I should logically continue with verb stuff, but I feel uninspired, so let's jump to ADPOSITIONS!
Adpositions
Baranxe'i has both prepositions and postpositions, and even a handful of circumpositions. Some Baranxe'i regiolects and dialects make a much greater use of the latter.
Basic adpositions
The most basic type of adpositions are the
movement prepositions and the
location postpositions. The same adpositions functions as a movement indicator as a preposition and a location indicator as a postposition.
- nikaub xõ - inside the house
> nikaub xõ sereinem - I walk [up and down] inside the house.
- xõ nikaub - into the house
> xõ nikaub sereinem - I walk into the house.
With most of the basic adpositions, the meaning of each is easily determined by which role it takes (exceptions where semantic drift has taken place follow below):
xõ - in
>
Xõ źuf þajalem. - I travel to the city.
>
Źuf xõ kśauxþa roja rata. - There's a big market in the city.
sen - out
>
Sen medur sereinem. - I walk out of the room.
>
Medurham sen vaurem. - I eat outside my room.
xan - above/on top of/onto
>
Xan ēk xansem. - I climb onto the roof.
>
Ēk xan jaŋem. - I'm sitting on the roof.
īl - below/underneath
>
Īl gāf mevārēmat. - I hide under the table (= I move under the table in order to hide).
>
Gāf īl kiþmajuja usñeja. - The kittens are playing under the table.
āmur - away
>
Āmur īpalaf rurem. - I'm running away from the woods.
>
Īpalaf āmur śnikab rato. - The temple is [far] away from the woods.
uði - at, towards
>
Uði tuzif sereinem. - I'm walking towards the harbour.
>
Tuzif uði faurānemzan. - I waited for her at the harbour.
ŋalþ - in(to) front of
>
Ŋalþ mafþu rotānem. - I fell in front of your mother (= I fell into her path).
>
Mafþu ŋalþ rotānem. - I fell down in front of your mother.
Two of these adpositions can also take on a temporal meaning. Standard Baranxe'i demands the temporal case, but many regiolects/dialects use the adpositional there, as well.
aś - behind, following; after
>
Aś śaup haðēŋo. - It flew behind the building.
>
Śaup aś ratem. - I'm standing behind the building.
+
>
[Aś aśruz]/[Aś aśruzmē] valānemzan. - I met him after the end.
ñaś - in front of
archaic; before
>
Ñaś sīljuf zondānem. - I jumped in front of the car.
>
Sīljuf ñaś zondānem. - I jumped [up and down] in front of the car.
+
>
[Ñaś sauf]/[Ñaś saumē] tśamāneña. - We drank before the party.
A handful are more idiosyncratic in their analysis:
rēn - preceding; with
>
Rēn hētanif xaśtānis. - He entered, preceding the king.
>
Hētanif rēn xaśtānis. - He entered with the king.
hīr - about
(rare); against
>
Hīr ðumarif hēvāneña. - We talked about you.
>
Ŋalfaþ hīr ratānem. - I stood/leant against the wall.
ðeir - about
(only as preposition)
>
Ðeir ðumarif hēvāneña. - We talked about you.
xaŋśe - across
(only as preposition)
>
Xaŋśe xanpritēf rurānem. - I ran across the bridge.
Historical perspective
The historic basis for all of the above are postpositions in pre-Old Baranxe'i:
níkabəpʲ kʰoŋ cerínm̩
house-ADPOS inside walk-1.SG
I walk inside the house.
These could be turned into movement indicators by using a postposition
u at. <u> filled the postpositions slot, however, forcing the other adposition into the pre-noun slot:
kʰoŋ níkabəpʲ u cerínm̩
inside house-ADPOS at walk-1SG
'I walk to inside the house' = I walk into the house.
Subsequent developments led to <u> being dropped and the pre- v. postposition criterion being the only
> nikafb xõŋ sereinem > nikaub xõ sereinem
> xõŋ nikafb ə sereinem > xõ nikaub sereinem
Other uses
These adpositions are also used as prefixes for both verbs and nouns.
By far the most productive among them are
xan and
īl, and
xõ(ŋ).
aś has many verbal and nominal derivations, but many of them have experienced semantic drift and are not that transparent anymore.
xan and īl
Two basic motion verbs with broad semantic fields are directly derived from them:
xansa – to rise, to climb (up), to ascend
īlsa – to lower, to sink; to lie down, to sit down; to climb down, to descend
Some nouns derived with them:
īldau - xandau –
lower leg - upper leg <
dau leg
īlðīrn - xanðīrn –
lower arm, hand - upper arm <
ðīrn arm
īlpritē - xanpritē –
tunnel - bridge <
pritē way
aś
The basic motion verb derived from
aś was
*ácʰca (~ [ˈɑtʰːa]) in pre-OB.
This should have rendered
ācʰa [ˈɑːtsʰa] and modern *āśa [ɒːʃɐ], but in Old Central Baranxe'i, it was put into one word family with
*ácʲNa [ˈɑtʲnʲa]
to hunt >
acʰña [ˈɑtsʰña] via a folk etymology which subsequently spread to other Baranxe'i varieties, leading to the modern-day variants
aśña (Standard/Central)
aśra (Northern/Eastern)
aśja (Southern/Western)
which all have the semantic field
to hunt; to track; to follow.
With other verbs, the meaning 'behind' is only sometimes transparent:
āśereina - to walk behind, to follow
aśvarna - to research, to investigate
(lit. 'to look behind')
āśeðna - to interview, to interrogate
(lit. 'to ask behind')
aśvalna - to remember
lit. 'to know behind')
Same goes for nouns:
akśīr - descendants
(lit. 'after-family')
xõ(ŋ)
This one is most productive as part of a circumfix to refer to contents:
xõ(ŋ)- X -ku
Variants (xo, xõŋ, xuŋ) occur in older, inherited forms; modern ones only have ŋ before a vowel:
xõġãmpku - fetus
(lit. womb content)
xokarsiku - guts
(lit. belly content)
xuŋedurku - volume
(lit. room content)
xõŋunarku - vitreous humour
(lit. eye content)
xõhaśafku - aqueous humour
(lit. vault content)
Derived adpositions
Other adpositions are mostly derived from verbs. They are almost all postpositions, although a preposition slot is accepted for some of them if they clearly refer to movement.
Some of the more recent derivations often have parallel forms with both the adpositional, or their original case.
leimnú - around
<
leima - to twist, to turn around
>
Lēim aimif leimnú ha ēgu. - The thread around the finger is red.
>
Śaup leimnú (leimnú śaup) sereinem. - I walk around the building.
varanú - concerning, regarding
(adpositional / accusative)
<
varna - to see
>
Somajaun/Somajãn varanú a’i vaþigrānem mē. - I haven't yet come to a decision regarding my wife.
And that's all standard adpositions I have so far.
An example of regional variation
One huge regional difference is the treatment of the pre/postposition difference. Not all use solely the type of adposition to discern between movement and position.
But to close this off, one look at a southern postposition:
palanú - using
This postposition occurs in places where the instrumental has died out. This happens in part of the transition zone from Baranxe'i to Asuāneica:
Standard Baranxe'i:
Sādźus vatśarānemzan. - (
Sādźun palanú vatśarānemzan.)
[ˈsɒːdʒɯs ˈβɑːtʃɑrɒnəmzɐn] - [ˈsɒːdʒɯn pɑlɑˈn(ː)uː ˈβɑːtʃɑrɒnəmzɐn]
dagger-INSTR kill-PST-ANIM-1.SG=3.ABS.ACC
I killed him with a dagger.
East Htaŋurvanese:
Sadźðun palāmmú vatśarāmmzin.
[ˈsɑːdʒðʉn pɑlɒˈmːuː ˈʋɑːtʃɑɹɒmːzɨn]
cut-tool-ACC use-PST-1.SG-PTCP-ADV kill-PST-1.SG=3.ABS-M-ACC
Frontier Baruŋese
Sātśun parmú vatśarānumtśen.
[ˈsɒːtɕʊn paɹˈmːuː ˈwɑːtɕaɹɒnʊm̥tɕən]
dagger-ACC use-1.SG-ADV kill-PST-1.SG-3.ABS.ACC
Northwestern Asuāneica
Sactun prṇú vacarānuci.
[ˈsɑcçːun pɻ̩ˈɳuː ˈvɑːcçɑɻɑːnucçi]
cut-tool-ACC use-PTCP-ADV kill-PST-1.SG-3.ABS.ACC
Standard Asuāneica
Sājun prṇ vacarānuci.
[ˈsɑːɟun pɻ̩ɳ ˈvɑːcɑ˞ɻɑːnuci]
dagger-ACC use kill-PST-1.SG.-3.ABS.ACC
And that's it for today.