Snat Sajem Tan/Wh-Questions and the Gnomic and Habitual Aspects

In the last lesson, you learned how to form basic sentences. In this lesson, you will take your knowledge further and learn how to form more kinds of sentences.

Wh-questions
In Sajem Tan, there is nothing to directly correspond to the question words "which", "who", "what", "where", "when", "why", and "how". Instead, we have one handy little suffix: -ku. However, since you are learning Sajem Tan from English, we will go over the ways to translate each of the ideas behind those seven question words.

Which
"Which" is the easiest of the bunch to translate: you simply put -ku after the thing that is doubtful. So:




 * Ţefam||kygykfê||decekku?
 * stone||eat-PERF||chicken-which
 * colspan=3|"Which chicken ate a stone?"
 * }
 * colspan=3|"Which chicken ate a stone?"
 * }




 * Zmetku||zanum||jëkëmzmet?
 * building-which||is-GNO||library
 * colspan=3|"Which building is the library?"
 * }
 * colspan=3|"Which building is the library?"
 * }

Who, What
These two are grouped together because they use the exact same construction, and it actually mirrors the above, except the neutral third-person pronoun du is used instead. (I suppose the animacy doesn't matter, if you know the animacy but not identity of the questioned thing.)




 * Ţêvmê||tekezisëtso||zanum||duku?
 * me-LITHIC-GEN||computer-having||is-GNO||it-NEUTRAL-which
 * colspan=4|"Who has my computer?"
 * }
 * colspan=4|"Who has my computer?"
 * }




 * Duku||tanfê||do?
 * it-NEUTRAL||say-PERF||you-NEUTRAL
 * colspan=3|"What did you say?"
 * }
 * colspan=3|"What did you say?"
 * }

When, Where, Why, How
These four are capable of many diverse translations, which unfortunately require things that must be dealt with in future lessons.

Habitual and Gnomic aspects
You were introduced to verbal aspect in the last lesson, and now, in this lesson, we are learning about the habitual and gnomic aspects.

Habitual
The habitual aspect, marked with -êt, refers to actions that recur regularly. For instance, in English, the phrase "used to" marks a verb as habitual: "I used to go to Spanish classes" is habitual because going to Spanish classes was a recurring action for the speaker. However, the habitual aspect is used more often in Sajem Tan, and it doesn't just translate "used to"; "I went to Spanish classes for a year" would also be translated with the habitual aspect in Sajem Tan.

Gnomic
The gnomic aspect, marked by -um, typically expresses truths that are aphoristic or unchanging within the context of what is said. This is sometimes referred to as "habitual-generic". Here are some examples:


 * Žǔžǔmum||viţitâ.
 * fly-GNOMIC||birds
 * colspan=2|"Birds fly."
 * }
 * colspan=2|"Birds fly."
 * }


 * Gafün||zanum||žasik.
 * blue||to be-GNOMIC||sky
 * colspan=3|"The sky is blue."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"The sky is blue."
 * }

States of being are often expressed with the verb zan "to be" in the gnomic aspect, or by simply putting the gnomic suffix on the end of the predicate, effectively verbalizing it:


 * Tišnimum||dê.
 * tired-GNOMIC||I
 * colspan=2|"I'm tired."
 * }
 * colspan=2|"I'm tired."
 * }

It is usually a good idea to use zan anyway, though, to avoid ambiguity: for instance,Žnëmum dê could mean either "I am bright" or "I glow". That said, we usually drop it.

By now, if the concept of aspect is still tricky to you, you may be wishing there were some way to avoid all of this and just not mark aspect. The good news is, you can! In informal writing or speaking, it is totally fine to use the gnomic aspect when you can't decide on an aspect or don't care to.