Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, «apa», -Tags-, and "Glosses".
A word is constructed from morphemes which is formed from blocks. The 3 kinds of blocks are shown in the following table:
| Order | Name | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Initial | C |
| 2. | Medial | VC, VVC, VCC |
| 3. | Final | V, VV |
Each morpheme is at least 1 block and most final morphemes are either VCCV or VVCV. A word always contains an initial morpheme and a final morpheme.
Each content word begins with a syntactical initial while each function word (pronoun, determiner, or conjunction) begins with a functional initial. Except where noted, each functional initial can be used for both pronouns and determiners.
| Initial | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| s | Imp | Imperative | Syntactical |
| Voc | Vocative | ||
| m | Pri | Primary Predicate | |
| Ɂ | Sec | Secondary Predicate | |
| l | Pas | Attribute, Passive-Static | |
| g | Act | Attribute, Active | |
| b | Adv | Adverbial | |
| v | Mod | Compounding | |
| w | 1 | 1st person | Functional |
| y | 2 | 2nd person | |
| k | Incl | Inclusive person | |
| t | 3 | 3rd person (Definite) | |
| taf | Uni | Universal Quantifier | |
| h | 4 | 4th person Pronoun | |
| ŝ | Rfx | Reflexive Pronoun | |
| ĉ | Q | Interrogative | |
| n | N | Indefinite | |
| naf | Exi | Existential Quantifier | |
| c | RD | Relative Determiner | |
| p | RP | Relative Pronoun | |
| z | C | Conjunction |
Besides the ones in this sub-section, there are some function medials presented in other chapters. Gender and number apply to functional initials while the polarity, aspect, and aspectual medials apply to content word finals.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| um | Anim | Animate, Proximate | Gender |
| il | Obvi | Animate, Obviative | |
| ib | Inan | Inanimate | |
| uq | Inst | Instrument | |
| at | Loca | Locational | |
| aŝ | Situ | Situational | |
| ih | Pl | Plural | Number |
| amb | Du | Dual | |
| ann | Neg | Negative | Polarity |
| anĉ | PQ | Question | |
| in | Prg | Progressive | Aspect |
| us | Prf | Perfect | |
| if | Pro | Prospective | |
| uk | Cul | Culminative | |
| Inc | Inceptive-singulative | ||
| Con | Conative | Aspectual | |
| Pot | Potential | ||
| Hab | Habitual |
Each function word ends in a case final.
| Final | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | Abs | Absolutive | Case |
| ê | Erg | Ergative | |
| ô | Ins | Instrumental | |
| au | Loc | Locative | |
| endi | Ben | Benefactive | |
| oxfu | Mal | Malefactive | |
| âli | Agg | Aggregative | |
| âqu | Alt | Alternative | |
| avi | Gen | Genitive | |
| aski | Prox | Proximal | Demonstrative |
| aslu | Medi | Medial | |
| asta | Dist | Distal | |
| asĉa | Qdem | Question |
Gender may apply to 3rd person, indefinite, and content question words.
For some function words, number is not distinguished; otherwise, unmarked number is singular. Note that 2 of something could be marked plural instead of dual. The inclusive person has no singular form. The plural medial for 2nd person is uh instead of ih.
For details concerning temporal questions, see Temporal Morphosyntax.
| Conjunction | Question | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word | Tag | Word | Tag | |
| zai | C-Tmp | ĉ...ai | Q-*-Tmp | Temporal |
| zô | C-By | ĉô | Q-By | Means |
| zendi | C-For | ĉendi | Q-For | Purpose For |
| zoxfu | C-Anti | ĉoxfu | Q-Anti | Purpose Against |
| zella | C-Rat | ĉella | Q-Rat | Reason |
| z | Z-If | - | - | Condition |
Content word stems are classified according to their action types.
| Label | Examples | Name | Type | Unmarked Aspect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P_ | "cat", "mother" | Persistent | State | Stative |
| T_ | "see", "here", "hot", "near" | Transient | ||
| U_ | "walk", "eat", "rain" | Unitizable | Process | Progressive |
| C_ | "cook" | Culminating | ||
| E_ | "break", "give", "jump" | Unitary | Event | Culminative |
The initial s is vocative Voc when applied to a persistent stem and otherwise imperative Imp.
The order of the medials is polarity, aspect, and aspectual. Polarity is positive when unmarked. The unmarked aspect depends on the action type of the following content word stem, as shown above. The aspectuals are productive action-type modifiers.
page started: 2022.Dec.24 Sat
current date: 2022.Dec.28 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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