The sentences we have learnt this far have been in the indicative mood (or the realis mood), that is, the contents of the sentences are presented as facts. In this lesson, we learn how to tell people to do something or not to do it, that is, the imperative mood of Ainu. Mood in linguistics means that the verb form used shows the speakers attitude towards the utterance, for example—as I just explained—if the thing is a fact or is it something that the speaker commands others to do, or, to give some other examples, if the thing is desirable, or doable, or conditional. But in this lesson, we'll look at the imperative.
There are varying levels of politeness in the Ainu imperative, so we need to learn how to make requests and give commands to different people. In addition to the actual imperative form, we learn some indirect ways to make commands and requests with combinations of the grammar we have learnt this far. These are expressed in the form suggestions or assumptions but pragmatically they are demands or requests to do something.
Lastly, if we want to demand things from others, we might want to also give them permission to do things, so we learn the grammar for permissions.
The simplest way to order people to do something is to just use the verb as it is. This is very straightforward way to tell people to do something, and it can be considered rude, especially if used towards people who are older than the speaker or in a higher societal position than the speaker. Also, this imperative form can't be used towards many people, only one person. The more polite imperative that can be used towards a person of higher rank or several people is introduced in the section below (Spoiler! It includes using the plural forms of the verbs we learned in the previous lesson).
The imperative verb form looks the same as the third person ('s/he does') in declarative sentences but the person who is told to be do something is the listener/reader, that is, the second person. It is, however, wrong to attach the second person subject marker on the verb when trying to form an imperative sentence. The function of the plain verb—3rd person in a declarative sentence or an imperative sentence—should be understood from the context. Object person markers, however, can be used in imperative, too. See for instance the example sentence 4 below.
In spoken language, the intonation of the imperative sentences is often almost the same as the declarative sentences but there is some emphasis on the verb and the (last) vowel in the verb is often pronounced a bit longer than that of a declarative sentence. I use here an exclamation mark to show clearly that these are commands, not just declarative sentences.
eteun ek!
Come here!
tanpe e!
Eat this!
ewonne wa hotke!
Wash your face and go to bed!
poronno icen en-kore!
Give me a lot of money!
hekattar aynu itak epakasnu!
Teach the children Ainu!
Another way to demand things to be done is to attach the sentence final particle yan 'please do' at the end of the imperative sentence. This is a more polite way to tell people to do something and it can be used towards elder people, people of high rank, and also when there are more than one people.
Now, if the intransitive verbs used in this type of imperative sentence have a plural form, the plural form must be used. The transitive verbs that have a plural form can be used either with or without yan, because they are not about the subject/actor but the object or the times the action is performed.
The /y/ sound of yan is sometimes dropped, especially when it's preceded by a consonant.
eteun arki yan.
Please come here.
teta rok yan.
Please sit here.
tanpe e yan.
Please eat this.
aynu itak ye yan.
Please speak in Ainu.
aekiroroan oruspe en-epakasnu yan.
Please tell me an interesting story.
"apunno paye yan!" "apunno oka yan!"
"Goodbye!" "Goodbye!"
In the example 11, you can see Ainu greeting for farewell. As you can see, there are two phrases: apunno paye yan and apunno oka yan, both translating into 'goodbye' in English. In a situation of visiting a friends house and the visitor leaving, the one who stays says apunno paye yan—'please go safely'—to the friend who is leaving and the person who is leaving says apunno oka yan—literally 'please be/stay safely'—to the person who stays at the place. If the farewell is happening in a public place, let's say a railway station, both say apunno paye yan, because either of the parties is not going to stay at the station but both go home.
Another way to give orders is to attach the sentence final particle hani 'do xxx if you don't mind; would you; could you' at the end of the plain imperative sentence. It's quite difficult to try to translate hani into English; it's still a firm request, but not as abrupt and harsh as the commands without hani. Hani makes the demand softer than using just the plain imperative sentence, more of a gentle reminder, but it can't be used towards people of higher rank than the speaker. It's often used when talking to children, one's juniors, or sick people. Unlike yan 'please do', hani doesn't require plural form of the verb.
The initial /h/ of hani is often pronounced kind of weakly and it can sound as ani.
Both yan 'please do' and hani 'do xxx if you don't mind; would you; could you' can be used in the same sentence. The request becomes softer than with just plain yan. The yan + hani combo is often pronounced as yanani 'please do xxx if you don't mind; would you please; could you please' with the /h/ sound dropped.
en-nure hani!
Would you tell me (about it). (Lit. Make me listen to it if you don't mind.)
pirkano mokor hani! (from Tamura 2000: 242)
Sleep well!
tanukuran sinewe eek hani. (Sato 2008: 81)
Come and see me (at my place) tonight. (Lit. Come tonight in order to visit.)
uwenewsar yan hani! (from Tamura 1996)
Please do have a nice chat together.
kanna suy sonno arki yan hani.
Please certainly come again.
We have learnt the word sinewe 'to go an visit (a friend)' earlier and we also learned that it's an intransitive verb. However, you should have noticed something weird going on in example sentence 13. The verb sinewe is just placed right before another verb, eek 'to come to do something' and there is no conjunction in between these two verbs (for example wa 'and then' could be expected). As if... sinewe was the object of the transitive verb eek?! And that actually seems to be the case.
The thing is that all the intransitive verbs in Ainu can be potentially converted into nouns. Some of them are more likely to be interpreted as nouns as others but every intransitive has a potential to become a noun. We have actually learnt many of these already, for example verb ipe 'to have a meal' becomes noun ipe 'meal; food', verb itak 'to talk; to speak' converts into noun itak 'language; speech; words', and verb mokor 'to sleep' becomes noun mokor 'sleep'. This shouldn't really be a difficult concept to grasp for an English speaker, because in English these kinds of conversions are very frequent (ex. to love (V)/love (N); to hunt (V)/a hunt (N); to win (V)/a win (N), etc.).
Another interpretation is that eek 'to come to do something' is here not just a normal transitive verb but an auxiliary verb, so it can attach right after the verb sinewe (in its plain/imperative form) without any conjunction between. However, it seems that eek is not categorized by the Ainu researchers as an auxiliary verb, which might be a slip or then there is a reason (unknown for me) for it.
What if you want someone not to do something? You can simply attach the adverb iteki 'don't' in the beginning of the sentence to make it a prohibition.
The same rules of politeness apply to prohibitions as imperatives: iteki + plain verb is the most direct (and rudest) prohibition, iteki + verb + yan makes a polite prohibition, and iteki + verb + hani is a soft and gentle prohibition.
Iteki can be used also without a verb to mean 'don't do that!' or 'stop it!' as a kind of exclamation.
iteki!
Don't (do it)! / Stop it!
iteki eteun ek!
Don't come here!
iteki potara yan!
Don't worry!
iteki cis no mokor hani! (from Tamura 1996)
Sleep without crying!
iteki omkekar yan hani. (from Sato 2008: 72)
Please don't catch a cold!
ekasi mokor wa. iteki eytasa e-hawe aste!
Granpa is sleeping, you know. Don't make too much noise!
iteki cape haw ki hani! (from Tamura 1996)
Don't mew like a cat!
iteki teta tanpaku ku yan!
Please don't smoke here.
Just like when two sentences, of which the first one has a negation (somo or any of the lexical negated verbs), are joined, the conjunctive particle no 'without doing' is mostly used instead of wa 'and then' (see example sentence 15). If the conjunction no is used, the scope of prohibition ends at no, but if wa is used, the scope of prohibition assumably continues after the wa, too (I can't find a good example of this kind of use). So, iteki iku no ek 'come without drinking (alcohol)' but iteki iku wa ek 'don't come and drink/don't come drinking'.
We already learned the conjunction na 'so (suggestion/order)' in the lesson 8 but let's review it here because it's one way to ask people to do things. This is an indirect way to suggest and ask people to do something or express one's expectation on the other person's actions.
As we already learned earlier, na is used to express the reason for request: 'xxx, so do yyy'. The motivation or reason for the request comes first (the xxx part) and the request/command/suggestion/expectation follows na (the yyy part). The motivation (the xxx part) can of course be a long complex sentence, too. Some times the request comes first, and the explanation with na attached comes after ('do yyy. xxx na.').
The request is often dropped and the speaker assumes the listener then understands what is asked for, if not anything else than just some sort of answer or verbal reaction.
When speaking and the both reason and the request are explicitly said, na is pronounced short and fast and there is no pause after the conjunction. But if na comes at the end of sentence and the request is left unsaid, it's often pronounced with a long vowel: /naa/.
The prohibition is formed with iteki 'don't.
cup ri na hopuni! (from Tamura 2000: 176)
The sun is high (in the sky), so get up.
ku-merayke na puyar asi hani!
I'm cold, so close the window, if you don't mind!
pekotope isam na hok kusu arpa!
There is no milk left, so go and buy some!
e-iperusuy yakun aep poronno an na e yan.
If you are hungry, there is a lot of food, so please eat.
asir itak eci-epakasnu na.
I'll teach you a new word (so, memorize it/so, listen carefully, etc.).
e-sinki siri ne na.
You seem tired (so, rest/so, sit down for a while, etc.)
If the actual demand or suggestion is omitted when using na, you can again make the implied request softer and gentler by attaching hani after na. Na hani combines the implicit command or suggestion omitted after na and the gentleness and softness of hani, and it means something like 'so, be so nice and do' or 'so, kindly do'. This structure is not used so often but I'll add it here for curiosity.
nani ku-suke na hani!
I'll cook food soon, so (be so nice to set the table / help me to cook / etc.)
ihurayep poronno an na hani!
There is a lots of laundry, so (help me to wash it, if you don't mind; etc.)
kusne na (hani) or kusune na (hani) is another way to express indirect request. If we break down the structure, we have kus(u)ne 'be going to; intend to', na 'so', and optionally softening hani 'if you don't mind; be so nice and do'. When the verb before kus(u)ne na (hani) has the 2nd person marker attached, the literal meaning becomes 'You are going to do xxx, so (be a good boy/girl and) do it...'.
In the case of prohibiting something, iteki 'don't' is used instead of somo 'not'.
If the sentence before kus(u)ne na (hani) has the 1st person as a subject, it is not about actual request but just a sentence in first person + kus(u)ne 'be going to' + na hani)'so be so kind and do' (examples 35 and 36). In this case, the na hani part softens the tone of the utterance along the lines of 'I'll do it, so no worries'.
e-ek kusune na.
Come. (Lit. You are going to come, so...)
iteki eytasa e-cis kusne na. (adapted from Sato 2008: 127)
Don't cry so much. (Lit. You won't cry excessively, so...)
iteki e-eyruska kusne na hani! (adapted from Sato 2008: 388)
Don't get angry, won't you! (Lit. You are not going to get angry about it, so please be so nice (to stay calm etc.))
hoskino eci-rekreku kusu ne na hani! (from Tamura 1996)
I'll say first a riddle to you (so, you don't have to do anything).
k-onaha oro ta ku-teskar kusne na hani. (Sato 2008: 72)
I'll inform my father (about it) (so, don't worry).
When the subject of the sentence is the 2nd person and the sentence starts with ikiya 'possibly; might do' and ends with na 'so', it expresses a concerned warning, 'be careful, you might ...!' or more indirectly 'be careful not to'.
ikiya e-hacir na. (from Tamura 2000: 177)
Be careful not to fall down.
poronno topenpe e-e ayne ikiya e-honi arka na. (adapted from Tamura 2000: 177)
Be careful, if you eat much sweets, you might end up getting your stomach hurting. (Lit. You eat a lot of sweets and finally your stomach possibly hurts, so...)
Nankor is an auxiliary verb of conjecture and assumption. It has two functions: Used with past events, it expresses certainty—'must have been; there's no doubt; I'm sure'—, and with future events, uncertainty: 'maybe; probably; perhaps; I guess'. We learn more about nankor in the next lesson. Nankor probably comes originally from the verb nankor 'to be trustworthy' that we learned in the lesson about special verb forms.
nankor na 'you may want to' means literally 'maybe, so... ; I guess, so...', but when used after a sentence with 2nd person as the subject, it forms an implicit request: 'I'm just here speculating that perhaps you might want to do this, so...'. The sense of request comes even clearer when nankor is followed by na 'so'. Notice that due to sound assimilation, nankor na is pronounced as /nankonna/.
asir e-kor kanpisos en-nukare nakor.
You might want to show your new book to me. (= I want you to show me your new book.)
e-kor hapo e-nukar nankor. (from Tamura 2000: 243)
I expect that you'll go see your mother.
ku-kor pe e-hosipire nankor na.
You may want to return my things. (= I want you to return my stuff.)
pirkano e-uuspare wa e-ye nankor na. (from Tamura 2000: 243)
I trust that you will pass (my) message on properly.
We have learnt so far different ways to command or request things from others but now we learn how to give advice with yak pirka 'it would be good; should do; it's best to' and yak wen 'it would be bad; should not do; it's best not to'. This expression consists of the then conjunctive particle yak 'if you do the consequences will be ...' and intransitive verb pirka 'to be good' or wen 'to be bad'.
The lesson 8 is the first lesson about conjunctions but we didn't learn yak yet. However, we learnt its emphatic version yakun 'if that's the case', instead (from yak 'if you do the consequences will be ...' and emphatic particle un). The reason we didn't learn the plain form yak yet is because it's mostly used in this pattern, which we are learning here right now! Sometimes you can also see the emphatic yakun used in this pattern instead of yak.
This is something an adult can say to another adult but for a person of lower position than oneself, so the listener is expected to comply with the advise. So, actually what we see here is yet another indirect request.
The conjunction/final particle na 'so' can be added at the end of the the phrase yak pirka to make it more clear that the speaker wants the listener to follow the advice. So, it becomes even more clearly another type of indirect demand.
When advising someone not to do something or that they can't do something, the adverb of prohibition iteki 'don't' is used together with yak pirka 'should do; it's best to do'.
e-sinki yakun e-sini yak pirka.
If you are tired, you should rest. (Lit. if you are tired, it is best if you rest.)
toan suwop e-kor wa e-soyne yak pirka na. (adapted from Tamura 2000: 245)
It's best if you take that box outside.
tan kusuri e-ku yak pirka!
You should take this medicine!
anun kor pe e-uk yak wen!
It's not OK to take other people's stuff!
pirkano somo e-mokor no somo e-sini yak wen na.
It's bad if you don't sleep and rest properly.
iteki eytasa arikikino monrayke yak pirka na.
You shouldn't drudge too diligently.
Now that we have learnt how to demand and order people to do things and give advice to people, it's also good to know how to say how to give them permission to do something. This is done in Ainu with the phrase yakka pirka 'you can do; it's OK to do; it's fine if you do'.
If you want to say that someone doesn't have to do something or it's OK not to do something, you need to negate the sentence before yakka pirka. This is not a prohibition, so the negation is done using somo 'not' or when appropriate, using any of lexical negated verbs.
e-e yakka pirka. (from Tamura 1996)
You can eat (it). / It's OK if you to eat (it). (Lit. Even if you eat it, it's good.)
toanpe eci-kore na e-uk yakka pirka.
I give that to you, so you can take it (it's OK for you to take it). (Lit. I give that to you, so even if you take it, it's good.)
somo e-e yakka pirka.
You don't have to eat (it). / It's OK if you don't eat (it). (Lit. Even if you don't eat it, it's good.)
e-nepki ka somo ki yakka pirka wa. sini yan! (Lit. Even if you don't work, it's good.)
You don't have to work. Please rest!
There is also expression yakka wen that uses the verb wen 'to be bad' instead of pirka 'to be good'. Yakka wen doesn't express permission but in general that even if some action was done, as a result was pointless, futile, useless, and vain.
eci-tere yakka wen. (adapted from Tamura 1996)
I waited for you but it was pointless. (You didn't come)
poronno ku-itak yakka wen. (from Tamura 1996)
Even if I talked a lot, it was no good. (They didn't listen to what I was saying, etc.)
k-amipi kanna kanna ku-huraye yakka wen.
I wash my clothes many times but it was useless. (The dirt wouldn't come off, etc.)
Here we are again at the end of a lesson and it's time to summarize what we just learned.
Imperative forms of Ainu
Plain verb as-is
A straightforward way to request and demand
Can be considered rude
ex. a! 'sit!', ipe! 'eat!', ek 'come!'
Sentence final particle yan 'please do'
Polite requests and demands
If the intransitive verb has a special plural form, it must be used.
ex. rok yan! 'please sit!', ipe yan! 'please eat!', arki yan! 'please come!'
Sentence final particle hani 'be so nice and do'
Softens and makes the request more gentle
Used towards "weak" people (children, people of lower rank than the speaker, sick people)
Can be combined with yan to yan hani 'be so nice and please do'
Prohibitions formed with iteki 'don't'
ex. iteki a! 'don't sit!', iteki ipe hani! 'be son nice and don't eat', iteki arki yan! 'please don't come!'
Indirect requests and demands
na 'so, (request/demand/suggestion)'
Used in many other types indirect requests, too
na hani 'so, be so nice and do'
kus(u)ne na (hani) '(be so nice and) do, will you'
ikiya ... na 'be careful not to do'
nankor na 'you may want to do'
Advice/indirect request yak pirka/yak wen 'should do/should not do'
iteki 'don't' can be used together with yak pirka to form a prohibition
ex. e-ek yak pirka 'you should come'; iteki e-ek yak pirka 'you shouldn't come'; e-ek yak wen 'it's not OK if you come'
Permission yakka pirka 'it's OK to do; you can do'
negative form is made with somo 'not'
yakka wen 'it's useless to do; is no good' is used when the result of the action turned out bad
ex. e-ek yakka pirka 'you can come'; iteki e-ek yakka pirka 'it's better if you don't come'; e-ek yakka wen 'you came but it turned out useless'
Now we know the imperative form of Ainu. Just like in any language, there are several ways to indirectly demand or request people to do things and we have learnt many of those methods, too.
In the next lesson, we continue to explore modality in Ainu and learn a bunch of auxiliary verbs that can express mood.
Created on 2024/8/29, Latest update on 2024/10/21