Snat Sajem Tan/Gnomic Aspect

In some languages you may have studied, verbs conjugate (that is, their forms change slightly) to indicate who is performing the action (known as person, such as first, second, or third person), when the action was or will be performed (known as tense, such as past or future), how the speaker feels about the action (known as mood, such as subjunctive or imperative), etc. In Sajem Tan, verbs are marked for aspect. Aspect refers to how an action extends over time. (This is different from tense, because tense expresses where in time an action occurred.)

Since Sajem Tan is an agglutinative language, aspect is expressed with suffixes attached to the end of the verb. For example, take the verb xanön "to greet". In the word xanönfê, the suffix -fê signifies the durative aspect. It's really that simple!

Tense, mood, and so on can still be expressed in Sajem Tan, as you will learn about later. You have already learned about how to express the person of verbs in Lesson 1.

Gnomic Aspect
The first aspect we will be learning about is the gnomic aspect. It is marked with the suffix -um.

The primary use of the gnomic aspect is when denoting an action that is generally or unchangingly true. For example, Žûžûmum viţitâ "birds fly".

However, it can also be used as a neutral aspect, for when you don't feel like marking aspect and it doesn't make a difference to what you're saying. In this case, it's often used for states of being.