Meftla Morphology

This article relates to the morphology of the Meftla language.

Inflection of nouns

Nouns are inflected for case and number, across four declensions.

-a declension

This declension is mostly comprised by nouns ending in -a and long vowels except for -ɛ̄. The great majority are of feminine gender.

	Singular	Plural	Supraplural
Nominative	alea	aleai	aleaiām
Accusative	alear	aleɔr	aleɔiɔ̄r
Oblique	aleas	aleɔs	aleɔiɔ̄s

-ɔ declension

This noun class is comprised solely by feminine nouns ending in -ɔ. If a borrowing is created with final -ɔ and it's masculine, it's absorbed into the -i- declension.

	Singular	Plural	Supraplural
Nominative	zullɔ	zullɔi	zullɔiɔ̄m
Accusative	zullɔr	zullɔir	zullɔiɔ̄r
Oblique	zullɔs	zullɔis	zullɔiɔ̄s

-ɛ declension

The majority of nouns here belong to the masculine gender, and all end in -ɛ.

	Singular	Plural	Supraplural
Nominative	reitɛ	reitɛi	reitɛiɛ̄m
Accusative	reitɛr	reitɛil	reitɛiɛ̄r
Oblique	reitɛs	reitɛis	reitɛiɛ̄s

-i- declension

Also known as "the consonant declension", the nouns comprising this declension are mostly masculine. The singular nominative can end in everything possible. Various of the inflections can be analyzed as essentially ending in a consonant, though inserting an /i/ if a cluster that is not allowed is produced.

Borrowings, unless they're acquired with a final /a, ɔ/ and are feminine, or with a final /ɛ/ sound, are taken into this declension.

	Singular	Plural	Supraplural
Nominative	—	-i	-iɛ̄m
Accusative	-(i)r	-(i)l	-iɛ̄r
Oblique	-(i)s	-i	-iɛ̄s

	Singular	Plural	Supraplural
Nominative	fant	fanti	fantiɛ̄m
Accusative	fantir	fantil	fantiɛ̄r
Oblique	fants	fanti	fantiɛ̄s

Inflection of Adjectives

Adjectives inflect in a similar manner to noun; agreeing in gender, case and number.

There are three declensions for adjectives:

• Those that inflect like -a nouns in the feminine and -ɛ nouns in the masculine.
• Those that inflect like -a nouns in the feminine and -i- nouns in the masculine.
• A small, closed class of adjectives relating to mostly female phenomena (such as menstruation or pregnancy) ending in -ɔ and inflecting like such nouns. In the event of these adjectives agreeing with a male noun (such as pregnant seahorses), they still inflect like -ɔ nouns.

Personal Independent Pronouns

	Singular				Plural
	1st person	2nd person	3rd person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Nom Feminine	ʔɔ̄	lī	kɔ̄		ʔauāh	lāi	nāi
Nom Masculine	ʔɛ̄	lɛ̄	kī		ʔū	lɛ̄i	nɛ̄i
Acc/Obl Feminine	ʔɔr	lir	kɔr		ʔar	lair	nair
Acc/Obl Masculine	ʔɛr	lɛr	kir		ʔur	lɛir	nɛir

Personal Possessive Determiners

Although most other determiners either don't inflect at all or inflect with one of the four regular declensions, possessive determiners have an inflection of their own. They're nearly identical to their independent nominative counterparts, except that have their long vowels shortened.

	Singular				Plural
1st person	2nd person	3rd person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person
ʔɔ_	li_	kɔ_		ʔa_	lai_	nai_
ʔɛ_	lɛ_	ki_		ʔu_	lɛi_	nɛi_

Correlative pronouns

	Question	Rel. pron.	This	That	-ever	Every-	Some-	No-
Person	ref	miref			rɛnsau	bɛlrɛn	rɛnoia	rɛnzɛ
Thing	sef	tisef	rō	tō	sɛtsau	bɛlsɛt	setoia	sɛtsɛ
Place	ialef	tīasef	hou	togou	niasau	bɛlnia	nialoia	niazɛ
Manner	karef	tikardef	unrokar	untokar	karsau	bɛlkar	karoia	karzɛ
Time	gaɔnef	tigaɔnef	darofīlɔis	(see below)	gaɔsau	bɛlgaɔ	gaɔnoia	gaɔzɛ
Reason	ʒulnief	tiʒulnief	kauroʒulni	kautoʒulni	ʒulnisau	bɛlʒulni	ʒulnioia	ʒulnizɛ

The correlative of time for "that" depends on whether the time is present or past: for the past (from the point of view of the speech) it's datofīlɔis; for the future, kantofīlɔis.

None of the above inflects for case, gender or number except for the question and relative person and thing pronouns, which inflect like -i- nouns. Note that the language doesn't quite have clear means to differentiate "what" and "which", leaving it to context. On the other hand, it distinguishes interrogative determiner-pronouns from relative pronouns.

Inflection of verbs

Verbs inflect for the gender of their subject, aspect, and two moods (indicative and imperative). The imperative essentially the same, but with the vowel of the inflection made long and stress moved to it, except for the pluperfect. There's also a single non-finite form, functioning as a sort of infinitive or gerund.

The following shows the inflection of regular verbs:

	Indicative		Imperative
	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine
Perfective	kizila	kizili	kizilā	kizilī
Pluperfect	kizilad	kizilɛd	miŋkizilād	miŋkizilɛ̄d
Experiential	kizilat	kizilɛt
Inchoative	kizilɔ	kizilɛ	kizilɔ̄	kizilɛ̄
Imperfective	kizilɔn	kizilɛn	kizilɔ̄n	kizilɛ̄n
Habitual	kizilɔs	kizilis	kizilɔ̄s	kizilīs
Gerund	kizilai

Although we could think of an experiential imperative (do this and gain experience!, or perhaps, you must have had the experience of doing this!), the other imperatives or alternative constructions like with these English examples are used instead.

Verbal Infixing Clitics

Verbs can take up to three infixing clitics, always unstressed: direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and a further clitic used when the verb is in the main clause of certain adverbial clauses.

These clitics have inflections of their own: the pronouns agree in person, gender and number with their antecedents, the adverbial clitic varies depending on the type of adverbial clause it's used with.

	Singular				Plural
	1st person	2nd person	3rd person		1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Direct Feminine	-ɔh-	-ɔl-	-ɔk-		-ai-	-ail-	-ain-
Direct Masculine	-ɛh-	-ɛl-	-ɛk-		-ūh-	-ɛil-	-ɛin-
Indirect	-ah-	-ik-	-ik-		-āh-	-īn-	-īn-

Derivations

Word derivations are mostly accomplished by adding affixes to the root. There is one CV- reduplicating prefix for verbs as well.

Compounding roots directly, as done with Latin and Greek roots in scientific contexts (e.g. lamino-alveolar), isn't common. Adpositions and possessive constructions are preferred to modify nouns with other nouns instead, and affixes exist to derive adjectives from verbs. There are no affixes that express prepositional notions such as English post- ('after (sth)'), however, and such things always have to expressed with the corresponding preposition.