This series will explore the ins and outs to the grammar I’ve created for Laénara, the dominant language in the world of Alcrést. This article focuses on the ka and té particles, an integral component of all sentences. Be sure to read the full grammar reference.

English and Word Order

As a native English speaker, one of the more difficult things to wrap your head around is the word order of sentences. This has been discussed before, where English is Subject – Verb – Object: “John[S] jumps[V] over the fence[O].” Note that in English, the subject and objects are not explicitly stated, in fact they are assumed from the word order. It is clear that ‘John’ is the subject of the verb because it is directly before it.

However in Laénara, word order does not determine the grammatical roles, and must be explicitly stated.

The ‘ka’ Particle

The ka particle is a word that has no direct translation. It is a grammatical utility word called a case marker that marks the preceding clause as the subject of the sentence. It marks the thing that is performing the action.

John ka sarí kakaí né tobíruína.
[John jumped over the fence.]

In the sentence, the ka particle is attached to (meaning it modifies) the proper noun ‘John’, and it means that John is the one who is the subject (actor) of the verb. Tobíruína is the past tense of tobíké, meaning ‘jump’.

Gaídé wa shoto né tano yaíka ka aíré.
[The smiling man has a happy wife.]

This sentence is very different from the previous example, and showcases some of the idiosyncrasies of the language. There are two things to know before going into this example.

1. Laénara does not have a present participle. In English, ‘The smiling man…’ is using ‘smiling’ in its present participle form. It is talking about a man smiling, with smiling acting as a adjective to modify the noun ‘man’.
2. Laénara does not have a word to directly show possession. In English, there is the verb ‘to have’, but to express this in Laénara we have to use the particle né. The particle né is the locative particle, and it roughly translates to “in, to, at, into”. Breaking down the sentence into its literal translation, and rearranging for readability looks something like this: ‘To a smiling man, a happy wife exists.‘

The ka particle in this sentence is marking the preceding clause as the subject of the verb aíré, which is the verb of existence. So ‘tano yaíka‘ or “happy wife…” is the subject.

Compare that to the English translation, where ‘The smiling man‘ is the subject. Again, this is because English uses word order to determine roles. For example, we could rearrange the Laénaran sentence and as long as the verb aíré is at the end and the particles are attached to the proper clauses, it is still grammatically correct and carries the same meaning (though emphasis changes).

Tano yaíka ka gaídé wa shoto né aíré.
[The smiling man has a happy wife. (Emphasis on Tano yaíka: happy wife)]

The ‘té’ Particle

The té particle is another word that does not have a direct English translation. It is a case marker that marks the preceding clause as the topic or theme of what is being discussed. This is different than the ka particle, which only marks the subject. In many sentences, the subject and the topic are one and the same, and in that case, the té particle often takes precedence over ka.

There are two patterns for usage of the té particle:

1. When the topic and the subject are the same.
2. When the topic and the subject are in the same sentence but are not the same.

We’ll explore both cases.

Ríné té shoto la aroruína.
[The girl kissed the boy.]

Here we have the té particle modifying ríné or ‘girl’, establishing that the girl is the topic of discussion. You can see that she was also the one who kissed the boy. In this sentence we’ve established two things with the té particle.

1. The girl is our topic of discussion. Likely this sentence would be followed up with more about this amorous girl.
2. It is the girl who kissed the boy, and not the other way around. And also not that they kissed each other. This is an important distinction. She is the subject of the verb.

A good way to think about the té particle is to translate it as “It it the…” or “Speaking of x” or “As for x”. In English, these phrases accomplish the same thing that the little particle does on its own.

So why not the ka particle? The girl is also the subject of the verb, as she is the one who is doing the action. Actually, using the ka particle here is perfectly fine, but since the girl is being made both the topic of discussion and the subject of the verb, té is used instead. If we were just saying an offhanded remark about the girl, or just simply mentioning it, ka would be just fine. In these situations, like a lot of Laénaran grammar, context is important.

Working Together

The ka and té particles are fine on their own, but there are also times when they work together in a sentence. You can have a sentence have a topic and a subject be different, and this should drive home what the roles of the particles are.

Kíbarí té John ka ítosaruína.
[As for the problem, John resolved it.]

The té particle is attached to the word kíbarí which means “problem, issue, restriction, binding”. It is establishing that the topic of discussion will be this problem. The ka particle is attached to John, marking him as the subject of the verb ítosaruína, the past tense of ítosaré, meaning “to make free”.

Pro-drop Rules

Laénara is a pro-drop language, which means that pronouns are dropped in conversation when it is understood by all parties who is being spoken of. Additionally, the topic and subjects are also dropped when they can be inferred by context. Let’s see this in action.

Marí té míraé ríné tané. Néla hé tané.
[Mari is a beautiful girl. She is also kind.]

You can see the pro-drop at work in this example. In the first sentence, Marí is marked as the topic of discussion. The second sentence literally translates to ‘kind-also is’. If it were to include the pronoun ‘she’, as it is required in English, the sentence would be:

Kurísé ka néla hé tané.
[She is also kind.]

We can drop the pronoun kurísé and the attached particle ka, as the subject and topic of the conversation can be inferred from the previous sentence.

Marí té míraé ríné. Néla hé.
[Mari (is) a beautiful girl. (She is) also kind.]

Conversationally, the copula tané may also be dropped in a phenomena called zero copula. This only works in the present tense. It is instead implied.

If the topic or subject of the previous sentence is to be brought up again, or is unclear at any point in the conversation, the noun níara would be used instead, meaning ‘the aforementioned, previous point’.

Níara té…
[As for the previous point…]