gemen

[gemɛn]

A discourse marker to show that the speaker believes something is imaginary, illusory, or hard to believe.

Kriol – 30,00 speakers – Central Northern Australia (Barunga region)

Example of use for (1) an imaginary scenario and (2) an illusionary belief:

(1) Im, gemen mardi reken lil beibi darran dei
    Trans.: “[About someone treating a teddy bear as if it was a real baby.]
    She is like, pretending to think that this is a little baby.”

(2) imin jis hapi ba luk im mami gemin bat najing
    Trans.: “[About a little girl who believes (wrongly) that she is going to find her mother.]
    She was so happy to see her mum she thought, but it didn’t happen.”

Gemen is a discourse particle, and as such it is invariable. It is relatively flexible as to where it can be placed in the sentence. 

Source: Data from speakers in Beswick, Barunga, Weemol. See also Schultze-Berndt, Eva, Maïa Ponsonnet and Denise Angelo. In prep. The semantics of modal markers in Northern Australian Kriol. 

​Credit: Maïa Ponsonnet and Denise Angelo