Polymorphic conlang/Morphology

Nouns

There are two genders of nouns, animate and inanimate. Gender is not marked, but does affect the noun morphology in other ways. The language is split-S, with animates being nominative-accusative, inanimates being ergative-absolute.

The basic form is {Deixis}+{Case1}+{Number}+Root+{Case2}+{Definiteness}, where anything in braces may be a null morpheme.

Deixis

this
that
yonder
what

For the first three, the noun must also be marked definite. For the last, it must be indefinite (unmarked).

Case

The marking of case comes in two parts, and depends on gender. The case system can be regarded as consisting of primary and secondary, active and stative cases.

Primary Cases

The primary cases of a noun are gender dependent.

	Active case	Stative Case
Animate	Nominative	Accusative
	Root	Root+
Inanimate	Ergative	Absolute
	hu+Root	Root

Secondary Active Cases

Secondary active cases are formed by adding a suffix to the primary active case.

Genitive	-ti
Dative	-un
Causative	-ka
Locative	-ir

Secondary Stative Cases

Secondary stative cases are formed by adding a prefix to the primary stative case.

Allative	pin-
	xu-
	ur-

Number

There are three numbers,

Singular
Dual/paucal	huj-
Plural	si-

The middle number indicates dual for animates or paucal for inanimates.

Definiteness

Indefinite nouns are unmarked. Definite nouns are marked with the suffix -arja

Verbs

The verb follows the following paradigm

{subject animacy}+{tense/aspect}+root+{mood}+{voice}+{object animacy}

Subject animacy

Unmarked for animate subjects, ta- for inanimate subjects

Tense and aspect

These are not orthogonal, so a single marker covers both.

Voice

Voice	Marker	Use
Active		Subject and object have their usual roles.
Passive		Animate subject is treated as object
Antipassive		Inanimate object is treated as subject
Reflexive		Subject acts upon itself

Object animacy

Unmarked for inanimate objects, -ajn for animate objects