6. Grammar Particles

In this chapter, we introduce the rest of Kokanu’s grammar particles — starting from the simplest and most common, and working our way up to the more complex and uncommon ones.

6.1 peko and la

peko

peko is a humble particle. Depending on context, it can mean “please”, “hello”, “thank you”, or “sorry”. It can stand alone or appear at the end of a sentence.

When attached to the end of a regular sentece, peko makes the sentence more polite.

Examples:

la

la is an emphasizing particle. Like peko, it doesn’t change literal meaning, but adds emphasis.

It can be placed at the end of a sentence to add emphasis (a "spoken exclamation mark" of sorts), or in other places as an interjection similar to "oh" or "wow".

Examples:

6.2 no

no negates whatever preposition or particle comes before it. It does not negate words, only prepositions and particles.

Examples:

no can also negate different parts of the sentence to change the meaning. Keep in mind that negating the sentence's verb is the default way to negate the whole clause.

no can also negate a te-clause:

• mi le suki te no makan → “I like not to eat.”

6.3 je

je is a very versatile particle similar to English “of” that can mark relations between noun phrases. Although it is often described as a genitive, it is used much more broadly than the average genitive. It can be used to specify origin, cause, material, purpose, etc.

Any word that comes after je is automatically converted to its noun meaning, even if it is a base modifier.

A common use of je is to regroup modifiers. Normally, all modifiers apply to the head noun left to right, so:

• "makan sapole tope == "((makan) sapole) tope" (tastable big food)

But what if you wanted to mean "food of good taste" (good tasting food)? That's right, you'd use je!

• "makan je sapole tope == "makan je ((sapole) tope)" (food of good taste)

6.4 lun

How would a hypothetical Kokanu speaker say "kill"?

Well, there's not any verb meaning "to kill". The closest there is would be the modifier tiku, meaning "dead".

You could always go with:

• te pon ta [sin] le tiku (to cause [something] to be dead)

But lun allows you to do something else.

• te lun tiku in [sin] (to dead-ify [something])

Formula:
lun [content word] in [X] → “to make [X] [content word]”

The purpose of lun is to allow context words which are not base verbs (i.e. nouns and modifiers) to take direct objects. This allows many constructions like "to kill" derived only from a modifier "dead", among many others.

Something important to note here is that lun can only be applied after a te, le, or o. Anywhere else is ungrammatical.

• "nin lun tiku" -> doesn't mean anything, lun does not come after a predicate marker
• "nin te lun tiku -> "person who kills", grammatically correct, lun does come after a predicate marker

Examples:

Notice here how lun lo means “to cause to be moving” and not “to cause to be movement”. Also notice how lun pansin means “to cause to be rectanglular” and not “to cause to be a rectangle”. lun heavily implies the modifier meaning of whatever it affects, so despite the fact that pansin is a base noun meaning "rectangle", lun pansin is assumed to mean "to make rectangle-like".

If one wants to have lun pansin mean "to make into a rectangle", then it would become lun wen pansin. wen will be covered in later chapters, but what's important for now is how it affects lun.

6.5 mu and pan

Both mu and pan turn verbs into nouns referring to agents:

• mu = “one who does [verb]”
• pan = “one who causes [verb]”

Examples:

Bodily organs, when they don't have a dictionary word, are often referring to with mu constructions.

Keep in mind that there is no one way to say things in Kokanu, and that everything is based on context. mu teka can mean "eye", but it also often means "viewer".

6.6 mese, menu, and so

so

so is used for comparisons. It puts two things in contrast or similarity.

Examples:

mese and menu

mese generally means "more", menu means "less".

Examples:

Without context, however, those sentences are quite ambiguous. You could see less than someone else, less than before, or simply less than you want to. To specify this, you use so.

Examples:

To directly compare two things, the first one goes between mese/menu and so.

Examples:

6.7 wi

We have already learned how word derivations work and how, for example, to use nouns as verbs. But we do not yet have full control over derivations. We cannot say "I'm visible" directly. mi le teka would mean "I see". To express "I am visible", we need to first force teka to be a modifier and then use that modifier as a verb. This is done with wi. wi takes the next word or phrase and converts it into a base modifier. It is then interpreted just like how a base modifier would be.

Examples:

With a modifier, wi is generally redundant. However, as a particle, it can be negated with no.

Examples:

The same applies to words that are modifiers by position:

Examples:

6.8 wen

wen has two functions:

• Like wi, it can convert the word after it into a noun.

Examples:

• When it comes after a noun, it means "that is...".

Examples:

6.9 wa

wa is used to reorganize modifiers. It collapses the noun phrase before it, forces the word after it to be a modifier, and makes it apply to the entire preceding noun phrase.

Examples:

ta/te phrases can also come after wa.

Examples:

6.10 se

se is a base modifier meaning "existent". However, its verb form can act as an auxiliary verb, just like "to be" in English.

Examples:

In these cases, se doesn’t really carry meaning—it simply completes the sentence by providing the necessary main verb. For this reason, it can be dropped.

Examples: