Prepositions

17.1 Preposition Classes

Alashian has three classes of prepositions, based on their declensional and syntactic peculiarities.

The clitic prepositions form the smallest (but oldest) class, containing just three forms: λι- li- marking possession (“of”) as well as a few other miscellaneous functions, βι- bi- marking instrument or manner (“with, by”), and χι- xi- marking recipient (“to, for”). All three are attached directly to word that immediately follows: λικαττώ likattā “of a cat”, βεαυτού be'awtū “by car”, χεεμώ xe'emā “to/for mother”. The prefix vowel changes to /e/ (i.e., be-, le-, xe-) when followed immediately by a glottal stop.

The primitive prepositions are all prepositions that cannot (in the modern language) be subdivided into smaller morphemes; they are thus true prepositions and not noun phrases serving a prepositional function. This includes many common forms such as βνε bne “from”, ιв̄ 'iv “in”, ηυν hun “with”, τωτ tāt “below”, and βην bēn “between”. These are all independent words, although they are typically unstressed.

Finally, there are the phrasal or nominal prepositions. These are forms that clearly consist of multiple morphemes and incorporate nouns appearing in their construct state; the noun within the phrasal preposition thereby forms a construct with its object, such that the prepositional relationship is fundamentally a genitival one. This class includes such forms as ηαλ μακκούν hal məkhūn “instead of” (lit. “in [the] place of”) and βιλέτζε bileče “because of” (lit. “by [the] word of”). Many primitives in the modern language were once phrasal, such as ηαλαδεί haladī “by [in passive sentences]” from Classical Alashian ηαλ ιαδεί hal yadī, literally “on/by the hands of”.

17.2 Preposition Declension

17.2.1 Object Agreement

Most primitive and phrasal prepositions agree with their direct object in number. Since most prepositions were originally of nominal origin (if not still clearly nominal), the prepositions themselves once had independent number marking. However, for logical reasons, this number would often match the number of the direct object. Consider, for instance, the prepositional phrases τωτ υνάτζ tāt 'unəč “under the tree” ¹ (ηάτζ həč “tree”) and τώτε νατζζιήν tāte nəčhien “under the trees”; the Alashian preposition τωτ tāt “under” comes from the Proto-Semitic noun *taḥt-um “underside”, so in a pre-literate direct ancestor of Alashian these two phrases were likely expressed as *tařti han-hetṣi (lit. “[on the] underside of the tree”) and *tařtī han-hetṣīn (lit. “on the undersides of the trees”). The plural agreement marker for prepositions is thus cognate to the masculine plural construct marker of nouns, and at some point became generalized to prepositions with plural objects regardless of the semantics.

For most primitive prepositions, the plural is formed by adding *-e to the singular form: ιв̄ 'iv “in” → ίв̄ε 'ive, ηυν hun “with” → ηύνε hune, βην bēn “between” → βήνε bēne. This is generally quite regular, although a few irregular forms exist, such as ένεδ̄ 'eneḏ “in the opinion of, according to” → ένδε 'ende. If the singular form ends in a vowel, however, there is no distinction between singular and plural: είρυ 'īru “around, about” → είρυ 'īru, βνε bne “from” → βνε bne.

Phrasal prepositions tend to use actual construct plural endings, since they incorporate an actual productive noun. Once again, this agreement typically ignores the semantics of the literal expression: ηαλ μακκούν hal məkhūn “instead of” → ηάλε μακκυννή hale məkhunnē, βιλέτζε bileče “because of” → βιλετζή bilečē.

Clitic prepositions do not show any object agreement.

17.2.2 Pronominal Declension

Much as in most of the other Semitic languages, when the object of an Alashian preposition is a personal pronoun, the preposition and pronoun collapse together into a single word, generally referred to as a declined preposition. The three preposition classes each have slightly different means of declension.

The clitic prepositions use endings that are historically related to the accusative pronouns. This has generally been ascribed to Greek influence. They also have an 'emphatic' form where the full accusative pronoun can be seen. Shown below is the complete declension of χι- xi- “to, for”:

In practice, the emphatic forms of χι- xi- and βι- bi- are increasingly displacing their standard equivalents, while λι- li- has undergone somewhat of a bifurcation, with the standard forms nearly universal in attributive position (cf. the genitive pronouns in the previous chapter) and the emphatic forms generally dominant in predicate/complement position.

The suffixes used by primitive prepositions are the same as the possessive suffixes used by nouns. There is no special emphatic distinction, and actual pronouns cannot be used in place of possessive endings. Note, however, that the plural agreement marker continues to surface between the stem and possessive suffix if the pronominal object is plural. Shown below is the declension of ηαλ hal “on”:

Phrasal prepositions have two different options for declension which exist in more or less free variation: either possessive suffixes can be added to the nominal component, or the genitive pronoun (declined λι- li-) can be used; in the latter case, the genitive pronoun typically comes immediately before the noun, unless the noun is preceded by a clitic preposition, in which case it comes after. Number agreement continues to be operational. To demonstrate this, both ηαλ μακκούν hal məkhūn “instead of” and βιλέτζε bileče “because of” are shown below:

17.3 List of Prepositions

17.3.1 Clitic Prepositions

17.3.2 Primitive Prepositions

17.3.3 Phrasal Prepositions