The inflected word classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and postpositions; the roots for all of these end in consonants (more or less). Pronouns and determiners and quantifiers are subclasses of nouns. Adjectives are similar to verbs. Place names are also verbs. There are also various uninflected particles and conjunctions.
Nouns are declined for number or function. Number is singular and plural.
| #/Function | Tag | Suffix | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | -S | -i | can be 0 for nouns |
| Plural | -P | -a | |
| Copular | -Cop | -e | |
| Attributive | -Att | -o | 0 for participial forms and genitives |
Conjugation can be divided into 2 orders: the independent order and the coreferential order. The independent order consists of the finite and adjunctive forms, while the coreferential order consists of the depictive, resultative, infinitive, and participial forms.
Postpositions may be considered defective verbs; they use the coreferential order but not the independent order. For the details, see Verb Conjugation below. However, complete verbs can be derived by appending -t to the adposition root.
Verbs and adjectives use both orders. The finite forms are inflected for tense or mood and alignment. Adjunctive forms are inflected for tense and alignment. Infinitives are inflected for alignment. The other coreferential order forms are inflected for aspect, alignment, and syntactical function.
| Tense/Mood | Tag | Suffix | Dynamic Aspect | Static Aspect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past | -Pst | -a | Retrospective | Stative |
| Present | -Prs | -i | Progressive | Inceptive |
| Future | -Fut | -u | Prospective | Prospective |
| Subjunctive | -Sub | -e | # | |
| Imperative | -Imp | -o | # | |
The table below shows the alignment suffixes that follow the tenses and moods. Univalent verbs always have direct alignment.
| Description | Tag | Independent | Coreferential |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | -Dir | -0 | -l |
| Inverse | -Inv | -m | -k |
| Reflexive | -Rfx | -x | -r |
In the following table V stands for the aspect vowel, except for adjunctives, where it stands for the tense vowel. The letters in parentheses appear if required by phonotactics.
| Function etc. | Verb | Adjective | Post- posit | Noun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dir. | Inv. | Rfx. | Stat | Incp | ???? | |||
| past | a | am | ax | a | # | # | # | # |
| present | i | im | ix | i | # | # | # | # |
| future | u | um | ux | u | # | # | # | # |
| subjunctive | e | em | ex | e | # | # | # | # |
| imperative | o | # | ox | # | # | # | # | # |
| manner adverb | # | # | # | au | # | # | # | # |
| adjunctive | Vpu | Vmpu | Vxpu | Vpu | # | # | epu | epu |
| infinitive | el | ek | er | el | # | # | # | el |
| resultative | Vlai | Vkai | Vrai | ai | # | # | ai | # |
| depictive | Vlo | Vko | Vro | (o) | # | # | (o) | # |
| attributive | Vl | Vk | Vr | al | il | ul | u | o |
| copular | Vle | Vke | Vre | ale | ile | ule | e | e |
| singular | Vli | Vki | Vri | ali | ili | uli | i | (i) |
| plural | Vla | Vka | Vra | ala | ila | ula | a | a |
For the reciprocal forms, tu is appended to the reflexive finite and infinitive forms, and inserted before the pu of the adjunctive form.
Note: Local generally means 1st person, 2nd person, or inclusive person.
The personal prefixes are identical to the local and 3rd person pronouns. 3rd person prefixes appear only if no local prefix is possible and only if no corresponding phrase is present. Bilocal verbs have both 1st person and 2nd person arguments marked; whichever is the agent is marked as a personal prefix while the other becomes a local prefix which specifies only the number of the argument.
| Description | Tag | Prefix |
|---|---|---|
| Local Singular | LS- | l- |
| Local Plural | LP- | z- |
There are 2 additional prefixes: the negative (no-, Neg-) and the contrafactual (po-, Ctf-). The order of prefixes is: personal, contrafactual, negative. The contrafactual prefix appears only on independent order forms and copular forms.
Adjectives are univalent verbs representing qualities that can be used in comparisons. They can take prefixes specifying degree, such as the satisfactive degree prefix zo- (Sat.Deg-). The degree prefixes appear closest to the root.
In addition to the adposition-to-verb suffix -t (-A2V), there's the inceptive suffix -(i)c (-Inc); it applies to verbs and directly to adpositions, replacing the -t.
dan => dant => danc
sap => sapc
vid => vidic
The genitive (-iy, -GS and -ay, -GP) suffixes regularly derives nouns from nouns.
The superlative suffix (-est, -Sup) regularly derives superlatives, which are nouns, from adjectives. The ordinal suffix (-est, -Ord) regularly derives ordinal numbers (which are also nouns) from cardinal numbers.
Adverbs of manner or mainly formed from adjective stems by appending -au (-Adv). The satisfactive manner adverb is zohau.
page started: 2012.Aug.05 Sun
current date: 2012.Aug.09 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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