Guide to Sambahsa pronouns and articles (by Robert Winter)


 

Sambahsa: Guide to Pronouns and Articles

By Robert Winter  (download here !)

 

If Sambahsa were a fighter plane, it would be 'pushing the envelope'.

 

The phrase refers to flying an aircraft in such an extreme manner that it's in imminent danger of

ceasing to fly at all; speed, altitude, angle of attack, or g-force is so great that it's at the limit of what

 

the aircraft can tolerate. The smallest mistake could then result in the aircraft 'departing' from

controlled flight, becoming uncontrollable, and tumbling to the ground like a brick.

Sambahsa pushes the envelope. Right up-front it challenges the student and makes it clear: this is

 

not going to be easy. I think Sambahsa is right on the limit of the degree of difficulty that is

 

practical for an international auxiliary language. Has Dr Olivier Simon, the brilliant inventor of

Sambahsa, got it right? Or has he pushed the envelope just a little too far?

Will people volunteer to fly this language, step up into its cockpit, strap themselves in, learn its

complicated check-lists before they can even switch on the engine, and then finally take off and fly?

Or will they assess the difficulty as too great and merely admire the language on the ground, never

flying it?

I'm not sure yet. I cautiously volunteer that yes, they will fly. And I suspect that once they are in the

air they will fly beautifully. But getting Sambahsa off the runway for the first time is like taking

flying lessons on a 300,000 kilogram Boeing 747 rather than a 1,000 kilogram Cessna 172. There

 

are a lot more switches and dials in the cockpit and it is pretty intimidating; of course, once you

become familiar with it, it all becomes second nature.

Quite frankly I don't expect many people to learn Sambahsa right now, unless they can speak

French, because the English-language documentation is not sufficient for such a complex language,

 

except for dedicated language enthusiasts who are not going to let a little lack of documentation

stop them.

Fortunately, I am one such enthusiast. And what does an enthusiast do when he gets into the cockpit

of a new language, looks at all the dials and switches and hasn't got a clue what they all do? Why,

he writes a flight manual, of course. Then he studies the manual. Finally, he takes off and flies.

All right, so here it is: for anyone out there who, like me, would like to learn Sambahsa but is

finding it impossible to do so without better documentation, here begins my attempt to produce, bit

by bit, a flight manual.

Let's get started.

Step One: The Walk-Around

Before getting into the cockpit, a good pilot always performs a preflight inspection. This involves

walking around the exterior of the aircraft, taking a careful look at it, kicking the tires, checking the

control surfaces, and generally making sure all the parts of the aircraft are in good order. Since we

are going to be walking around a language rather than an aircraft, what we need to do is make sure

we understand its chief components.

And with Sambahsa, there is one place to start: the pronouns and articles. When it comes to the

third person (he, she, it, they, them), pronouns and articles are one and the same thing in Sambahsa.

Instead of saying "The woman gives the man the letters." we say something roughly equivalent to

 

"She woman gives him man thes letters." Here, "thes" represents a hypothetical, imaginary English

 

definite article which is declined in agreement with "letters" (a plural noun, neutral gender).

Welcome to the 747 cockpit...

Third-Person Pronouns and Articles

Before I go any further (since it's about to get scary) I need to explain something. Why am I

bothering to learn Sambahsa?

The short answer is that a Boeing 747 is more capable than a Cessna. If I want the advantages of a

sophisticated jet airliner I'm going to have to put in more study time up-front than is required by a

single-engine trainer.

The long answer is because I have discovered, as discussed in a previous post, that writing literature

 

in a new language requires the investment of time in two parts: 'start-up time' and 'composition

time'.

Start-up time is the time you need to invest up-front, before you can get started writing in the

language. This investment only needs to be done once. In the case of Sambahsa this is a large

investment: Sambahsa takes time here.

Composition time is the time you need to write each page of literature you produce. This investment

occurs repeatedly, thousands of times, for the rest of your life. Even a small increase in composition

time required per paragraph can result in a massive overall increase in the amount of time required

to create works of literature. Therefore, if in exchange for greater start-up time you can gain the

advantage of reduced composition time, that is a very well worthwhile trade-off. I believe

Sambahsa could possibly deliver this. Excessively simple languages usually increase composition

 

time.

My main concern with Sambahsa is that readers may not be able to comprehend literature written in

Sambahsa without themselves investing a very considerable amount of time in learning the

language. And things like the third-person pronouns and articles discussed below may deter them

from trying. However, for now, let's be optimistic and hope for the best.

Okay, let's look at the third-person pronouns and articles. We're not even going to mention the firstperson

and second-person pronouns for now; they are straightforward and nothing to worry about.

In my notes below, I assume the reader is familiar with the grammatical cases typical of European

languages: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Nominative means the subject ("I am

 

hungry"). Accusative means the object ("He saw me"). Dative means the recipient ("He gave the

 

hamburger to me"). Genitive means the owner ("This door of the house is small"). In English, the

 

dative and genitive cases are indicated by prepositions (to, of). In Sambahsa, this information is

contained in the pronoun or article itself and there is no need to use a preposition to indicate the

dative or genitive case.

In my most recent post I described my terror upon seeing the approximately one hundred thirdperson

 

pronouns and articles which exist in Sambahsa...

Writers who are now feeling faint should sit down, take a few deep breaths, and consider learning

 

Frenkisch instead (an excellent choice if you wish to get some of the same benefits which Sambahsa

 

provides but without the extreme difficulty; think of it like flying a smaller airliner). I would not

 

recommend turning to Interlingua instead; in my experience the composition time Interlingua

 

requires is very great unless you are a native Romance-language speaker. In any case, Sambahsa

and Frenkisch are more logical and consistent.

The good news is I have figured out how to reduce the burden of learning the third-person pronouns

and articles in Sambasha. By following five simple rules, the student only needs to memorise 33

words. The rest can be deduced without memorisation. For reading, one could carry a small

reference card.

Sambahsa nouns have one of four genders depending on the intrinsic gender of the entity they

represent (woman is feminine, man is masculine, basketball is neutral, and person is undetermined).

So, to decide which pronoun or article to use, ask yourself: (a) is the entity singular or plural; (b)

what is the gender of the entity (masculine, feminine, neutral, or undetermined); (c) what is the case

applicable to the entity (nominative, accusative, dative, or genitive); (d) which kind of article or

pronoun do you wish to use (types (1),(2),(3),(4) below). Although this sounds complicated it is in

fact extremely simple. There is only one problem and one problem only: memorising the 33 words;

assuming you have memorised these, the decision-making process is absolutely trivial.

Four Categories

The following categories are used in the tables below.

 

(1) = Personal and impersonal pronouns; definite articles (e.g. he, his; the)

 

(2) = Distant demonstratives (e.g. that)

 

(3) = Nearby demonstratives (e.g. this)

 

(4) = Relative and interrogative pronouns (e.g. who, whom, which, that)

Five Rules

The forms highlighted in green are special cases; these 33 words must be memorised (17 singular

words and 16 plural words). All other forms can be derived, without requiring memorisation, using

the following five rules:

 

The C Rule: for each case, prefix the (1) form with c- to derive the (2) form, unless the (1) form

 

begins with a, in which case prefix the (1) form with ci- to derive the (2) form (thus cial and ciay;

 

this preserves the [ts] pronunciation of the c). Please note that, although grammatically correct,

 

these distant demonstratives are currently rarely used in Sambahsa.

 

The T Rule: for each case, remove any leading i- from the (1) form, then prefix the remainder with

 

t- to derive the (3) form

 

The Q Rule: for each case, remove any leading i- from the (1) form, then prefix the remainder with

 

qu- to derive the (4) form

 

For Neutral: nominative and accusative forms are the same; dative and genitive forms are the same

 

as those of the masculine

 

For Undetermined: nominative and accusative forms are the same; dative and genitive forms are

 

the same

Generally speaking the system is logical except for two problem-words: ia, highlighted in red, can

 

mean "she", "they" (e.g. basketballs), and "them" (e.g. basketballs); and iom, highlighted in yellow,

 

can mean "him" and "of the" (e.g. of the men; or of the basketballs). This is a bit of a worry. It

would also be nice if the patterns were perfectly regular along one or both axes of the tables, which

 

could halve or maybe even quarter the number of words requiring memorisation (but it's not that

sort of language).

How practical this system is in real-world use remains to be seen. Nevertheless it is beautiful when

seen in sentences: precise and concise. I'm not going to prejudge it; I'll give it some time and see if

it sinks in.

My apologies for any typographical errors below. Readers interested in learning Sambahsa should

see the official grammar .

Sambahsa

 

Third-Person Pronouns and Articles

  

Masculine Singular (Plural) Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

 

(1) is (ies) iom (iens) ei (ibs) ios (iom)

 

(2) cis (cies) ciom (ciens) cei (cibs) cios (ciom)

 

(3) so (toy) tom (tens) tei (tibs) tos (tom)

 

(4) qui, quis* (quoy) quom (quens) quei (quibs) quos (quom)

* qui = relative pronoun, quis = interrogative pronoun

  

Feminine Singular (Plural) Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

 

(1) ia (ias) iam (ians) ay (iabs) ias (iam)

 

(2) cia (cias) ciam (cians) ciay (ciabs) cias (ciam)

 

(3) sa (tas) tam (tans) tay (tabs) tas (tam)

 

(4) qua (quas) quam (quans) quay (quabs) quas (quam)

  

Undetermined Singular (Plural) Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

 

(1) el (i) el (i) al (im) al (im)

 

(2) cel (ci) cel (ci) cial (cim) cial (cim)

 

(3) tel (ti) tel (ti) tal (tim) tal (tim)

 

(4) quel (qui) quel (qui) qual (quim) qual (quim)

  

Neutral Singular (Plural) Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

 

(1) id (ia) id (ia) ei (ibs) ios (iom)

 

(2) cid (cia) cid (cia) cei (cibs) cios (ciom)

 

(3) tod (ta) tod (ta) tei (tibs) tos (tom)

 

(4) quod (qua) quod (qua) quei (quibs) quos (quom)

Remember, only the 33 words in green require memorisation.

 

The other words are obvious by extrapolation.

Footnote: I have not given up on Frenkisch. I am currently writing my first literature in that language and hope to

publish it soon on this blog. It is a translation of an earlier piece of short prose I wrote in Lingua Franca Nova.

Onward...