Láadan/Lessons/5

Pronouns

There are first, second, and third person pronouns in Láadan. These are gender neutral, and change based on the amount of people being talked about.

Voice	Singular	Plural, 2 to 5	Plural, 6 or more
First Person ("I")	Le	Lezh	Len
Second Person ("You")	Ne	Nezh	Nen
Third Person ("He", "She")	Be	Bezh	Ben

Examples

	Láadan	English	Vocab words
	Bíi ham le wi!	I am present!	ham = to be present, to attend
	Bíi meham lezh wi!	We are present!	meham = me- (plural) + ham

Objects

Now we'll introduce objects to our sentence. The sentence pattern is [(Aux) Verb (Neg) CP-S CP-O], where CP-O is the Case-Phrase-Object. Now we can see that the sentence structure in Láadan is VSO (verb-subject-object) order.

Objects in Láadan are also marked with the Object Marker, the suffix -th or -eth (depending on whether the last letter of the object is a vowel or consonant).

Examples

Láadan	English	Vocab words
Bíi yod le wa.	I am eating.	yod = to eat
Bíi yod le doyuth wa.	I am eating an apple.	doyu = apple
Bíi yod le ódoneth wa.	I am eating cheese.	ódon = cheese
Bíi néde le thuzheth wa.	I want a cake.	néde = to want, thuzh = cake

Notes

In the case where the subject and object are obvious, the object marker can be left off. For example, if we said "I speak Láadan", it is clear: I can speak Láadan, but Láadan cannot speak me. Therefore, the sentence could be said as "Bíi di le Láadaneth wa." or "Bíi di le Láadan wa." (Suzette Haden Elgin (1988), A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan, Second Edition, p. 18)

Multiple verbs

Sometimes you will want to combine verbs like "to want", "to need", "to must" with another verb - "I want to run", "I need to wait", "I must work". In Láadan, this forms a Verb Complex. The two verbs go together, with the auxiliary going before both, and the negative going afterward, if present. Nothing can go between the two verbs. Both must be marked plural if the subject is plural. (Suzette Haden Elgin (1988), A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan, Second Edition, p. 22)

Examples

Láadan	English	Vocab words
Bíi yod le wa.	I am eating.	yod = to eat
Bíi néde yod le wa.	I want to eat.
Bíi menéde meyod lezh wa.	We want to eat.

To try to [VERB]

The prefix "du-" means "to try".

Examples

Láadan	English	Vocab words
Bíi ulanin le wa.	I am studying.	ulanin = to study
Bíi duhulanin le wa.	I am trying to study.