Words are classified as verbs, nouns, pronouns, determiners, quantity words, and various kinds of particles; verbs, nouns, and pronouns are inflected.
Roots end in single consonants (although vowel omission may result in clusters). Both nouns and verbs can be derived from roots by appending classifying suffixes, although there are also root-only nouns and even suffix-only nouns.
Verbs are divided into adjectival verbs, other static verbs, and dynamic verbs. Verb stems are mostly formed according to this division, with adjectival stems ending in i, other static stems ending in e, and dynamic stems ending in a or o. For many verbs, the stem vowel by itself is appended to the root; for others, it's part of a -CV suffix appended to the root, such as -þi. In addition, verb stems can be derived from other words.
Note: In some forms of some verbs (such as those where the vowel is appended directly to a light root), the characteristic stem vowel is omitted. However, this doesn't affect the stem.
Inchoative verbs are the dynamic correspondents of static verbs (including adjectival). They're formed by changing the stem vowel from i and e to a and o, respectively, regardless of the stem vowel's origin. If the root is light, it's lengthened, e.g. tal (stem tali) becomes tála.
Superlatives are formed by placing the stem formant afe (Sup) after the stem of an adjectival verb. Any inchoative marking or derivation applies to this stem formant rather than the adjectival verb stem.
The inflectional structure of a verb is as follows:
VerbStem-(Polarity)-(Aspect)-(Function)
Positive polarity is unmarked; otherwise, the polarity marker is infixed before the final stem vowel, e.g. lohþi, lohþúni, lohþessi.
| Infix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| <ún> | <Neg> | negative |
| <ess> | <Aff> | affirmative |
Aspect marking depends partly on whether the verb is static or dynamic.
| Static | Dynamic | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| -0 | -ki | -Dur | durative |
| -ba | -0 | -Ret | retrospective |
| -nto | -Pro | prospective | |
| -þme | -Hab | habitual | |
The function determines whether the verb is an attributive form, a secondary predicate form, or a finite form. For a non-finite form, the role of its coreferential argument is also specified.
| Suffix | Tag | Name | Aspect | Enclitics | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -0 | Indicative | yes | Cpl, Tmp, Rel | Finite | |
| -i | -Imp | Imperative | no | Cpl | |
| -ngo | -Hyp | Hypothetical | no | ||
| -s | -Ptc | Active Participle | yes | Attributive | |
| -l | -PasPtc | Passive Participle | |||
| -0 | -Dep | Active Depictive | no | Secondary Predicate | |
| -ç | -PasDep | Passive Depictive | |||
| -r, -ar | -Rsl | Active Resultative | |||
| -çar | -PasRsl | Passive Resultative |
For a finite verb, the type of clause is specified.
| Enclitic | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| -de | -Cpl | complement clause |
| -ji | -Tmp | temporal adjunct clause |
| -ha | -Rel | relative clause |
Each noun or pronoun has an implicit gender: either animate or inanimate. Nouns are inflected for number (singular and plural) and case, except for mass nouns, which don't have number. Pronouns are also inflected for case. The cases are absolutive or unmarked (-Abs), oblique or marked (-Obl), vocative (-Voc), genitive (-Gen), and partitive (-Par). The partitive of count nouns has only plural forms.
For convenience, nouns are arranged in 4 mostly similar declensions. The following tables of sample declensions show how noun stems are modified for each number and case as well as giving the endings. The stem modifications include omission of the final vowel, omission of an internal vowel, and lengthening of an internal vowel. There are stem changes involving consonants as well.
Nouns of the 1st declension have bases ending in non-high vowels, although this isn't always apparent from the citation form (the absolutive singular).
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Abs | miþko | þobe | bextol | tol | miþkox | þóbex | bextolax | tólax |
| -Obl | miþkon | þóben | bextolan | tolmi | miþkor | þóber | bextolar | tólar |
| -Voc | miþkoi | þóbei | bextolai | tólai | miþkol | þóbel | bextolal | tólal |
| -Gen | miþkos | þóbes | bextolas | tolsu | miþkoþa | þobeþa | bextolþa | tolþa |
| -Par | - | miþkobe | þobebe | bextolbe | tolbe | |||
Nouns of the 2nd declension have bases ending in high vowels, although this also isn't always apparent from the citation form.
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Abs | kwendi | yagi | tógan | gan | kwendia | yagia | tógamia | gamia |
| -Obl | kwendin | yágin | tógamin | gammi | kwendior | yagior | tógamior | gamior |
| -Voc | kwendí | yágí | tógamí | gámí | kwendiel | yagiel | tógamiel | gamiel |
| -Gen | kwendis | yágis | tógamis | gansu | kwendiþa | yagiþa | tóganþa | ganþa |
| -Par | - | kwendibe | yagibe | tógambe | gambe | |||
Nouns of the 3rd declension have bases ending in the final feature '; note that the citation forms always end in vowels.
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Abs | anse | soru | baha | ansega | sorga | báda | ||
| -Obl | ansémi | sorúmi | bahámi | ansegor | sorgor | bádor | ||
| -Voc | ansegi | sorgi | bádi | ansegel | sorgel | bádel | ||
| -Gen | ansessu | sorussu | bahassu | anseþþa | soruþþa | bahaþþa | ||
| -Par | - | ansepe | sorupe | bahape | ||||
Nouns of the 4th declension have bases ending in consonants.
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Abs | hánis | løç | wáxan | hánisa | løça | waxma | ||
| -Obl | hánismi | løçmi | waxammi | hánisor | lǿçor | waxmor | ||
| -Voc | hánisi | løçi | waxmi | hánisel | lǿçel | waxmel | ||
| -Gen | hánissu | løçsu | waxansu | hánisþa | løçþa | waxanþa | ||
| -Par | - | hánispe | løçpe | waxampe | ||||
| -Abs | -Obl | -Gen | -Par | ||
| 1S | fí | mí | fia | - | 1st person Singular |
| 1P | mó | mor | moa | mobe | 1st person Plural |
| 2 | kú | xú | kua | kube | 2nd person |
| Rfx | - | dó | doa | dobe | Reflexive (all persons) |
| 3TA | tá | tau | tawa | tabe | 3rd person Topical Animate |
| 3RA | yá | yau | yawa | yabe | 3rd person Recent Animate |
| RPA | sá | sau | sawa | sabe | Relative Pronoun Animate |
| CQA | cá | cau | cawa | cabe | Content Question Animate |
| 3TI | té | tefo | tena | tebe | 3rd person Topical Inanimate |
| 3RI | wé | wefo | wena | webe | 3rd person Recent Inanimate |
| RPI | sé | sefo | sena | sebe | Relative Pronoun Inanimate |
| CQI | cé | cefo | cena | cebe | Content Question Inanimate |
The possessive pronouns are declined like nouns and are derived from the personal pronouns by replacing the final a of the genitive stem by assa for animate pronouns and by áli for inanimate ones.
The demonstrative pronouns are also declined like nouns and are formed by prefixing the corresponding determiners (proximate sí, medial doi, and distal lai) to sa (animate) and li (inanimate).
Existential and universal pronouns may be formed and declined like the demonstratives, using the corresponding determiners (er and san, respectively). However, there are also universal partitive forms of sa and li (see below).
This suffix is -sana after consonant-stem count nouns, -sna after vowel-stem count nouns, and -san after all mass nouns. E.g. lassana, xekosna, and kaffesan. It's used for "all of" expressions, i.e. universal within a limited set. The count noun forms are declined as plural nouns, while the mass noun forms are declined as singular nouns.
Causative and autocausative verbs are dynamic and formed from static base verbs by appending one of the suffixes -ma and -to to either the verb root or the verb stem. The verb root is used if the base stem is formed with i or e and the verb stem is used otherwise. The suffix -ma is used if the base verb is adjectival and the suffix -to is used otherwise. E.g. gorme becomes goronto and henþi becomes henþima.
The difference between a causative and an autocausative depends on the base verb's argument structure; if it's univalent, the resulting verb is causative while if it's relational or transitive, the resulting verb is autocausative. In either case, the resulting verb is transitive.
page started: 2014.Sep.13 Sat
current date: 2014.Sep.21 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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