Chatcaavan Grammar 2, and Using Multiple Languages in Fiction

A rare public post! Share with friends, so they know why you're tossing me a few dollars. :)

Anyway, audio! In which I discuss not just Chatcaavan grammar, but how I choose to portray multilingual characters in fiction, and why.

This one I actually edited a little! So I spared you a lot of my 'um' and long pauses. >.>

Here, for your persual, is the existing information on Chatcaavan grammar, so you can follow along if you want (or if you're not into audio):

GRAMMAR

WORD ORDER: SOV

Adjectives/adverbs go in front of their modified words.

If you're chaining adjectives/adverbs they all need to have (i)k added to them. So if you want to call something 'large' and 'great' it's tedik vararik (noun), not ted varar noun.

PRONOUNS

I - eh

he/she/it/them - ayf

in-my-face - ko

"my-lesser" and "my-better" are grafts: ko before the pronoun for 'my-better' (yes, 'in your face' is considered a sign of dominance) and pu after for 'my lesser'. 

So:

    I-your-better: ko-eh

    I-your-lesser: eh-pu

    You-my-better: ko-ko

    You-my-lesser: actually uses a different word for 'you' and I don't know what it is yet.

    They-my-betters: ko-ayf

    They-my-lessers: ayf-pu

It appears to be 'I/me' 'things/people not me' and 'things/people in my face'.

Lisinthir (dryly): "We call the latter 'you'."

'me' 'others I can ignore' 'others that are facing off against me'

There's no he/she/it either.

You can say 'male others I ignore' or 'female others I ignore' or 'not-living things I ignore' but you have to throw the word in front of it.

I dunno, there's a glorious... fluidity to it? If you're not living in the context you're going to miss most of what they're saying. >.<

Possessive pronouns were built off the sentence "I take (and the taking is completed)":

e (I) met (take) ok (done) -- emetok (my/mine)

Also all right:

emetat -- (in the process of being made mine, mine right now)

emetesh -- (will be mine, I am planning to make it mine)

emetim -- forever mine

Theirs/not mine: aymetok / aymetat / aymetesh / aymetim

(you/yours):  kometok / kometat / kometesh / kometim

VERB TENSES (CONDITIONALS REALLY):

DONE:    kot

STILL DOING:    ta

PLANNED:    shet

FOREVER EXISTING:    im   (gnomic/eternal)

There are... four tenses. That's it. You want to enforce conditionals or even specificity, you use extra nouns/verbs.

'I walk to the store two days ago.'

The tenses are 'done/still doing/planned/always.' But nothing about when.