'ižiitsigh

'ižiitsigh is created by tvk. It grammaticalizes many constructions, using affixes where English and many other languages would require additional words or phrases. It is agglutinating with some inflecting characteristics. It is designed to be expressive and "attractively ugly" (muxši).

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Vowels are /a E i u U/, represented by <a e i u eu> Consonants: The basic stops are unvoiced /t c ?/ and voiced /b d J\/. These are represented by <t k ' b d g>. There are many fricatives: /s z s_j z_j S Z C j\/ <s z š ž sj zj x gh>. Note that the <j> grapheme doesn't mark palatalization, but a different point of articulation. This is because historically <š> and <ž> were /s`/ and /z`/, and <sj> and <zj> were palatalized alveolar fricatives. The affricates are /dZ/ and /tS/, represented by <dj and tj>. These are descended from palatalized stops and are considered monophonemic, although there are many other possible affricates that are considered consonant clusters. There is also a palatalized stop /k_j/ <kj>. There are two flaps /4 4_j/ <r ř> and two laterals, /l K/ <l lh>. The cluster /tK/ is considered one phoneme and written <tlh>. The nasals are /n m J/ <n m n>. The latter can only occur before another palatal consonant. There is one approximant, /h/ <h>.

Allophony

Word-finally, /4/ and /4_j/ are respectively [r\] and [z`].

In clusters, /C/ becomes [j\] before a voiced consonant, and /l/ becomes [K] after an unvoiced consonant. /n/ becomes [m] or [J] after a labial or palatal consonant, respectively.

A very short glottal pause may be inserted between other clustered consonants with different voicing.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is CV(V)(C). Clusters cannot occur word-finally, and the set of consonants that can occur word-finally is limited to the following:

<t b d k g tj dj x gh z ž zj š sj r ř n m l lh tlh '>

Consonants that can be the first element of a cluster are: <t d b g k x>. Consonants that can be the second element of a cluster are <l n r ř s š sj z ž zj>.

There is one allowable diphthong, /aU/, written <au>. There are also long forms of each vowel, written by doubling the vowel (except in the case of <eu>, the long form of which is written <euu>.

Lexicon

The vocabulary is a priori. There are two open classes, nouns (‌'idi'itjun) and verbs (‌'ixa'autjim). All other morphemes fall into the class of ‌'izje'ekrel or affixes. The category for all morphemes, including root words, is ižiitsigh.

Nouns fall into one of 8 classes. The first two, called ‌'iřuušidjim and ‌'ibuubedjim correspond to masculine and feminine. Nouns are assigned to the classes according to form, function, or association. All noun roots end in a consonant.

Derivational Morphology

Nominal

The suffix -djim makes an intransitive stative verb into a noun. Y = X-djim means Y is characterized by being or doing X.

Verbal

The prefix ‌'eu- makes a noun root into an intransitive stative verb. 'eu-X means "X exists" or "there is X". Verbs of this type are (redundantly) inflected to agree with the class of the root noun. This prefix is fully productive to the point that it might be considered syntactical; it can even be applied to plural nouns or nouns derived from verbs.

Nominal Morphology

Pluralization

Nouns have two plural forms, partitive and non-partitive. In the partitive form, the individuals are emphasized; in the non-partitive form, the group is emphasized. Both plurals are formed by prefixing ‌'i to the stem and doubling the first vowel of the stem. However, in the partitive form, a glottal stop is inserted between the double vowels.

‌'Iri'ixlu'e sjautžineb zjatlhabiitjatlh. "The people threw the javelin." (i.e. they each threw it in turn, individually.)

‌'Iriixlu'e sjautžineb zjatlhabiigzjatlh. "The people threw the javelin." (i.e. they all picked it up together and threw it.)

Despite these forms, the concept of pluralization in 'ižiitsigh varies somewhat from that of English. There are no agreement markers for plural forms, and the non-partitive form is quite similar in use to the phrase "a group of [plural noun]" in English. It could be argued that the plural forms are actually derivational. This is supported by the fact that some nouns actually change gender class when they are pluralized, as rixlu "person" does above. In the singular and partitive plural, it is in Class 5, which it shares with rugs and trees; in the non-partitive plural, it is a Class 6 noun, in the same category as words, water, and lizards.

Verbal Morphology

Verbs in 'ižiitsigh cover approximately the same semantic space as verbs and adjectives in English. Verb roots take many affixes to inflect for tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, gender of agent and patient, and the speaker's attitude toward the action under discussion.

• Tense, Mood, and Aspect*

The tense/aspect system works somewhat differently from that in English. The two tenses, narrative and present, indicate a "reference point". Aspects such as perfect/imperfect, inchoative, cessative, etc. delineate the time at which the action occurs in more detail. The present perfect has a wider use than in English, covering most uses of the preterit (except when the action in question is incomplete). The narrative tense puts the reference point in the past, enabling one to say things like "he had not yet gone" or "he was going to go".

• Inflecting for Tense, Mood, and Aspect*

Without further ado, here are the affixes for all the tenses and aspects in 'ižiitsigh. Tense suffixes are applied immediately after the stem; aspect affixes are prefixed to the stem.

Present Indicative	Narrative Indicative	Present Subjunctive	Narrative Subjunctive	Imperative
-z-	-b-	-zj-	-g-	-m-

The aspectual system is more complicated, because aspects can be combined. (SV) below indicates reduplication of the first vowel of the verb stem.

• Perfect Aspect*

	Simple Perfect	Inchoative	Cessative	Desiderative
Simple Perfect	(SV)-	ha-	keu-	ah(SV)-
Inchoative	ha-	iga-	nau-	gh(SV)-
Cessative	du-	nau-	N/A	ši-
Desiderative	ah(SV)-	gh(SV)-	ši-	eumi-

A few of these need further explanation: Inchoative Inchoative indicates that an action is about to occur, but has not begun, Inchoative Cessative means "begin to stop" or "be about to stop", and Desiderative Desiderative means "want to want," perhaps an odd concept for humans.