Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, «apa», -Tags-, and "Glosses".
A phrase consists of, at minimum, a case-marked nominal. This may be followed by a determiner, a quantity expression, any number of attributes, and a final modifier, in that order.
A quantity must be definite if either the noun is possessed or an ordinal appears while it must be indefinite if a demonstrative appears.
| totkil tok sah'u | "3 black cats" |
|---|---|
| totkil toka sah'u | "the 3 black cats" |
| totkilba toka sah'u | "your 3 black cats" |
| totkil xis tok sah'u | "these 3 black cats" |
When the nominal is a demonstrative or ordinal, no determiner may appear. When the nominal is a scalar quantity or numeric expression, no determiner or quantity may appear.
| Word | Tag | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| xis | Prox | "this/these" |
| sos | Medi | "that/those" (near) |
| nas | Dist | "that/those" (far) |
| vas | QDem | "which?" |
Logical quantifiers preclude quantity, including number marking.
| Basic | Negated | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nah | Exi | nuh | Null | Existential |
| xal | Uni | xul | Part | Universal |
| [0] | nimaxru tovras cozigru. | "The lower-status man that got rained on is hungry." |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | nabarhu tozgar pixutiptu. | "The stream we'll walk to is cold." |
| [2] | cokaxantu totkili sah'u. | "I saw a black cat." |
| [3] | naxismu tozgur takaxiysu. | "Here's the water I've heated." |
| [4] | narahhu totkil buxinta. | "The cat looking at you is angry." |
| [5] | nasah'u totkil comoxtu tohhan. | "The cat that ate the fish is black." |
|---|---|---|
| [6] | natlaspu tohhan talyu gadxar. | "The fish in the house is large." |
| [7] | namaxru tohhan tatolyo gazgar. | "The fish that came out of the stream is hungry." |
| [8] | nayattlu tovras savlu gatkil. | "The man the cat belongs to is old." |
| [9] | noyattlu toydox cobusivla gatkil. | "The higher-status woman that will give you the cat is old." |
A genitive construction is either possessive, partitive, ordinal (which includes superlatives), or mass quantity. For all of these, a modifying genitive-case phrase appears.
In a possessive construction, the genitive phrase denotes the possessor, with the modified phrase denoting the possessum.
| totkil toka sah'u suvras | "the man's 3 black cats" |
|---|
A partitive construction denotes an indefinite subset of some whole entity. The genitive phrase denotes the whole. The part is specified by a scalar quantity or numeric expression appearing as the nominal.
| tohim sutkil puna sah'u | "2 of the 6 black cats" |
|---|
An ordinal construction denotes a definite subset of some whole entity, selected according to position. There is also a reverse ordinal, which works the same way. The genitive phrase denotes the whole. The part is specified by an ordinal appearing as the nominal; this may be followed by a quantity.
| todatok sutkil puna sah'u | "the 3rd of the 6 black cats" |
|---|---|
| toyu'ar him sutkil puna sah'u | "the last 2 of the 6 black cats" |
An ordinal appearing as a determiner is a shortcut for this construction which may be used when the cardinality of the whole isn't specified.
A composite phrase has two or more parts, with each part but the first taking a conjunction as case. This conjunction must be the same for all parts in the composite.
| totkil ladbin lahhan | "the cat and the dog and the fish" |
|---|
A clause is either an initial clause, a medial clause, or a relative clause.
A clause consists of, at minimum, a predicate, which may be followed by phrases and scalar adverbials; there are also temporal adverbials somewhere. These phrases denote the core and oblique arguments of the predicate. The predicate is either a verb or a phrase taking a copula instead of a case; either may be preceded by a negative polarity particle or an interrogative particle. The sole argument is a copular clause is a phrase taking the third core case.
(Particle) (Tolerance/Measurement) (Function) Verb (Argument/Adverbial)
(Particle) CopularPhrase (Argument)
| [verb] | naxintu zitkil tohhan. | "The cat is looking at the fish." |
|---|---|---|
| [noun] | yo mitkil gaban. | "You're not the cat." |
These are arranged by argument structure class.
| [0] | conizigru. | "The lower-status person was getting rained on." |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | pixatiptu tozgar. | "We'll walk to the stream." |
| [2] | kabarhu tozgar. | "The stream feels cold." |
| [3] | takaxiysu tozguri. | "I've heated some water." |
| [4] | baxinta totkil. | "The cat is looking at you." |
| [5] | tanamoxtu zotkil tohhani. | "The cat has eaten a fish." |
| [6] | natalyu gadxar tohhani. | "There's a fish in the house." |
| [7] | tanatolyo tohhan gazgar. | "The fish came out of the stream." |
| [8] | vi kasavla gatkil? | "Does the cat belong to you?" |
| [9] | pibosivla toydox gatkili. | "The higher-status woman will give you a cat." |
A relative clause is introduced by the relativizer 'u Rel and contains the relative pronoun yan RP whose case specifies the role of the modified phrase within the relative clause.
| [] | nayattlu gadxar 'u cokatalya gayan. | "The house I was in is old." |
|---|---|---|
| [] | conanilku zivlut tokropi 'u tamoxta ziptiti diyan. | "The boy was cleaning a fork that he'd eaten a potato with." |
Status is relative to either the person argument or to the speaker.
Instead of marking the possessor on the noun, the person or status of the verb is sometimes used.
| [] | vi takonilku tokrop? | "Have you cleaned my fork?" |
|---|
page started: 2025.Feb.22 Sat
current date: 2025.Feb.28 Fri
content and form originated by Jeffrey S. Jones
(qiihoskeh)
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