User:Bukkia/sandboxIII

Typological structure

Kī́rtako is a morphologically agglutinative language, while also having a marked introflexive feature, shown in verbal roots.

The main word order is basically SOV (Subject-Object-Verb).

phū́kali mū́ke lī́lopɑt
(the) person sees (the) cow

The morphosyntactical system is clearly head-final. All syntactical parameters are aligned with this type:

• object - verb
• noun - postposition
• adjective - noun
• relative clause - noun

Morphology

Nouns

Almost all nouns in Kī́rtako language end in a vowel. There are limited samples of nouns ending in a consonant, mostly loanwords; in these cases -ɑ-, as an epenthetic vowel, is added, before the various endings of the noun declension.

Nouns are grouped in two declension classes: animate nouns, or first class and inanimate nouns, or second class. Broadly speaking the first class include nouns referring to animate beings, able to move and act on their own will, while the second class include nouns referring to object or inanimate beings. The classes are thus listed:

• 1^st class: human beings, animals, gods.
• 2^nd class: plants, objects, ideas, feelings, senses.

Nouns do not unchangingly belong to a determinate class, as they lack any morphological markers, which can unambiguously identify a given class.

For example, the noun sɑño, light, moves from a class to the other during time, just like the noun ñowe, love, varying their class accordingly as the cultural perception of their animation.

Despite the above-mentioned lack of any morphological markers to identify both classes, each class exhibits different declension patterns.

Almost all nouns have two morphological numbers, singular and plural.

Cases

Kī́rtako nouns do decline, according to an active-stative system with 9 cases:

• Agentive: marks the subject of a transitive verb or the subject of an intransitive verb, which display a certain will or a certain degree of activity in performing the given action. It can be used only with nouns of the 1^st class.
• Passive: marks the object of a transitive verb, the subject of an intransitive verb, which display no intention or will or every inanimate subject.
• Ablative: marks a natural belonging, without any intention of possession. It may mark also the origin point of a motion. It can be used to mark the object of an infinitival form, marking thus also the object of a negated transitive verb.
• Genitive marks a possession, with a clear intention or will. It can be used only with nouns of the 1^st class.
• Dative: marks the indirect object. It may mark also the final point of a motion, the destination of a movement, or the ultimate goal of the action.
• Causative: marks the reason or the cause which caused the action.
• Instrumental: marks the tool or the instrument which are used to perform the action. It can be used only with nouns of the 2nd class.
• Abessive: marks the tool or the instrument which are absent while performing the action. It can be used only with nouns of the 2^nd class.
• Locative: marks the place where the action is performed. It can be used only with nouns of the 2^nd class.

The cases are usually classified in 4 groups:

1. Primary main cases: agentive, genitive
2. Secondary main cases: passive, ablative
3. Primary oblique cases: dative, causative
4. Secondary oblique cases: instrumental, abessive, locative

Other complements are expressed through the postpositions, which select one or more cases to be used with the nouns.

Noun declension

Nouns do decline according to case and number, by adding the following ending to their base form.

	1st class		2nd class
	singular	plural	singular	plural
agentive	-li	-noli
passive	-	-no	-	-no
ablative	-šu	-nošu	-šu	-nošu
genitive	-ra	-nora
dative	-ɣɑ	-noɣɑ	-ɣɑ	-noɣɑ
causative	-khu	-nokhu	-khu	-nokhu
instrumental			-khɑ	-nokhɑ
abessive			-gil	-nogil
locative			-tsar	-notsar

Some examples are shown below: a 1st class noun, papu, father, a 1st class noun, sṓgo, house.

	papu		sṓgo
	singular	plural	singular	plural
agentive	papuli	papunoli
ablative	papu	papuno	sṓgo	sṓgono
passive	papušu	papunošu	sṓgošu	sṓgonošu
genitive	papura	papunora
dative	papuɣɑ	papunoɣɑ	sṓgoɣɑ	sṓgonoɣɑ
causative	papukhu	papunokhu	sṓgokhu	sṓgonokhu
instrumental			sṓgokhɑ	sṓgonokhɑ
abessive			sṓgogil	sṓgonogil
locative			sṓgotsar	sṓgonotsar

The 1st class nouns never add the endings of the secondary oblique cases, while the 2nd class nouns never add the ending of the primary main cases.

Adjectives and pronouns

Adjectives have the same form and behaviour as nouns, ending mostly in a vowel and showing the same exceptions. Pronouns, instead, may have very different forms, even in the root form.

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives are always placed before the noun, that they are describing, while predicative adjectives are usually placed after their name.

jṓpā́ wī́ro
(the) young man

wī́ro jṓpā́ (ʔɑñ)
(the) man is young

Since the verb ʔɑñɑme, to be, can be omitted when is the sentence copula, the only way to distinguish an attributive or a predicative role of an adjective is by its position in relation to its name.

All adjectives agree in case and numbers with the nouns they describe, being declined with the same ending of the noun declension. Differently from nouns, every adjective can always have a complete declension, as it cannot intrinsically belong to one of the classes.

jṓpā́ra wī́rora rḗʔo sṓgo pinkotsar wɑkitsar mḗʔis
the new house of the young man is in the nearby village

Declension of qualifying adjectives

Example: rḗʔo, new

	rḗʔo
	singular	plural
agentive	rḗʔoli	rḗʔonoli
passive	rḗʔo	rḗʔono
ablative	rḗʔošu	rḗʔonošu
genitive	rḗʔora	rḗʔonora
dative	rḗʔoɣɑ	rḗʔonoɣɑ
causative	rḗʔokhu	rḗʔonokhu
instrumental	rḗʔokhɑ	rḗʔonokhɑ
abessive	rḗʔogil	rḗʔonogil
locative	rḗʔotsar	rḗʔonotsar

Comparison of qualifying adjectives

Qualifying adjectives have two comparison forms, comparative and superlative. They build this forms by adding the following endings: Example: rḗʔo, new

comparative	-rṓ
superlative	-rṓtu

These ending are always placed before the case endings and after the adjectival form, both base or derived form. The second comparison term is declined in the ablative case and followed by the postposition phɑw.

wī́ro ʔṓnašu phɑw jṓpā́rṓ (ʔɑñ)
the man is younger than the woman

ʔṓna owtunošu phɑw jṓpā́rṓtu (ʔɑñ)
the woman is the youngest of/among us

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are distinguished from other pronominal roots by a dichotomy between the forms for the first and second person and the forms for the third person.

The first and second person form have two different roots, creating thus a heteroclitic declension. On these two kinds of root more than one form for every case are created. Differently, the third person has only one root.

	1st person sing.	2nd person sing.	3rd person sing.	1st person plur.	2nd person plur.	3rd person plur.
agentive	owtu	ertu	ɑktuli	owtuno	ertuno	ɑktunoli
passive	jo	nɑ	ɑktu	jono	nɑno	ɑktuno
ablative	owtušu	ertušu	ɑktušu	owtunošu	ertunošu	ɑktunošu
	jošu	nɑnošu		jonošu	nɑnošu
genitive	owtura	ertura	ɑktura	owtunora	ertunora	ɑktunora
	jora	nɑnora		jonora	nɑnora
dative	joɣɑ	nɑɣɑ	ɑktuɣɑ	jonoɣɑ	nɑnoɣɑ	ɑktunoɣɑ
causative	jokhu	nɑkhu	ɑktukhu	jonokhu	nɑnokhu	ɑktunokhu
instrumental			ɑktukhɑ			ɑktunokhɑ
abessive			ɑktugil			ɑktunogil
locative			ɑktutsar			ɑktunotsar

The forms for the first and the second person are meant to be referents of only animate beings, or members of the 1^st class. Therefore they do not have forms for the secondary oblique cases. Instead, the third person has a complete declension, depending on which noun class it refers to.

In the archaich period another third person pronoun is available, nigtu, which falls out of use already before the classic period. It was used as an obviative form in relation to ɑktu.

The pronouns for the first and second person have two forms both for the ablative and for the genitive case. These forms are called, respectively, enlarged form (owtušu, ertušu,...) and reduced form (jošu, nɑšu,...). They are used differently:

• In the ablative case:
  • Enlarged form: actual form for the ablative case, used for the main meanings of this case and with pospositions. It may also convey the meaning of belonging, acting as an indeclinable possessive adjective or pronoun.

ertunošu papu ʔalolī́ponow
we saw your father

• • Restricted form: it is used mostly as direct object of infinitival forms and in the negative sentences.

nɑšu hṓthī́niñɑme ʔaʔī́sow
we weren't looking for you

• In the genitive case:
  • Enlarged form: it strictly conveys the meaning of possession, acting as an indeclinable possessive adjective or pronoun.

ertunora sṓgo ʔalolī́ponow
we saw your house

• • Restricted form: it is used mostly with postpositions.

nɑra ʔḕ kogiwow
I'm going to come with you

In the genitive case these roles are not unchangingly fixed, but during the history of the language their roles change, especially in the late period.

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns

The demonstrative adjectives are:

that	ɑktuko
this	niktuko

The demonstrative pronouns have different forms:

that one	ɑwo
this one	niwo