For this article we'll be looking at particles and affixes in the Isu language. In English as well as many other languages, we have prepositions which help to describe how words or phrases relate to the rest of the sentence, such as "inside" or "above" or "for." Isu has essentially the same class of words, but because they come after the word they refer to instead of before, we call them postpositions. Postpositions in Isu can also be used as prefixes for verbs to modify the meaning of the verb. Think of the difference between the words "act" and "enact" or "communicate" and "excommunicate." The postpositions known to exist in the Isu language, along with their Proto-Indo-European "descendants," are as follows:

Postpositions/Prefixes

• Apo, meaning "from," related to the PIE *apó

• Arhz, meaning "out," related to the PIE *éǵʰs

• Az, meaning "at," related to the PIE *ád

• Bṛ, meaning "before," related to the PIE *per-

• Chaz, meaning "toward," related to the PIE *ḱe- + *ád

• Chṇ, meaning "with," related to the PIE *ḱóm

• Chṇtæ, meaning "against," related to the PIE *ḱómteros (*ḱóm + *-teros)

• Hṇ, meaning "in," related to the PIE *h₁én

• Hṇdṛ, meaning "amidst," related to the PIE *h₁entér (*h₁én + *-tér)

• Ṇ, meaning "not," related to the PIE *n̥-

• Ṛ, perhaps meaning "for" and also used to form infinitives, related to the PIE *r̥

• Ubo, meaning "below," related to the PIE *upó

• Wṛ, meaning "again," related to the PIE *wert-

• Zo, meaning "concerning," related to the PIE *do

Notes

• The suffixe -tæ forms a contrast to a postposition (e.g. "with" becomes "against").

• The prefix ch- alters the meaning of a postposition in a way that adds contextual information, known in linguistics as deixis (e.g. "in" becomes "with", "at" becomes "toward").

• Presumably, the Isu word for "above" would be ubṛ, related to PIE *upér

Isu also has a number of suffixes that can turn a word into a different but related word, like how "congregate" can become "congregation" or "wonder" can become "wonderment" in English. The known suffixes and their functions are as follows:

Suffixes

• -æs forms an action noun from a verb (similar but not related to English "-tion")

• -dach forms an agent noun from a verb (supposedly a more archaic alternative to -ér below)

• -drṃ forms an agent noun from a verb (specifically used for tools, e.g. zḷvdrṃ "shovel")

• -ér forms an agent noun from a verb (virtually identical but not necessarily related to English "-er")

• -mṇ forms a result noun from a verb (equivalent to English "-ment")

• -ṇd forms the gerundive (possibly also gerund) of a verb (similar but not related to English "-ing")

• -nos forms an adjective from a noun or verb (equivalent to English "-en" in wooden, golden)

• -os forms a noun from an adjective (similar but not necessarily related to English "-ness")

• -rhú forms a collective noun (so far only confirmed to describe groups of people, e.g. komhaæzrhú "council")

• -to forms the past participle of a verb (similar but not related to English "-en" in stolen, proven)

An action noun refers to the process of doing an action, an agent noun refers to the person or thing doing the action and a result noun refers to the result of doing an action. The gerundive is a form of a verb that acts as an adjective describing someone or something doing the action, such as in the phrase "howling winds."

There are a few known conjunctions in Isu, which are as follows:

Conjunctions

• Hṇu, meaning "but"

• Ig, meaning “or"

• -kwat, meaning "and" when suffixed to the second of two words, related to the PIE *-kʷe

• Ḷ, meaning "and," used for joining clauses rather than individual words

Other Particles

• De makes the preceding verb progressive (meaning that the action is ongoing)

More Isu Studies

You can find more articles on the Isu language linked here: Understanding the Isu Language: The Basics