User:Bukkia/sandboxIII
Typological structure
Kī́rtako is a morphologically agglutinative language, while also having a marked introflexive feature, shown in verbal roots.
The main word order is basically SOV (Subject-Object-Verb).
phū́kali mū́ke lī́lopɑt (the) person sees (the) cow
The morphosyntactical system is clearly head-final. All syntactical parameters are aligned with this type:
- object - verb
- noun - postposition
- adjective - noun
- relative clause - noun
Morphology
Nouns
Almost all nouns in Kī́rtako language end in a vowel. There are limited samples of nouns ending in a consonant, mostly loanwords; in these cases -ɑ-, as an epenthetic vowel, is added, before the various endings of the noun declension.
Nouns are grouped in two declension classes: animate nouns, or first class and inanimate nouns, or second class. Broadly speaking the first class include nouns referring to animate beings, able to move and act on their own will, while the second class include nouns referring to object or inanimate beings. The classes are thus listed:
- 1st class: human beings, animals, gods.
- 2nd class: plants, objects, ideas, feelings, senses.
Nouns do not unchangingly belong to a determinate class, as they lack any morphological markers, which can unambiguously identify a given class.
For example, the noun sɑño, light, moves from a class to the other during time, just like the noun ñowe, love, varying their class accordingly as the cultural perception of their animation.
Despite the above-mentioned lack of any morphological markers to identify both classes, each class exhibits different declension patterns.
Almost all nouns have two morphological numbers, singular and plural.
Cases
Kī́rtako nouns do decline, according to an active-stative system with 9 cases:
- Agentive: marks the subject of a transitive verb or the subject of an intransitive verb, which display a certain will or a certain degree of activity in performing the given action. It can be used only with nouns of the 1st class.
- Passive: marks the object of a transitive verb, the subject of an intransitive verb, which display no intention or will or every inanimate subject.
- Ablative: marks a natural belonging, with any intention of possession. It may mark also the origin point of a motion. It can be used to mark the object of an infinitival form, marking thus also the object of a negated transitive verb.
- Genitive marks a possession, with a clear intention or will. It can be used only with nouns of the 1st class.
- Dative: marks the indirect object. It may mark also the final point of a motion, the destination of a movement, or the ultimate goal of the action.
- Causative: marks the reason or the cause which caused the action.
- Instrumental: marks the tool or the instrument which are used to perform the action. It can be used only with nouns of the 2nd class.
- Abessive: marks the tool or the instrument which are absent while performing the action. It can be used only with nouns of the 2nd class.
- Locative: marks the place where the action is performed. It can be used only with nouns of the 2nd class.
The cases are usually classified in 4 groups:
- Primary main cases: agentive, genitive
- Secondary main cases: passive, ablative
- Primary oblique cases: dative, causative
- Secondary oblique cases: instrumental, abessive, locative
Other complements are expressed through the postpositions, which select one or more cases to be used with the nouns.
Noun declension
Nouns do decline according to case and number, by adding the following ending to their base form.
| -li | -noli | |||
| - | -no | - | -no | |
| -šu | -nošu | -šu | -nošu | |
| -ra | -nora | |||
| -ɣɑ | -noɣɑ | -ɣɑ | -noɣɑ | |
| -khu | -nokhu | -khu | -nokhu | |
| -khɑ | -nokhɑ | |||
| -gil | -nogil | |||
| -tsar | -notsar | |||
Some examples are shown below: a 1st class noun, papu, father, a 1st class noun, sṓgo, house.
| papuli | papunoli | |||
| papu | papuno | sṓgo | sṓgono | |
| papušu | papunošu | sṓgošu | sṓgonošu | |
| papura | papunora | |||
| papuɣɑ | papunoɣɑ | sṓgoɣɑ | sṓgonoɣɑ | |
| papukhu | papunokhu | sṓgokhu | sṓgonokhu | |
| sṓgokhɑ | sṓgonokhɑ | |||
| sṓgogil | sṓgonogil | |||
| sṓgotsar | sṓgonotsar | |||
The 1st class nouns never add the endings of the secondary oblique cases, while the 2nd class nouns never add the ending of the primary main cases.
Adjectives and pronouns
Adjectives have the same form and behaviour as nouns, ending mostly in a vowel and showing the same exceptions. Pronouns, instead, may have very different forms, even in the root form.
Adjectives
Attributive adjectives are always placed before the noun, that they are describing, while predicative adjectives are usually placed after their name.
jṓpā́ wī́ro (the) young man
wī́ro jṓpā́ (ʔɑñ) (the) man is young
Since the verb ʔɑñɑme, to be, can be omitted when is the sentence copula, the only way to distinguish an attributive or a predicative role of an adjective is by its position in relation to its name.
All adjectives agree in case and numbers with the nouns they describe, being declined with the same ending of the noun declension. Differently from nouns, every adjective can always have a complete declension, as it cannot intrinsically belong to one of the classes.
