Plusquamperfekt wrote:
By the way, I have a question about my participles... Somehow I got the impression these are rather converbs - at least in the first sentence - what do you think?
Swankai čwonišan
š, nanšwimanča siwai.
newspaper-ACC.SG read-2SG-NINF-X, drink-1SG-NINF-PAST.IMP water-ACC.SG.
While you were reading the newspaper, I was drinking water.
Waškašan čwonan
šo swankai nanšwanča siwai.
man-INT.SG read-NINF-X-ERG.SG newspaper-ACC.SG drink-NINF-PAST.PRF water-ACC.SG.
The man reading the newspaper is drinking water.
In the second example I'm pretty sure it's a participle. That's because the subordinate clause of which it is the nucleus, is a relative clause, used as if it were an adjective. So that non-finite verb-form is probably a verbal adjective, like participles are.
In the first, possibly a converb instead; at any rate, probably not a participle, but rather some other non-finite verb form. That's because the subordinate clause of which it is the nucleus, is an adjunct clause, used as if it were an adverb (a temporal/aspectual adverb). So that non-finite verb-form is likely to be a verbal some-other-part-of-speech-than-an-adjective, at least if your language distinguishes adjectives from adverbs.
In some languages, converbs and gerunds are basically the same thing; if your language is one of them, the non-finite verb-form which is the nucleus of the subordinate clause in the first example, might be both a gerund and a converb.
If your language makes no distinction between adjectives and adverbs, just lumping them all together as "modifiers", then maybe it also makes no distinction between relative clauses and adjunct clauses. If it doesn't distinguish between RCs and AdjunctCs, there may be no need to decide whether those non-finite verb-forms are participles or converbs.
Some languages make no distinction between adjectives and nouns; they lump them together as "substantives". If your language is one of those, maybe it doesn't distinguish between complement-clauses (subordinate clauses embedded as terms, as if they were nouns, in the clause they depend on), from relative clauses. If it doesn't distinguish complement clauses from relative clauses, maybe it doesn't distinguish between gerunds and participles. Again, depending on the particulars of your language, maybe there's no difference between participles and some other non-finite verbal form (such as converbs, or such as gerunds) in your language.
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In fact, I had difficulties to decide whether I should the genitive or the instrumental case in that sentence, then I chose the genitive case, but forgot to delete the infix. I'll correct that later, the infix "ok" is absolutely wrong there. 
