How to Form Negative, Opposite Adjectives and Adverbs

Original question text:

> Recently I was solving question, how to create opposite or negative adjectives and adverbs. As it seemed that we do not have safe way how to do it, I asked our biggest authority and today I received reply. Paul promised to release these information also on Naviteri, but for those impatient here's short excerpt:
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Original correspondence text:

> NEGATIVE ADJECTIVES
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> Here are some pairs we already know about:
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> | **teng** 'same, equal'
>  | **keteng** 'different'
> | **eyawr** 'correct'
>  | **keyawr** 'incorrect'
> | **tsuktswa'** 'forgettable'
>  | **ketsuktswa'** 'unforgettable'
> | **lesar** 'useful'
>  | **kelsar** 'useless'
> | **lefpomtokx** 'healthy'
>  | **kelfpomtokx** 'unhealthy'
> | **lekin** 'necessary'
>  | **kelkin** 'unnecessary'
> | **letsunslu** 'possible'
>  | **keltsun** 'impossible'
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> So from these examples we can derive a rule:
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> To form the negative of an adjective, use the negative prefix ke-. Note, however, that for le- adjectives, \*kele... > kel...  There are also some idiosyncrasies: for example, **keltsunslu** is usually reduced to simply **keltsun**. Also, \*keeyawr > **keyawr** by the general rule that two identical vowels coalesce into one.
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> This is a productive process when there aren't separate lexical items in the dictionary like the ones you pointed out: **tsawl** ~ **hì'i**, **koak** ~ **'ewan**, etc. So there's no \*ketsawl, \*kehì'i, \*kekoak, \*ke'ewan, just as in English we don't have \*unyoung, \*unold, \*unbig, \*unsmall
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> NEGATIVE ADVERBS
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> here too, a couple of dictionary entires point the way to the rule:
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> | **nìkelkin** 'unnecessarily'
> | **nìktungzup** 'carefully, firmly'
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> In the first example, nì- is added to a negative adjective to form a negative adverb.
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> In the second, nì- is added to a negative verb: nì + (ke + **tungzup**). That is, "in a way that doesn't drop" or (in fractured English) undroppingly. :-)
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> So negative adverbs generally start with nì + ke, since they're usually built up from nì- along with a negative adjective or verb. But contractions occur. For example, nì + ke usually becomes nìk-, as in **nìktungzup**.
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> So what would "impatiently" be? Well, remember that **maweypey** is a verb meaning "be patient." "Be impatient" is simply **ke maweypey**.
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> The adverb "patiently" is derived this way: nì + **maweypey** = nìmaweypey > **nìmweypey**. (The unstressed a has dropped.)
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> In the same way, the adverb "impatiently" is derived as follows: nì + ke + **maweypey** = nìkemaweypey > **nìkemweypey**. (Again, the unstressed a has dropped, which means the e of ke cannot drop.)
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Original question text:

> how to create "impatient"?
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> we have le+**maweypey** > **lemweypey**. According rules you gave me I should just add ke-, and if le- is present, it changes to kel-.
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> So, ke+**lemweypey** > \*kelmweypey, what breaks rules for syllable creation.
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Original correspondence text:

> Yes, you're right. That is an additional little detail to consider.
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> The same problem occurs in "impatiently." As I mentioned yesterday, I derived that word like this:
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> In the same way, the adverb "impatiently" is derived as follows: nì + ke + **maweypey** = nìkemaweypey > **nìkemweypey**. (Again, the unstressed a has dropped, which means the e of ke cannot drop.)
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> The question here is what happens to the underlying form \*nìkemaweypey. There are two unstressed vowels that are eligible for dropping:
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> * nìkemaweypey
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> I feel pretty certain that as the language evolved, one or the other of these vowels would drop. But which one?
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> If the e drops, we get *nìkmaweypey*.
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> If the a drops, we get *nìkemweypey*.
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> Either of these developments could be justified. I went with the second form, which sounds more natural to me. So it's the a of **mawey** that dropped.
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> The situation with the adjective form is similar.
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> The underlying form is \*kelemaweypey. Again, the two unstressed vowels eligible for dropping are:
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> * kelemaweypey
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> If the e drops, we get *kelmaweypey*.
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> If the a drops, we get *kelemweypey*.
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> Again, I went with the second form. This has the advantage of giving us the nice pairs **lemweypey**/**kelemweypey**.
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> So a more accurate form of the "kele-" rule is:
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> * kele- > kel-, unless it would create an impermissible consonant cluster, in which case it remains kele-.
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*Originally received on August 12th, 2013*