What we're talking about here are temporal relationships between clauses -- or perhaps more accurately, relationships of subsequence. Koa now has its own particular way of doing this via the verbs koe "precede" and hala "follow," thus:
koe ka súo-nose
precede the sun.rise
"before sunrise"
hala ka ívo-munu
follow the night-middle
"after midnight"
One could make the mistake of thinking that koe and hala were prepositions of some kind, but their verbal force becomes clear when they govern clausal relationships, in which case they're integrated into syntax as serial verbs:
ni-lopu ka ámu-suo i koe ko se-vene
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat MAIN.CL precede NOM.CL 2SG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up"
vi-komo ka ívo-puku i hala ko se-mie-nio
IMP-put.on DEF night-suit MAIN.CL follow NOM.CL 2SG-wash-teeth
"Put on your pajamas after you brush your teeth"
It took me a lot of years to figure this out -- I think in the neighborhood of 2021 -- and I've always been kind of proud of it. I don't intend to make a change, but I wonder if that anonymous language (could it have been Hawai‘ian??) might offer an option for a second strategy for clausal relationships.
This language, as I recall, entirely lacked words for "before" and "after" in this context, relying instead on the conjunction "when." Thus "before X" is "when X hadn't happened yet," and "after X" is "when X had already happened." Translated into Koa, this looks like
ni-lopu ka ámu-suo he ko se-ca-na-vene
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat TEMP NOM.CL 2SG-CONT-NEG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up," lit. "I finished my breakfast when you still weren't awake"
vi-komo ka ívo-puku he ko se-io-mie-nio
IMP-put.on DEF night-suit TEMP NOM.CL 2SG-TRANS-wash-teeth
"Put on your pajamas after you brush your teeth," lit. "Put on your pajamas when you've already brushed your teeth"
...or should the "before" structure be with naio "not-already" = "not yet," rather than cana "still not"?
ni-lopu ka ámu-suo he ko se-na-io-vene
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat TEMP NOM.CL 2SG-CONT-NEG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up," lit. "I finished my breakfast when you still weren't awake"
Either way, I certainly see no reason not to import this structure as an option -- there is such a beautiful, logical simplicity to it that feels like it suits Koa's style, as well as brilliantly following the charter in avoiding IE calques.
It occurs to me that there would also be a longer form, if more wordiness is desirable, using kei "extent." Usually we see this in e.g.
he-kei ko se-nuku
TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-sleep
"while you were sleeping"
Thus in addition to "when X hadn't happened yet," we could have "while X hadn't happened yet":
ni-lopu ka ámu-suo he-kei ko se-ca-na-vene
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-CONT-NEG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up," lit. "I finished my breakfast while you still weren't awake"
vi-komo ka ívo-puku he-kei ko se-io-mie-nio
IMP-put.on DEF night-suit TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-TRANS-wash-teeth
"Put on your pajamas after you brush your teeth," lit. "Put on your pajamas while you've already brushed your teeth"
I'm relieved to have finally remembered this, whatever muse it was who recalled it to me last night -- while I was trying to figure out these constructions a few years ago I recalled that there was something I'd once come across that I'd liked, but had no idea what it was.
Incidentally, I snuck in "MAIN.CL" and "NOM.CL" as the glosses of i and ko above, which are anticipating a pretty major topic in subordinate clauses (yes, yet again: buckle up) that I've been sitting on for the last several months. Still waiting for the muses to help me with that one...
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat TEMP NOM.CL 2SG-CONT-NEG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up," lit. "I finished my breakfast when you still weren't awake"
Either way, I certainly see no reason not to import this structure as an option -- there is such a beautiful, logical simplicity to it that feels like it suits Koa's style, as well as brilliantly following the charter in avoiding IE calques.
It occurs to me that there would also be a longer form, if more wordiness is desirable, using kei "extent." Usually we see this in e.g.
he-kei ko se-nuku
TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-sleep
"while you were sleeping"
Thus in addition to "when X hadn't happened yet," we could have "while X hadn't happened yet":
ni-lopu ka ámu-suo he-kei ko se-ca-na-vene
1SG-finish DEF morning-eat TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-CONT-NEG-awaken
"I finished my breakfast before you woke up," lit. "I finished my breakfast while you still weren't awake"
vi-komo ka ívo-puku he-kei ko se-io-mie-nio
IMP-put.on DEF night-suit TEMP-extent NOM.CL 2SG-TRANS-wash-teeth
"Put on your pajamas after you brush your teeth," lit. "Put on your pajamas while you've already brushed your teeth"
I'm relieved to have finally remembered this, whatever muse it was who recalled it to me last night -- while I was trying to figure out these constructions a few years ago I recalled that there was something I'd once come across that I'd liked, but had no idea what it was.
Incidentally, I snuck in "MAIN.CL" and "NOM.CL" as the glosses of i and ko above, which are anticipating a pretty major topic in subordinate clauses (yes, yet again: buckle up) that I've been sitting on for the last several months. Still waiting for the muses to help me with that one...
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