Proto-Piti syntax

Main article: Proto-Piti

This page gives an extensive description of Proto-Piti syntactical features.

Main clause and word order

In its earlier stage, Proto-Piti is a mainly VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language. This stage is clearly proved by the cliticization phenomenon of the archaic personal pronouns to the verbal form.

liːloṕ oɬ ɬiːro → liːloṕoɬ ɬiːro
see I man → I see the man

After this earlier stage, before the diaspora, the word order changes in an almost strictly SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). There are no traces hinting to whether other typological parameters have already changed or are about to change at this point.

ɬiːroli sopa liːloṕ(æt́)
the man sees the dog

The quite rich case system allows every other possible word order, but most of them prove to be very marked and infrequently used. The only word order with a clear role and a frequent usage is OSV (Object-Subject-Verbs), which marks the so-called passive construct.

ɬiːroli sopa liːloṕ(æt́) → sopa ɬiːroli liːloṕ(æt́)
 the man sees the dog → the dog is seen by the man

The other elements in the sentence are usually placed in the order “place-manner-cause-time”, although they are basically freer than the main elements. An object in the terminative case, when conveying the indirect object, can be freely placed before or after the direct object of the sentence, with a slight tendence to be placed after it.

ɬiːroli χeːmæ sopaχæ ʔakoɬæk(æt́) / ɬiːroli sopaχæ χeːmæ ʔakoɬæk(æt́)
the man gives bread to the dog / the man gives the dog bread

A peculiar feature is the verbal infinitival agreement: when infinitival forms, as nominal forms of the verbs, take a direct object, are regarded as an expression of belonging, and the direct object is declined in the ablative case.

sopaʂu liːloṕæme ʔiːsoɬ
I do not see the dog.

Moreover, as it can been seen in the example above, when an infinitival form is governed by a modal verb (among which the negative root ʔiːs- is found), the infinitive is always placed before the conjugated modal form.

Nouns

The noun cluster is formed by a nominal root, carrying the main meaning, and by other noun-type forms, namely adjectival root, which specify this meaning or add other meanings to the main noun. Inside of a noun cluster, the nominal root can be replaced by a pronominal root.

The noun usually closes the noun cluster, being preceded by every other specifying form. Thus, other elements conveying possession and belonging are always placed before the noun, as well as every attributive adjective.

ɬiːrora soːŋo
the man’s house

oɬtuʂu/joʂu lilaː
my hand

joːpaː ʔoːna 
the young woman

The role of the noun cluster in the sentence is marked by case endings. In the earlier period, these endings mark only the last element of the noun cluster.

joːpaː ɬiːroli soːŋoχæ ʔimeːχ(æt́)
the young man is going home

Still in the pre-diasporic period, however, usage of these endings spread to specifying adjectival roots, most likely in order to avoid any ambiguity among the various noun clusters inside of a sentence. This results in the process called nominal agreement. Other elements, which convey possession or belonging do not agree with the main nominal form.

joːpaːli ɬiːroli soːŋoχæ ʔimeːχ(æt́)
the young man is going home

Over time, the nominal agreement process spread to predicative adjectives, thus expanding case marking also inside the verbal group.

The agreement among nominal and adjectival is not a universal stable phenomenon. Non-qualifying adjectives do not display any king of agreement with their adjoining noun, either in case or in number.

Number marking inside the noun cluster takes hold in a later period compared to case marking. Both nominal and adjectival roots agree in number, and both attributive and predicative adjectives agree in number with their adjoing noun. Other elements, which convey possession or belonging do not agree with the main nominal form in number.

oɬtunora/oɬturano soːŋo
our house

oɬtuʂu/joʂu sopano
our dogs

joːpaːʔi ʔoːnaʔi
the two young women

ʔoːnano joːpaːno ʔæɳ(æt́)on/ʔæɳon(æt́)
the women are young

The grammar role of noun clusters can be further specified by adverbial roots, which are placed after the cluster. The adverbial roots take on the role of postpositions. Thus, it can be stated that the noun cluster can be closed by a postposition.

soːŋoχæ ʔuːm ʔimeːχoɬ
I am going inside the house

The cases

The grammatical role of the noun cluster in a sentence is conveyed by some endings. These endings are bound to grammatical cases, with usually well-defined roles.

The cases in Proto-Piti language are 9:

• Agentive
• Passive
• Ablative
• Genitive
• Terminative
• Causative
• Instrumental
• Abessive
• Locative

The grammatical roles and all possible differences in usage among similar cases are enlisted below:

The active-stative alignment

The case system of Proto-Piti language is based on a morphological alignment called agentive-stative type (also called the agentive-passive alignment). This kind of alignment is essential different from the nominative-accusative alignment, which is widespread among most European languages, and from the even rarer ergative-absolutive alignment.

In an agentive-stative alignment the choice of the case relies on the intrinsic ability of the subject to be an active agent in the sentence or not. Unlike the ergative-absolutive alignment, subjects of an intransitive verb can also be agentive subjects, if the action is performed with a certain degree of animacy or intentionality. This usually also depends on the semantic nature of the verb itself. Let’s see two examples:

• to jump: this verb is considered as grammatically intransitive, but the described action involves an activity and a will from the subject. Thus, the alignment selects the agentive case for such subjects.
• to fall: this verb is considered as grammatically intransitive, but the described action involves no active engagement or no active will from the subject. It is more regarded as an incidental event, even if it implies some kind of motion. Thus, the alignment selects the passive case for such subjects.

The system selects only the passive case for direct objects of transitive verbs. Potential confusion is avoided, as the agentive case and the passive case cannot be selected for two kinds of elements which may be in the same sentence.

The general usage rule for these cases is:

• Subject of a transitive verb: agentive case
• Active subject of an intransitive verb: agentive case
• Inactive subject of an intransitive verb: passive case
• Direct object of a transitive verb: passive case

Since nouns referring to intrinsically inanimated entities cannot be selected as subjects of transitive verbs, sentences in which these elements might be transitive or active subjects are usually differently arrange are usually differently arranged, as such nouns cannot be in the agentive case:

the storm spoiled the harvest → the harvest spoiled because of the storm
umaʈoːta ḱumeːkʰu ʔaʔosiːp(æt́)

However, some natural entities can be perceived as animate, as having their own will, like sæɳo, light, ṕiḱe, water, ʔaḱo, wind/air, and they may optionally be regarded as animate, as if they were endowed with their own will. In such cases these nouns can be active subjects of transitive verbs and be declined in the agentive case.