2.5  Auxiliaries and particles

2.5.1  Auxiliaries

Auxiliary states are used for various purposes in Talmit – to act as modals, to express evidentiality or the aspect of an action.

1. Some auxiliaries grammatically behave like states. They can receive stative nójo and a preceding verb either takes the compound or attributive form:
   • kampá — visual appearance
     • Térmo krat-ejár tramnekampá-nójo ’That mountain looks large’
     • tramnekampá-nóimo krat ’a large-looking mountain’
   • eϕémis — comparison ’as, like’
     • blénga-lka eϕémis-nójo ’like gold, goldlike’
   • tóde — obligation
     • Krádmi-nógma iganentóde-nójo ’[I] have to go to the mountains’
   • de — progressive action
     • Áχagendé-njo ’[I am] in the present process of eating = I am eating’
   • degús — intention
     • Krádmi-nógma igánuna degús-nójo ’[I] intend to go to the mountains’

   These states form the head of the corresponding phrase and take tense endings. In particular, de is commonly used to express the present/past/future progressive tense (or imperfective aspect):

   • aχagendίi ’the past process of eating’
   • aχagendé ’the present process of eating’
   • aχagendéo ’the future process of eating’

   Hence Aχagendίi-nójo ’[I] was eating’ and so on.

   Déo (the future of de) with the destinative mére is used to express aim or purpose:

   • Aχagendéo-mére iganendé-nójo ’[I] am going out to eat’
2. Auxiliary states behaving like sentence-ending particles are understood to modify a whole sentence rather than a verb or a state. They do not take nójo and the preceding verb is in the conclusive form. They often denote evidentiality:
   • tálpa — evidential of hearsay (cf. táplun ’to say’)
     • Θermo da-onúr amménugi-wa atáznuin tálpa ’He was caught by the police (so I have heard)’
   • amá — evidential of first-hand experience (cf. -ma/-wa ’-coloured, having the apperance of’)
     • Θermo da-onúr amménugi-wa atáznuin amá ’He was caught by the police (I saw it myself)’
   • tapá — pointing something out as a fact
     • Krádmi-ja tram-nójo tapá ’Mountains are large, you know’ (cf. German ja — Berge sind ja groß, Jap. wake)
   • tamulpá — impossibility
     • Térmo krat-onúr ginimpá-njo tamulpá ’There is no way you cannot see that mountain’
   • multáppa (present), muletáppa (past, future) — focuses on currentness of an action/state, used with de in the present
     • Aχagendé-njo multáppa ’[I] am eating right now’
   • itáppawet (present), etáppawet (past, future) — action has been just recently completed
     • Aχáigun etáppawet, igáinun ’Just as I finished eating, I went out’
   • pánta — optative
     • Ámo tal-ja kámi-nójo pánta ’Hallowed be thy name’
   • pakjúmne/dekjúmne ’is supposed to be’ — a conclusion drawn from evidence (the former after states, the latter after verbs)

2.5.2  Conjunctions

Some conjunctions are states grammaticalized into sentence-ending particles:

• táppa ’when, as’
  • Dilón(-nójo) táppa pafauwínon-nójo, pafauwínun táppa dilón-nójo ’I breathe when I sleep, I sleep when I breathe’⁷
• táχtamit ’whenever’
• kimmeká ’because’
  • Plézmi-ja pirúis-mére kimmeká, iganimpái-nójo ’I didn’t go because it was raining’

Others are actual particles or suffixes:

• -(s)se ’and’ joins two nouns and is a suffix similar to Latin -que:
  • bánaxe bánil ’sun and moon’
• -ra is added at the end of an incomplete list:
  • aχagentásse lhobentára ’food and drink and such’
• -ren ’or’ is also a suffix:
  • bánaχren bánil ’sun or moon (it doesn’t matter which)’
• -ren + numeral (2.1.7), i.e. -renat, renil, renes etc. express an exclusive ’either ... or ... or’
  • aχállenat iχállenil ’either live or die’
• assé, essé < *ar-sə joins two sentences either as ’but’ or ’and’
  • Plézmi-ja pirúis-mére assé, igáinun ’I went out, although it rained’
• ána ’but’, at the beginning of a sentence
• -árra ’even though’ (concessive) is attached to verbs indicates that the action is being done in vain (cf. the sound-symbolic association of r with discomfort 2.6); preceding r dissimilates to n:
  • Dodwognárra / émnedwogren-dwognárra / pailézne-n’ ϕjállun ’I keep on working / and I keep on working more / I stare at my hands’⁸
• mal ’although’ and stronger málmal ’even though’ (originally a quotative particle (cognate to Kymna malon) with semantic shift ’they say’ → ’even though they say’)

If the suffix -(s)se is attached to the postpositions jésse, nótto, nóllo, nójo, móno/mána, mére, méza, láha it leads to jesésse, nóxe, nólze, nójse, mónze/mánze, mérze, mésse, láxe.

Conditional sentences use angá as a sentence-ending particle in the protasis, and a new numerical particle for each apodosis: ilgá, ezgá, orgá etc., which is transparently ’step one’, ’step two’ and so on (√ga ’to go, move’, at ’1’, il ’2’, es ’3’, or ’4’). One would have expected *gáhat, *ga(h)il, but the order is probably reversed to have an open final vowel, which is often prolonged in casual speech when someone needs more time to think about the apodosis. The protasis can be framed by an initial particle éo, e.g.:

• Éo plézmi spirússιun angá, iganimpáu-nójo ilgá ’If it rains, I won’t go’.