Lesson 29 - The Causative (i.e. "Moo-" prefix)

In Surath, the "moo" prefix creates a new type of conjugation, which grammarians call the Causative.

A causative form, in linguistics, is an expression of an agent causing or forcing a patient to perform an action (or to be in a certain condition).

All languages have ways to express causation, but they differ in the means. In some languages there are morphological devices (such as inflection) that change verbs into their causative forms, or adjectives into verbs of "becoming". Other languages employ periphrasis, with idiomatic expressions or auxiliary verbs. All languages also have lexical causative forms (such as English rise → raise).

This exists in most semitic languages, and it means what the name implies: in the causative conjugation, the subject is causing the object to do the verb, as opposed to the normal conjugation, in which he is doing the verb himself.

Examples:

The-ly = I came
Mu-the-ly = I brought (i.e., I made something come)

'riq-ly = I ran
mu-'riq-ly = I chased away (i.e., I made something/someone run)

pthil-lih = he turned
mu-pthil-lih = he rotated (i.e., he made something turn)

qim-ly = I stood
mu-qim-ly = I made someone stand/held something up

npil-ly = I fell
mu-npil-ly = I made someone fall

hte-ly = I sinned
mu-hte-ly = I made someone sin

shqil-ly = I took
mu-shqil-ly = I gave/made someone take

siq-ly = I went up
mu-siq-ly = I took something up/lifted something

dmikh-ly = I slept
mu-dmikh-ly = I made someone sleep (by over-explaining the Causative, etc.)

Theoretically, this could work with any verb, though in many cases the resulting concept would be odd so it doesn't really exist.

(A special thank you to Fr. Andy Younan for this explanation!)