Verbal Mood II: Grammatical Mood

[@Eric_Pham]

"linguist are bad at naming things" how ironic

[@Artifexian]

I know, right!

[@merrittanimation7721]

Well they are a kind of scientist.

[@toothpastereal]

You beat me to it. U¬U

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

I've often thought we need to methodically rename all linguistics terminology. Recently I've come up with the idea of an "Encapsulated Linguistics" conlang, like the Encapsulated Science one that a group has started. In that we could structure linguistics terms how we liked, and effectively start anew.

[@sortagoodish8491]

@@MatthewMcVeagh so... Use linguistics to make a language to make discussion of linguistics easier? Yeah sounds reasonable.

[@Οδοιπόρος]

Me: I didn't quite get that, can you say it again? Artifexian: Which part didn't you get? Me: The part after "let's talk grammatical mood"

[@novvain495]

Oh look, another verb video where he explains it super well but I still don't have the necessary IQ to understand it

[@mariabaxter8843]

I feel you. I'll probably have to rewatch a couple times

[@Croz89]

I like the idea of linguistics as it seems to approach language from a technical perspective, but every time it's like trying to decipher advanced mathematics which I don't understand.

[@lXBlackWolfXl]

@@Croz89 I've been studying linguistics for over a decade now, and I didn't catch most of what he said. He just went through every too fast. I mean, he covers dozens of examples within the span of a less than a minute! You only really get a few seconds to think about any of his examples before he moves on to the next one. I don't find the concept hard to understand (this is hardly the first time I've heard about it), this video is just bad in explaining it. It would've worked far better if he had just slowed down and took more time to explain all of this.

[@greyskye3513]

@@lXBlackWolfXl This in in itself is a teaching method though. To move very fast, far too fast for you to process all details at the time, will actually help you process the greater subject over a length of time. This used to be extremely common in US special forces in that in order to teach them missions, culture, and other concepts, they would use slide shows, barely showing each example before moving on so that, even though it hurt your brain at the time, with rest afterwards and time following, your brain will actually process all of these things subconsciously. When you return to learn more of this subject, you will find that a lot of it makes more sense than you realized, and the details are easier to grasp. All in all, the best thing I find for learning is to put it into practice, and very good to, after attempting to gain a basic understanding of the subject, begin writing down or telling another of the topic, while keeping yourself free to refer back to the main source(s) as needed so that your brain has a chance to relax in the process. You'll find that you understand a lot more than you initially believed. Our brains are complicated machines that never stop running and are always calculating, observing, and creating, even when we are not consciously aware of the fact.

[@tylorianfan8873]

I know that when I watch these types of videos, I typically pause at concepts I particularly want to learn, this time around. The rest I can hopefully learn passively.

[@bendumonde]

I broke up with my last conlang. It was too moody. I'll see myself out.

[@MediumDSpeaks]

TIL I actually love linguistics

[@Artifexian]

It's awesome!

[@pannekook2000]

This feels like a 300 level lecture on linguistics and I love it

[@dondizzzzzle]

THIS IS NOT A DRILL: ARTIFEXIAN HAS UPLOADED

[@Artifexian]

And the last video wasn't that long ago.

[@dondizzzzzle]

Artifexian even better

[@josephyn89]

We have been blessed.

[@AustroStudios2003]

EVERYONE GET TO YOUR STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

[@i_teleported_bread7404]

@@AustroStudios2003 Nope, it's not. It's a bilabial trill.

[@purple_purpur7379]

I could wrap my head around tenses and aspect, but this... this is impossible.

[@Artifexian]

Mood is the muddiest of the lot. Juts remember all if it boils down to the speakers perspective toward what they are saying. That's fundamentally what modality is.

[@elderscrollsswimmer4833]

Finnish has 4 moods. 3rd. Singular of istua (to sit) Potential: Vauva istunee nelikuisena. -- (I) guess the baby will sit at the age of four months". Imperative 2nd singular istu! --sit! (giving orders here) compare 2nd singular "istut" simply stating you sit/are sitting or Conditional: Istuisit. (Please sit).

[@AgglomeratiProduzioni]

1:41 I'm Italian and I've never noticed how strange and kind of irregular that is, until an Irishman told me.

[@laxpors]

I have no idea what's going on, but it's interesting none the less!

[@gravnine]

I second that

[@Rasyader]

I've tried understanding the subjunctive for months by reading wikipedia pages and I could never do it. Finally, this video helped me understand what it does. Thank you.

[@ArloDraws]

Your name..

[@mehrheitler]

@@ArloDraws It’s from a movie, look it up.

[@cadr003]

The beard is reaching to a whole nother level

[@Artifexian]

2019: the year of the beard

[@sammy3212321]

May there be (IRR) many more to come

[@laurencewilliams2597]

Still miss "let's worldbuild"

[@kolsumn]

"hello interweb, let's worldbuild. so lets say you want..."

[@kolsumn]

@Yevhenii Diomidov worldbuild, he builds a world, and then maybe a language.

[@kolsumn]

@Yevhenii Diomidov here -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/b17NkH2FjLV_oJo

[@pierreabbat6157]

Let's wordbuild!

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

I'm always in a good mood when Artifexian uploads.

[@mewtubegaming354]

I’m always in a subjunctive mood when he uploads.

[@whyit487]

*You've inspired me to start producing world-building videos on my second KZbin channel. I haven't posted any yet, I'm just posting math and history videos currently, but I already have TONS of work done already. This is the basic outline of what I have so far:* Their home planet orbits a red dwarf star Planet used to be tidally locked, yet a large asteroid impact caused a slow day-night cycle, lasting for approximately an Earth month Planet is a small amount larger than the Earth (gravity is about 12 metres per second per second) Moon is slightly smaller than Earth's moon, and has oceans 100s of kilometres deep 1 supercontinent and a massive hot spot volcanic island chain the length of Europe Liquid water ocean Species on planet originated on an island chain Species uses a modified factoradics number system (1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040, etc.) Species is obsessed with radial symmetry, unlike human’s love for bilateral symmetry. Species has exoskeletons and endoskeletons, yet is largely humanoid in shape. Language is impossible for humans to pronounce correctly, yet has similar sounds to English and other western European languages Plants’ leaves are black on top during the night, dawn, and dusk to absorb the most light, although high temperatures during the day cause the top side to contract, curling the light green undersides into a ball-like shape so that the plant doesn't overheat Species is highly advanced in biology, and has learned to control plants to build massive structures and develop cures to illnesses, yet doesn't use what we'd think of as technology (metal, machines, electricity, etc.) In early stages of development, species believed in a polytheistic religion, and thought that the island chain was the corpse of an ancient giant killed by the leader of the pantheon (rock was bones, soil was flesh, the ocean was the blood drained from the giant) When a human crew crash-lands onto one of the more remote islands, they combine their technology with the aliens, until a more aggressive empire learns of them, and a war begins, setting the stage for the story that I'm making. *Thank you SOOOOO much for the inspiration, I wouldn't have thought of this without you.*

[@Artifexian]

No probs, pal. Just had a quick look at your videos. Can I suggest adding some audio?

[@whyit487]

@@Artifexian Sure! Thanks a lot for looking at them!

[@Monkeywe]

For a moment I thought this was Justin Y

[@Chris-rn9zx]

Did... did Artifexian just upload a video?!

[@AgglomeratiProduzioni]

2:12 Note that the (extremely) informal version is only tolerated in verbal speech but not in the written language. 2:58 Little correction: you need the singular masculine determinative article "il" before both instances of "cinese" (since it's the name of a language) if you use the verb "to know" (sapere: subj. sappia, ind. sa), while you wouldn't need it if you used the verb "to speak" (parlare: subj. parli, ind. parla); the variants "know+the" and "speak" are considerable equivalent. Note that the verb "to know" (sapere) could also be translated into "conoscere": it's a little weird that being native I'm not sure how to explain the difference, but just consider that when talking about knowing languages, "conoscere" is more formal than "sapere", even if the latter can still be formal in subjunctive mood. 3:30 Technically speaking, the verb used there is in the imperative mood, whose third personal singular form historically derived from the subjunctive. Same for 3:52 because, after all, what's the difference between giving a order to a third person and wishing they do? I know you may find it, but that's so subtle it's no surprise the two concepts merged over time. Still very good though.

[@Artifexian]

Apologies for all of the above. I was verbatim quoting FR Palmer's Mood & Modality.

[@draco5991rep]

I think my mood can be described as confused :'D it is all well explained but it is so much information. I have to watch this video at least two more times. Thank you for making these Edgar.

[@Artifexian]

No probs, pal. Thanks for watching.

[@jonispatented]

Fun little feature I’ve just realized. In a lot of ways, you could consider the -a verb ending (like nomu vs noma) in Japanese to be an Irrealis form, although it’s rarely used on its own anymore instead being replaced with entirely different conjugations. If you place -nai after this verb form, though, it makes the verb negative. This may imply that they consider the negative to be Irrealis and mark it as such while, to my knowledge, they don’t really bother to mark other moods in any sort of consistent ways (anymore)

[@一的龗]

Yeah, that form (-a) in Japanese actually is called the irrealis form (未然形) and is used for not only negative constructions (like what you said, nomanai, but also nomazu), but also the volitional ("let's ..."): nomau, which in modern day is said as nomou.

[@jonispatented]

一的龗 oh wow. I knew about 飲まぬ nomanu and 飲まず nomazu already, but I didn’t know that 飲もう nomou was originally 飲まう nomau. That’s super interesting.

[@nikolajankovic96]

Are you gonna make videos about your language?

[@EowynCwper]

It's funny, this distinction in definiteness can be found in French with the subjunctive too (« je cherche une fille qui sait/sache parler anglais ») but you can also use the conditional for that purpose! « Je cherche une fille qui saurait parler anglais ». The indicative « sait » is clearly definite while the subjunctive « sache » and the conditional « saurait » are indefinite, but I have a hard time telling what distinguishes the two latter ones. Neither is more correct nor more formal or polite… Oh and I joined WorldAnvil, it's a really good website, and it comes right on time for my Allwanduir conworld project. Thanks a lot for letting us know about it!

[@Artifexian]

Awesome! World Anvil is great and Janet and Dimitri (the couple who run the site) are great peeps!

[@samt210300]

Yes! Time for the second part of mood!

[@Artifexian]

Mood II

[@imrukiitoaoffire1908]

So uh, funny story, I have a Conlang and it's Family of languages called Mayal, which firstly the name is very close to Muyuw, but also they both follow the same SVO word order, have the exact same word for I/Me 'Yey', and the Noxton variant and Muyuw are both native to tropical climates, as well the words for baby/young between the two are very similar, Myw Apwaw, Nxt Avau. *WHAT*

[@hufflepuffjoh]

The part that interested me the most here was the part about the Italian and Spanish indicative/subjunctive thing with Ada dice/Si dice and then for the definite/indefinite thing. I was really surprised of it because in French, which is really close, we don't have this opposition and we would use indicative in all cases

[@lutakip.librax4162]

Indeed, one of the rare days that I see Artifexian come back out of hiding.

[@johnhooyer3101]

A very good lesson. The best part was the end when you applied some of the unusual ideas to thinking outside of the box for conlanging. I don't know if I can speak for the rest of your target audience, but at least for myself as an autistic viewer, I do better with applied learning; that is, taking a concept and specifically applying it to an activity that I enjoy, that being worldbuilding. With that having been said, I do quite well when reading from a book, and I think that this video is a good way of bringing awareness to further research sources, and prepping people for those who want to go deeper for their dive.

[@Artifexian]

Absolutely, consume as much as you can. The more you know the better your art.

[@JoshuaHillerup]

Did you ever do a video on what is and isn't grammar?

[@battyboio]

These videos really help with my conlang for my fictional alien race,so I just have to say thank you ! ^_^

[@Artifexian]

No probs. Thanks for watching.

[@siddharth_desai]

The use of color code in this video helps so much! It's so smart and well done!

[@Kikabopom]

I've never clicked so fast

[@grimtheghastly8878]

Mood

[@josephyn89]

Same

[@stansantos4733]

Me alegra que hayas hecho este video. ”hayas hecho este video" is in subjunctive and talks about a real thing.

[@majarimennamazerinth5753]

I suggest videos on conjunctions and relative clauses. Currently struggling with them in my conlang :\

[@user-sf1uc7ft1t]

My conlang does an interesting thing in which most of the conjunctions are in the form of cases

[@majarimennamazerinth5753]

Curious... how did you avoid an overload of cases? Do verbs/adjectives have to agree with them?

[@user-sf1uc7ft1t]

@@majarimennamazerinth5753 See the language has 4 forms of verbs and only 2 of them need to agree with the noun, and adjectives also agree. About the overload of cases, my language is Oligosynthetic so it doesn't matter that much, but if there are more than 10 cases, you may add the other cases with the verb and adjectives.

[@DarylFroggy]

This seems interesting but my mind is just not in the right place to absorb it right now, need to check it later.

[@fienevandijk7224]

Sleep+indicative+habitual aspect+experientative evidentiality+possibility/doubt indicator+capacity indicator+desire indicator ≈ to want to be able to possibly sleep regularly All featured in my conlang (3 modi-5 aspects-3 evidentiality markers-3 auxiliaries= 135 combinations without doubling)

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

Now on to a science video! I am very confident we're moving on to biology now, so thats' gonna be great! Also, please, please let your next language video be about cases, I really cant wrap my head around them.

[@Artifexian]

Here ya go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoOVl2xomKZ5gbs

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

​@@Artifexian , lol, thank you, but I said cases, not classes. As in, genitive, nominative, accusative, etc., not noun genders. Or do I understand those things less than I thought? Ima watch that video again just in case I missed something.

[@laurencefraser]

​@@nuadathesilverhand3563 He linked the wrong video. You want kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4OypnZ4i5hom5o (entitled "Nouns: A Case of Case") which, to be fair, is the one imediately before the one Artifexian linked in the Conlanging videos list.

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

@@laurencefraser , oh, thank you kind sir.

[@scottanderson8167]

*video whooshing by my head at .6c*

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

For those like me who would have to google that to figure out what unit 'c' is, he means 60% the speed of light.

[@Artifexian]

I know I talk fast but, damn, I think I'm owed a medal as something for that kinda speed. :P

[@thiagosplace4435]

Spanish has indicative, subjunctive and imperative... in school at least, they told me those were the same thing

[@pierreabbat6157]

I had to pause the Greek, because I'm used to reading Greek in Greek letters.

[@tuhiaako3073]

I'm spanish. Thanks a lot for the video, I loved it. The translation for the Spanish example isn't quite right, "No creo que aprenda" means "I don't think he'll learn." "I don't think he is learning" would be "No creo que esté aprendiendo." Also, funny typo later on. Algera instead of alegra :p Later on, I don't quite get the meaning of the sentences "Insisto que aprende/a", it sounds odd and/or wrong, specially in such a short sentence, without context. I'd be happy to provide an alternative :)

[@Artifexian]

Ye, apologies for the typo. It's really hard to eradicate all of them. As for your other points, they are lifted verbatim for FR Palmer's Mood and Modality.

[@WadelDee]

That reminds me of an English test. We had to fill in the blanks with the given verbs in the correct mood: "The students asked the teacher what a tinnitus _____ (be) ." The correct answer was "was" but I still think that the test was wrong and that "is" should have been the correct answer.

[@thomasjenkins5727]

You're on a roll with crunchy videos.

[@FlymanMS]

Are you an encyclopedic genius? Either that or a god I guess cause you seem to know everything.

[@Artifexian]

I just read a lot of boring academic stuff.

[@Astronomy487]

it's amazing how much research goes into your videos, considering how many different languages you use as examples haha :>

[@Blublod]

Great video. It's interesting how in English, the use of the subjunctive continues to wane while in the Romance languages it's practically impossible to express oneself correctly without it.

[@Artifexian]

I think the subjunctive is all but dead in General American English which is weird.

[@danielmoyseyev6034]

Yay ! New video from my favorite KZbin channel!

[@Mike25z]

Great video as always! But now he says links in all the “usual places”.

[@Artifexian]

People were getting confused with 'dooblydoo'

[@grimtheghastly8878]

Mood

[@Sabersonic]

Interesting video as always, and it's almost enlightening to know that the different systems of modality in the general sense have some continental geographic boundaries. Doesn't really help in deciding which conlang would logically choose which system, but it's something to jump from. Also interesting is how some languages would have different mood words for not just time sense, but also first to third person statements when it comes to realis and irrealis moods. Certainly something to ponder when it comes to language drift and branching. All and all, thank you once again for the food for thought.

[@Artifexian]

Well more analytical languages might be more inclined to adopt modal systems (like English) and more fusional/aggultinative languages adopt grammatical moods. Of course, languages tend to have both, just one system tends to be more present that the other. Again, English has an extensive modal system (can/may/would/could etc etc) and indicative and subjunctive moods. Although the subjunctive is on its way out.

[@Sabersonic]

@@Artifexian Something to keep in mind if and when I get around mapping the spread of languages on my eventual maps. *mumbles* Stupid Photoshop Elements 8 can't do mask layers or nothin'....

[@kyle-silver]

Shout-out to the Hortative Subjunctive, letting us say things like "ambulemus", "let us walk" in Latin And for clarity, it's not a demand like "I demand that we be allowed to walk", it's more in the vein of "please be seated"

[@edvinas7232]

Speaking about Bargam and it's "Habitual past + irrealis" thing. It's not strange. English's Habitual past also feels like "event happened in the past and has no effect on the present any more". So in this sense, past also can be irrealis.

[@LexieAssassin]

I've had to watch this several times over, making notes, and another explaining how it's done in English, and I think I'm finally starting to grasp it. I had an easier time understanding, "The Missile Knows Were It Is."

[@Mr.Nichan]

I think the reason subjunctive is more polite in requests is this. Using a less real verb for the result of the request is like saying your not expecting as much it to be done (so it's not demanding), while using a realis verb form for a request seems like you're expecting them to do it (which seems kind of demanding. Even if they actually mean the same thing, in polite or formal situations, people would go more out of their way (using a less common verb form) to show that their not being demanding, while, in more informal situations, people are more comfortable being frank about what they want. These sort of politeness strategies would bleed from actual requests into reported requests.

[@pepijndeputter8892]

Edgar, I see you are converting to full on viking, interesting Irish vikings

[@mhenhilmorin527]

i do mark my realis/irrealis on my subject marker which is also fun. same with tense (one half of my time interactive system)

[@SkwithOv]

oooh excited!

[@tridan111]

You know it happens far too often that I watch one of your vids and then later I'm talking with friends and I say stuff like "Hey have you ever heard of [Insert Artifexian's latest grammar vid topic]?" And they're like "No, what is it?" And then I remember that even though I can still recall the video title I still can't remember anything about the actual _content_ of the video

[@gideonjones8088]

Subjunctive almost made me fail Spanish 3. I could never get it. Whenever I thought I understood it it was the opposite of what I thought. The real problem was it was so consistently the opposite of my guess that I started putting down the opposite of what I thought it should be. In which case it would be wrong, but when I tried to play it straight again I would still get the wrong answer. So as much as I love this kind of stuff, and like trying to make my own languages, I've been too afraid to try and learn a new one ever since I lost my grip on Spanish.

[@grumpino8246]

1:20 YEEES MY LANGUAGE ITALIAN FOR ONCE HAS SOMETHING GRAMMATICALLY INTERESTING NOTICED BY SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THESE THINGS

[@Nyxelestia]

Excellent video, and very timely too - I've just gotten to the verbs on my current conlang (fanlang for Fullmetal Alchemist), so these mood videos were very helpful, both in terms of understanding verbal moods in general, and giving me ideas for how to make this conlang unique.

[@anthonycz7581]

1:29 ''Me alegra que sepas la verdad'' is the correct sentence, and needless to say, I loved the video!

[@Drummerfly9000]

For Kinyarwanda, the 3 conjugations look like a system for epistemic modality. It's interesting if it only has (grammaticalized) expression of counterfactuals, and not for the case that the speaker believe the statement to be true.

[@languagelover9170]

AWESOME VIDEO, UNDERSTOOD SOME THINGS! I love that you contain sources at the end of the video/at the description. Good job!!!!

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

I started this series a few hours ago so I could make a language for a race in my story, five hours later my brain is soup and they’re speaking coded English

[@the_biblioklept2533]

Jinx Jade If you still need help, point out any parts you don't understand, and I'll try to get you a source or explanation for that topic

[@KainusGulch]

The beard of wisdom is continuing to lengthen.

[@thirdtrysacharm6177]

How have I never heard of this channel before? This is awesome!

[@SotraEngine4]

Could a conlang have standard sentences as factual and have separate words to mark these: hope/wishes/pleading, orders, threats/promises and hypothetical?

[@MrTrilbe]

Why not, you can kinda do it in English, "My keys are in my pocket, hopefully" the hopefully changes the prior statement from factual to a hopeful statement. The Conlang would translate literally as "statement/Sentence+desired thing", "the knife is sharp - promise" "the knife is sharp - hypothetical" or "you do not hit me - pleading" "you hit them - order", well thats if i understood what you asked about, if not please ignore this comment

[@Artifexian]

Seems legit.

[@SotraEngine4]

@@ArtifexianThere is something in my mess of my first conlang that makes sense

[@imienazwisko6527]

Mood.

[@Janellecook02]

Looked up central pomo, found it was extinct, now im sad

[@Artifexian]

Ye, it's always sad when you look up a language and it has like 5 speakers left. Literally, one accident and the language is gone.

[@mapelaanjakoodaansuomeksi3432]

Hmmm. Interesting.

[@TigasCraft42]

nice animation!

[@Artifexian]

Thanks. :)

[@electroflame6188]

big mood

[@8Hshan]

I have understood exactly nothing and got confused by both parts of this, but I'm sure they're absolutely great videos nonetheless, just about a topic that's too complex for me for now :D Maybe because this time I can't find a way to relate this to my native language (Polish) as I was usually able to with previous videos. Still, MOAR LINGUISTICS :D

[@noahhornecker4834]

Oh boy, I sure do love my weekly dose of brain hurt! But in all honesty though, your vids are amazing, even if I don't understand most of it lol.

[@Artifexian]

Thanks, man.

[@SnoFitzroy]

I don't usually comment on your video, but I just wanted to let you know that your beard looks awesome! Did you grow it out for anything in particular? Usually you keep it a lot shorter :P

[@DrPonner]

My conlang Vrkhazhian has indicative, directive, subjunctive, and commissive moods, and I mark them all on the noun and pronouns.

[@Julio974]

2:45 Basically like english’s « this » and « that »

[@oneofmanyparadoxfans5447]

Except English doesn't really get all that weird there. English gets weird in places that in and of themselves are weird. Why? Because that's what happens when a Germanic language and a Romance language love each other very much.

[@oneofmanyparadoxfans5447]

@CLVNES FILIÆ PARVVLÆ FINDAM Still, English is a mish-mash of Germanic and Romance language rules, spellings, sounds, et cetera.

[@oneofmanyparadoxfans5447]

@CLVNES FILIÆ PARVVLÆ FINDAM I say just blame the Romans.

[@littlefishbigmountain]

In this particular context, the nuance of “this” and “that” isn’t really a general vs specific distinction but whether it’s perceived to be likely known vs unknown to the person being asked That is to say, “I’m looking for that employee who/that speaks English,” means “I’m looking for that particular employee who is the one that speaks English around here,” whereas, “I’m looking for this employee that/who speaks English” is just as specific in the sense that there is a particular individual in mind but is presented in a more general way, most likely because it isn’t being assumed that any given person being asked would most likely know them, and so would mean something more like, “There’s an employee that speaks English here somewhere, and I’m looking for them.” ^^This is assuming that speech alone is being used. If there is some other visual aid, like a picture or audio clip, being used, “this” and “that” may be used in reference to the aid instead, in which case “this” and “that” would default to representing the relative location of the aid from the speaker. For example, someone holding up a picture might ask, “Have you seen this dog?”, but in reference to a poster on a telephone pole or mailbox a little ways away someone may instead point in its direction and ask, “Have you seen that dog?” (Although if they walk over the poster in order to point right at it they’d probably say “this dog” because the relative distance to the speaker now puts it back in the first category) The nuance of the example given in the video is more commonly represented as something like, “I’m looking for an employee that speaks/can speak/knows English,” (also commonly “Is there an employee that speaks/can speak/knows English? [I am looking for one]”) vs “I’m looking for the employee that speaks/can speak/knows English” (which is a more natural way to say the first sentence, the “that” sentence, as it carries the same nuance but it something more likely to be realistically said or encountered) TL;DR the distinction in the video is typically represented in English by the definiteness or indefiniteness of the article (a/an vs the), whereas “this” and “that” in this context both refer to a particular employee but are based on either an assumption that the person being asked likely has an idea about who the person being referred to is specifically or that they likely may not

[@loramurray2341]

@@littlefishbigmountain all I can say is that first sentence it’s more like asking if there is anyone who can do it - competency not required, but preferred. While the second one it may be implied that the person is fluent in the language. The reason he uses who is because the employee is unknown. Think like walking into a random place and asking if anyone speaks Spanish. You don’t know anyone in specific, just that it may be a possibility that someone may speak Spanish well enough. And honestly, I’m not even sure that’s the right interpretation. It’s just how it feels to me after thinking about it.

[@oinkymomo]

latin has the indicative and subjunctive moods, with indicative being used as any verb in a main clause, and subjunctives being used in certain subordinate clauses. infinitive, participle, and imperative are also kind of moods, though participles only exist for 4 of 12 tense-voice combinations for regular verbs (i use the term regular here because there is a tense-voice pair that has a participial form that only exists in a type of verb called deponents, which are just weird), and there are a combined total of 4 or 6 infinitive and imperative forms per verb.

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

So, there doesnt seem to be anything that makes the "real/unreal" distinction obligatory, or even particularly useful. So if I just refuse to make this distinction in my conlang, nothing will break? and there are no natural languages that dont make this distinction?

[@Artifexian]

I guess you could bypass mood by just literally spelling out the speaker's perspective toward what they are saying using a whole bunch of words instead of creating a modal system or using grammatical moods. I don't know if any natlang does this though … but I might have missed something.

[@nuadathesilverhand3563]

​ Artifexian , Im not saying no grammatical mood, I am all over evidentiality, imperative, commissive, interrogative, etc. I just fail to see why lumping them into these two camps, Realis/Irrealis, is such a big thing. Surely I could just create a different inflection for each modality I wish to grammaticalize and never have to concern myself with whether something is "indicative/subjunctive." Then there would be non-grammaticalized, auxiliary modalities, like the abilitative, permissive, and conditional as well.

[@jonispatented]

Nuada the silver hand I’m personally unaware of any languages that didn’t at least have this distinction in the past. Maybe create your language with them still a part of it, then “evolve” the language in a way that kinda hides away that they were there. Kinda like the way most English speakers do it nowadays.

[@MalekiRe]

So quick on the upload, what is this, comment awards?!?!

[@unochepassava1403]

Between 2:30 and 3:05 you use Spanish and Italian to convey the meaning of definiteness and indefiniteness modalities, and, while those modalities are defenitely present in those sentences, there are two additional epistemic modalities that are in fact more relevant in those specific examplese: both in Spanish and Italian, using the subjanctive implies that the speaker isn't sure/doesn't know if such a person is there or not, while using the indicative implies that the speaker knows that such a person is there and just needs to sort out which one is.

[@GoofballPaul]

4:25 Gotta love that tiny dot that remains white in the vasque country.

[@Aerostarm]

3:04 For the Italian example about definiteness, the top example is the indefinite, but the bottom example you showed isn’t necessarily the definite, because that could be definite or indefinite.

[@lohphat]

1:24 "Sagt er er wäre müde?" is past subjuctive. Present subjunctive would be "Sagt er er sei müde?".

[@demidron.]

Yep, he glossed it as be+3SG+IMPF+SUBJ, where "IMPF" (imperfect) means Präteritum/past tense. The issue I have with it is that he says it's got something to do with interrogatives. It's in that sentence because it's about reported speech. You could have the same sentence with "Er sagt, ..." Also, he missed the comma. ;-)

[@kadenvanciel9335]

If Biblaridion talked about grammatical mood for his "How to Make a Language" series, what would he have said about what each of the existing moods would evolve from?

[@lordsebastianofbarovia3686]

At 3:04 you made a mistake: in Italian languages go with the definite article, thus it would be "che sa/sappia IL cinese".

[@jamesfuller3952]

HOLY GUACAMOLE I'M EARLY

[@Mr.Nichan]

The "used to" in the English translation of the Bargam example could also have been translated with "would". I'm not sure if it's a full sentence of just an giant adverbial phrase (a compound dependant clause), so here's both interpretations: Full Sentence. "When(ever) the the pig would return , the owner, on seeing it, would give it food." Adverbial: "Whenever the pig would out and the owner, on seeing it, would give it food, [something happened]."

[@HuffleRuff]

Having a known and unknown could be cool, a known past is something that did happen and an unknown past is something that might have happened.

[@-arche-7926]

With the interrogative of German, you mentioned: do you mean the Konjunktiv 1? If so, it would be: ...sei müde?

[@Memezuii]

HOW DOES GRAMMATICAL MOOD WORK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@gralha_]

Although I use it daily and throughout my whole life, I still don't understand the subjunctive. What exactly does it represent? It seems as if people decided some construct will use it and others won't, without a very strong principle. Wikipedia says "Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgement, opinion, obligation, or action that have not yet occurred; the precise situations in which they are used vary from language to language." How convoluted is that!

[@sully9767]

Correction, sorry. 1:29 it's "me alegra" not "me algera". But yeah. Good point. Carry on.

[@Artifexian]

You're right. I will put that in the corrections doc. Thanks

[@fill0llif]

2:23 I've never heard someone saying "mi chiese se era possibile" though, I guess it's more common to hear "mi ha chiesto se era possibile", but it's still informal ("ha chiesto" is somewhat like the present perfect). Switching from "mi chiese se fosse possibile" to "mi ha chiesto se era possibile" is considered to be "ungrammatical" by Italians anyway. 3:05 This is new to me, I can't say it is not correct, but I've never heard someone using it like that, this is simply the same as 2:23 where IND is used within an informal context and SUBJ within a formal one and the IND form is considered to be "ungrammatical" anyway. Then the definite article "il" is missing (same here, I can't say is not correct, but without it feels weird) after "sappia"/"sa" and "il cinese" is a pronoun that stands for "la lingua cinese", the Chinese language (fun fact: "il cinese" may also stands for "the Chinese man", but it's informal and may be very rude depending on the context. The reason behind it is that "cinese" is in fact an adjective).

[@Artifexian]

I pulled all the Italian examples from F.R Palmer's Mood and Modality. Just doubled checked them there and what's on screen is accurate.

[@NickPinolo]

I was just thinking about those sentences… I entirely agree with you @fill0llif.

[@TheJSJosh]

How do you guys remember all the specific terms in the literal translations like PRES, IND, SUBJ, and 3SG? Is there a table, or a resource on them somewhere?

[@WadelDee]

2:55 So the lower sentence is looking for a particular person and knows about the particular person that the person happens to be able to speak English, with the English-speaking part not necessarily having anything to do with the reason why the person is being looked for, in the first place? Is that correct?

[@ummmmmmmmm200]

sick videos. i hope one day i understand it

[@Frahamen]

Oh god French lessons flashbacks :(

[@Artifexian]

Haha

[@yanagelfand4337]

So I'd already decided that my conlang would have irrealis mood for past and present and irrealis mood for future, imperative, conditional, probably subjonctive etc. But I was worried if it's a little weird. And now I discover that it actually _is_ how it works in lots of languages! Now I'm both proud because I made up a realistic feature and dissappointed because it's kinda derivative...

[@thekrusadr]

Me: Oh conlanging is easy. I get it. Artefixian: *Time for mood, you peasants!*

[@brillitheworldbuilder]

A little mistake at 1:24: We Germans have no Subjunctive, we have a similar one called Conjunctive, which expresses either possibility or indirect speech.