Irminfä - Nouns II

Introduction to noun aspects in Irminfä

Irminfä nouns also inflect for 'aspects' (a term adopted in the absence of proper terminology), which is unique in human languages. Put in simple terms, Irminfä nouns have a system of inflection similar to verb tenses, distinguished for different existential states. Irminfä recognises that a flower that exists now is different from a flower that existed in the past, which is again different from a withered flower that used to exist with the vigour of a flower but has lost it, and is distinguished from a flower that has never existed, but either has shape only in imagination, in wishes and desires, and in plans, or will exist at a certain point in the future.

Thus there are four aspects for the Irminfä noun:

1. The synchronous aspect: nouns in this aspect represent objects that exist at the moment of talking, or objects that exist eternally with no obvious change, such as the sun in its literal sense.

2. The 'historial' aspect: denoting objects that existed in the past time with respect to the moment of talking. N.B. The historical aspect isn't used for nouns that actually exist in a narrative in the past tense. For example, the word 'flower' should be in the 'present' aspect in a sentence like 'I saw a flower', but in the historical in 'I remembered the flower he had given me last Friday' and in the subjunctive (see point 4) in 'I was planning to buy flowers for my mother'. Remember that aspects are ontic, rather than chronological, properties of a noun.

3. The 'continuous' aspect: is an aspect that links the past with the present, denoting an object that came into being in the past and still in existence, but have naturally declined in quality, or have simply undergone significant changes in quality. A 'withered flower' should be enough to illustrate this.

4. The 'subjunctive' aspect: works the same way verb subjunctive does in many European languages. But it is also compulsory when referring to something that will definitely exist in the future with respect to the moment of speaking, as well as something whose existence is desired, planned and uncertain. As long as the object referred to doesn't exist at the moment and has never existed, it is in the subjunctive aspect.