[Multilingual Monday] Euskara, You So Crazy!!
I think every aspiring linguist, at some point in time, delves into Basque. And it's certainly understandable -- I'd convinced myself that, if I could learn Basque, then I could learn ANYTHING. After all, the language is unique in the world, and possesses a unique grammar and verb system that is unlike anything I've ever studied. But these "oh wow cool" linguistic features are also the features that eventually make a number of aspiring linguists say "fuck this" and move on to something less masochistic.
It's taken a LOT of reading the same passage over and over (and over!) to actually understand the Basque verb system. Most verbs in Basque are compound verbs -- outside of verbs like "go" or "know" in the simple present tense -- consist of a conjugated verb and an auxiliary verb -- joango naiz, "I will go"; joan nitzen, "I went", and so on. The second word in each case (naiz and nitzen) is a form of izan, one of the verbs in Basque meaning "to be". Intransitive verbs use a form of izan, but transitive verbs take different conjugations of this verb. For example, egingo dut, "I will make", and egin nuen, "I made," use two "transitive" conjugations of izan.
What makes these "transitive" forms? Because there is a direct object "graphed" into the meaning of the latter two "transitive" examples, whereas no such pronouns are understood to be a part of the former two examples. And this, is where it gets complicated, for there are multiple conjugations of izan that may or may not indicate both direct and indirect pronouns. To illustrate:
Naiz - "I am". This is simply "I am," nothing more and nothing less. In simple intransitive future and present statements this verb is used as an auxiliary.
Dut - "I am _____ing it/him/her". Dut and its forms indicate that someone is doing something to something else -- a singular third person object. There's a logic in Basque -- like Cherokee or Georgian -- that if you are performing a transitive action, that you must logically be doing it to someone, and that object is understood to be part of the verb.
Ditut - "I am ______ing them". The same as above, but the direct object is understood to be multiple third person objects (books, trees, beavers, anvils, bottles of moonshine -- whatever!).
Nuen - "I ______ed it/her/it." Same as above, but in the past and with a single third person object.
Nituen - "I ______ed them". Ditto, but with third-person objects.
Zait - "It/he/she is to me". This is as close to a dative construction as you get in Basque. A direct calque of the Spanish me gusta, "I like" (literally "it's pleasant to me") is, in Basque, gustatzen zait. But keep in mind -- the construction is much simpler in Spanish than in Basque. After all, in Spanish all you need as an indirect object pronoun and the correct verb form, whereas you need a new auxiliary if any number, person, or tense changes from this. Witness:
Zaizkit - "They are to me".
Nintzaidan - "He/she/it was to me".
Zitzaizkidan - "They were to me".
Diot - "I will ______ x to y", x and y both being singular third-person objects.
Diote - "I will _______ x to y and y," a singular direct oject but multiple indirect objects, all in the third person.
Dizkiot - "I will ______ x and x to y," a singular indirect object but multiple direct objects, all in the third person.
Dizkiote - "I will ______ x and x to y and y", multiple indirect and direct objects.
There are forms for every possible subject-object(-object) combination you can think of. Let's look at the full conjugation of dut:
Me Him/Her/ItUs You You All ThemI dut zaitut zaituztet ditutHe/She/It nau du gaitu zaitu zautuzte dituWe dugu zaitugu zaituztegu dituguYou nauzu duzu gaituzu dituzuYou All nauzue duzue gaituzue dituzueThey naute dute gaituzte zaituzte zaituzte dituzte
Follow along vertically for the subject, and then head horizontally for your object. Thus, "They _______ me" would use the verb naute. Each form listed above the table, has a paradigm that looks like this, and while there ARE patterns to conjugations somewhat, there's still quite a bit of rote memorization here. While Basque isn't unique in its "direct and indirect object pronouns in the verb" dealy, most other languages rely on a series of prefixes or suffixes to indicate this. Even Cherokee uses set "bound pronouns" that would indicate, for example, "I (blank blank) you", and that would have one set prefix, and "I (blank blank) him" would have another, etc. Here, there's nothing really agglunitative going on here -- there are simply varying forms indicating pronouns or the lack thereof.
It's usually at this point that many people just say, "Fuck it." :: laugh ::
So in other news, today I've started my Mnemosyne test. What the hell is Regev going on about, you say? Well let me explain: Mnemosyne is a simple flashcard programme for the Mac and PC that allows users to make lists and then cycle through those cards, and those users in turn have to be honest and rate how well-remembered the items on the flash cards are (causing lower-ranked items to come up more frequently in an attempt to reinforce them). I'm going to give this a whirl, and see how long it will take me to memorize the 85 Cherokee syllabry characters. I admit, I'm a script junkie, but some scripts just don't come naturally to me, and Cherokee is one of them. Even the bloated Amharic fidel set has come more easily to me than Cherokee, perhaps in part because there's little rhyme or reason to the Cherokee script -- it's just 85 random characters, with unrelated syllables having lookalike characters. So the question is, will Mnemosyne actually assist me in retaining the script? If so, how long will it take? I'll keep you updated ...
(God, if this works I just might have to use the damned thing to remember all of these forms of izan in Basque!!)
It's taken a LOT of reading the same passage over and over (and over!) to actually understand the Basque verb system. Most verbs in Basque are compound verbs -- outside of verbs like "go" or "know" in the simple present tense -- consist of a conjugated verb and an auxiliary verb -- joango naiz, "I will go"; joan nitzen, "I went", and so on. The second word in each case (naiz and nitzen) is a form of izan, one of the verbs in Basque meaning "to be". Intransitive verbs use a form of izan, but transitive verbs take different conjugations of this verb. For example, egingo dut, "I will make", and egin nuen, "I made," use two "transitive" conjugations of izan.
What makes these "transitive" forms? Because there is a direct object "graphed" into the meaning of the latter two "transitive" examples, whereas no such pronouns are understood to be a part of the former two examples. And this, is where it gets complicated, for there are multiple conjugations of izan that may or may not indicate both direct and indirect pronouns. To illustrate:
Naiz - "I am". This is simply "I am," nothing more and nothing less. In simple intransitive future and present statements this verb is used as an auxiliary.
Dut - "I am _____ing it/him/her". Dut and its forms indicate that someone is doing something to something else -- a singular third person object. There's a logic in Basque -- like Cherokee or Georgian -- that if you are performing a transitive action, that you must logically be doing it to someone, and that object is understood to be part of the verb.
Ditut - "I am ______ing them". The same as above, but the direct object is understood to be multiple third person objects (books, trees, beavers, anvils, bottles of moonshine -- whatever!).
Nuen - "I ______ed it/her/it." Same as above, but in the past and with a single third person object.
Nituen - "I ______ed them". Ditto, but with third-person objects.
Zait - "It/he/she is to me". This is as close to a dative construction as you get in Basque. A direct calque of the Spanish me gusta, "I like" (literally "it's pleasant to me") is, in Basque, gustatzen zait. But keep in mind -- the construction is much simpler in Spanish than in Basque. After all, in Spanish all you need as an indirect object pronoun and the correct verb form, whereas you need a new auxiliary if any number, person, or tense changes from this. Witness:
Zaizkit - "They are to me".
Nintzaidan - "He/she/it was to me".
Zitzaizkidan - "They were to me".
Diot - "I will ______ x to y", x and y both being singular third-person objects.
Diote - "I will _______ x to y and y," a singular direct oject but multiple indirect objects, all in the third person.
Dizkiot - "I will ______ x and x to y," a singular indirect object but multiple direct objects, all in the third person.
Dizkiote - "I will ______ x and x to y and y", multiple indirect and direct objects.
There are forms for every possible subject-object(-object) combination you can think of. Let's look at the full conjugation of dut:
Me Him/Her/ItUs You You All ThemI dut zaitut zaituztet ditutHe/She/It nau du gaitu zaitu zautuzte dituWe dugu zaitugu zaituztegu dituguYou nauzu duzu gaituzu dituzuYou All nauzue duzue gaituzue dituzueThey naute dute gaituzte zaituzte zaituzte dituzte
Follow along vertically for the subject, and then head horizontally for your object. Thus, "They _______ me" would use the verb naute. Each form listed above the table, has a paradigm that looks like this, and while there ARE patterns to conjugations somewhat, there's still quite a bit of rote memorization here. While Basque isn't unique in its "direct and indirect object pronouns in the verb" dealy, most other languages rely on a series of prefixes or suffixes to indicate this. Even Cherokee uses set "bound pronouns" that would indicate, for example, "I (blank blank) you", and that would have one set prefix, and "I (blank blank) him" would have another, etc. Here, there's nothing really agglunitative going on here -- there are simply varying forms indicating pronouns or the lack thereof.
It's usually at this point that many people just say, "Fuck it." :: laugh ::
So in other news, today I've started my Mnemosyne test. What the hell is Regev going on about, you say? Well let me explain: Mnemosyne is a simple flashcard programme for the Mac and PC that allows users to make lists and then cycle through those cards, and those users in turn have to be honest and rate how well-remembered the items on the flash cards are (causing lower-ranked items to come up more frequently in an attempt to reinforce them). I'm going to give this a whirl, and see how long it will take me to memorize the 85 Cherokee syllabry characters. I admit, I'm a script junkie, but some scripts just don't come naturally to me, and Cherokee is one of them. Even the bloated Amharic fidel set has come more easily to me than Cherokee, perhaps in part because there's little rhyme or reason to the Cherokee script -- it's just 85 random characters, with unrelated syllables having lookalike characters. So the question is, will Mnemosyne actually assist me in retaining the script? If so, how long will it take? I'll keep you updated ...
(God, if this works I just might have to use the damned thing to remember all of these forms of izan in Basque!!)