descriptors. (Suzette Haden Elgin (1988), A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan, Second Edition, p. 22 )

Plurals

Using plurals in Láadan is a bit different than what you'd be used to in English. In Láadan, there is a prefix to specify plurality, me-, but it is only applied to the verb (including when used as an adjective), but not the noun.

Note: When a verb begins with a "D", the plural prefix changes to n- instead of me-. (Suzette Haden Elgin (1988), A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan, Second Edition, p. 18 )

The plural marker is always the first part of a verb, before other prefixes (i.e., the adjective prefix).

Practice: Quiz

Translate the following sentences from Láadan to English.

Bíi meyod lezh wi.

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Báa aril shóod ne?

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Bíi wod worabalin wohena wi.

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Bíi melalom worabalin wohena wi.

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Notes