(Editor’s note: If you’re wondering about the odd posting time, well, there’s a simple explanation. I wrote this on September 14, but I noticed when I went to schedule it that it would appear on October 16. That’s my birthday, and 5:38 PM is what I’ve been told was my time of birth. So, when this goes up, I’ll be 32. I couldn’t resist the extra touch.)
For Ardari, adjectives look like nouns at first glance. They take all the usual inflections for case and number, with the additional wrinkle that they agree with their head nouns in gender. Because of this, the “dictionary” form of an adjective will always be the neuter form: dyet “good”, òlk “loud”, jysall “sad”, chel “young”.
We can add these adjectives into a noun phrase by placing them before the head noun: dyeta rhasa “good dog”; òlko blèdo “loud animals”; jysalla konatö “the sad man”; chelisèn nälisèntös “of the young women”. As you can see from the last two examples, adjectives modifying nouns don’t need articles.
In contrast to English (and Isian, for that matter), Ardari adjectives work just fine alone, without the need for a head noun. In this case, they inflect as if they were neuter nouns: dyetardös “the good ones”.
Predicate adjectives
We can go the other way, too, and make adjectives into verbs, although this only works with certain words. Three of our four examples work: dèblatö òlkda “the river is loud”; sèdardös jysalldiru “the children are not sad”; pwatö chelda “the boy is young”. (Note that these verbified adjectives act like inactive verbs, using patient concord markings for their subjects.)
For dyet and words like it, we use a different, more general, approach. This involves the copula verb èll-, and it’s just like making a normal sentence. The adjective agrees with the subject noun in gender, but it’s always in the nominative case: rhasatö èlla dyeta “the dog is good”.
In fact, any adjective can be used in this copula construction. It implies a more “permanent” state than directly using the adjective directly. So, instead of dèblatö òlkda, we might say dèblatö èlla òlka, which has the same meaning, but carries the connotation that this particular river is always loud.
Comparatives
Ardari doesn’t have special adjective versions for comparatives and superlatives, like English does. Instead, it has a general word am that can appear before an adjective. It does double duty, acting like both “more” and “most”, with the actual meaning depending on context.
In a simple noun phrase, it’s usually a superlative: am dyeto rhasodys “the best dogs”. The exception is when it’s being made into a comparative phrase, which we’ll meet in a future post.
When used on a bare adjective, am always means “most”: am dyetardös “the best”.
On a predicate, am implies the superlative unless it’s clear from context that it’s a comparison. As an example, we might have uswall tyèktö èlla grov “the blue house is big” followed by ajzhtö èlla am grov “the white house is bigger”. If we just said ajzhtö èlla am grov alone, the meaning would instead be “the white house is the biggest”.
Phonetic alteration
That just about does it for Ardari adjectives, except for one thing. Some of these words change slightly. In the neuter form, they have a regular, non-palatalized consonant. In the other genders, these can become palatalized.
One example of this is mil “happy”. In the neuter, it stays how it’s written: mil sèd “a happy child”. Otherwise, it changes: milya pwa “a happy boy*; milyi gli “a happy girl”.
This change can happen with many consonants in Ardari. The stops alternate with their palatalized versions (p becomes py, etc.), while l and n become ly and ny, respectively.
Ardari word list
Like with Isian, here’s a huge list of Ardari words. Verbs are always listed as stems (you can tell by the hyphen at the end), and adjectives are shown in neuter form.
There are three adjectives in the list that show the palatalizing change. These are shown with a following (y), as in mil(y) for “happy”.
Two specific words need to be pointed out. First, “not” is listed as -(r)u, which shows the two possible forms of the negative verbal suffix, -u after consonants and -ru after vowels. Second, the word for “friend” changes based on gender: neuter ast, masculine asta, feminine asti. This is shown as ast(a/i).
| English | Ardari |
|---|---|
| air | impän |
| all | laz |
| angry | nyol |
| animal | blèda |
| any | by |
| arm | kyem |
| back | sur |
| bad | gall |
| beautiful | sli |
| bed | mäs |
| big | grov |
| bird | pèdi |
| bitter | nykh |
| black | zar |
| blood | chonga |
| blue | uswall |
| boat | druni |
| body | apsa |
| bone | oqa |
| book | byzri |
| bottom | tòn |
| boy | pwa |
| bread | nami |
| bright | wich |
| brother | emöna |
| car | kolyi |
| cat | avbi |
| chest | ghall |
| child | sèd |
| city | präzda |
| closed | nòp |
| cloth | chill |
| cloud | nawra |
| cold | glaz |
| color | kyos |
| correct | rik |
| cup | kykad |
| daughter | tyeri |
| day | jan |
| daytime | tulyana |
| dim | nyn |
| dog | rhasa |
| door | kopa |
| dress | lesri |
| drink | ach |
| dry | khèv |
| ear | mèka |
| earth | dyevi |
| egg | oghi |
| every | ining |
| eye | agya |
| face | sòl |
| false | ill |
| father | aba |
| few | ikön |
| field | tevri |
| finger | inda |
| fire | aghli |
| flower | afli |
| food | fès |
| foot | allga |
| forest | tyëtoma |
| friend | ast(a/i) |
| front | chej |
| fruit | zulyi |
| girl | gli |
| glass | träll |
| gold | owènyi |
| good | dyet |
| grass | sèrki |
| green | rhiz |
| hair | zhaj |
| hand | kyur |
| happy | mil(y) |
| hard | khòrd |
| hat | sèla |
| head | chäf |
| heart | rocha |
| hill | dyumi |
| hot | fed(y) |
| house | tyèk |
| ice | sill |
| island | symli |
| king | kujda |
| knife | yagha |
| lake | oltya |
| leaf | däsi |
| left | fong |
| leg | khära |
| light | blis |
| long | tur |
| loud | òlk |
| man | kona |
| many | majos |
| meat | arba |
| milk | mechi |
| moon | duli |
| mother | emi |
| mountain | antövi |
| mouth | mim |
| name | all |
| narrow | will |
| net | pèrta |
| new | vän |
| nice | tèch |
| night | goz |
| nose | khun |
| not | -(r)u |
| old | pòd |
| open | owar |
| paper | rhesta |
| peace | ichuri |
| pen | pyela |
| person | ban |
| plant | pämi |
| poor | nydor |
| pot | gyazi |
| queen | kujvi |
| rain | luza |
| red | jor |
| rich | agris |
| right | leng |
| river | dèbla |
| rock | qada |
| rough | dyaraz |
| sad | jysall |
| scent | ymin |
| sea | oska |
| sharp | krit |
| shirt | tèwar |
| shoe | saz |
| short (tall) | nyan |
| short (long) | nèr |
| silent | däch |
| sister | tamöni |
| skin | prall |
| sky | weli |
| small | nèr |
| smooth | chus |
| snow | qäsa |
| soft | èz |
| son | era |
| sound | onda |
| sour | rukh |
| star | pala |
| sun | chi |
| sweet | ojet(y) |
| sword | èngla |
| table | kombas |
| tail | pija |
| tall | vol |
| thick | gwad |
| thin | tip |
| to allow | rhoten- |
| to ask | mykhes- |
| to be | èll- |
| to begin | sòto- |
| to blow | fu- |
| to build | moll- |
| to burn | secha- |
| to buy | dyem- |
| to catch | kòp- |
| to come | ton- |
| to cook | lòsty- |
| to cry | ajn- |
| to cut | okön- |
| to dance | tatyer- |
| to die | lo- |
| to do | agh- |
| to drink | kabus- |
| to eat | tum- |
| to end | jop- |
| to enter | idyn- |
| to feel | luch- |
| to give | anyer- |
| to go | chin- |
| to guard | chud- |
| to have | per- |
| to hear | ablon- |
| to hit | king- |
| to hold | yfily- |
| to hunt | kwar- |
| to kiss | alym- |
| to know | trod- |
| to laugh | jejs- |
| to learn | prèll- |
| to like | lyeb- |
| to live | derva- |
| to live in | daran- |
| to look at | tojs- |
| to look for | tèlas- |
| to love | salm- |
| to make | grät- |
| to plant | mäp- |
| to play | rej- |
| to pray | nyes- |
| to read | proz- |
| to receive | bèrill- |
| to run | okhyn- |
| to say | is- |
| to see | ivit- |
| to sell | vird- |
| to sing | ajang- |
| to sit | bun- |
| to sleep | rhèch- |
| to smell | aws- |
| to speak | sim- |
| to stand | minla- |
| to taste | aty- |
| to teach | sydon- |
| to think | bejë- |
| to throw | ghur- |
| to touch | tejv- |
| to walk | brin- |
| to want | majtas- |
| to wash | oznèr- |
| to wear | ilya- |
| to write | farn- |
| tongue | lèta |
| tooth | käga |
| top | khaj |
| tree | buri |
| true | chäll |
| ugly | qöbar |
| war | idyaza |
| warm | fynin |
| water | obla |
| wet | bol |
| white | ajzh |
| wide | wok |
| wind | fawa |
| wise | trodyn |
| woman | näli |
| wood | dräza |
| word | non |
| world | omari |
| wrong | nej |
| year | avèch |
| yellow | mingall |
| young | chel |