Compounds (e-)
Providing a root for every concept would be extremely impractical and isn’t great for memorization. Complex concepts are often built upon multiple primitive concepts, and compounds are used for this purpose.
Compounds allow the transformation of any string of valid Eberban words (particles, roots and borrowings) into a single unit. While a compound ignores the grammatical rules of the individual words, its meaning should (to a certain extent) be related.
A compound start with either e, en, er, respectively starting a compound composed of two, three, or more words. er-compounds stop when a single e is encountered (with a space before it). Spaces can be inserted between any parts of the compound.
If the first word starts with a vowel (a borrowing or A/O particle) then the pause before this vowel is optional. NI particles needs to be prefixed by a pause or space to not be confused with the en start.
Compounds have unique and fixed meanings which are defined in the dictionary, and while the definition of each one can be arbitrary, they usually provide arguments taken from their individual components. Usually, the most important word is the rightmost one, and additional words are added to the left to help narrow down the meaning, yielding greater precision.
It is common to lexicalize a borrowing by making a compound with it. Cultural concepts are borrowed with endonyms, sounding similar to the original word.
A compound have the same transitivity as its last/rightmost component (transitive/intransitive + if that place is bounded with sharing/equivalence). If the compound transitivity should differ from that component, an extra word is added in the compound among the followings:
- se: intransitive sharing
- sa: transitive sharing
- sai: transitive equivalence
Other particles that cannot be used directly as predicates are considered intransitive sharing.
e ber ban :
[tca man] is the eberban language.
- ber :
[E:tce* man] reflects this language (eberban).- ban :
[E:tce* man] is a language.
e uinglic ban :
[E:tca ban] is the english language.
- uinglic : borrowing of “english”.
- ban :
[E:tce* man] is a language.
e gzon sa :
[E:tce pan] plays game [A:tce* pan].
- gzon :
[E:tce* man] is a game.- sa: We’re making a transitivite version of gzon.
Nesting
A compound can itself appear as a component of another compound, allowing structured grouping rather than writing everything flat. The nested compound simply takes the position of a component:
e e ber ban ban : outer 2-compound whose first component is the nested compound e ber ban (and whose second component is ban).
Shorthand for adjacent prefixes
When two compound prefixes appear directly next to each other (the inner compound is the first component of the outer, with no space between the outer prefix and the inner prefix), they can be written as a single unit. Since ee collapses to a single e in the morphology, the vowel of each prefix past the first is spelled as i when the previous letter is e, and stays e otherwise. The arity consonant (n or r) is unchanged.
| Full form | Shorthand |
|---|---|
| e e A B | ei A B |
| e e e A B C | eie A B C |
| e en A B C | ein A B C |
| en e A B C | ene A B C |
| en en A B C D | enen A B C D |
| e en e A B C D | eine A B C D |
| e e en A B C D | eien A B C D |
Writing e i … (with a space between the outer e and an inner i) is not allowed: the i vowel is reserved for the attached shorthand. To spell it out with a space, use e e … with both prefixes written as e.
Dictionary entries always store compounds in this shortest canonical form.