User:Masako/pataka

word order

The basic word order in Kala is SOV.

nouns

• Nouns can be marked plural by -m (or -lo if the consonant in the final syllable is /m/). The collective plural is tli-.

• Gender is not normally marked but can be by -na (FEM), -ta (MASC), or nouns such as naka, tlaka, nahi, or tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc.

determiners

Determiners precede the noun they modify in Kala.

• itla (i-) - this (near me)
• uatla (ua-) - that (near you)
• yetla (ye-) - that (over there)

Quantifiers follow the noun that modify.

• kua (-kua) - all; every; whole
• oli (-li) - each; every
• ula (-la) - whatever; any; some
• mi (-mi) - few; little
• nke (-k) - none
• mpa (-mpa) - many; much; a lot
• maha - more; plus
• ohi - less; fewer

pronouns

There are four persons in Kala. The 4th being inanimate, or indefinite. There is a special pronoun na'am which is used as the 1st person plural exclusive, meaning "We, but not you." The 3rd person plural is irregular, all other pronoun decline regularly.

• na - 1st person
• ta - 2nd person
• ha - 3rd person
• tla - 4th person ("it", "one")

• -m - plural
• -yo - possessive
• -e - patient
• -i - reflexive
• -nku - reciprocal (only attaches to plural pronouns)

Other pronouns include:

• tlokua - everyone, everybody
• kola - someone, somebody; whomever, anyone, anybody
• tlok - no one, nobody
• nokua - everything
• nola - something; whatever, anything
• nok - nothing

verbs

Verbs in Kala are either active or or stative. Active verbs solely denote actions and occurrences and never states in Kala. Stative verbs are the words that modify nouns in an attributive and often adjectival way. They often express a state like a quality or result.

tense

Kala has three simple tenses; past, present, and future. Present tense is unmarked. However, past (-ye) and future (-tli) tenses can be modified to include immediate future ("is about to..."), distant future ("will...in a long while"), recent past ("just ..."), and remote past ("...a long while ago"). These distinctions are made with the augmentative and diminutive endings -ha and -hi.

aspect

There are four aspects in Kala. The progressive, also called the continuous [CONT], this is used to express an incomplete action or state in progress at a specific time. It is marked with -nko, from nkoso - "to continue; proceed; progress". The perfecive aspect indicates that an action is completed [PFV]. It is often translated by the English present perfect (have done some-thing). It is marked with -pua, from opua - "to end; finish; complete". The inchoative aspect refers to the beginning of a state [INCH]. It is marked with -mu, from mula - "to begin; start; initiate". The frequentative aspect refers to a repeated action [FREQ]. It is marked with -nua, from nua - "frequent; often; regular".

mood

The negative mood (always marked finally) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/).

adjectives

Kala does not have adjectives as a distinct part of speech. Instead, many intransitive verbs can be used as adjectives, in which case they follow the noun they modify.

adverbs

Temporal adverbs in Kala precede the verb phrase they modify. Other adverbs follow the verb or adjective they modify and are explicitly marked by -n.

prepositions

Prepositions are placed before the noun or noun phrase, and the prepositional phrase is placed after the noun being modified, or, if used adverbially, after the verb or at the beginning of the sentence.

conjunctions

There are three coordinating conjunctions in Kala and three correlative conjunctions:

• ma - and; also
• ua - or
• ehe (me) - but; yet

• yema - both X and Y
• ue - either X or Y
• uenke (uek) - neither X nor Y