The Genitive is a special problem that Vayoti presents to non-native speakers.
"The Genitive" refers, putting it most simply, to nearly all grammatical constructions in which the English-speaker would use the word "of", as in "the children of Joe and Alice," "a table of wood," "the city of New York," "a heart of stone," "the story of Cinderella," etc.
Did you notice that, even though it's the same word "of" in all the phrases just offered, the sense of the construction differs radically from one phrase to another? The children may "belong" to Joe and Alice, but we would never say that the table "belongs" to the wood, or that the city "belongs" to New York (in fact, it is New York!), or that the heart "belongs" to stone (nor is it even made out of stone the same way the table is made out of wood). And as for the story, it isn't Cinderella's, in the sense that she owns it, but a story about her.
The range of "nuances" in the Genitive is vast!
The "of-phrase" is termed, linguistically, the "Genitive". In many languages there is a word, like English "of," that conveniently announces "Here is the Genitive!"
In other languages (like Russian or Ancient Hebrew), no word equivalent to "of" exists at all, but there is something called a "Genitive Case" to express the same thing. With the Genitive Case, one of the two words in the "Genitive phrase" will change its form, to convey the same thing English "of" does.
(Interesting side note: Modern Hebrew fabricated an "of" word for itself, to make life easier!)
The big problem in Vayoti is this:
Vayoti has neither a word for "of" nor a Genitive Case.
In a manner of speaking, no "of"-concept exists in Vayoti at all!
This means that everything we would express using "of" in English, across the whole vast range of the word's nuances, must be expressed by some other means in Vayoti.
Following is a list, not exhaustive, of the ways Vayoti compensates for the complete absence of a Genitive:
1. Let's started with the easiest. Vayoti has a possessive ending, -ksa, equivalent to English 's. Vayoti uses the possessive ending far more frequently than English does. At times it seems more fitting, poetic, perhaps more reverent in English to use an "of"-phrase than a possessive, e.g., to say "the Son of God" rather than "God's Son." In such instances, the default option in Vayoti is always the possessive (edwoksa shuntra = God's Son).
2. The Partitive Article chu/chuts, as discussed elsewhere, often meets the need to convey a "genitive" sense, as in "Please give me some of the cake."
3. "Adjectival Of." Often, "of" conveys the sense, "which is" or "which is made of", as in:
"city of Chicago" (the city which is Chicago);
"table of wood, heart of stone, dress of silk" (i.e., the table made of wood; the heart consisting of stone (figuratively); a dress made out of silk).
This is expressed in Vayoti in one of three ways:
a) In the case of a place name, like a city or state, Vayoti simply says "the city Chicago" or "the state New Hampshire", rather than attempting anything like English "city of Chicago," "state of New Hampshire." In this construction, in Vayoti, any "of"-notion is simply superfluous.
b) In the case of two nouns, one descriptive of the other, like "heart of stone" or "dress of silk", there are two ways to accomplish this in Vayoti:
i. Simply place the "descriptive" noun in front of the "object" noun, much as we do in English when we say "city library" or "police department". Vayoti uses this construction far more than English does. In English we can say, "college campus", but we do not tend to say "this is a remembrance day"; rather, we say "a day of remembrance." In Vayoti there is far greater dependence on the two-noun phrase.
ii. Alternatively, the adjective marker ste may be placed after the "object" noun, followed by the "descriptive" noun; thus, the phrases offered above would be constructed as "a heart ste stone," "a dress ste silk."
4. Often, "of" in English simply means "about," and in Vayoti the word for "about" (da) will be used. So, "the story of Cinderella" in Vayoti would be the story da Cinderella.
5. "Of" meaning "from." Often the preposition “from” conveys essentially the meaning we have in mind when using "of."
In a sentence like, "I want one of those and three of these," you would actually the Vayoti word for "from," which is id, to convey something like "I want one out of those and three out of these."
Thus, "The Man of Galilee" is, in Vayoti, "The Man From Galilee."
6. Similarly, for a phrase like "two of my friends," you can use either the partitive article (chu/chuts) or the preposition id (from). Thus: kus chuts blu prizn or kus id blu prizn. There is a slight difference in nuance between these two phrases.
7. "Of" meaning "pertaining to, adhering to, maintaining," as in "a man of your religion," "a person of your sensibilities."
For this sense, you can use either the Vayoti "with" (kom), possible "from" (id), and in some instances even Vayoti araf.
8. "Of" as characterization, as in "a man of honor," "an hour of grief". This is very close to number 3 above. "A man of honor" may be expressed in Vayoti either as "an honor man" or "a man ste honorable."
"A word of encouragement" will be "an encouragement word." "The years of famine" will be "the famine years."
This last example, which also happens to be perfectly good English, shows that such a construction is not so foreign to the English-speaker. The major difference lies in how much more, and more "freely," Vayoti utilizes it than does English.
9. "Of" meaning "set aside for, for the purpose of," as in "a day of prayer." This can be expressed in several ways in Vayoti: either as a "prayer day," as "a day for prayer" (using Vayoti "for"), or as "a day ites prayer", using the preposition ites, which connotes "to, toward, for the purpose of." Thus, "a service of reconciliation" may be phrased in Vayoti as a service ites reconcilation, i.e., "towards" it.
10. "Of" meaning "containing", as in "a basket of groceries." Use Vayoti kom ("with").
11. "Of" meaning "centering on, with respect to," as in "a love of horses." This can be expressed, with differences of connotation, using Vayoti "to" or "for" or "concerning/regarding" (see Prepositions).
12. "Of" meaning "produced by, issuing from," as in "products of the vine," "results of the work." For this sense you can use either the possessive - "the vine’s products," "the work’s results" – or you can use "“from" – "products from the vine," "results from the work."
13. "Of" as "in the given area, as far as X goes," as in "slow of speech." Use Vayoti araf.
14. "Of" expressing apposition, as in "that idiot of a driver!" Use the opposite formulation, as described in numbers 3 and 8 above, e.g., "that driver idiot!" Another variant is “that driver ste idiot!” Another possibility is to control one’s temper and not say it at all.
15. "Of" with certain combinations of adjective+noun, such as "guilty of crime" or "worthy of praise," Each adjective (like "guilty" and "worthy") will take its own standard preposition; for example, in Vayoti one is guilty araf crime, or worthy ites praise. Such adjectives and their proper formulations with nouns must be learned individually.
16. "Of" with certain verbs: As in "deprived of" or "robbed of." As with number 15, the rule is that each verb will have its own standard way of expressing this, either with the help of one preposition or another or even no preposition at all! This is more a matter of learning the verbs than worrying about the word "of."
