Meftla Morphology

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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 . If a borrowing is created with final 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 .

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 kɔ̄ ʔauāh lāi nāi
Nom Masculine ʔɛ̄ lɛ̄ 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_ _ ʔa_ lai_ nai_
ʔɛ_ _ 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 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.