Today’s grammar post will focus on the reflexive marker -ra. Reflexives are always object markers that refer to the subject of the sentence. A good example is seen in the following sentence, where “himself” and “he” are the same person.
So how do you do this in Wenja? Recall the all-important Sentence Starters in Wenja: words like nu ‘now’, tu ‘then, until’, ma ‘but’, na ‘not’, may ‘don’t’, etc. The reflexive marker is always going to attach itself to the sentence starter(s).
- Nu-ra pacham. ‘And I see myself.’
- Na-ra Udam hada. ‘An Udam doesn’t eat himself.’
- May-ra kayda. ‘Don’t hit yourself.’
If there’s not a sentence starter, then -ra will attach itself to whatever word is at the beginning of the sentence:
- Udam-ra hada. ‘An Udam eats himself.’
- Kayda-ra! ‘Hit yourself!’
- Winja-ra nartar lajarsh. ‘Wenja gather (themselves) in the east.’ (from the game)
Some verbs, such as bawga ‘be useful; use’ have different meanings depending on if the -ra particle is used. Compare:
- Hisu bawga. ‘An arrow is useful.’
- Hisu-ra bawgam. ‘I use an arrow.’
Another example is bida ‘serve; respond, answer’:
- Nakway bidam. ‘I serve no one.’ (from the game)
- Nakway-ra bidam. ‘I respond to no one.’
Next grammar post we’ll look at an extremely common verb that’s super weird — wayda ‘know; find’.
Very interesting! =)
But in the last sentences, the -ra particle seems to have rather an objet-marking function, doesn't it? How does "-ra" change the meaning of "bida" in "Nakway bidam"?
Great question. The use of -ra with both of these roots is idiosyncratic. Deep down, however, it's invoking the mediopassive of PIE (which ends in -r, by the way), that allows for similar contrasts.
"Hisu-ra bawgam" makes total sense to a Southerner: "I use myself an arrow".��
A question regarding "bayda"; why is the 1st person singular "bidam" and not "baydam". A rule, or an idiosyncratic verb?
As a fellow Southerner I absolutely agree. This is called the "middle" use of the reflexive, and that's exactly what's going on here. Regarding "bayda", that's a typo (which I have now fixed), it should be "bida". "Bayda" means to "rip, tear", and is the source of our word "bite".