A – B – D – E – H – I – L – Lh – M – N – O – R – Sh – Th – U – W – Y – Zh – Affixes
- -á
- suffix for doer, agent; morpheme used to mark someone as the “do-er” of an action; like English “-er” in “baker” or “dancer”
- á-
- prefix to signify infant, baby, very young creature (see háa-, yáa-)
- -báa-
- Interrogatives (who, which, what): use the base form, plus “-báa-“, plus Case Marker
- -d
- Speech Act suffix; “said in anger”
- -da
- morpheme used to identify the _beneficiary_ of an action — the person [or other entity] for whom or for which an action is done; Case Marker: suffix for beneficiary- voluntarily
- -da
- Speech Act suffix; “said in jest”
- -dá
- Case Marker: suffix for beneficiary- by force, against X’s will
- -daá
- Case Marker: suffix for beneficiary- accidentally
- -dáa
- Case Marker: suffix for beneficiary- obligatorily, as by duty
- -dan
- Case Marker: suffix for Associate – with pleasure (see also ‘-den’)
- -de
- Speech Act suffix; “said in narrative”
- -de
- Case Marker: suffix for source
- -den
- Case Marker: suffix for Associate – neutral form (see also ‘-dan’)
- -di
- Speech Act suffix; “said in teaching”
- -di
- a morpheme that means “to,” as in “I walked to the house.”: Bíi ril sháad Athid buzhedi wa. (“Athid is going to the con.”); Case Marker: suffix for goal (see also ‘-dim’)
- -dim
- a morpheme that means “to,” as in “I walked to the house.”: Case Marker: Suffix for goal (see also ‘-di’) used in cases when ‘-di’ (goal) ending is hard to distinguish from the ‘-de’ (source) ending
- dó-
- cause-to-VERB prefix {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- -du
- Speech Act suffix; “said as poetry” {Grammar Updates: SH}
- du-
- try-to-VERB prefix (try to speak=dudi); a morpheme that can be added to verbs [including those that would be classified as adjectives in English], meaning “try to [VERB]” {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- dúu-
- to-try-in-vain-to-VERB [du-=to-try-to-VERB] (try in vain to speak=dúudi); a morpheme that can be added to verbs [including those that would be classified as adjectives in English], meaning “try in vain to [VERB],” “try (but fail) to [VERB]” {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- e-
- prefix for science of
- é-
- prefix for potential {Grammar Updates}
- -ha
- morpheme used to indicate where something or someone is located; Bíi ril Athid botheha wa. (“Athid is at the hotel.); Case Marker: suffix for place (see also ‘-sha’)
- -háa
- Embedding Marker: to embed a relative clause (like English “I know the womah who is tired”) attached to the last element in the embedded clause (see also ‘-hé’, ‘-hée’)
- háa-
- prefix to signify child, youth, young creature, general prefix for offspring (see á-, yáa-)
- -háalish
- Degree Marker: to an extraordinary degree (see also ‘-hil’, ‘-hal’, ‘-hul’, ‘-hel’)
- -hal
- Degree Marker: to an unusual degree, very (see also ‘-hil’, ‘-hel’, ‘-hul’, ‘-háalish’)
- -hé
- morpheme used to embed one statement inside another statement; Embedding Marker: to embed a sentential complement (like English “I know that she left”) attached to the last element in the embedded clause (see also ‘-háa’, ‘-hée’)
When we want to put one English statement inside another one — a process called “embedding” — we can use the word “that” to mark the statement that is embedded. For example, “I know that science fiction conventions are fun,” embeds the statement “science fiction conventions are fun” inside “I know [some other statement],” by putting “that” at the beginning of the embedded statement. LAadan embeds one statement in another by putting the morpheme “-hE” on the last word of the embedded statement. So, in sentence #7, the statement “radezhehul thod Aabeth” — “writing a book is very hard,” is marked as an embedded statement by adding “-hE” to “Aabeth.” [Note: An embedding morpheme is the _only_ morpheme that can follow a case-marking morpheme.]
- -hée
- Embedding Marker: to embed a question (like English “I wonder whether/if she left”) attached to the last element in the embedded clause (see also ‘-hé’, ‘-háa’)
- -hel
- Degree Marker: to a trivial degree, slightly (see also ‘-hil’, ‘-hal’, ‘-hul’, ‘-háalish’)
- -hele
- to a troublesome degree: Degree Marker: specifically negative in meaning — never used in a positive sense
- -hil
- Degree Marker: to a minor degree, rather (see also ‘-hel’, ‘-hal’, ‘-hul’, ‘-háalish’)
- -hile
- to a severe degree: Degree Marker: specifically negative in meaning — never used in a positive sense
- -hóo
- a morpheme that is used to indicate special importance, or to give a word or phrase extra emphasis: Bíi aril bilehóo buzh wa! (“The convention will be _fun_!”): focus marker {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- -hul
- Degree Marker: to an extreme degree, extremely (see also ‘-hel’, ‘-hal’, ‘-hil’, ‘-háalish’)
- -hule
- to an intolerable degree: Degree Marker: specifically negative in meaning — never used in a positive sense
- -i
- diminutive suffix, small, affectionate {SH}
- -ib
- deliberately shut off to all feeling (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -id
- suffix for male
- -ihed
- in a sort of shock, numb (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -imi
- in bewilderment/astonishment, positive (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -imilh
- in bewilderment/astonishment, negative (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -itha
- linked empathically with others (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -iyon
- ecstasy (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -lan
- Speech Act suffix; “said in celebration”
- lée-
- meta- [prefix] {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- lh- or -lh or -lh-
- bad (intentionally) <infix> The pejorative element “lh” can always be added to a word to give it a negative connotation, so long as it precedes or follows a vowel and does not violate the rules of the Laadan sound system by creating a forbidden cluster. The addition of “lh” need not create an actual new word; for example, “awith ” means “baby”-to use instead “lhawith” (or awithelh”) means only something like “the darned baby” and is ordinarily a temporary addition. But it is very handy indeed. We are indebted to the Navajo language for this device.
- -li
- Speech Act suffix; “said in love”
- me-
- plural marker, plural morpheme used at the beginning of verbs and words that correspond to English adjectives; always the first prefix in the word (beautiful women = mewoháya wowith)
- -mu
- a morpheme meaning “path”; In English, the PATH case is most often marked by the prepositions “through,” “across,” “along,” or “over.”; Case Marker: suffix for path
- -n
- pronoun suffix: many
- na-
- Duration Marker: prefix for ‘to start to’ Verb (see also ‘no-‘. ‘ná-‘, ‘ne-‘, ‘nó-‘)
- ná-
- Duration Marker: prefix for ‘to continue to’ Verb (see also ‘na-‘. ‘no-‘, ‘ne-‘, ‘nó-‘)
- -nal
- Case Marker: suffix for manner
- -nan
- a morpheme meaning “by means of”; it indicates what is used to do something; “Bíi ril sháad le buzhedi mazhenan wa.” (“I’m going to the con by car.”); Case Marker: suffix for instrument
- ne-
- Duration Marker: prefix for ‘to repeat’ (see also ‘na-‘. ‘ná-‘, ‘no-‘, ‘nó-‘)
- no-
- Duration Marker: prefix for ‘to finish’, completion (see also ‘na-‘. ‘ná-‘, ‘ne-‘, ‘nó-‘)
- nó-
- Duration Marker: prefix for ‘to cease to’ VERB (see also ‘na-‘. ‘ná-‘, ‘ne-‘, ‘no-‘)
- -o
- in meditation (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- -óo
- in hypnotic trance (state of consciousness marker) root word=hahod=to be in the state of
- ra-
- non-[prefix] {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- -rada
- against (to lean against something) {Grammar Updates: SH}
- ralée-
- non-meta [prefix], something absurdly or dangerously narrow in scope or range {Dictionary 2nd. Ed.}
- ro-
- wild (rothil=wild vine, romid=wild animal)
- -sha
- Case Marker: suffix for place (see also ‘-ha’)
- -th
- a morpheme that means “This is the direct object in this sentence.”; Bíi ril thi Athid imedimeth wa. (“Athid has a suitcase.”); Case Marker: suffix for object
- -th
- Speech Act suffix; “said in pain”
- -tha
- Case Marker: suffix for possession – by reason of birth (see also ‘-thi’, ‘-the’, ‘-thu’, ‘-tho’)
- -the
- Case Marker: suffix for possession – for unknown or unacknowledged reasons (see also ‘-tha’, ‘-thi’, ‘-thu’, ‘-tho’)
- thé-
- about-to-VERB any minute prefix {Grammar Updates}
- thée-
- about-to-VERB, potentially, but not “any minute” {Grammar Updates}
- -thi
- Case Marker: suffix for possession – by reason of chance (see also ‘-tha’, ‘-the’, ‘-thu’, ‘-tho’)
- -tho
- Case Marker: suffix for possession – other (purchase, gift, law, custom, etc.) (see also ‘-tha’, ‘-the’, ‘-thi’, ‘-thu’)
- thó-
- to-have-just-VERBED prefix {Grammar Updates}
- -thu
- Case Marker: suffix for possession – partitive (false possessive) (see also ‘-thi’, ‘-the’, ‘-thu’, ‘-tha’)
- -wáan
- a morpheme meaning “the reason for which something is done”; Case Marker: suffix for cause – reason, due to, because of (see also ‘-wan’)
- -wan
- Case Marker: suffix for cause – for the purpose of, in order to (see also ‘-wáan’)
- wo-
- changes a verb to an adjective, must be put on both verb and noun, after plural marker (beautiful woman = woháya wowith) Láadan has a form that is much like an English “adjective + noun” sequence, as in “green tree” or “small child”. You can take any sequence of verb and subject (remembering that “adjectives” are only ordinary verbs in Láadan) and but the marker “wo-” at the beginning of each one. “Beautiful woman” is thus “woháya wowith”. This is very useful, but it is a bit different from English, because it can only be used if you have just one verb. You cannot use this pattern to translate an English sequence like “little red brick wall”. To make your descriptive phrase plural, you would put the plural marker “me-” at the beginning of the verb, as always. “Busy dragons” would be “mewoshOod wohOowamid.”
- -ya
- Case Marker: suffix for Time
- -ya
- Speech Act suffix; “said in fear”
- yáa-
- prefix to signify teenager, older but not full-grown creature (see á-, háa-)
- -ye-
- Indefinites: use the basic pronoun form, plus “-ye-“, plus the Case Marker.
- -yi-
- fraction marker {SH}
- -yóo-
- Reflexive (myself): use the base form, plus “-yóo-“, plus Case Marker
- -zh
- pronoun suffix: several
A – B – D – E – H – I – L – Lh – M – N – O – R – Sh – Th – U – W – Y – Zh – Affixes