Diego Collado

“ The Optative of the First Conjugation
The optative, both present and future, is the present tense of the imperative with the particles negavacu va or avare placed before it and the particles gana or caxi placed after it. Sometimes it is formed by adding the particle gana without any prefix; e.g., negavacu va ague io caxi? or avare aguei gana [80] 'would that you were to offer?' avare icanaru tengu, bangue mono nari tomo vare vo totte, fiie no iama ni noboxe io caxi! ”

“ To ask or answer a question the infinitive is often subordinate to the verb which follows; e.g., nhóbógata ni vochita coto ga atta ca? 'did you fall into the sin of adultery with this woman? is this what happened?' etc. All the tenses of the infinitive are used in the same way.
Sometimes the preterit infinitive is replaced by the pluperfect with gozaru or aru removed; e.g., Deus no minori vo firomete iocaró 'it is good to spread the Gospel.' Sometimes the present or preterit indicative plus ga replaces the present or preterit of the infinitive ”

“ Its gerund in Do is cuite 'by mourning,' its negative root is cuizu, and its negative present is cuinu. Araie, which is the root of the verb 'to be,' [107] has a present in araiuru or arǒru 'it is.' Furi, which is the root of the verb 'to become old,' has a preterit in furita 'he became old,' and a gerund in Do which is furite 'by becoming old.' Fe, the root of the verb meaning 'to cross over,' has a present in furu 'he crosses over,' and a preterit in feta 'he crossed over.' Tari,u is a verb which signifies that a thing is complete or entire. ”

“ There is no section of his grammar that does not reflect Rodriguez' interpretation of the raw linguistic data of Japanese. On the basis of the innumerable examples taken from Rodriguez—most of the substantive sentences are directly quoted from the Arte—as well as the parallel listing of forms and identical descriptions of certain grammatical phenomena, it is clear that the writing of the Ars Grammaticae Iaponicae Linguae consisted to no small degree of abridging the exhaustive material contained in Rodriguez' grammar and arranging it within the framework of Lebrija's Introductiones. ”

“ There are many particles that form the second person pronoun. They are differentiated to indicate those persons deserving no honor and respect, those deserving some, moderate, great, or maximal honor and respect. In speaking to inferiors there are three particles used for 'you'; vare, vonore, and sochi. If me or mega is added as in vareme or varemega it means we very much despise the person being spoken to. If we speak to people who are on our own level, or just a little inferior, we use one of the three particles sonata, sonofǒ, or varesama. ”

“ Thus, if one takes the nu from aguenu and replaces it with sai it becomes ague sai which means 'offer!' If the particle tai is placed after the root there is formed a kind of future or optative by which the wish of the speaker is expressed. It is therefore an elegant imperative; thus mizzu fitotçu nomitai 'I would like to have a drink of water' is the same as 'give me some water to drink.' When a relative [clause] concerns a precept, rule, admonition, or prohibition the imperative is expressed word for word in whatever the conjugation, affirmative or negative ”

“ In the Japanese language there are no case declensions as there are in Latin; but there are certain particles, which when suffixed to nouns, determine the differences between the cases for both common and proper nouns. The particles which form the nominative are five; va, ga, cara, no, and iori. The particle va is used when we want to give a sort of reduplicative [53] and specific turn to the person or thing that is signified by such a noun. It indicates either the first, second, or third person ”

“ Number and person are understood according to the subject (Naminativo [sic] ) , or pronoun, which is joined to the verb. The moods of the verb, which in this language have distinct forms for the tenses, are indicative, imperative, conjunctive, conditional, and preterit participle. The remaining moods are made up of these forms joined to certain particles. Each mood has but three tenses which have distinct forms; these are preterit, present, and future. These forms are signified by the Japanese terms (vocabulos) Quaco, ghenzai, mirai. ”

“ If the roots of verbs are placed before certain adjectives ending in i, they form a kind of supine in Tu; e.g., iomi iasui (92) 'easy to read (facile lectu) ,' etc.
A numeral, if a substantive noun is placed after it, must be in the genitive case; e.g., fitotçu no toga 'one sin.' The same is true with the particle fodo when it means 'all'; e.g., aru fodo no fito 'how so ever many.' The same is true with iori; e.g., Nanban iori no mono 'things from Europe.' But this is a relative formation (relatiuum) . The genitive is also required with nouns that mean much or little ”

“ The imperative is formed by changing the i in which the root ends to e; e.g., iomi:iome 'read! or may you read.' If the root ends in chi it changes to te; e.g., machi:mate 'wait!' The imperative is also formed by changing the nu in which the negative present ends to ai; if you remove the nu from iomanu and replace it with ai it gives you yomai 'read!' [91] This is a common rule for the third conjugation, but this imperative is used only when addressing inferiors.
The future of the imperative is the future absolute ”

“ The particle ie, which is the root of the verb ie iuru [ie:uru] [132] 'I can,' signifies, when placed before negative verbs, that the action expressed by the verb cannot be done; e.g., ie iomanu 'I cannot read.' This particle is also placed after the infinitive; e.g., iomanu coto vo ienu 'I cannot read.' Iomi va ieide, or iomi mo ieide 'since I could not read, or not being able to read' is also said. The infinitive sometimes acts as a substitute verb (suppositum verbum) ”

“ Likewise the nouns are treated within the framework of the declension of cases.
The treatment of Japanese forms is based upon a semantic framework within which the formal characteristics of the language are organized. For example, given the construction aguru coto aró (p. 31) and its gloss 'Erit hoc quod ist offere: idest offeret (It will be that he is to offer, or he will offer) ,' it is clear that the aguru coto is classified as an infinitive because of its semantic equivalence to offere. ”

“ When two nouns are joined to form a single word, the one which is like an adjective does not require the genitive particle; e.g., cocuxu 'the Lord of the kingdom.' According to the ordinary rule we should say cocu no xu. This way of forming the genitive is very common in Japanese ”

“ In order to permit this translation of the Ars Grammaticae to be of use in both these areas of scholarship I have made an effort to reduce to a minimum those places where a knowledge of either Japanese or Latin is required for the comprehension of the translation. It is sincerely hoped that the result is not an effort that is satisfying to neither, and thus to no one. ”

“ It is an orthodox description attempting to fit simple Japanese sentences into the framework established for Latin by the great Spanish humanist Antonio Lebrija. Thus, as an application of pre-Cartecian grammatical theory to the structure of a non-Indo-European language, the Ars Grammaticae is an important document worthy of careful examination by those wishing insight into the origins of what three centuries later was to become the purview of descriptive linguistics. ”

“ The particle re is placed after verbs of the second and third conjugation only; e.g., iomare,uru 'to read' and naravare,uru 'to learn,' said of a person having a good reputation. We speak in this way when speaking of those who are equal to us and the servants of our lord, but not of other servants, or nobles.
The particles saxemaxi and xemaxi give the same degree of honor as ari,u and rare or re. These particles are added to the root of a first conjugation verb, [118] or to the negative present from which the nu has been removed ”

“ The other verbs will be in the root form, while still others will be in the gerund in e form; e.g., tovazunba cotaiezu, voxe raba tçuxxinde qiqi [tovazũba ... vôxe ... qiqe] (85v) [176] 'if they don't ask don't answer: if they speak listen carefully,' Deus no vo coto vo macoto ni uqe, go voqite mo camavaide, sono mama inferno ni vochita 'he did not believe in God, and he did not respect His precepts; therefore, he fell into Hell.'
Verbs are always placed in the third person to indicate honor. No one honors himself except the king when he is speaking of himself ”

“ To call someone we use coi with an inferior, with someone not quite as inferior we use iorai, with someone a little better we use vaxei, while vogiare is the superior way to call. Gozare, which means that your Lordship should come, and gozarǒ in the future tense are even more honorable ways to indicate the imperative. Voide nasarei, voide nasareô, or voide nasarei caxi mean 'might your Lordship come,' or 'Oh! would that your Lordship come.' Cudasare,uru means that a noble person gives. Tamavari,u means that a noble person gives to an inferior. Tamóri,u means that a middling person gives. ”

“ Adjectives which end in na change the na to ni when they are placed before verbs; e.g., fuxin ni zonzuru 'I think it doubtful.' The adjectives that end in no sometimes change the no to na; e.g., bechi no fito changes to bechi na fito 'a different man.' Sometimes when it is followed by a verb the na changes to a ni; e.g., bechi ni gozaru 'it is different.' However, the meaning remains the same whether the word ends in na or no; e.g., bechi no fito no cuhi cara qiita [... cuchi ...] ”

“ Collado's handling of the nasal sounds is too inconsistent to be a reliable source for phonological data. Given his rather awkward specification that nasalization is predictable before what we must assume he means to be the voiced stops and affricates, [8] his grammar presents an uncomfortably irregular pattern in the transcription of the phenomena. ”

“ The particle no is used for all persons of superior rank; e.g., Padre no võ qiru mono 'the priest's clothes, or habit.' The particle ga is used for people of inferior rank; e.g., Pedro ga fumi 'Peter's letter,' sochi ga mono 'your thing,' are ga cane 'your money,' tono va iocu ga fucai fito gia 'the Lord is of great cupidity, that is to say he is very eager.' Sometimes the particle to is suffixed to the genitive ”

“ When there are many adjectives in a sentence, they will all be in the adverbial form except the last; e.g., qe nangǒ, iro curô, icanimo utçucuxij mono [qe nagǒ ...] [177] 'a very beautiful person with long, black hair.'
The particle to is placed before verbs of understanding, believing, and hearing, takes the place of the verb 'to be,' and means 'that'; fito to zonjita 'I thought, or believed that he was a man,' qixó vo jennin to vomovô ca? [qixo ... vomovǒ ca?] ”

“ Here is an example of the noble form in the negative, tǒ mo nai; e.g., mizzu vo nomi tǒ mo nai 'I do not want to drink water,' and mizzu vo nomi tǒ mo gozaranu. Mairu tó mo zonjenu means 'I do not want to go.' When the particle tai is added to adjectives, or verbs indicating a sensory act (actionem sensitiuam) in the first person, [134] the i is changed to c; and the verb ari,u is added and conjugated in the tense required by the sentence ”

“ The passive verb has the ablative for its agent (persona agente) ; e.g., Pedro cara corosareta 'he was killed by Peter,' but it is better that it govern the dative; e.g., Pedro ni corosareta, or Pedro va nusubito ni cane vo torareta 'Peter had his money stolen by thieves.'
There are also certain neutral verbs which govern the accusative as if they were active verbs ”

“ The first, vo, is the most used; e.g., Pedro vo iobe 'call Peter.' Va is used when one wishes to express in particular a noun in the accusative; e.g., niffon guchi va xiranu [54] 'I don't know Japanese.' The ending voba is the same as vo va, changing the second v to b they use it as va; e.g., fune voba nori sutete; cane bacari tori maraxita 'abandoning ship, I took only money, or gold, with me.' Ie is used to indicate the place to which one goes; e.g., Roma ie mairó 'I go to Rome.' Ga is used for nouns which indicate non-living or humble things; e.g., are ie gozare, mono ga móxitai 'go there! ”

“ When there are in a sentence two verbs whose actions form a single action, the first verb is put into the form of the gerund in Do; e.g., mizzu vo motte coi 'bring some water, or come bringing water,' fune vo voite coi 'bring the boat here, or come poling the boat,' core vo totte iqe 'take this, or carry this and go.'
The gerund in Do when added to verbs of asking, giving, or doing, means that one is asking to know or to acquire the thing which is indicated by the verb to which it is added ”