This introductory book provides a concise overview of the grammar of the Gedih language.
The reader can skip it and continue with the following book "Of eight".
Substantives are flexible parts of speech. They are inflected, which means that they occur in different cases originally marked with case suffixes. Over time, due to phonetic changes, some forms became homonymous and a preposition had to be added to maintain the case meaning.
Countable substantives can be also marked for number.
Proto-Semitic had four cases:
| nom. | -um |
| gen. | -im |
| acc. | -am |
| loc. | -ūm |
The oldest known Semitic language, Akkadian, also had a termative -iš, probably borrowed from Sumerian. Already during the Old Babylonian phase, locatives and terminatives were replaced by prepositions:
| loc. | ina |
| term. | ana |
These prepositions also appear sporadically in the Botflench language Gedih, but their function was mostly taken over by the prefixes b- and l-, similarly to Hebrew. However, the Gedih language expresses subtler meanings through various vocalizations:
| loc. | by` | |
| ine. | bi` | "in" |
| ba` | "on" | |
| ade. | bu` | "at" |
| dat. | li` | "to" |
Combining "-essive" prepositions with a dative / terminative preposition creates compound "-lative" prepositions:
| term. | li`by` | |
| ill. | li`bi` | "into" |
| li`ba` | "onto" | |
| ade. | li`bu` | "*atto" |
By combining with the particle la` "no", further compound prepositions are formed.
| exe. | la`bi` | "outside" |
| la`ba` | ||
| abe. | la`bu` | |
| el. | li`la`bi` = lu`bi` | "out of; *infrom" |
| li`la`ba` = lu`ba` | "*onfrom" | |
| abl. | li`la`bu` = lu`bu` | "*atfrom" |
Also the preposition lü` is usually used in compound prepositions:
| lü`bi` | "through" | lü`ba` | "onto an then *onfrom" | lü`bu` | "around" (in the sense of passing, not "around"); "*atto and then *atfrom" |
In addition, there are prepositions borrowed from Indo-European languages:
| com. | si` | "with" |
| si`la` = su` | "without" | |
| exe. | zi` | "ex; out of" |
Old Gedih plural suffix was "-uw". This is contracted with the following case or gender suffix.
| pl. | m. | f. |
| nom. | -uwum → -ûm | -uwatum → -âtum |
| gen. | -uwim → -îm | -uwatim → -âtim |
| acc. | -uwam → -âm | -uwatam → -âtam |
Languages of Botflench lack agreement by case between a substantive and its modifiers. Instead of "mighty king" (Akk. šarum danum, gen. šarim danim), Gedih has "king of might", ŝaru- danūt(im), gen. ŝari- danūt(im).
Personal pronouns have a suplentive declension:
| nom. | gen. | acc. | |||
| 1sg.c. | au | jai | jaa | ||
| 2sg.m. | tuu | kui | kua | ||
| 2sg.f. | tiu | ćii | ćia | ||
| 2sg.c. | tau | kai | kaa | ||
| 3sg.m. | juu | fui | fua | 3sg.f. | jiu | śii | śia |
| 3sg.c. | jau | hai | haa | 1pl.c. | anu | jani | jana |
| 2pl.m. | tons | kuni | kuna | 2pl.f. | tinu | ćina | ćina |
| 2pl.c. | tanu | kani | kana | 3pl.m. | junu | funi | funa |
| 3pl.f. | jinu | śini | śina | ||
| 3pl.c. | janu | hani | huna |
| card. | ord. | den. | |||
| 1 | aķhed | awel | kal | ||
| 2 | thajn | thojin | thejin | ||
| 3 | thalth | tholith | thelith | ||
| 4 | rabeģh | robiģh | rebiģh | ||
| 5 | hameś | khomiś | khemiś | ||
| 6 | śadeś | śodiś | śediś | ||
| 7 | śabeģh | śobiģh | śebigh | ||
| 8 | thamen | thomin | themin | ||
| 9 | taśet | tośir | teśir | ||
| 10 | ģhaŝer | ģhoŝir | ģheŝir | ||
| 100 | maj | mojij | mejij | ||
| 1000 | alep | olip | elip |
| pres. | -CCaC- | ||||
| pret. | -CCiC- | ||||
| fut. | -CCuC- | ||||
| cond. | -CCüC- |
These temporal stems can be suffixed by a aspect marker. The default aspect is imperfective: jàqţil "he was killing", jàqţilut "he killed", jàqţalit "he has killed", jàqţilit "he had killed. (Akkadian has the perfect marker -t- infixed after the first consonant of the root.)
| pfv. | -ut- | ||||
| pfct. | -it- |
These aspectual stems can be prefixed by a voice marker. There are two ways how to express reflexive and reciprocal forms: jànìqţilut "he killed himself" = jàśìqţilut "he was killed by himself"; jànùqţilutan "they killed each other" = jàfùqţilutan "they were killed by each other".
| pas. | -nà- | ||||
| refl. | -nì- | ||||
| recip. | -nù- | ||||
| caus. | -hà- | ||||
| refl. | -śì- | ||||
| recip. | -fù- |
These -(CV)CCVC(Vt)- diathetic stems are then prefixed by intensity vowel: intensive -ù-, moderate -à-, elaxive -ì-. The resulting -V(CV)CCVC(Vt)- structure is then infixed into a personal pronoun between the personal consonant and gender vowel.
| 1.c.sg. | 'àwšab | I am sitting | |||
| 2.c.sg. | tàwšab | thou art sitting | |||
| 2.m.sg. | tàwšabu | ||||
| 2.f.sg. | tàwšabi | ||||
| 3.c.sg. | jàwšab | ||||
| 3.m.sg. | jàwšabu | he is sitting | |||
| 3.f.sg. | jàwšabi | she is sitting | |||
| 1.c.pl. | 'àwšaban | we are sitting | |||
| 2.c.pl. | tàwšaban | ye are sitting | |||
| 2.m.pl. | tàwšabun | ||||
| 2.f.pl. | tàwšabin | ||||
| 3.c.pl. | jàwšaban | they are sitting | |||
| 3.m.pl. | jàwšabun | ||||
| 3.f.pl. | jàwšabin |
Prepositions expressing case meanings have already been mentioned in the chapter on substantives.
Some prepositions can be expressed using appropriate nouns:
| "before" | at the face | "under" | at the foot | in hand |
| "and" | wi | ||||
| "nor" | wi`la` = wu` | ||||
| "or" | la`wi`la` = la`wu` | ||||
| :-( | ū | ||||
| :-o | ā | (It is so surprising that my jaw dropped.) | |||
| :-) | ī |