8.10. Relative clauses within relative clauses

For the most part, these are straightforward and uncomplicated: a sumti that is part of a relative clause bridi may itself be modified by a relative clause:

Example 8.81.

le	prenu	poi	zvati	le	kumfa	poi	blanu	cu	masno
The	person	who	is-in	the	room	which	is-blue		is-slow.

However, an ambiguity can exist if ke'a is used in a relative clause within a relative clause: does it refer to the outermost sumti, or to the sumti within the outer relative clause to which the inner relative clause is attached? The latter. To refer to the former, use a subscript on ke'a:

Example 8.82.

le	prenu	poi	zvati	le	kumfa	poi	ke'axire	zbasu	ke'a	cu	masno
The	person	who	is-in	the	room	which	IT-sub-2	built	IT		is-slow.

The person who is in the room which he built is slow.

Here, the meaning of “IT-sub-2” is that sumti attached to the second relative clause, counting from the innermost, is used. Therefore, ke'axipa (IT-sub-1) means the same as plain ke'a.

Alternatively, you can use a prenex (explained in full in Chapter 16), which is syntactically a series of sumti followed by the special cmavo zo'u, prefixed to the relative clause bridi:

Example 8.83.

le	prenu	poi	ke'a	goi	ko'a	zo'u
The	man	who	(IT	=	it1	:

ko'a	zvati	le	kumfa	poi	ke'a	goi	ko'e	zo'u
it1	is-in	the	room	which	(IT	=	it2	:

ko'a	zbasu	ko'e	cu	masno
it1	built	it2)		is-slow.

Example 8.83 is more verbose than Example 8.82, but may be clearer, since it explicitly spells out the two ke'a cmavo, each on its own level, and assigns them to the assignable cmavo ko'a and ko'e (explained in Section 7.5).