Friday, September 20, 2019

Grammar Crumbs: Suējuga X, īðanǭðan Y: The X-er the Y-er

In Valthungian there is a handy formula: Suējuga ___, īðanǭðan ___. 
This is roughly equivalent to the English formula “the ___-er the ___-er.”
Literally it translates to “So much ___, that then still then ___.” (Gothic gets weird with its conjunctions, and Valthungian just doubles down on them.) The comparative form of the adjective should be in its uninflected adverbial form (usually –is if its inflected form takes –iža).
E.g.
Suējuga mikilis, īðanǭðan batis. ‘The bigger the better.’
Suējuga langis lečiðit, īðanǭðan vresis gengiðit wisna. ‘The longer it takes, the worse it will be.’
You can also use the same construction with mǣs / mǣža or mitnis / mitniža and noun phrases, e.g.
Suējuga mat mǣžna ǣgums, īðanǭðan grēðo mitnižna (ǣgums). ‘The more food we have, the less hungry we’ll be.’
Suējuga birœ́uǧistu mǣs, īðanǭðan tīman langižna þik lētiþ þat guþ þīna ta livna. ‘The more you complain, the longer your God lets you live.’

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