Proto-Austronesian Hebrew/Grammar

Tri-letter Roots

PAH Grammar is very Semitic, generally deriving all words from bi-, tri-, or quadra-consonantal roots. Inflections occur through ablaut, prefixation, or suffixation, or a combination of such. Traditionally, Arabic studies give derivational patterns from √K-T-B, and in Hebrew studies from √P-'-L or √Q-T-L. Fujisaka-san, unaware of these precedents, used √M-Ŋ-K (PS √M-Š-K) as his paradigmatic root, and we will do the same. The root letters are written in capital letters, while the affixed letters are written in minuscule. For example, MaŊaKti could be applied to √S-T-N as SaTaNti.

Case and State

PAH nouns, adjectives, and verbal nouns inflect for case and state. Case may be either construct or absolute. (There is a third - called the pronominal state, but an overwhelming majority of the time it is the same as the construct, and will only be pointed out when different from such.)

Often, series of nouns are found in a "construct chain", e.g. sons of men of valor. All the nouns in the chain must match the last in case, but only the last will be in the absolute state: the rest will all be in the construct.

The PAH cases are Direct (corresponding to PH nominal), Ergative, Accusative, Locative (also called Temporal), Instrumental (also called Benefactive), and Genitive. Many places in paradigms, however, there are not hexatotic (having all six cases), but only pentotic (having only five cases, where the accusative and genitive are the same, and simply called the oblique case). The usual patterns to form the cases are:

• Direct - by prefixing ha+ or by suffixing -u/-uma
• Ergative - by prefixing hen- to the genitive/oblique case form
• Accusative - by prefixing ta- or by suffixing -a/-ima
• Locative - by prefixing ba- or by suffixing -ah
• Instrumental - by prefixing la- to the genitive/oblique case form
• Genitive - by suffixing -i, or else the same as accusative

Prepositions generally take the genitive/oblique form of a noun. See also Temporal Absolute and Essive Absolute.

As in all Semitic language, infinitive forms of verbs are said to be in either absolute or construct states. The infinitive absolute generally functions like an adverb. If it precedes the finite verb, it intensifies it, usually translated "certainly". If it follows the verb, it typically means "continually".

Gender

PAH preserved its two-gender system rigidly intact. Palauan has no gender, but Tagalog has two. Gender must be mark on nouns and verbs in the third and second person. Human and animal sex generally map onto the grammatical genders. Concrete nouns and occupations are typically masculine, while abstract nouns are often feminine. Participles agree with the noun they modify in gender (and state and case).

Number

PAH inflects for three numbers: Singular, Dual, and Plural. It shows none of the signs of dual fading from use, unlike Palestinian and Tiberian Hebrew. In fact, there are no attested dual uses of the personal pronouns in early Northwest-Semitic languages, but PAH regularly employed them.

Definiteness

PAH had no independent way to mark definiteness. When marked via prefixing, the cases all become definite.

Tense-Aspect-Mood

PAH verbs inflect for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and voice. Persons are First, Second, and Third. Numbers are Singular, Dual, and Plural. Tenses are Past, Non-Past and Causative (which, since not actually tense per se tends to take its tense from its aspect). Aspects are Imperfect and Perfect. Moods are Realis and Irrealis. Voices are Agentive, Patientive, Locative, and Benefactive.

Voice

Austronesian morphosyntactic alignment

also called 'trigger'

The voices are used to indicate what the verb "expects" to be in the Direct Case. The Agentive Voice means the subject of an intransitive verb or the agent in a transitive verb clause should be in the direct case, while the patient of the transitive verb should be in the accusative case. The Patientive Voice means the subject of an intransitive verb or object of a transitive verb should be in the direct case, while the agent of a transitive verb should be in the ergative case. The Locative Voice cannot be used to express the subject of an intransitive verb, while the location or time of a transitive verb is expressed in the direct case. (The agent and patient may be expressed in the ergative and accusative cases respectively.) The Benefactive case also cannot be used to express the subject of an intransitive verb, while beneficiary or instrument of a transitive verb is expected in the direct case. (Again, the ergative and accusative cases may be added.)