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.
jṓpā́ra wī́rora rḗʔo sṓgo pinkotsar wɑkitsar mḗʔis the new house of the young man is in the nearby village
Declension of qualifying adjectives
Example: rḗʔo, new
| rḗʔoli | rḗʔonoli | |
| rḗʔo | rḗʔono | |
| rḗʔošu | rḗʔonošu | |
| rḗʔora | rḗʔonora | |
| rḗʔoɣɑ | rḗʔonoɣɑ | |
| rḗʔokhu | rḗʔonokhu | |
| rḗʔokhɑ | rḗʔonokhɑ | |
| rḗʔogil | rḗʔonogil | |
| rḗʔotsar | rḗʔonotsar | |
Comparison of qualifying adjectives
Qualifying adjectives have two comparison forms, comparative and superlative. They build this forms by adding the following endings: Example: rḗʔo, new
| -rṓ | |
| -rṓtu |
These ending are always placed before the case endings and after the adjectival form, both base or derived form. The second comparison term is declined in the ablative case and followed by the postposition phɑw.
wī́ro ʔṓnašu phɑw jṓpā́rṓ (ʔɑñ) the man is younger than the woman
ʔṓna owtunošu phɑw jṓpā́rṓtu (ʔɑñ) the woman is the youngest of/among us
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are distinguished from other pronominal roots by a dichotomy between the forms for the first and second person and the forms for the third person.
The first and second person form have two different roots, creating thus a heteroclitic declension. On these two kinds of root more than one form for every case are created. Differently, the third person has only one root.
| owtu | ertu | ɑktuli | owtuno | ertuno | ɑktunoli | |
| jo | nɑ | ɑktu | jono | nɑno | ɑktuno | |
| owtušu | ertušu | ɑktušu | owtunošu | ertunošu | ɑktunošu | |
| jošu | nɑnošu | jonošu | nɑnošu | |||
| owtura | ertura | ɑktura | owtunora | ertunora | ɑktunora | |
| jora | nɑnora | jonora | nɑnora | |||
| joɣɑ | nɑɣɑ | ɑktuɣɑ | jonoɣɑ | nɑnoɣɑ | ɑktunoɣɑ | |
| jokhu | nɑkhu | ɑktukhu | jonokhu | nɑnokhu | ɑktunokhu | |
| ɑktukhɑ | ɑktunokhɑ | |||||
| ɑktugil | ɑktunogil | |||||
| ɑktutsar | ɑktunotsar |
The forms for the first and the second person are meant to be referents of only animate beings, or members of the 1st class. Therefore they do not have forms for the secondary oblique cases. Instead, the third person has a complete declension, depending on which noun class it refers to.
In the archaich period another third person pronoun is available, nigtu, which falls out of use already before the classic period. It was used as an obviative form in relation to ɑktu.
The pronouns for the first and second person have two forms both for the ablative and for the genitive case. These forms are called, respectively, enlarged form (owtušu, ertušu,...) and reduced form (jošu, nɑšu,...). They are used differently:
- In the ablative case:
- Enlarged form: actual form for the ablative case, used for the main meanings of this case and with pospositions. It may also convey the meaning of belonging, acting as an indeclinable possessive adjective or pronoun.
- Restricted form: it is used mostly as direct object of infinitival forms and in the negative sentences.
- In the genitive case:
- Enlarged form: it strictly conveys the meaning of possession, acting as an indeclinable possessive adjective or pronoun.
- Restricted form: it is used mostly with postpositions.
In the genitive case these roles are not unchangingly fixed, but during the history of the language their roles change, especially in the late period.
