Adjectives in Isian, like in English, aren’t that much of a problem. They don’t have a specific form that marks them out as what they truly are. They don’t change for number like nouns do. They’re really just…there. A few examples of Isian adjectives include wa “big”, hul “cold”, yali “happy”, and almerat “wise”.
As we saw in the last Isian post, the normal word order puts adjectives before nouns, and articles before adjectives. So we can make fuller noun phrases like ta wa talar “a big house” or e yali eshe “the happy girl”. In each case, the order is mostly the same as in English: article, then adjective, then noun.
We can even string adjectives together: es almerat afed sami “the wise old men”. (If you prefer adding commas between adjectives, that’s fine, too. It’s okay to write es almerat, afed sami, but it’s not required.)
Like in English, we can’t use an adjective like this without a noun. It’s not grammatical in Isian to say es almerat. Instead, we have to add an extra word, a: es almerat at “the wise ones”. (At least it has a regular plural form.) After a vowel, it becomes na: ta wa na “a big one”.
We can also use an adjective as a predicate. Here, it follows the copula (tet or one of its conjugations). An example might be en yali “I am happy”.
Isian adjectives also have equivalents to the English comparative and superlative (“-er” and “-est”) forms. As with many suffixes in the language, these vary based on the stem’s ending. For consonant-stems, the comparative is -in and the superlative is -ay. Vowel-stems simply insert a d at the beginning of the suffix to make -din and -dai, respectively. So yali “happy” becomes yalidin “happier* and yaliday “happiest”, while hul “cold” turns into hulin “colder” and hulai “coldest”.
There are a couple of differences, though. First, these suffixes can be used on any adjective; Isian has no counterparts to those English adjectives that require “more” and “most” instead of “-er” and “-est”. (On the plus side, we don’t have to worry about three forms for bil “good”. It’s fully regular: bil, bilin “better”, bilai “best”.)
Second, adjectives that are derived from nouns, like “manly” from “man”, usually can’t take the superlative. We haven’t yet seen any of those (or even how to make them). For these, the comparative serves both purposes.
That’s pretty much all there is to adjectives in Isian, as far as the basics are concerned. Now we can make quite a few more complex phrases and even some nice sentences. There’s still a lot more to come, though.
Isian word list
Not every word that we’ve seen is in this list, but it covers almost all of the “content” words in their base forms, along with a whole bunch of new ones you can try out. Also, words with irregular plurals have their plural suffixes shown in parenthesis, e.g., the plural of tay is tays.
| English | Isian |
|---|---|
| air | rey |
| all | sota |
| angry | hayka |
| animal | embin |
| any | ese |
| arm | ton |
| back | bes |
| bad | num |
| beautiful | ichi |
| bed | dom |
| big | wa |
| bird | firin |
| bitter | guron |
| black | ocom |
| blood | miroc |
| blue | sush |
| boat | sholas |
| body | har |
| bone | colos |
| book | peran |
| bottom | dolis |
| boy | jed |
| bread | pinda(r) |
| bright | lukha |
| brother | doyan |
| car | choran |
| cat | her |
| chest | sinal |
| child | tay(s) |
| city | eblon |
| closed | noche |
| cloth | waf |
| cloud | albon |
| cold | hul |
| color | echil |
| correct | ochedan |
| cup | deta(s) |
| daughter | sali(r) |
| day | ja |
| daytime | jamet |
| dim | rum |
| dog | hu |
| door | opar |
| dress | lash |
| drink | adwar |
| dry | khen |
| ear | po(s) |
| earth | tirat |
| egg | gi(r) |
| every | alich |
| eye | bis |
| face | fayan |
| false | nanay |
| father | pado(s) |
| few | uni |
| field | bander |
| finger | ilca(s) |
| fire | cay |
| flower | atul |
| food | tema |
| foot | pusca |
| forest | tawetar |
| friend | chaley |
| front | hamat |
| fruit | chil |
| girl | eshe(r) |
| glass | arcol |
| gold | shayad |
| good | bil |
| grass | tisen |
| green | tich |
| hair | pardel |
| hand | fesh |
| happy | yali |
| hard | dosem |
| hat | hop |
| head | gol |
| heart | sir |
| hill | modas |
| hot | hes |
| house | talar |
| ice | yet |
| island | omis |
| king | lakh |
| knife | hasha |
| lake | fow |
| leaf | eta |
| left | kintes |
| leg | dul |
| light | say |
| long | lum |
| loud | otar |
| man | sam |
| many | mime |
| meat | shek |
| milk | mel |
| moon | nosul |
| mother | mati(r) |
| mountain | abrad |
| mouth | ula |
| name | ni |
| narrow | ilcot |
| net | rec |
| new | ekho |
| nice | nim |
| night | chok |
| nose | nun |
| not | an |
| old | afed |
| open | bered |
| paper | palil |
| peace | histil |
| pen | etes |
| person | has |
| plant | dires |
| poor | umar |
| pot | fan |
| queen | lasha(r) |
| rain | cabil |
| red | ray |
| rich | irdes |
| right | estes |
| river | ficha(s) |
| rock | tag |
| rough | okhor |
| sad | nulsa |
| scent | inos |
| sea | jadal |
| sharp | checor |
| shirt | jeda(s) |
| shoe | taf |
| short (tall) | wis |
| short (long) | wis |
| silent | anchen |
| sister | malin |
| skin | kirot |
| sky | halac |
| small | ish |
| smooth | fu |
| snow | saf |
| soft | ashel |
| son | sor |
| sound | polon |
| sour | garit |
| star | key |
| sun | sida |
| sweet | lishe |
| sword | seca |
| table | mico |
| tail | hame |
| tall | wad |
| thick | gus |
| thin | tin |
| to allow | likha |
| to ask | oca |
| to be | tet |
| to begin | nawe |
| to blow | furu |
| to build | oste |
| to burn | becre |
| to buy | tochi |
| to catch | sokhe |
| to come | cosa |
| to cook | piri |
| to cry | acho |
| to cut | sipe |
| to dance | danteri |
| to die | nayda |
| to do | te |
| to drink | jesa |
| to eat | hama |
| to end | tarki |
| to enter | yoweni |
| to feel | ilsi |
| to give | jimba |
| to go | wasa |
| to guard | holte |
| to have | fana |
| to hear | mawa |
| to hit | icra |
| to hold | otasi |
| to hunt | ostani |
| to kiss | fusa |
| to know | altema |
| to laugh | eya |
| to learn | nate |
| to like | mire |
| to live | liga |
| to live in | dalega |
| to look at | dachere |
| to look for | ediche |
| to love | hame |
| to make | tinte |
| to plant | destera |
| to play | bela |
| to pray | barda |
| to read | lenira |
| to receive | rano |
| to run | hota |
| to say | ki |
| to see | chere |
| to sell | dule |
| to sing | seri |
| to sit | uba |
| to sleep | inama |
| to smell | nore |
| to speak | go |
| to stand | ayba |
| to taste | cheche |
| to teach | reshone |
| to think | tico |
| to throw | bosa |
| to touch | shira |
| to walk | coto |
| to want | doche |
| to wash | hishi |
| to wear | disine |
| to write | roco |
| tongue | dogan |
| tooth | ten |
| top | poy |
| tree | taw |
| true | ferin |
| ugly | agosh |
| war | acros |
| warm | him |
| water | shos |
| wet | shured |
| white | bid |
| wide | pusan |
| wind | naf |
| wise | almerat |
| woman | shes |
| wood | totac |
| word | ur |
| world | sata(r) |
| wrong | noni |
| year | egal |
| yellow | majil |
| young | manir |