User:Masako/naho
grammar outline and resources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Franca_Nova_grammar
- zompist.com/virtuver.htm
- languagesgulper.com/eng/languages.html
Morphology (umpu)
Nouns (noma)
Nouns in Kala are inflected only for number. Other relevant distinctions are animacy and possession, but these are not marked on the noun itself. Animacy plays a role both for pronoun choice and for the validity of some syntactic constructions.
Number (uku)
In general the plural suffix is not used when the plurality of the noun is clear from context. For example, while the English sentence "there are three dogs" would use the plural "dogs" instead of the singular "dog", the Kala sentence mita ha'o a "dog three exist" keeps the word mita "dog" in its unmarked form, as the numeral makes the plural marker redundant.
Nouns are marked for number; plural and collective:
- mita - dog - a dog
- mitam - dog-PL - dogs
- tlimita - COL-dog - a dog pack / a pack of dogs
- tlimitam - COL-dog-PL - dog packs / packs of dogs
When the final syllable of a word contains an m, mp, and sometimes a p the plural marking changes to -lo.
- yama - mountain - a mountain
- yamalo - mountain-PL - mountains
- tliyama - COL-mountain - a mountain range / range of mountains
- tliyamalo - COL-mountain-PL - mountain ranges / ranges of mountains
The collective plural is marked by tli-, derived from tatli, meaning "group; collection; gathering". It is mainly used to indicate collectives of animals, but can also indicate groups of flora, geographic features, and various other groupings. This is called the collective plural (COL).
Gender (saka)
Gender is not normally marked but can be with the endings -na and -ta to mark the feminine and masculine, respectively or nouns such as naka, tlaka, nahi, or tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc. A gender neutral suffix, -nta may be used when the gender is unknown or ambiguous.
- uma - horse - a horse
- umana - horse-FEM - mare
- umata - horse-MASC - stallion
Pronouns (nkalo)
Kala agent pronouns are often omitted when the person is obvious from context. 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. Pronouns do not inflect for gender; if gender is significant, one can use words like naka, tlaka, nahi, tahi (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy), etc.
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Personal pronouns:
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Modifiers:
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Other pronouns include:
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| Agent | Patient | Reflexive | Possessive | Reciprocal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | na | ena | na'i | nayo | - |
| 2sg | ta | eta | ta'i | tayo | - |
| 3sg | ha | eha | ha'i | hayo | - |
| 4sg | tla | etla | tla'i | tlayo | - |
| 1pl 1pl exclusive |
nam na'am |
enam ena'am |
nami na'ami |
namyo na'amyo |
nanku na'anku |
| 2pl | tam | etam | tami | tamyo | tanku |
| 3pl | kam | ekam | kami | kamyo | kanku |
| 4pl | tlam | etlam | tlami | tlamyo | tlanku |
Determiners & Demostratives (milahani)
The demonstratives can be prefixed to any noun to show deixis. Kala makes a three-way distinction. Typically there is a distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).
Examples:
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Quantifiers follow the noun that modify.
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Correlatives (uatse)
| Proximal i- |
Medial ua- |
Distal ye- |
Inclusive -kua |
Negative -k |
Indefinite -la | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mo (place) |
hina here |
uana there |
yemua over there |
mokua everywhere |
mok nowhere |
mola somewhere; anywhere |
| ko (person) |
iko this person |
uako that person |
yeko that person (over there) |
tlokua everyone |
tlok no one |
kola someone; anyone |
| uku (amount) |
iku this much |
uaku that much |
- | kua all; every |
ok none |
ula some; any |
| ama (time) |
ima now, at present |
uama then; at that time |
- | kuama always |
amak never |
tlama sometime; anytime |
| so (kind, type) |
iso this kind |
so'o that kind |
yeso that kind (over there) |
sokua all kinds |
sok no kind (at all) |
sola some/any kind |
| no (thing) |
itla this |
uatla that |
yetla that (over there) |
nokua everything |
nok nothing; none |
nola something; anything |
| to (manner, way) |
yoto thus; like this; this way |
uato that way |
ato that way (over there) |
tokua every way |
tok no way |
tola somehow; anyway |
Verbs (uati)
Kala relies on analytic serial verb constructions, and can therefore get by with very little verbal morphology. Each verb has at most two possible forms: the active and the stative. Passivity is marked on the subject thus verbs are unmarked and must be analyzed based on surrounding morphology. 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. Verbs can be marked with several suffixes to add or change meaning. The modals and tense affixes can be added in different order to a verb to create a new meaning; their placement is not always fixed. The negative, adverbial, and plural endings are always final, while other affixes can be varied, but in general they should be ordered:
STEM-(SIZE/IMPORTANCE)-(MOOD)-(ASPECT)-(TENSE)-(NEGATIVE)
Example:
| Verb Stem | Size/Importance | Mood | Aspect | Tense | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| empa | -hi | -pa | -nko | -ye | -k |
| run | DIM | ABIL | PROG | PST | NEG |
- na empahipankoyek
- 1SG run-DIM-able-PROG-PST-NEG
- I was not able to keep jogging.
Tense (eme)
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.
| Kala | gloss | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| remote past | kamahi hinayeha | town-DIM be.here-REM | There was a village here (long ago). (before the lifetime of the speaker) |
| past | naka mita anyaye | woman dog see-PST | The woman saw the dog. |
| recent past | ota namyo akyayehi or -hye |
father 1pl.GEN wake-REC | Our father just woke. (action just finished) |
| present | mita tahi yatsi | dog boy bite | The dog bites the boy. |
| future | naka tahi tlepatli | woman boy teach-FUT | The woman will teach the boy. |
| immediate future | na tlelatlihi or -tlai |
1s bathe-FUT | I'll bathe soon. (within the day) |
| distant future | panam opuatliha | rain-PL end-FUT | The rains will end. (months from now) |
- The present tense can show immediacy by using the adverb ima, "now; at this time":
- ima mita ina - now dog eat - The dog is eating right now.
- If a temporal adverb is used, the tense suffix may be omitted:
- yomaye nam ina - yesterday 1pl eat - We ate yesterday.
Aspect (ti'a)
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 perfective 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".
| Kala | gloss | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous | na ke niye pukunko | 1s O undergarment wear-CONT | I am wearing underclothes. |
| Frequentative | tlaka ke apua tlatonua | man O song recite-FREQ | The man recites the song repetitively. |
| Inchoative | nahi yotimu | girl play-INCH | The girl begins to play. |
| Perfective | kam inapua | 3pl eat-PFV | They have eaten. |
Mood (toka)
Besides various aspects, Kala also marks moods other than realis: irrealis, imperative, hortative, and negative. These are also expressed by suffixes on the verb and typically follow aspectual marking where it is expressed by a suffix. As is common throughout natural and constructed languages, the indicative mood is unmarked. Subjunctive, conditional, and imperative moods are marked lexically, by various particles, and as such are covered in detail in the “particles” of this grammar.
| Kala | gloss | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abilitative | na mokuyepak | 1s sleep-PST-ABIL-NEG | I was unable to sleep. |
| Assumptive | naka hinaho | woamn be.here-ASS | The woman must be here. (I assume) (also used as "assertive") |
| Attemptative | neko ke panya matapya | cat O mouse kill-ATT | The cat is trying to kill the mouse. |
| Dubitative | ha tsakahueke | 3s home-LOC-DUB | I guess he is at home. lit: He is at home, supposedly. |
| Hortative | yalakya | walk-HORT | Let's go! |
| Necessitative | mita inahe | dog eat-NEC | The dog needs to eat. |
| Negative | naku nayo hinak | sister 1s-GEN be.here-NEG | My sister is not here. |
| Permissive | ta ke hina simamyok | 2s O here sit-PERM-NEG | You are not allowed to sit here. |
| Precative | ke asi yetate | O salt give-PREC | Will you please pass me the salt? |
| Preparative | tahi mokusue | boy sleep-PREP | The boy is ready to sleep. |
| Propositive | ta mokune | 2s sleep-PROP | You should sleep. |
| Volitive | otsokai ka'e moli yalaue | wolf-red toward forest go-VOL | Redwolf wants/intends to go to the forest. |
The negative mood (always marked finally) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/).
- mita inayek - dog eat-PST-NEG - The dog did not eat.
- mita mokunke - dog sleep-NEG - The dog does not sleep.
Adjectives (keyo)
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attributive_verb#Japanese
- zompist.com/cuezi.htm#Participles
- akana.conlang.org/wiki/Ronc_Tyu#The_attributive
Kala does not have morphologically distinct adjectives. Stative verbs are the words that modify nouns in an predicative and often adjectival way. They often express a state like a quality or result. In the simplest form, the adjective simply appears after the noun, in verbal position. Many statements that would be phrased as adjectival predicates in English are preferably expressed with stative intransitive verbs in Kala, requiring no copula. (For simplicity, such verbs are glossed without “be”.) This leaves open to interpretation many phrases.
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Comparison (nisa)
In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an predicative adjective (verb) are merged into a single form, the elative. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.” The comparative is made by using the augmentative or diminutive ending on the verb.
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Equivalence (hisa)
Equivalence is indicated with either kue (as, like), or mya (as...as).
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Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, aya means "beautiful", but ayako means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." An adjective can be made into an abstract noun by adding -n (-ity, -ness, -ship, -hood). In this way aya becomes ayan, meaning "beauty". This can also be used with nouns: ona (mother) becomes onan (motherhood).
Adverbs (pusa)
- japaneselanguageguide.com/grammar/adverb.asp
- bruce-the-korean.blogspot.com/2015/11/adverbs-and-adverbials.html
Kala does not have morphologically distinct adverbs. Adverbs can be formed from all adjectives (or stative verbs) by adding -n to the root. Since this rule is regular, it is not generally indicated in grammatical examples or in the lexicon.
- aya - beautiful >> ayan - beautifully
- tama - good >> taman - well
- poyo - rich >> poyon - richly
- tsipue - slow >> tsipuen - slowly (this can also be marked on the main verb with -tsue)
- tlaki - fluent >> tlakin - fluently
Particles (peya)
Conjunctions (penku)
Words and phrases may be coordinated in Kala with the following words:
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interjections / pragmatic markers
Clauses (teye)
Relative clauses (or adjective clauses) function like adjectives. Relative clauses follow the noun or noun phrase that they modify:
- naka ke na itsatle te ameyo
- woman O 1s love-REL from America
- The woman (that) I love comes from America.
- mayo ke na kitlayetle muyak
- tool O 1s create-PST-REL do-NEG
- The tool (that) I built doesn't function.
- na ke ta yani unyak / na ke yani tayo unyak
- 1s O 2s mean know-NEG / 1s O meaning 2s.GEN know-NEG
- I don't understand what you mean.
