A guide to Gevey clauses

Gevey brings together actions, objects and modifiers in the form of clauses. Clauses come in a number of different flavours, or clause forms, which are described below.

It is common for a Gevey clause to be introduced by a conjunction (further information about conjunctions can be found on the Gevey conjunctions webpage). There is a good correlation between the type of conjunction used to introduce the clause, the clause form, and the conjugation model that the clause's principal verb will follow.

Clause form

Six different clause forms are encountered in Gevey:

• The commonest (and default) form of clause met in Gevey is the free clause - this clause contains all the essential information within itself to be understood, and is often introduced by a coordinating conjunction.
• A qualified clause, on the other hand, relies on a previous clause to provide some of the key information needed to make it understood. These are similar to the Ramajal dependent clauses, and are introduced by dependent conjunctions.
• The mutual clause is a special form of qualified clause. Mutual clauses normally come in pairs or threes, with each clause relying on the other(s) for key information.
• Tethered clauses are in fact special adaptions of free, qualified or mutual clauses. When two adjacent clauses share the same subject, the second clause can be converted into a tethered clause (by adapting the introductory conjunction). Tethered clauses are especially favoured in Gevey, and will be used whenever possible.
• There is a special class of conjunctions in Gevey called predicate conjunctions, which roughly equate with the Ramajal interrogative words when, where, how, why, how much, if and "is it that". In Gevey, these conjunctions may introduce statement clauses or question clauses - to tell the difference between a statement and a question, a statement form uses a free clause format, while the question form uses the interrogative clause format.
• Finally, relative clauses are used where one clause acts as an extended modifier to an object in a second clause. More detailed information on relative clauses can be found on the relative clause webpage.

Tethered clauses

Any free, qualified or mutual clause can be adapted into a tethered clause, by changing the conjunction that introduces the clause into a subjective conjunction, dropping the clause's subject and remodelling the verb to the secondary conjugation. But this can only take place when there is another clause present (usually a free clause) which shares the same subject as the adapted clause. An example follows:

• Dxone yux drjakispenue dxinesk
• John is 28 years old
• yu dvundizd bekase ke
• he is a teacher
• yum dostcisem dvundase takrasovnisu Gevileps ke
• he teaches languages at a school in Gevile
• ye totjap tcat ya Ánjem bekherald bao gaecate swadxinsuljsec hutcixuc ke
• he met his wife, Anne, five years ago
• yem drjasue djoirj stigasye mek
• they have two children
• Petre âl Mare yum men her êe
• they are called Peter and Mary
• ĩČĆĽČĂ ơČĉż ĠœČĀĮČąŭĐČĂĽčĈ ĩČĄĽČăŭIJ, ƢČĀƍČĂ ơČĈ ĠŝČĉŀğČąƮ ĕČĂĮČĆŪČĂ, ƢČĈĩČĂ ơČĉĻ ğČćŭĤČĄŪČăĻ ĠŝČĉŀğČĆŪČĂ ĚČĀįŎČĀŪČ檼ȥŪČĈ ijČÜȥƍČăēų. ơČĂ ĚČĆŠČāē ĤČāĝ ơČĀ ƉČĀłČăĻ ĕČăıƈČĂŌČāƐģ ĕĎĆ ijčĀŴČĀĚČĂ ūƙČĀĩČąŀŪČĉƕŪČăŷ ƈČĈĤČĄŹČĉŷ ĮČĂ, ĖƔčċŭ ơČăĻ ĠœČĀŪčĈ ťčċŔ ƦČĄijČĀūƣČĂ ĸČăı, ƢČāƐ ĐČĂěŎČĂ ƢČāƐ ĸČĀŌČĂ ơČĉĻ ĸČăŀ ƈČăŏ ƢčĂ
• ʤɒ.ne jʊʒ dɹæ.kɪs.pe.nʌ ʤɪ.nesk, ʲæ.le jʊ dvʊn.dɪzd be.kɒ.se, ʲʊ.ʤe jʊm dɒs.ʧɪ.sem dvʊn.dɒ.se tæ.kræ.sɒv.nɪ.sʊ ge.vɪ.lebz. je tɒ.tʲæp ʧæt jæ ʰæ.ɲem bek.he.ræld bɔ geɪ.ʃæ.te sʍæ.ʤɪn.sʊɫ.seʃ hʊ.ʧɪ.ʒʊʃ ke, bɫɔɪs jem dɹæ.sʌ dʲɔɪɹ stɪ.gæ.sje mek, ʲæl pe.tre ʲæl mæ.re jʊm men her ʲī
• Dxone yux drjakispenue dxinesk, âle yu dvundizd bekose, ûdxe yum dostcisem dvundose takrasovnisu Gevilebz. Ye totjap tcat ya Ánjem bekherald bao gaecate swadxinsuljsec hutcixuc ke, bljois yem drjasue djoirj stigasye mek, âl Petre âl Mare yum men her êe

Tethered clauses add a suffix to the introductory conjunction to indicate that the following clause is tethered to the preceeding clause. There are two sets of suffixes, which reflect whether the dropped subject in the tethered clause is being emphasised or not. More information on these suffixes can be found on the Gevey focus webpage.

Gevey speakers tend to use tethered clauses whenever they can, as they are seen as more "right", more integrated (and more native) than untethered clauses.

Phrases

In real situation use, people do not use full free clauses to talk to each other. Instead, conversation (and narritive) can be seen as an iterative process, each new pronouncement adding to the detail of previous pronouncements. It is thus typical that people will only add the new or amended detail to the conversation, without repeating old detail. This leads to the development of phrases (different to object and action phrases), incomplete free clauses which are missing objects, actions or modifiers. It is important to remember that phrases are derived from fully detailed, free clauses (and, to a lesser extent, other types of clauses) which can be rebuilt in the listener's mind based on the pronouncements preceeding and the new information just divulged. Leaving out a word or two from a phrase in Gevey does not require the rest of the phrase to adapt its grammar to compensate for the missing words - indeed it is important that all the words presented are grammatically correct as if the missing words were present.