Adjectives

• Derived adjectives
• Comparison
  • Comparative
  • Superlative

In Mundeze, all words have an invariable root, the radical, from which the noun, verb, adjective and adverb can be formed.

Example with “pel-” (to speak, talk, say)

pele: speech
peli: speak
pela: oral, verbal, talking
pelo: orally, verbally

The adjective is always formed by adding the ending -a to the radical. So almost all adjectives end with -a *.

An adjective is a modifier of the substantive, and is usually placed before it. The predicative adjective is placed after the verb.

It is always invariable in Mundeze.

Examples

alta evey (big houses)
blua pile (blue pill)
warma nyame (hot meal)
dosta kosade (friendly relationship)
ta somey (human bodies)

It is acceptable to place the adjective just after the determined substantive, but only if this adjective is not itself followed by another substantive or pronoun.

Examples

The person who eats ➜ nyama ane
The person who eats ➜ ane nyama
The person who eats chocolate ➜ ane nyama tcokolate

In the latter example, the adjective nyama cannot be placed before tcokolate (chocolate) since it would then apply to that name. “ane nyama tcokolate” would mean something like “the person the chocolate who eats”. To translate the sentence correctly, a relative pronoun should be used: ane ke nyami tcokolate (The person who eats chocolate).

* Some adjectives don’t end by -a. This is the case for numerals (two, three, eighteen…) and for the determiners of the tabula-leksey (that, which, all, none…)

Derived adjectives

Sometimes several adjectives can be derived from the same root. This is especially the case of “lov-” (love). In such a case, the context is sufficient to determine what adjective we are dealing with.

• If the adjective is qualitative (i.e. it expresses the state of the subject or an action carried out by the subject), it’s an adjective derived from the verbal form. The meaning of an adjective derived from the verb is equivalent to the meaning of the verb in the present tense.

Examples

lovi (to love) ➜ lova (loving = who loves = in love)
– “lova mate” (loving woman = woman who loves = woman in love)
fobi (be scared, frightened, afraid) ➜ foba (being scared = who is scared = afraid)
– “foba bate” (man being scared = man who is scared = scared man)
mapi (to mother) ➜ mapa (who is mothering = mothering)
– “mapa masere” (mothering sister)

• If the adjective is relational (i.e. it expresses a relationship as a noun complement), it is an adjective derived from the noun (non-gradable). The meaning of an adjective derived from the noun is equivalent to a complement of the name (of + this noun).

Examples

love (love) ➜ lova (of love)
– “lova kosade” (relation of love = love affair)
fobe (fear) ➜ foba (of fear)
– “foba krite” (cry of fear)
mape (mother) ➜ mapa (of mother = maternal)
– “mapa sade” (behaviour of mother = maternal behaviour)

Basically, a “loving woman” can’t refer to a “woman of love” because, apart from the fact that it doesn’t mean anything (apart from idiom), the adjective is qualitative because it expresses the state of the subject. Similarly, a “loving relationship” cannot refer to a “relationship that loves” because, in addition to the fact that it does not mean anything, the adjective is relational since it serves as a noun complement.

Comparison

In Mundeze, the predicate usually takes the form of a single verb, but here, we have broken it down into verb + adjective in order to make the following examples better understandable:

Comparative

– To express similarity, we use “o” (like), “sam” (like), or “samo (dan)” (equally (than))

me si alta o tu (I am tall like you) ➜ I am as tall as you
me si alta sam tu (I am tall like you) ➜ I am as tall as you
me si samo alta dan tu (I am equally tall than you) ➜ I am as tall as you

– To express superiority, we use “mas (dan)” (more (than))

me si mas alta dan tu ➜ I am more tall than you ➜ I am bigger than you

– To express inferiority, we use “min (dan)” (less (than))

me si min alta dan tu ➜ I am less tall than you

Superlative

– To express the superlative of superiority, we use the expression “masuno (dan)” (the most (of))

tu si masuno alta dan ola noy ➜ You are the most tall of all of us ➜ You are the tallest of us all

– To express the superlative of inferiority, we use the expression “minuno (dan)” (the less (of))

tu si minuno alta dan ola noy ➜ You are the less tall of us all