Sajem Tan/The Pronoun Grid

The pronouns of Sajem Tan were created...insert creation story here. The purpose of this exercise is to help you get familiar with the pronouns of Sajem Tan and to put them into use. They come in four types; Animate, Inanimate, Vegetal and Neutral.

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
inanimate	theh	vu	zo
vegetal	thu	vo	zeh
animate	seh	zhu	zlo
neutral	deh	do	du

Animate refers to things that are alive and and are not plants

Vegetal refers to things that are living but are not animals

Inanimate refers to things that have a distinct physical existence but are not considered living

Other is a category which refers to things not covered in the other categories like abstractions and things that are of ambiguous category

It's interesting to note that since there are distinct first person, second person and third person pronouns for each category, things which do not traditionally speak are implied to be able to use Sajem Tan to communicate. It's funny. Play with it.

Level 1

The simplest exercise goes like this...

Choose four nouns, one from each category.
Choose one or more aspect markers for the verb zan- (to be). The gnomic (-um) is probably the most sensible...but what fun is that?
Make a 4x3 OVS sentence grid using these words
Translate into your mother tongue and have another member of the community check it for you!
Post your exercise below so other folks can see (and laugh) at your accomplishment!

Here's Bear's (Thefnolm) grid

Nouns - Vithit (bird), Jidolk (flower), Thefam (stone), and Jafin (melodrama)

Verb aspect -um, which is gnomic. This signifies it is generally known that the subject is identified as the object. I play with some others as well.

Vithit zanum seh - I am Bird!
Vithit zanum zhu - you are Bird!
Vithit zanum zlo - they are Bird!
Jidolk zanfeh thu - I am become Flower
Jidolk zanfeh vo - you are become Flower
Jidolk zanfeh zeh - they are become Flower
Thefam zaneht theh - I am(hab.) Stone (metaphorically boring or stiff)
Thefam zaneht vu - you are Stone
Thefam zaneht zo - they are Stone
Jafin zansho deh - I am being melodramatic!
Jafin zansho do - you are being melodramatic!
Jafin zansho du - they are being melodramatic!

Level 2

Choose four more nouns and two intransitive verbs and construct the grid again with the structure VSS. Essentially, you will declare the subject twice; once as a pronoun and once explicitly.

Level 3 - The Great Chain of Insults

Once you've done a few exercises, try to write a creative insult using the subject duplication in level two. Message it to a friend in the Sajem Tan community, and if they recognize the subject duplication pattern, they should realize it's a game and pass the friendly chain onto others! We'll all surely hate each other by Tuesday!

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