Lessons
Descriptive words: Adverbs
Adverbs are the words that modify verbs (hence the name) and other descriptive words. Adverbs usually express location (place, space), time and frequency, manner. There are not many adverbs in Nûrlâm's dictionary:
New words
- dhu (down[wards], underneath) – place, direction
- ghu (above, up[wards]) – place, direction
- gûth (almost, nearly) – manner
- idh (out[wards]) – direction
- krut (back[wards], ago) – both direction and time
- mag (too [much]) – manner
- nokh (once, one time) – time, frequency
- sha (together) – manner
- sharz (very) – manner
- tîr (straight) – direction
Making adverbs from adjectives
Very few adverbs have the same form as adjectives (or other word classes):
New words
- raih (seldom, rarely) < adj. “rare” – time, frequency
- thil (often, frequently) < adj. “frequent” – time, frequency
- zârsh (today) < noun – time
In majority of cases you need to add suffix -arz after the adjective (or sometimes other part of speech) to convert it to adverb. If the adjective already has suffix -ûrz, it should be replaced with -arz.
New words
- aktûrz (precise) ⇒ aktarz (precisely) – manner
- durt (sure) ⇒ durtarz (surely, of course) – manner
- farkh (left) ⇒ farkharz (at the left, to the left) – place, direction
- forg (right) ⇒ forgarz (at the right, to the right) – place, direction
- hîs (fast, quick) ⇒ hîsarz (quickly) – manner
- kog (true, real) ⇒ kogarz (truly, really, actually, indeed) – manner
- mûl (road, path) ⇒ mûlarz (by the way) – manner
Word order
too complex, too small vocabulary at this point to show all possibilities, leave only first 4 points, repeat the whole in another lesson above adverbials' word order
The following rules are applied to position of adverbs in sentence:
- if adverb modifies the verb, it should be placed after the verb and it's object: the fire quickly burns the forest ⇒ ghâshum ghâshâ taum hîsarz;
- if adverb modifies the adjective that precedes the noun, then adverb is placed before the adjective: very old dirt ⇒ sharz kû dug;
- if adverb modifies the adjective that is placed after the noun, then adverb is placed after the adjective: really hot water ⇒ nîn gashûrz kogarz;
- if adjective has a modifying adverb, it cannot join the noun as a clitic: almost black blood ⇒ ghor mor gûth / gûth mor ghor (not “ghormor gûth”);
- if several adverbs follow the same word, they are ordered as Place–Manner–Time: warriors are going back together today ⇒ mauh ukhû krut sha zârsh;
- if several adverbs precede the same word, they are ordered as Time–Manner–Place, which rarely happens though;
- if there are too many adverbs describing the same verb, then some of them (usually referring exact time) may precede the subject, while others are placed after the verb. They should be ordered in the whole sentence as Time–Manner–Place, but this rule is not very strict.
Exercise 1
Translate from English into Nûrlâm:
- come together
- fly up
Exercise 2
Translate from Nûrlâm:
Exercise 3
Make new adverb from adjectives you have learnt before:
Contents
Lessons
Here is the list of lessons for studying the conlang called Nûrlâm, yet another fan dialect of Tolkien's Black Speech.
- Overview of Nûrlâm dialect
- The very basics:
- Deeper knowledge:
- Cases: essive
- Pro-forms: demonstrative
- Existential sentences
- Cases: allative and elative
- Cases: adessive and inessive
- Cases: ablative and elative
- Directions
- Cases: instrumental and comitative
- Participles
- Predicatives
- Compound verbs and infinitives
- Pro-forms: relative. Complex sentences
- Cases: intrative
- Advanced:
- Pro-forms: indefinite
- Pronouns: reflexive and reciprocal.
- Pronouns: declension in cases.
- Compound sentences. Conjunctions.
- Verbs: passive
- Gerundive
- Possession and ownership
- Impersonal sentences
- Abundance and absence
- Verbs: subjunctive mood
- Verbs: grammatical voices beyond passive
- Direct and indirect speech
- Mastering the language:
- Making new words: derivational suffixes
- Verbs: phrasal verbs, prefixes
- Affix order: nouns
- Affix order: verbs