I've been working in the Gumawana language now for about 25 years. I've learned a lot about English by doing so. But I'm also finding that things I at first saw as new and unique about Gumawana I'm taking for granted now. I recently posted an email to our prayer supporters and I mentioned the word "postposition". I hadn't even thought about the fact that people wouldn't know what it was. I did explain it, but I received many emails about it. So I thought I might do a blog on the language a bit.
Some languages are what we call VO meaning that the verb comes before the object, like English. But there are many languages that have the reverse order of OV. Gumawana fits this latter one. So where English would say "John saw Bob," Gumawana says "John Bob saw." I had one person a long time ago ask how a Gumawana person could understand that seeing that it was backwards. Will let that one go for now.
Anyway, there are ramifications for that simple little order. In fact, many languages will follow this pattern with other aspects of the language. I say pattern because what the above really is saying is that in English the important part comes first because the verb is more important than the object. So in Gumawana the most important thing comes last. Universals of language have been proposed that state that if a language is OV it will have what we call postpositions rather than prepositions. A preposition is what we have in English. For example, in English we can say "in the house" or "at night." But in Gumawana the order is "night at" and "the house in". The words "at" and "in" come after the object so are called postpositions since they come after the object.
Gumawana has one very generic postposition goi (pronounced GO-i with i as in machine). What is interesting about Gumawana goi is that it only occurs when the location, time or event marked with goi is considered prominent by the speaker/writer. Usually something more will follow to tell you what it was that happened at that time or place. So if someone said "I went Gumawana goi," he is making the location prominent and there is something important that happened there. But if he says merely "I went Gumawana", what is important is the fact that he went, not the location.
Gumawana adjectives do the same thing. They follow the noun they modify. So English "big house" in Gumawana is vada gagaina "house big-it". The word for "big" has a suffix on it that must agree with the noun for house in number and person.
Languages are fascinating. I hope this helps you to understand a bit more about what goes on in another language.
Some languages are what we call VO meaning that the verb comes before the object, like English. But there are many languages that have the reverse order of OV. Gumawana fits this latter one. So where English would say "John saw Bob," Gumawana says "John Bob saw." I had one person a long time ago ask how a Gumawana person could understand that seeing that it was backwards. Will let that one go for now.
Anyway, there are ramifications for that simple little order. In fact, many languages will follow this pattern with other aspects of the language. I say pattern because what the above really is saying is that in English the important part comes first because the verb is more important than the object. So in Gumawana the most important thing comes last. Universals of language have been proposed that state that if a language is OV it will have what we call postpositions rather than prepositions. A preposition is what we have in English. For example, in English we can say "in the house" or "at night." But in Gumawana the order is "night at" and "the house in". The words "at" and "in" come after the object so are called postpositions since they come after the object.
Gumawana has one very generic postposition goi (pronounced GO-i with i as in machine). What is interesting about Gumawana goi is that it only occurs when the location, time or event marked with goi is considered prominent by the speaker/writer. Usually something more will follow to tell you what it was that happened at that time or place. So if someone said "I went Gumawana goi," he is making the location prominent and there is something important that happened there. But if he says merely "I went Gumawana", what is important is the fact that he went, not the location.
Gumawana adjectives do the same thing. They follow the noun they modify. So English "big house" in Gumawana is vada gagaina "house big-it". The word for "big" has a suffix on it that must agree with the noun for house in number and person.
Languages are fascinating. I hope this helps you to understand a bit more about what goes on in another language.
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