Windup Armadillo

Wanna see a windup armadillo?

http://gracedpalmer.livejournal.com/15277.html?view=38061#t38061

The other art is very spiffy, but the armadillo actively improved my day.

Eldertongue: Possessives and Causality

Eldertongue's possessives are formed in a fashion very similar to its adjectives. The cue word for a possessive is zhid, and the appropriate noun or pronoun follows. Note that ab for first-person and o for second-person may be used here, but that they must have the appropriate modifiers for proximity, gender, and plurality.

Ruluv maroo zhid burjozo.
The woman's dog is about to follow you.

The possessive needs to be placed after all adjectives appropriate to the noun, or the adjectives will attach to the possessing noun instead, as demonstrated below.

Ibul maburjoz odaroo doun jiniz zhid burjozo di.
The person is about to observe the woman's sick dog. (the person is present; the woman is not present)

Ibul maburjoz odaroo zhid burjozo di doun jiniz.
The person is about to observe the sick woman's dog. (the person is present; the woman is not present)

If zhid is used with a verb, then it indicates a causative relationship. http://mypage.iu.edu/~shetter/miniatures/causat.htm has an excellent explanation of causative relationships, but, to summarize, zhid is used to recognize what caused the action in the sentence to happen.

Mornuv maroog odoudin.
The dog is about to hunt the deer.

Mornuv zhid burjoz maroog odoudin.
The person is about to cause the dog to hunt the deer.

The basic causative relationship word zhid incorporates either physical force or a verbal order. There are, however, two other causative words used under special circumstances.

zhidje: This word indicates "caused by persuasion" or, under some circumstances, "caused by intimidation" or "caused by social pressure". Zhidje is most appropriately used when the subject is a person, although it can be used in certain situations for animals or anthropomorphized targets.

zhidzor: This word indicates "caused by magic". A strong belief in magic is part of the mindset of Eldertongue's native speakers, and this may reflect a blessing, curse, enchantment, or any variety of magical effect. It is also the appropriate attribution for any action caused by a spirit or god.

When looking at an indirect effect, a causative relationship is often specified. For example, where an English speaker would say, "I threw the ball through the window," an Eldertongue speaker would be more likely to say, "I caused the ball to fly through the window" (if the window were open) or "I caused the ball to break the window" (if the window were closed). The subject would be the ball, but the same effect would be expressed.

More vocabulary posting is due... but not just now.