[Multilingual Monday] Finally, negation!
Finally I do my article on negation that I started -- good Lord, before I left for Japan!!
One of the big hurdles in my created language of Nōsō is how to handle negation. Many elements of Japanese grammar show up in Nōsō (gender neutral nouns, verbs, and adjectives -- as opposed to German, Russian, Hebrew, etc.; lack of articles; postpositions; tenses being affixed to the end of verb stems). So at first I did the same with Nōsō (-xi being a present-tense negative marker to verbs; thus, lefī = "(someone) wants", lefexī = "(someone) does not want"). Now, I've been working on the language since before Y2K became an issue, and the language has evolved amazingly -- sometimes it feels like it's growing beyond my control. :: laugh :: Thus, I initially thought about how much more logical it was to the language to have the word neü, as seen in the song lyrics, nīz bäteš neü, aīnz nenle, "My heart is not your game." It's certainly not uncommon, I finally convinced myself, to have multiple negation rules, depending upon what is being negated. In Hebrew there is even a choice on forms of negation, giving a different "feeling" to the sentence depending upon the choice made.
That being said, NOT ALL WAYS TO NEGATE ARE FEATURED HERE. For example, despite the English rules given below, there are a few ways to negate that aren't as common or even archaic. Example sentences include "I have no doubts," "I know not his name," and "He's pretty cute ... NOT." Also, obviously all languages aren't covered; if you'd like to point out languages or elements of negation not covered here, PLEASE do!!
Some commonly-seen forms of negation:
SIMPLY ADDING "NO": Seen in Spanish and Hebrew. In Spanish: Puedo encontrarlo vs. No puedo encontrarlo (I CAN find it vs. I CAN'T find it); Hebrew אני טיפש vs. לא אני טיפש, ani tipesh vs ani lo tipesh, "I'm stupid" vs. "I'm NOT stupid." This can be done in any instances where negation is required in Spanish, and all but one case in Hebrew (the exception being negations of commands -- see below), Basque (with the word for no, ez -- ez zara gose? "Aren't you hungry?"), Armenian (ոչ, voch, frequently reduced to չ, ch,and prefixed to verbs -- Հոս չէ, hosh ch'e, "He's not here", with է, e, being "he is"), and certain instances in Arabic (only with present tense verbs -- لا يعرفون, lā ya3rafūn, "they don't know" (with the first word being "no").
INCLUSION OF A SINGLE WORD : The Englsih "not" for "to be" clauses ("I'm NOT a Klingon!"), Russian and не (Я не говорю по-русски, Ya nye gavaryu pa-russki, "I don't speak Russian"), ne , Hebrew's אל, al, with negative commands (אל תשאל, al tish'al, "don't ask); German's nicht (Ich verstehen nicht, "I don't understand"), Arabic with ما, mā, in the past tense (ما سافرت, mā sāfarat, "she didn't travel") or لن, lan, for the future (لن سافرت, lan sāfarat, "she will not travel"); Mandarin Chinese and 不, bú (大学不旧, dàxué bú jiù, "The university is not old"); Georgian and არ(ა), ar(a) (დრო სულ არა მაქვს, dro sul ara makvs, "I simply don't have the time.").
ANOTHER WORD TOGETHER WITH "NOT" : Common English verb negation with the helping verb "do" -- "I do not eat hamsters"; French and pas (Je ne les ai pas pris , "I didn't take them"). Note that colloquially the ne in French can get dropped, bringing pas into the above category.
STAND-ALONE CONJUGATED WORDS FOR NEGATING "TO BE" : In Hebrew and Arabic, there is no present tense of to be in the present, and both languages have words that conjugate by person like verbs. Hebrew conjugates אין, eyn, "There is not/are not" to give sentences like אינה עשירה, eyna ashira, "She is not rich". Arabic also does this with conjugations of the word ليس, laysa, to indicate present-tense negation of "to be" -- انا لست إرهابي, Ana last irhābī, "I am not a terrorist."
NEGATIVE VERBS : By far the most common form of negation I've seen in studying various languages -- seen in languages like Turkish (compare gitmiştir, "he went" vs. gitmemiştir, "He didn't go" -- the element me or variants thereof indicate negation, and attach right onto the root), Japanese (compare 分かった, wakatta, "(someone) understood", vs. 分からなかった, wakaranakatta, "(someone) did not understand"; verbs are negated with forms of the negative copula ない, nai, "It is not", that conjugate and attach right onto the verb); Cherokee (ᎠᏆᏂᏔ, aquan'ta, "I know", vs. ᏝᏯᏆᏂᏔ, tlayaquan'ta, "I do not know"); Amharic (featuring prefixes and suffixes indicating negation on the same verb -- አለኝ, alläñ, "I have", vs. የለኝም, yälläñïm).
One of the big hurdles in my created language of Nōsō is how to handle negation. Many elements of Japanese grammar show up in Nōsō (gender neutral nouns, verbs, and adjectives -- as opposed to German, Russian, Hebrew, etc.; lack of articles; postpositions; tenses being affixed to the end of verb stems). So at first I did the same with Nōsō (-xi being a present-tense negative marker to verbs; thus, lefī = "(someone) wants", lefexī = "(someone) does not want"). Now, I've been working on the language since before Y2K became an issue, and the language has evolved amazingly -- sometimes it feels like it's growing beyond my control. :: laugh :: Thus, I initially thought about how much more logical it was to the language to have the word neü, as seen in the song lyrics, nīz bäteš neü, aīnz nenle, "My heart is not your game." It's certainly not uncommon, I finally convinced myself, to have multiple negation rules, depending upon what is being negated. In Hebrew there is even a choice on forms of negation, giving a different "feeling" to the sentence depending upon the choice made.
That being said, NOT ALL WAYS TO NEGATE ARE FEATURED HERE. For example, despite the English rules given below, there are a few ways to negate that aren't as common or even archaic. Example sentences include "I have no doubts," "I know not his name," and "He's pretty cute ... NOT." Also, obviously all languages aren't covered; if you'd like to point out languages or elements of negation not covered here, PLEASE do!!
Some commonly-seen forms of negation: