A sentence is composed of word-pairs, conjunctions, and certain kinds of adverbs. Each word-pair consists of a noun part followed by a verb part. A noun is any lexical item which may be used as the noun-part of a word-pair which isn't a pronoun. A common noun may take a determiner prefix. A pronoun may instead be used as the noun-part. A verb is any lexical item which, along with inflectional suffixes, may be used as the verb part of a word-pair. The verbs include relational words, adjectives, numbers, and some kinds of adverbs.
A word-pair may be pronounced as one word or two, depending on the specific noun and verb parts. Pronouns are usually unstressed, as are some verb forms.
The syntax is consistently head-final, with a main-mode word-pair at the end of the sentence. Word-pairs modifying nouns precede their heads. Conjunctions follow their clauses (but coordinating conjunctions may be interpreted as appearing between the conjoined clauses; the actual syntax is the same).
Each set of suffixes has a 0-marked alternative. The order of suffix sets is:
-Derivational -GrammaticalVoice -Polarity -Tense -Mode
Some verb forms act like case endings.
| Verb Form | Tag | Case | Protoform | Interlinear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gā | Voc | vocative | *gah1-0-0 | address-Inv-Sec |
| sū | Par | partitive | *su-0-u | have_as_member-Dir-Att |
| cū | Gen | genitive | *kʷu-0-u | have-Dir-Att |
| quix | Dat | dative | *kʷ-ikʰ-0-0 | have-Inch-Dir-Sec |
| dō | Agt | agentive | *duh2-0-0 | do-Dir-Sec |
| bē | Pat | patientive | *bəi-0-0 | be-Inv-Sec |
page started: 2013.Aug.03 Sat
current date: 2013.Aug.04 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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