Modality

Every clause in Najan begins with a mood particle expressing how the speaker relates the clause to the world or to other possible worlds. The mood particles are clipped from corresponding verbs, e.g. je (sensory indicative mood) from jec (sense, perceive, or intuit).

Indicative Moods

The indicative moods are used to assert a claim about how the world actually is. These moods are distinguished by evidentiality, i.e. the speaker’s source of information supporting the claim.

The sensory mood (sɴs) is for claims supported by the speaker’s own direct sensory experience or intuition.

The deductive mood (ᴅᴇᴅ) is for conclusions the speaker has deduced rationally from other accepted evidence. The conclusion could be based on sense data, hearsay, or other inferences, as long as the conclusion itself comes from the speaker’s own reasoning. Use of the deductive mood doesn’t imply that the speaker has consciously constructed a formal logical proof for their claim, but it should imply that they believe they could sketch a convincing informal argument on request. Hunches should be expressed using the sensory mood, not the deductive.

The reportative mood (ʀᴘʀᴛ) is for claims originating from someone other than the speaker, such as something the speaker has heard or read.

The choice of indicative particle by itself has no bearing on how strongly the speaker believes the claim. For instance, it’s entirely possible to be more convinced of a reportative statement originating from a highly reliable and authoritative source than of a sensory statement based on a vague feeling or unclear view. The speaker may convey how strongly they believe their own statement using an epistemic mood particle.

Interrogative Moods

The interrogative moods are for asking different types of questions.

A content question (ᴄᴏ̨) requests missing information using the interrogative pronoun vel. The response should supply the missing information that would make the complete clause true. To this question…

…I could respond je djan (It’s Jon).

Informally, one can omit vel, if it’s apparent what’s being asked: gwi kʊv (Name?).

A content question may request multiple pieces of information.

This questioner has asked for two pieces of information here: who did it and what they did. Note that vel is a pronoun, so it can’t stand in for a verb directly. However, using pɪn (do) as the verb allows asking about actions, by using vel as a causal-final argument.

A polar question (ᴘᴏ̨) prompts for a yes-or-no answer, confirming or denying the clause.

The reponse can usually be very brief, e.g. je ksi (it’s true) or je gle (it’s false).

An alternative question (ᴀᴏ̨) should pose a series of mutually exclusive options, only one of which makes the overall clause true. Typically this involves an exclusive logical disjunction. It’s possible but very uncommon for an alternative question to contain multiple sets of options, prompting multiple selections from the respondent. A question with two opposite possibilities would typically be expressed as a polar question but could be expressed as an alternative question for emphassis: are you or are you not my people?

Any question may be predicated on faulty premises, whether implicit or explicit. In that case, the respondent may choose to contradict these assumptions rather than answer the question on its own terms.

Deontic Moods

The deontic moods are for asserting how the world shall be or ought to be.

The commissive mood (ᴄᴍs) indicates that the speaker intends to bring about the clause so that in the future it will be become or remain true.

The imperative mood (ɪᴍᴘᴇʀ) expresses a request or command for the listener to make or keep the clause true.

The volitive mood (ᴠᴏʟ) expresses a wish or desire of the speaker. Unlike the commissive or imperative moods, it does not imply that the speaker or listener is responsible for actualizing that wish.

Hypothetical Mood

The hypothetical mood is for expressing counterfactuals. A hypothetical clause posits that though the claim is not actually true, it would be true under other conditions. Clauses in this mood generally involve a conditional argument to clarify under which counterfactual circumstances the claim would be true. Note that the conditional argument should apply to the verb phrase within the hypothetical clause, not to the entire hypothetical clause itself.

Conditional claims where the consequent could actually be or become true should instead use the indicative mood with a conditional argument to the verb.

Modal Clauses as Truth Propositions

It’s possible to analyze clauses in any mood as corresponding to assertions about what is actually true. Though this correspondence is most obvious for the indicative moods, it’s true for the others as well. For instance, a verb phrase X belonging to a clause in the volitive mood asserts the proposition that the speaker wishes for X to be true. Likewise, a clause in the polar interrogative mood signifies that the speaker wonders whether X is true and would like the listener to provide an answer.

This kind of analysis is unusual but can be useful for correctly interpreting logical operators or prepositional phrases applied to clauses. For example, je txa gleð means I sense that it’s not raining, whereas txa je gleð means I don’t sense that it’s raining, which is a weaker claim. Similarly, nʊ zʊm kca vɪg literally means regretfully, I request that you go, whereas kca nʊ zʊm vɪg means I request that you regretfully go.