Aelatha/Tempus

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General[]

In the Aelathan language, the tempus refers to the noun, usually in the vocative case, that is placed directly after the verb and acts as the verb's tense. The tempus is always a neuter gender noun that falls under "-éþ", the "time" noun class. Unlike other parts of speech and with the exception of the present tempus "astreþ", the tempus cannot be dropped through word drop.

Usage[]

The verb acts a proclitic to the tempus, always positioning itself before it. As tempuses are nouns, they have nominal means all attributed to time; "astreþ" (the present time), "arjisseþ" (a day of the week), "aheþ" (the entire span of time after something), etc. These meanings are attributed as the tense of the verb.


"antén (astreþ (the present time))"		"antén arjisseþ (a day of the week)"		"antén aheþ (the entire span of time after something)"
to eat, (infinitive for the present tense only)		to eat on a specfic day of the week (that may or may not be specified)		to be eating ever since some other event or action

The tempuses are also used to negate verbs by placing them in the semblative case to modify the verb.


"Amnäiaprogho	aþerh avonu	aeþ asjafsofëþ;	atrafibjattis,	amnyavyvja	avonu	arhidheþ."
"Culprit-ILL	I-GEN.VOC sight-POSS.VOC	temporary.time-VOC lack.of.time-SEMB;	crime.scene-INE,	victim-ILL	(my).sight-POSS.VOC	yesterday-VOC."
« "I did not see the culprit(;) at the scene of the crime, though I saw the victim." » (aelvuþ)

Time frame marking[]

Tempuses can describe arrays of time both large and narrow and thus many tempuses overlap others or have similar meaning, though none have the same meaning and most cannot take the place of another without changing the subtle semantic nuances. Because of this, Aelatha uses time frame marking. Complex sentences are usually placed in order from tempus that handles the greatest amount of time adding up to the smallest at the end of the sentence. When this happens, the largest time marks the sentence and all following sentences as the time of all the verbs. The largest time that marks the time frame of all following verbs is called the "topical time marker."


"Aexësobert aexëchëjäid attic aräidio anerjeþ adifneþ¹, acchajurupiun (attic) andjodäido aisreþ². Aexëifëjäim aidjer aforo aintheþ³; ajagombäim, aväefugräet (attic) afäigrëto andeþ⁴?"
"Violin-GEN.VIA play-POSS.VIA middle-aged.man-GEN.VOC learning-POSS.VOC specific.year-VOC springtime-VOC¹, Europe-PER (middle-aged.man-GEN.VOC) travel-POSS.VOC summertime-VOC². Answer-VIA person-GEN.VOC knowledge-POSS.VOC future-VOC³; question-MOD action-SUBE (middle-aged.man-GEN.VOC) action-POSS.VOC future.of.future-VOC⁴."
« "Last year, I traveled¹ through Europe in the spring¹ and learned² to play the violin throughout the summer². Who knows³ what I will⁴ do this year⁴?" » (aelsjonoþ)

The paragraph above demonstrates that the actions take place throughout the main tempus in red while smaller portions of time during the red period are marked in blue. It is to be noted that the actions that take place outside the span of that year (knows and will do) are marked with the future and the distal future respectively.

Time is relative to the largest tempus in a phrase and not to the moment in time the speaker is traveling through, so phrases are worded using the largest tempus as the starting point of all following actions, throwing actions during the largest time frame into present tenses, those after it into future tenses and those before it into past tenses. Compare the examples above and below:


"Ajanibellaþ, allebidal ache airhyfu aveðieþ. Assembidal (ache) afunseu adheþ¹, agaxajfecrinthas ajfecir ajfecrattis aintheþ²."
"Properness-MOD book-SUPE young.woman-GEN.VOC reading-POSS.VOC this.day-VOC. Book-ACC (young.woman-GEN.VOC) purchase-POSS.VOC past-VOC¹, movie-INS theater-GEN.VOC show-POSS.VOC future-VOC²."
« "Today, I want to read the book. I bought the book yesterday and the movie comes to theaters tomorrow." » (aelvuþ)

The main tempus in red marks the topical time as today, while actions that happen before today (yesterday) and after (tomorrow) are marked in blue and sent into the past and future tenses.

When a new time frame needs to be marked, the tempus "ambreþ" (lit., the end of an era) is used. In some cases ambreþ can be and is often avoided, but it is required when the new time frame covers an expanse of time smaller than that of the previous time frame.


"Atrabsorjattäis, afiþerhu aiderb abjurnuþ aeþ¹ ambreþ. Ajanricrël, asjalaþa atragheyduj, allëlidonëjoþ aþer acrunu araeþ². Avamuerdijul agheyd alväedhuj acereþ..."
"School-INE, teenage.girl-SOC event-GEN.VOC happening-POSS.VOC temporary.time-VOC¹ end.of.era.-VOC. Presumption-MOD Aelatha-SEMB class-INE, news-SUPE teenage.girl-GEN.VOC hearing-GEN.VOC same.time-VOC². Verb-VIA class-GEN.VOC learning-POSS.VOC progression.of.time-VOC.
« "It happened while¹ I was at school. I believe I was in² Aelathan class when I found out. We were learning about verbs..." » (aelvuþ)

Because "aeþ"(¹) is a larger time period in this case and therefore usurps "araeþ"(²), "ambreþ" is used to change the topical time to "during class."

Compound tempuses[]

A verb can be modified by more than one tempus at a time. This is called a compound tempus. A compound tempus is put in order from smallest time frame to largest and is usually used to disambiguate time within the same sentence, especially when a larger time acts as a tempus when the speaker does not intend to mark a new time frame as the topical time.


"Acchanderho	apacjef	adacenisch	(astreþ);	(amnäinderho)	(apacjef)	aneggisch	axiemeþ	arhidheþ.
"Teenage-boy-PER	rain-GEN.VOC	soaking-POSS.VOC	(present.time-VOC);	(teenage.boy-ILL)	(rain-GEN.VOC)	weather.change-POSS.VOC	entire.duration-VOC	previous day-VOC
« "Yesterday, while it was raining, I got soaked." » (aelsjonoþ)

Combining tempuses[]

Tempuses can combine with other nouns to create new words. The tempus is always added at the tail of a compound, where it replaces both the honorific and noun class.

Axad (life, n.noun) and Aelleþ (postmortem future, tempus) yield Axaelleþ (the afterlife, n.noun, tempus)

Newly created words can only be used as tempuses if they are neuter gender nouns.

Tempuses as noun cases[]

Adding a tempus at the head of another noun turns the tempus into one of many temporal noun cases. The time frame a tempus attributes to a noun usually gives the noun a sense of when that noun exists in reference with the tempus of the verb. For example, when a verb is an the present tense and a noun is in the pre-temporative case (past tense tempus case), the action has a sense of happening before the noun was ever important in the matter or before the noun ever existed. Tempuses as noun cases are considered a bit formal and esoteric, even in casual or impolite forms.


"Accalleþðerhattis	atragyxius,	addis	regum	dheþ."
"House-IMNM	forest-INE	middle-aged.woman-GEN.VOC	standing-POSS.VOC	time.before.this.point-VOC."
« "She stood in the forest next to (where) the house (would be built later)." » (aelsjonoþ)

List of common tempuses[]

Most common tempuses
Noun case name	Tempus	Noun meaning	Tempus meaning	Example
Temporative (TMP)	astreþ	the present time	present tense (only tempus removable through word drop)	agacís astreþ	to walk
Pre-temporative (PRTM)	abreþ	the time soon before this point	before now, recent past	agacís abreþ	to just have walked
Post-temporative (PTTM)	alexeþ	the time soon after this point	after now, near future	agacís alexeþ	to be about to walk
Progressive (PRO)	acereþ	the progression of time the progression through time	forms the progressive aspect	agacís acereþ	to be walking
Egressive (EGR)	ameþ	a commencent in the present time	starting now, from now on	agacís ameþ	to start walking now
Pre-egressive (PRGR)	agalleþ	a commencement in the past	beginning before, beginning then	agacís agaleþ	to have started walking
Post-egressive (PTGR)	astasseþ	a commencement in the future	beginning later, beginning after	agacís astasseþ	to start walking later
Terminative (TERM)	anareþ	the time leading up to this point	until; habitual action	agacís anareþ	to walk until now; to stop walking
Pre-terminative (PRTR)	aisseþ	the time leading up to the past	until before, until the start historic past, prenatal past	agacís aisseþ	to walk until before (before another action)
Post-terminative (PTTR)	aelleþ	the time leading from the future	postmortem future	agacís aelleþ	to walk until later; to still be walking
Temporal (TEMP)	araeþ	the same time	"during, while, as..."	agacís araeþ	to walk at the same time
Post-temporal (PTMP)	aheþ	the entire time afterward	"since..."	agacís aheþ	to be walking ever since
Essive (ESS)	aeþ	a temporary time a brief time	on (a date); at (a minute/hour/etc.)	agacís aeþ	to walk (on a date, or time)
Diessive (DSE)	arjisseþ	a day of the week	on a day of the week	agacís arjisseþ	to walk (on a day of the week)
Mensessive (MSE)	adelmeþ	a month of the year	in a month or season	agacís adelmeþ	to walk (in a month of the year)
Annessive (ANE)	anerjeþ	a specific year	in a year, age, epoch	agacís anerjeþ	to walk (in a specific year)
Pre-nominative (PNOM)	adheþ	the past	past tense (the action has no affect in the present)	agacís adheþ	to have walked (in the past)
Pluper-nominative (PLNM)	avhabreþ	the past of the past	pluperfect tense	agacís avhabreþ	to have walked (before doing another past action)
Imperfect nominative (IMNM)	accalleþ	the future of the past	forms actions that follow directly other actions in the past	agacís accalleþ	to have walked (after doing another past action)
Post-nominative (PTNM)	aintheþ	the future	future tense	agacís aintheþ	to walk later (in the future)
Anterior nominative (ANNM)	aþieþ	the past of the future	future perfect tense	agacís aþieþ	to walk later (but before another future action)
Distal Nominative (DSNM)	andeþ	the future of the future	forms actions that follow directly other actions in the future	agacís andeþ	to walk much later (after another future action)
Alternate Temporal (ALTT)	argacheþ	the alternative timeline	actions that take place contrary to reality; hypotheticals	agacís argacheþ	to hypothetically walk
Perpetuative (PER)	aghetteþ	all the time the perpetual time	actions that happen without stopping; habitual or generic actions	agacís aghetteþ	to usually walk to habitually walk
Completive (COMP)	axiemeþ	the entire time frame	actions that happen during the entire specified time frame of an event	agacís axiemeþ	to walk the entire time (of an event)
Regressive (RGE)	arineþ	going backwards through time	actions that are happening again actions that are happening in the opposite fashion of the norm	agacís arineþ	to un-walk; to walk again; to re-walk