Clauses and Conjunctions

17.1 Coordinating Conjunctions

Novegradian has four coordinating conjunctions: и i, или íli, а a, and но no.

И i corresponds to English “and”, and is used to join together two or more clauses or more than two adjectives or nouns.

When dealing with just two nouns or adjectives, the preposition со so “with” must be used instead. When the subject of a verb, dual agreement is still used despite the fact that only one noun is in the nominative case.

The expression и со i so can be used in any situation where conjunctive со so can, and indicates a greater dissociation comparable to English “as well as”.

Where English uses a singular pronoun in expressions such as “Maria and I”, Novegradian uses the dual—Надуа со Мариёй Naduá so Maríjoi (lit. “the two of us with Maríja”). The intent here is that the pronoun надуа is the true subject, with со Мариёй serving as a modifier. Novegradian can make the “inclusive we” versus “exclusive we” distinction this way: надуа со тибѣ naduá so tibě “you and I” versus надуа сон ему naduá son iemú “he and I”.

When dealing with two adjectives, и may be used instead of со only when the two adjectives describe the same object instead of describing two different ones. This allows a distinction to be made simply where English requires a longer construction. When со is used, the second adjective must be definite since it is representing a separate noun.

Но no is the equivalent of “but”, emphasizing contrast between two clauses.

The conjunction а a expresses a mild contrast, a state comparable to but not the same as the first clause. It functions much like “whereas” or “but rather”, although is often translated as “and” or “but”.

Или íli is Novegradian’s disjunction, meaning “or”.

The third person nominative pronouns оне óne, она oná, ондуа onduá, and они oní lose their first vowel when immediately preceded by the conjunctions и or а. They are written as a single hyphenated word: и-не í-ne “and he”, а-на a-ná “whereas she”, и-ндуа i-nduá “and the two of them”, а-ни a-ní “whereas they”.

In addition, а + яс contract into ас as “whereas I”, though и яс “and I” never contracts. Curiously, ас now frequently shows up before all а + pronoun constructions, having lost its original meaning: ас а ти as a tí “whereas you”, ас а-на as a-ná “whereas she”. However, “whereas I” remains simply ас as. This phenomenon will be elaborated in Section 22.

17.2 Subordinating Conjunctions

Novegradian only has a few distinct forms for subordinating conjunctions, анно and ли being the most common. The majority of conjunctions are either other parts of speech (such as an adverbial participle) or a phrase, often involving the то-це construction.

Анно ánno means “if”, and is only used in indicative-mood conditionals (e.g., “if you came”, “if you’re coming”, “if you came”). The subjunctive forms елиб iélib and бадеб bádeb are used in nonfuture and future hypothetical subjunctive-mood-conditionals respectively (“if you were to have come”/”if you were coming”, “if you were to come”). In hypothetical conditionals, both halves of the sentence must be in the subjunctive mood.

Ли li means “whether”, and usually appears after the first stressed word within a clause. Its presence prevents pro-drop in the subordinate clause.

If both options are shown, или takes the place of ли (since it incorporates both the elements “and” and “whether”). Alternatively, it is sometimes possible to place ли after both options and use а a as the conjunction.

The conjunctions “what” and “who” are expressed using the то-це/то-ко construction. “Where” and “to where” can either use the same construction (то-куде to-kudé, то-куди to-kudí) or use the pronouns themselves (куде kudé, куди kudí). For “when”, only the form койда kóida may be used, although ейда iéida is often used in formal language (by analogy with Old Church Slavonic ѥгда via Russian).

Most other conjunctions are phrasal, and include but are not limited to:

• абно ábno “as soon as”
• ако áko “as”
• акоби ákobi “as if, as though, even if”
• акоби не ákobi ne “lest, or else” (or less often, какоби не)
• акоже ákoźe “such as”
• анно не ánno ne “unless” (with real condition)
• бадеб не bádeb ne “unless” (with a hypothetical future condition)
• во том-це vo tóm-ce “reponsible for ensuring that”
• дати dáti “in order that, so that”
• до тово-це do tovó-ce “until”
• елиб не iélib ne “unless” (with a hypothetical non-future condition)
• елин iélin “while”
• зандо zándo “because”
• за неж(е) za néź(e) “after”
• за тово-це za tovó-ce “because”
• за то-це za tó-ce “to, for the purpose of”
• зе тово-це ze tovó-ce “on the grounds that”
• како káko “as” (in free variation with ако)
• колиж(е) kóliź(e) “although, even though”
• кроми тово-це krómi tovó-ce “unless”
• намѣсти тово-це namě́sti tovó-ce “instead of”
• на то-це ná to-ce “since, seeing as” (note the stress)
• на то-це na tó-ce “as, at the same time as” (note the stress)
• на тѣм-це na tě́m-ce “with regards to”
• по тѣм-це po tě́m-ce “as far as”
• пред неж(е) pred néź(e) “before”
• со тово-це so tovó-ce “since”
• со тѣм-це so tě́m-ce “in order that, so that”
• то-койда to-kóida “as soon as” (never **то-ейда)
• то-како tó-kako “such that” (less commonly т-ако", "t-áko"})
• требаж(е) trébaź(e) “even though, despite”
• штоби śtóbi “in order that, so that” (dialectical, sometimes considered low style)

Most of these conjunctions call for the indicative mood in the following clause. When the situation is hypothetical, there is often a choice between the subjunctive mood or the indicative (perhaps an indication of the gradual loss of the subjunctive in Novegradian).

However, the clause following indirect commands (“want someone to...”, “ask someome to...”, “order someone to...”, etc) must always be subjunctive:

The variant form то-ж-це tó-ź-ce (pronounced as тошче [ˈtoʃ.tʃe]) may be used in place of то-це with commands to imply a sense of warning that there will be consequences if the action is not carried out. This form is almost required after verbs such as “forbid” and “prohibit”.

17.3 Reduplicated Conjunctions

Several conjunctions may be reduplicated to acquire a new meaning, originally emphatic.

The reduplication “и X и Y” i X i Y means “both X and Y”. It also has the negative form “ни X ни Y” ni X ni Y, meaning “neither X nor Y”. The latter (which generally requires the genitive case) is especially common in the expression ни шево, ни видораево ni śevó, ni vidoráievo “neither [of two]”, literally “neither this, nor the other”.

Conversely, “или X или Y” íli X íli Y means “either X or Y”.

Perhaps in this same class is “хой... хой...” hói... hói..., meaning “some... while others...”

Though not a reduplicated conjunction, the complex expression не толкѣ... шенаким... ne tólkě... śenákim... “not only... but also...” uses the same format.