While English places its prepositions before the noun or pronoun it modifies (“in Wenja”, “before Roshani”), Wenja places their prepositions after (Winja-ha “in/with Wenja”, Rushani parshay “before Roshani”). (While technically postpositions, we’ll refer to them as prepositions in our discussions.)
The basic prepositions of Wenja are as follows:
- -s ‘of, concerning, about; possession’
- -i (after consonant) / -y (after vowel) ‘to, for; possession’
- -su ‘in, on, at’
- -ha ‘with, by (agent of passive)’
- -bi ‘from, by, than (comparison)’
- -m ‘towards, against, into, onto, during’
When using personal pronouns as the object of the preposition, use the possessive form. The plural form will make use of the “long” form.
- mi-yi ‘to, for me; mine’
- ti-yi ‘to, for you’
- si-su ‘on him/her/it’
- arsi-ha ‘with them’
- ti-bi ‘from you’
- masi-m ‘towards, into, onto us’
Here are some examples:
- Shash miyi. The rock (is) for me / mine.
- Shash mibi chawda. The rock hides from me.
- Sim gwamam. I’m coming for (lit. towards) him.
- Ti-Winja mim gwama! Your Wenja come to me!
- Tim gwamam. I’m coming for you.
- Taniha hadamas. We’re eating with y’all.
- Arsh-mashtarha haymas. We’re going with their mother.
- Tiha haymas. We’re going with you.
- Ti-mashtarha haymas. We’re going with your mother.
- Ti-jarshna mashtarha haymas. We’re going with your old mother.
- Ti-mashtaris mashtarha haymas. We’re going with your mom’s mom.
- Ti-mashtarbi, shash dafmas. We got a rock from your mother.
Thanks for this grammar post! =)