rámac- (transitive verb), imperfective rámacaram: to tie, bind, join, put together.
lessingut rámac-am mácal cirn-Arcúmangá mbámarnur-várettár
commander.DEF join.PERF-TRANS they.ACC man-Arcúma.EL.PL unit.GEN-one.ILL
“the commander put the men from Arcúma together in a single unit”
arnac (noun): alert, careful, thorough.
runacaláven ngassá run-arnac-es
no.reciter COP.POT no-thorough-ESS
“no Oleric reciter should be a non-thorough man”
circur (noun): dozen, twelve men; team.
tána circura-linámbassut lersá cúmarsangúyendura-láyatan
only team-harvest.ATTR.DEF arrive wagon.grain.GEN-two.ANTESS
“the harvest team brought in only two wagons of grain”
The number twelve (or ‘dozen’) is extremely prominent in Eolic culture, forming the base for the number of many groups in social organization. A common “work team” is composed of twelve people, and other group numbers are often formed on the basis of multiples of 12 (such as the mbámarn ‘wolf’s sons’, a military unit composed of 360 men).
yassál- (intransitive verb), imperfective yassác: to be or become thirsty.
súpasá yassá-p rúlengambassáng
worker.PL become.thirsty-PERF summer.hot.EL
“the laborers became thirsty in the summer heat”
tehar (noun): throne.
runamár ngarangav tehar-úninut
no.he/she sit.IMPERF throne-SUPERESS.DEF
“there is nobody sitting on the throne”
Trurian does not have any conventional ‘passive’ construction. Instead, decreasing verb valence by demoting the agent of an action to an oblique role is handled through either of two mechanisms:
1) introduction of the promoted patient in a verbless relative clause, with a perfective verb in the matrix clause. Note that while the promoted patient remains in the accusative, the relative clause acts as the effective subject of the matrix clause – making this construction fulfill the requirements for a ‘passive’:
ner woni ilnerono
REL man.ACC kill.PERF
“the man who was killed”
The agent is demoted from its role as subject, and may only be expressed as an oblique (in a construction with the preposition min).
For a more prototypical ‘passive’ clause – say “the man was killed” – a pseudo-cleft construction must be used whereby an appropriate pronoun is added before the relative clause:
roth ner woni ilnerono
he REL man.ACC kill.PERF
“the man was killed” (literally, “he is the man who was killed”)
2) formation of an adverbial clause whereby an adverb is formed from the relevant verb, while the promoted patient becomes the ‘subject’ of the sentence. The ‘adverbialized verb’ – formed by adding the productive adverbial suffix -er to the root form of the verb – can be analyzed as a non-finite verb form, and it can take the demoted agent as a direct dependent, as in the following example:
ilnerer eyädhrot won
kill.ADV ABL.bear man
“the man was killed by a bear”
nucár (noun): full, fed; well-fed, fat, obese, fattened (also used for animals).
Andárut mbertisam nucár-alindur váta ndarácapúndarur
Andárut possess.IMPERF.TRANS fat-GEN.hundred.GEN and.not land.fertile.GEN
“Andárut owns a hundred fat [animals], but no good land”
yimbá- (ditransitive verb), imperfective yimbárte: to buy.
már yimbá-m navendacirandal allengettárut
she buy-PERF.DITRANS ring.new.ACC husband.ILL.DEF
“she bought [her] husband a new ring”
As with many other ditransitive verbs, the indirect object of yimbárte is in the illative case, since it implies some kind of movement towards the indirect object (in this case, of the direct object, or the entity being ‘bought’ in the event).
ellang (noun): (brown) bear.
civa ellang-urtutús mballÃrnas-Icánamec
become.COMPL bear-GEN.numerous.ESS forest-Icána.INESS
“there are many bears in the forests of Icána”
rupand- (ditransitive verb), imperfective rupandárte: to kill, assassinate (somebody for somebody’s benefit).
ayú má’ rupand-am ringalut
REFL he murder-PERF.DITRANS wife.ACC.DEF
“he murdered [his] wife for his own benefitâ€
The verb rupandárte takes morphology typical of ditransitive verbs, even though its indirect object (in the benefactive) may often be omitted. It is normally used to refer to killings or assassinations that were either premeditated, ordered, or done for the benefit of somebody else (or even the agent him- or herself, as in the example above). This can be contrasted with rÃcatam ‘to kill’, which refers mostly to deaths in battle, and causative forms of the verb allangat ‘to die’ (which can also be used to refer to accidental deaths merely caused by somebody else).
