Adverbs

Just like English, Talossan has two kinds of adverbs. We’ll discuss each of them now.

Primary Adverbs

Primary adverbs are words in and of themselves (that is, they are not forms of some other word). An example of such an adverb in English would be “seldom”.

Some of the common primary adverbs in Talossan that you should learn are ocsà (= also), là (= there), aicì (= here), presca (= almost), imrè (= always), nun (= now), txamais (= never), sa (= so [very], as, thus), darar (= rarely, seldom), frü (= early), schpeit (= late), ingenpläts (= anywhere), piusutra (= ahead), entienþa (= afterwards), arüc (= backwards), and ni (which means both “neither” and “nor”).

The primary adverb detxa (= already) is often shortened, in both speech and writing, to simply txa.

We have discussed some of the special forms that the primary adverb dove (= where) takes when used with other words. Recall aduve (= to where) and daduve (= from where), dovestás (= where you are), dovestà (= where he/she/it is), and doveove, dovevri and dovesevol (all of those = wherever). Additionally, dove contracts, losing its letter “e”, with any word that follows it and begins with a vowel. For example, dov’os sint (= where they are).

The word come (= like) is another extremely common primary adverb that loses its final “e” in contractions in the same way. For example, els méux sint com’els tuns (= mine are like yours).

The primary adverb ja (pronounced as English “yah”) is equivalent to the English word “ago”. For example, ja viensa seifetziua (= one week ago), and ja doua ars (= two years ago).

Derived Adverbs

Derived adverbs are words that are formed from adjectives by applying a suffix to the adjective, creating an adverb. In English, the suffix is “-ly”, and an example of a derived adverb in English would be “sadly”.

In Talossan, the suffix used to form a derived adverb is -mint. Sometimes (but not always), it becomes -amint if the adjective being modified ends with a consonant.

Some examples of Talossan derived adverbs would be actualmint (= actually), certanmint (= certainly), fortünadamint (= fortunately), and gloriösmint (= gloriously).

One thing to be aware of, though, is that if an adjective has a feminine form, it is that form (and never the masculine form) that the adverb is created from. For example, the adjective feliceu has the feminine form felicia. So the Talossan adverb that is derived from this adjective is feliciamint (= happily).

Notice, though, that just because there is an adjective that in English would take the suffix “-ly” to become a derived adverb, this does not mean that the same adjective in Talossan is made into a derived adverb by adding -mint. Instead, in Talossan, the equivalent adverb might be a primary adverb, so it is best to check. For example, you might think that the adjective desperadeu (= desperate) would be modified to become desperadamint (= desperately), but actually, in Talossan, that word is eflictim (= desperately).