adverbs in several languages

[pc2]

salutations,

we have a question regarding the definition of adverbs - words or phrases that act as modifiers for verbs, adjectives and other adverbs - for several languages (maybe this is not the precise definition of adverb for some language that you know).
in most languages (as far as we know), adverbs are derived from adjectives. for example, in English, the adjective "brief" derives the adverb "briefly", as in "I will speak briefly"; the adjective "good" irregularly derives "well". in Portuguese, the adjective "breve" ("brief") derives "brevemente" ("briefly"). many Romance languages derive adverbs from adjectives by suffixing -(e)mente generally to the feminine form of an adjective. in Sanskrit, many adverbs are formed from adjectives by dropping the final vowel of the root and suffixing -am, e. g. tura- (fast) derives the indeclinable word turam ("fastly"). one can also express adverbs by declining a noun in the instrumental, such as anaayaasa ("easy") > anaayaasena ("easily", "with ease"). surely, not all adverbs can be derived from adjectives, such as English here, there, above, below.
but here are the questions:
1) how is the adverb-forming process in the languages you know?
2) how do "primitive" adverbs (i. e., adverbs that are not derived from adjectives or nouns) work in your language(s)?
3) what about languages that don't use adverbs?
4) how do(es) your language(s) treat adverbs (if any) that act as prepositions (if this is correct)? for example, compare, in English: the book is above the table ("above" acts as a preposition).

thank you in advance.

[Olivier]

For Hungarian:

1) how is the adverb-forming process in the languages you know?

when they are derived from a stem, an adverb-forming suffix is used:
(of course, grammatical cases also result in adverbials of place, time, manner etc., but here derivation suffixes are considered and not case endings, though the difference is sometimes small)
the most common formation is -(a)n (back vowel form, for other forms use rules of vowel harmony): gyors "quick" -> gyorsan "quickly"
also -ul for a negative meaning: rossz "bad" -> rosszul "badly"
and for instance
-lag: futó "running, who runs" -> futólag "just passing, for a small moment"
-szor for a number of times: három "three" -> háromszor "three times"
-t, originally the object case ending: egy kicsi "[adjective:] a little [sth]" -> egy kicsit "[adverb: do sth] a little"
etc.

2) how do "primitive" adverbs (i. e., adverbs that are not derived from adjectives or nouns) work in your language(s)?

when they are not derived from a stem, there is no special pattern, they are words like other words: ma "today", gyalog "on foot", etc.

4) how do(es) your language(s) treat adverbs (if any) that act as prepositions (if this is correct)? for example, compare, in English: the book is above the table ("above" acts as a preposition).

the equivalent of English prepositions is postpositions (put after the noun) and case endings, and use of these as adverbs or preverbs (= verbal particles changing meaning or aspect of the verb) is quite frequent with a possessive suffix:
fölött "above [sth]" -> fölötte (literally: above of it, its above) "above it, [adverb:] above"
[case ending:] -ban/ben "in [sth]" -> benne "in it"
[case ending:] -ba/be "into [sth]" -> bele "into it, [verbal particle:] in, inside", be "[verbal particle:] in"
so that such an adverb or preverb may introduce the case ending that follows by using a kind of repetition (like a grammatical agreement of cases, but this is between a verb and a noun):
[preverb:] beletettem ... "I put [in]" ... a cukrot a teába "the sugar into the tea"
[adverb:] benne van ... "it is [in it]" ... a teában "in the tea"
-- Olivier

[Fuokusu]

1) how is the adverb-forming process in the languages you know?

In Japanese, there are two types of adjectives :
- i-adjectives (早い, 遠い, 痛い and others).
- na-adjectives (簡単な, 静かな, 自然的な and others).
To make adverbs, you have to replace the final い by く and the な by に.

2) how do "primitive" adverbs (i. e., adverbs that are not derived from adjectives or nouns) work in your language(s)?

There are adverbs like ゆっくり（と）, ぎゅっと, どきどき（と） and others. You can make adjectives from them by adding した.

3) what about languages that don't use adverbs?

Don't know.

4) how do(es) your language(s) treat adverbs (if any) that act as prepositions (if this is correct)? for example, compare, in English: the book is above the table ("above" acts as a preposition).

There are no preposition in Japanese. You have to use nouns such as 上, 下, 横 and so on.
To say "above", there are の上に (for "the book is above the table" and の上の (for "the book which is above the table)

[ANTHOS]

1) how is the adverb-forming process in the languages you know?
In modern Greek, suffix is -oz or -a.
Often there are two forms, but I think -oz is just the old fashioned way.

2) how do "primitive" adverbs (i. e., adverbs that are not derived from adjectives or nouns) work in your language(s)?
Off the top of my head, I don't know about these for mod. Greek. I am sure that they exist

3) what about languages that don't use adverbs?
Are there such languages?

4) how do(es) your language(s) treat adverbs (if any) that act as prepositions (if this is correct)? for example, compare, in English: the book is above the table ("above" acts as a preposition).
What is an adverb that "acts" as a preposition? why is it an adverb?

[pc2]

3) what about languages that don't use adverbs?
Are there such languages?

we don't know, but probably not.

4) how do(es) your language(s) treat adverbs (if any) that act as prepositions (if this is correct)? for example, compare, in English: the book is above the table ("above" acts as a preposition).
What is an adverb that "acts" as a preposition? why is it an adverb?

what we mean by "to act as a preposition" are adverbs that take a complement (for example, above {the table}). they are adverbs because they can modify the sense of a verb (for example, in "the book is above {the table}")

thank you for all the responses so far.