Sangi/Derivation

verbs, nouns and adjectives have derivations in Sangi.

Verbs
Verbs have the largest ability to create new words by means of suffixes and mutations. Verbs can create abstract, inanimate, human and occupational nouns as well as adjectives with both active and passive meanings and can also take suffixes which will turn the verbal system into a relative clause.

-an – When this suffix is added to the verbal complex, it forms the gerund, which is equivalent to the “-ing” forms of verbs in English, expressing something along the lines of “the act of ...-ing”, e.g. “tál (to die) > tájan (dying)”.

-[a]n-inf.-a – This complex suffix creates the second infinitive, which is the infinitive used after another verb as in English “I tried to run” where “to run” would take the form of the second infinitive. This form is rare as many of the verbs that precede an infinitive in English are built into the verbal complex.

-in – When attached to the weak II stem of the verbal complex it creates an abstract noun in the active voice, e.g. “lawil (to love) > lahín (love – noun).”

-eil – When this suffixes is added to the weak II stem of the verbal complex it creates an abstract noun in the passive voice.

-ave – When attached to the weak stem it creates an inanimate noun with active meaning, e.g. “úlsen (to hold) > óltave” (from últ-ave – the “a” causes a-affection).

-or – When attached to the weak stem it creates inanimate nouns with passive meanings, e.g. “risen (to read) > retor (book)” and “ziwen (to give) > zehor (gift)”.

-am and -si – These suffixes create human nouns with active and passive meanings respectively, e.g. “spijen” (to speak) > “spejam” (speaker) and “il (to hear) > isi (one who is heard/listened to).”

-en – When attached to the Weak stem forms human nouns with the meaning of an abstract concept, e.g. “lawel (to love) > lesen (love)” as in “lesenem” (my love) which can also mean husband/wife when prefixed with “an”. When “lesen” is suffixed with the diminutive suffix “-en” it becomes “lesinen” meaning boy/girlfriend.

-ibi and -di – These suffixes create occupational nouns with active and passive meanings respectively, e.g. “sarwen (to carve) > serjibi (carver)” and “orǵen (to order) > urǵibi (one who is ordered, slave).”

-[a]lta and -[a]csa – These suffixes create adjectives with active and passive meanings, e.g. “gammen (to jump) > gammalta (jumping)” and “o’pin (to cause to be, to create) > opecsa (created)”. The final “a” is lost when vocalic suffixes are attached to it.

-ir – This created a relative clause beginning in English with the demonstrative pronoun that, e.g. “núm’ t’innir – I know that you can hear me.” As this is still a verb, the -ir- suffix does not cause i-affection of the last vowel.

-[i]ja- – This creates a relative clause that would begin in English with an interrogative pronoun. The suffixes that would be attached to the suffix to complete it are “-w” (how), “-” (who, what) “-a” (why), “-n” (when), “-j” (where), “-t” (which (one)). For example, “îm’ rândujá – I heard why you ran.” As this is still a verb, the -ija- suffix does not cause i-affection or a-affection of the last vowel.

-iw[a] - This form creates a noun or adjective which means "...who/that Verb". To complete the meaning, a pronoun must be added to the suffix, e.g. “mijiwa-sa - You who/that create”. If the verb takes a noun object, this is declined as normal for the construct. Forms using the object suffixes are found mostly in poetry or in names. These are created using the 3rd person singular conjugation of the verb followed by the correct object suffix, the -iw[a] suffix and the correct pronoun, e.g. “majashiwa-sa - You who/that create him/her/it”. In the psoken language, these are constructed as normal using the accusative or dative pronouns, e.g. "mijiwa-sa han".

It should be noted that no distinction is made between active and stative meanings in verbal derivation so the verbs “hear” and “listen” would both have the same derivations, although the intentional and unintentional suffixes could be used to make this distinction where the intentional means “listen” and the unintentional means “hear”.

Nouns and Adjectives
Nouns and adjectives can changed word class without need for suffixes or stem change. Two suffix may be used, though, to change a noun to an adjective (-lp) and an adjective to a noun (-mm[er] - The "er" is lost in declension) When an adverb is created from either a noun or an adjective the suffixes “-[i]na” is added at the end of the complex. An adjective following a verbal adjective or a verbal noun must become an adverb, taking the suffix -[i]l.

Other derivational affixes exist such as “-iga” which would translate as “-ese” in English, like “Japan>Japanese”. Basically it means “relating to COUNTRY”, but only in an adjectival form. People from places are built up as “COUNTRY-'man'” whith the word of the country in the possessive, while languages are formed by suffixing “-saŋ” to the languages people (in the possessive), like “enclandis-saŋ” or English language. Other affixes like this can be created from their English ancestors using the sound change laws if no other process can be used to form a word of the same meaning.