Nankôre

Nankôre
Nankôre
Pronunciation	[/nan.'ko:re/]
Created by	–
Native to	Nanhoshka Kôya
Native speakers	3,232,430 (2014)
Language family	Nahenic Nankoric Nankôre
Official status
Official language in	Koya Island
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nk
ISO 639-2	nnk

Background

Nankôre, from the words nan ("man, human") and kôre ("speech"), is spoken by the Nanhoshka people of Kôya Island. There are two main dialects, the Konishmak, located in the Northeastern Coastal Mountains, and the Sapshira, encompassing the western and southern parts of the country. The dialects differ chiefly in pronunciation and differences in certain lexical items, but are otherwise mutually intelligible.

For a little over a century the origins of the language and its people remain clouded in mystery. Physically, the Nanhoshka people look distinct from the Northwest Pacific Native Americans just 862 kilometers from the eastern shore, but their physical features bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Minhast people of the Republic of Minhay, who live much further away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean close to Japan and Ainushir. Because of these physical resemblances, both anthropologists and linguists started exploring a possible relationship between the two peoples. Recent genetic research uncovered that both the Nanhoshka and Minhast belong to the haplogroup C-M212, indicating a common ancestry. Linguists had a more difficult task in establishing a relationship. Finally Benson et. al. compiled an extensive Swadesh list and internally consistent sound correspondences between the two languages. Most importantly, a set of affixes that were quite conservative were revealed, notably the Causative affix, and a set of fossilized affixes which are prefixed to body parts to derive verbs. In addition, a third language, Nahónda, also previously classified as a language isolate, was discovered to contain common vocabulary and affixes which it shared with both Nankôre and Minhast. Therefore, both Nankôre and Minhast, along with Nahónda, are now recognized as belonging to the same language family, which has been named the Nahenic language family.

Phonology

Orthography

The Nankôre orthography is based on the Allen-Mills system, derived from the Latin alphabet. However, a second system, the American Media system, has started displacing the Allen-Mills system. Although based on the Allen-Mills system, the American Media system uses the grapheme <y>, and the digraphs <ch> and <sh>, to make transcription of the language more accessible to American readers.

Allen-Mills	American Media	IPA
'	(n/a)	ʔ
a,ā, â, á	a,ā,â, á	a, a:
e	e	e
i	i	ɪ, i
o, ô	o, ô	o, o:
u	u	u
c	ch	tʃ
s	sh	s, s̺, ʃ
š	sh	ʃ
h	h	ɦ
k	k	k
r	r	r
m	m	m
n	n	n
p	p	p
t	t	t
y	y	j

Note that the grapeme <s> in the Allen-Mills system is pronounced /ʃ/ or /s̺/ when followed by [i] (e.g. sinkokah /ʃin'kokah/ "orca"), or in coda position (Nanhoska /nan'hoʃka/ "the True People"). A few decades after the Allen-Mills transcription system was developed, a sound shift in the northwestern Hoyampe dialect, whereby /s/ shifted to the voiceless apico-alveolar fricative /s̺/ when followed by /i/ or in coda position. A similar sound shift occurred at around the same time in the northeastern Konishmak dialect (possibly the result of the Hoyampe sound shift), but it was the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ that appeared. It was this sound shift that spread out through most of the country, although there are some remote regions of the country that have not been affected by either sound shift. As a result in foreign transcriptions <sh> is often used in words where the /s/ >> /ʃ/ has already occurred, e.g. akôsh vs. the original akôs transcription. The grapheme <ô> is used to indicate vowel length for /o:/, and <ā> for /ɑ:/.

Although the American Media orthography system is the most widely used system, the Allen-Mills has long been used in academic publications, and will be used throughout the rest of this article, unless otherwise noted.

Consonants

Nankôre has a small inventory of consonants, only thirteen in number. Noteworthy is the paucity of voiced consonants which contributes to the limited number of consonants in the Nankôre language. The following table contains the entire consonantal inventory:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Apical	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p	t					k	ʔ
Affricate					͡tʃ
Fricative			s	s̻	ʃ			ɦ
Approximant						j
Flap			ɾ

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u ɪ e o ɛ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Morphology

Nouns

The Nominal Hierarchy

Nankôre nouns, at first glance, appears very simple. They are not inflected for case, gender, nor do adpositions indicate their directional or positional relationships. Number is distinguished only in pronouns. Nevertheless, the nominal system has a complex hierarchy of animacy, which although unmarked, is a semantic feature of the noun and pronoun. This hierarchy of animacy is used to determine the syntactic roles of the core arguments of a clause, namely that of Agent and Patient. Arguments that are higher in the Animacy Hierarchy are by default considered Agents, whereas lower animacy arguments are considered Patients. If the syntactic roles of two core arguments are reversed, namely a lower animacy argument acts as an Agent on a higher animacy Patient argument, a special construction known as the Inverse Voice, involving the prefix tā(h)-, is added to both the first verb in the verb phrase and the auxiliary verb itá'. Thus, the Inverse Voice is doubly-marked.

Where a given NP falls within the animacy hierarchy must be memorized in order to use the verbal inverse prefix tā(h)- correctly (see section on Verbs for additional details regarding inverse marking).

The Nankôre nominal hierarchy has been traditionally classified along two axes, the first marking the noun class, and the second marking levels of hierarchy within a given class. Animacy along classes decrease as one traverses from Supernatural/Phenomonological onwards towards the Ephemeral. Animacy decreases as one goes down the Level axis. The following table illustrates the animacy relations between the noun hierarchies, although this table is best used for pedagogical purposes. In reality, the animacy hierarchy is more complicated than the table would suggest, and discourse and other contextual elements may influence a native speaker's expression of the hierarchy in a given utterance.

Table of Nominal Animacy hierarchy

	Noun Class
Level	Supernatural & Phenomonological	Human	Animals		Weather	Lower Animals	Plants	Geophysical	Material	Ephemeral
			Mammals	Birds
1	Gods, the Earth, the Sun, the Sky/Heavens	Adults >> Children	predator >> prey		Clouds	Reptiles (excluding snakes)	Forests	Rushing rivers	Liquid, usually in a container	Magic
2	Demons	Older >> Younger	wild >> domesticated		Rain	Snakes	Large Trees	Slow-moving rivers	Food	Actions
3	Human & Animal Spirits	Male >> Female	Pet (usually carnivorous) >> Non-Pet (usually raised for food)		Snow	Amphibians	Small Trees	Streams, brooks, springs	Fabrics, fibers, skins, clothing	Emotions
4	Destructive Forces of Nature	Large >> Small			Wind	Fish	Fruit/Nut Trees	Lakes	Wood	Thoughts
5	Lightning	Strong >> Weak			Breeze	Crustaceans	Bushes/Shrubs	Glaciers	Buildings	Disease
6	Ocean	Quick >> Slow			Moving Water	Insects	Prairie grass	Mountains	Metals	States
7	Thunderstorms	Intelligent >> Unintelligent	Carnivore >> Herbivore >> Carrion Eater		Air	Worms	Leafy plants	Cliffs, jagged outcroppings, tumuli, boulders	Jewels and gemstones	Abstractions
8	Fire	Fertile >> Infertile	Stud >> Gelded	Flight >> Flightless	Muggy weather	Mollusks	Mushrooms/Fungi/Mosses/Gelatinous sea invertebrates	Flat land or gently rolling landscape	Stones, rocks, pebbles	Death

If two nouns with equal animacy but different number appear as core arguments, the plural noun is assigned a higher animacy status than the singular noun. However, if animacy and number are equal, the most recently introduced noun, providing it was introduced as a core argument, is assigned the higher animacy status.

In situations were two nouns have equal animacy and equal number, the rules for assigning the position each core argument in the hierarchy is as follows:

1. If one of the nouns is newly introduced information, it is considered less animate because the older noun has been presumably been the center of discourse and at least during part of the previous discourse it was agent. SOV order is usually used, particularly if pragmatics and other contextual cues cannot disambiguate the syntactic roles
2. HOWEVER, if the new noun is topicalized with the clitic ="=hat", it is considered the agent.
3. Another pattern, where a new noun is introduced as a Patient argument, it is regarded as the less animate argument once the older noun is reintroduced back into the discourse in a transitive construction.
4. If the animacy level of each argument cannot be resolved, then the unmarked SOV word order is used when context can't disambiguate syntactic roles.

Derivational

• -no: Diminutive suffix, e.g. kuras (woman), kurasno (girl)
• -CV(C) reduplication: Augmentive, e.g. kurasras (big woman); analogous to Minhast augmentation
• -ra-CV(C) infixation + reduplication: Augmentive-Deprecative: nahón -> na-ra-hón-ho (big/fat, ugly man)

Adjectival Suffixes

Nankôre lacks a separate word class for adjectives. They may be expressed as attributive verbs, e.g. Aryak neshkak itá, "Aryak is smart", Kanko shoykar itá, "Kanko (an indigenous vegetable) is good" (for your health), or a suffix may be attached to the noun it modifies. These suffixes are called adjectival suffixes. Some of these suffixes are etymologically derived from an attributive verb, e.g. -kerek > karyak itá "to be red". Others appear to be derived from separate roots, c.f. "Aryak-arku", ("clever Aryak") vs "Aryak neshkak itá" ("Aryak is clever"). Theoretically an unlimited number of suffixes may be appended to the noun, but in practice the number of adjectival suffixes seldom exceeds three. The suffixes may appear in any order, so long as the meaning is comprehensible. Nevertheless it appears that scope determines the ordering of the suffixes: suffixes with wider scope tend to appear towards the end e.g. "Kenenkor-pita-shune-une itá" (bed plush-red-soft-very 3S.COP ) "It is a very soft, red and plush bed."

While the number of adjectival suffixes are considerable, they remain for the most part a closed class. Moreover, with a few exceptions, each adjectival suffix may be expressed by a corresponding stative verb.

There are seven observed categories of adjectival suffixes:

1. Quality
2. Quantity
3. Strength
4. Size
5. Color
6. Tactile
7. Other Attributes

Demonstrative Clitics

Type	Spatial	English Translation	Example
Proximal	=skoro	this one near me; now	nan=iskoro "this man here"; oriyat=hepi "today"
Medio-Proximal	=hori, =ori	that one by you; just awhile ago	nan=hori "that man next to you";
Distal	=nko, =kekori	yonder, that one near him/her/them; yesterday, a few days ago	nan=inko "yonder man""
Invisible	=nanak	that one beyond the horizon, or occluded by a distant object	nan=nanak "that man (e.g. on the other side of the mountain)"

Number

Nouns do not inflect for number, is usually determined by context, but a numeral joined by the Connective si= to its head noun can be used to indicate plurality, eg:

ôhi si-kurasno.
/'o:ɦi ʃi ku'raʃno/
ôhi si kurasno
two CONN girl
two girls

If the noun is a core argument, then the copula obligatorily marks for number. Number is indicated on the copula by the affix -n-. For plural Agents, it is infixed, and for plural Patients, it is suffixed. Additionally, if the copula is marked with the Inverse prefix, the prefix redundantly encodes number by vowel length, eg ta- for the singular, and tā= for the plural. Some examples are given below:

Example of a HA singular Agent acting on a LA singular Patient:

kurasno rompóy rayrokor nitá'.
/ku'raʃno rom'poɪ 'raɪrokor nɪ'taʔ/
kurasno rompóy Ø-rayro=kor Ø-ni-Ø-itá-'
girl dog DIR=play=EVID.HEAR DIR-MED.DIST.PST-AGT.SG-COP-PT.SG
I heard that the girl played with the dog recently.

Example of a HA plural Agent acting on a LA singular Patient:

kurasno rompóy rayrokor nintá'.
/ku'raʃno rom'poɪ 'raɪrokor nɪn'taʔ/
kurasno rompóy Ø-rayro=kor Ø-ni-n-itá-'
girl dog play=EVID.HEAR DIR-MED.DIST.PST-AGT.PL-COP-PT.SG
I heard that the girls played with the dog recently.

Example of a LA plural Agent acting on a HA singular Patient:

rompóy kurasno tarayrokor tānintá'.
/romp'oɪ ku'raʃno ta'raɪrokor 'ta:nɪntáʔ/
rompóy kurasno ta=rayro=kor tā-ni-n-itá-'
dog girl INV=play=EVID.HEAR INV.PL-MED.DIST.PST-AGT.PL-COP-PT.SG
I heard that the dogs played with the girl recently.

Example of a LA plural Agent acting on a HA plural Patient:

rompóy kurasno tarayrokor tānintan.
/romp'oɪ ku'raʃno ta'raɪrokor 'ta:nɪntan/
rompóy kurasno ta=rayro=kor tā-ni-n-itá-n
dog girl INV=play=EVID.HEAR INV.PL-MED.DIST.PST-AGT.PL-COP-PT.PL
I heard that the dogs played with the girls recently.

Quantifiers

Quantifier	Substantive	Attributive
All	kamun	kamun si=
Most	toman	toman si=
Some	cene	cisi= cis=
Many	etco	etcisi= etci= etc=
Both	hani	hanisi= hansi= has=
Each	nune	nisi= nis=
Few	cato	catci= catc=
Another/Other	hane	hanesi= hanse=

Interrogatives

Header text	Header text	Notes
Who	ra', rā	Possibly cognate with Minhast redad
What	pôh	c.f. Minhast bak
When	tu'a
Where	nahí'	c.f. Minhast nakki. Also, note dialectal variant enket (Sapshira dialect)
Why	penóh
Which	yôri-

The Interrogatives manifest WH-movement, appearing immediately before the auxiliary itá' with rising intonation and a slight pause after the main VP. Neither a quasi-incorporated noun or adjunct may appear between the Interrogative and the copula.

Okep nari ayrarke, penóh hô'itá'?
'okɛp 'na:ri aɪ'rarke pe'noɦ ɦo:ʔɪ'taʔ
Okep nari ayrarke, penóh Ø-hô-Ø-'itá-'
PN child spank why DIR-HOD-AGT.SG-COP-PT.SG
Why did Okep spank (her) child earlier this morning?

Ka tahone, ra' taspitá'?
ka ta'ɦo:ne raʔ taʃpɪ'taʔ
Ka ta=honé, ra' ta-sp-Ø-itá-'
2S INV.SG=cry who INV.SG-CAUS-AGT.SG-COP-PT.SG
Who is making you cry?

All Interrogatives can also serve as conjunctions, eg Hôri ak kosno itá' penóh Okep nari ayrarke-kor ho'itá' (I did not hear/receive the news why Okep spanked (her) nephew early this morning").

Interrogatives can also serves as Conditionals by a =si Topicalization structure:

Ra'si karámpo taneknek ta'itá', siakos tamáko itá'
'raʔʃi ka'rampo ta'nɛknek 'taʔɪtaʔ 'ʃakoʃ ta'mako ʔɪ'taʔ
Ra'=si karampo ta=neknek ta-Ø-itá-Ø, si=akos tamakó Ø-itá'
Who=CONN bear INV=kill INV.SG-.AGT.SG-COP-PT.SG CONN=1P danger.liability DIR-COP.SG
Whoever slaughtered the bear (in this manner) is a danger to us all.

The Topic marker =si should not be confused with the Connective si= that is linking the embedded clause to the matrix clause. The former is an enclitic, whereas the latter is a proclitic.

Among the Interrogative pronouns, ra' ranks the highest in animacy; nevertheless, Interrogative pronouns are lower than non-Interrogative nouns in the animacy hierarchy.

Yôri- is always prefixed to the noun it modifies and can never appear as an independent word. It can be prefixed to pôh and ra' , i.e. yôripoh and yôra' , where it takes the meaning "which one", yôripoh for Noun Classes II and III, the sentient members of Class I, and yôra' for the rest.

Pronouns

The first group of pronouns are the simple independent pronouns. The animacy of each pronoun is arranged in the following hierarchy:

Pronominal hierarchy
1st >> 2nd >> 3rd

Plurality generally does not affect the animacy level across persons. However, if two 3rd person arguments have the same animacy and one of the arguments is plural, then the plural argument is assigned a higher animacy level.

The following table lists the forms of the simple independent pronouns:

Intransitive Independent Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
1S	ak	akôs, akôsh
2S	kā, ka	kakôs, kakôsh
3S	tā, ta	takôs, takôsh

If used as a core argument, they appear in intransitive clauses only, and just before the clause-final copula itá,e.g. Nitori kā itá! (You are a fool); sometimes the pronoun is cliticized to the main verb, e.g. Nitoriká' itá!, in which case a final long vowel is shortened and is appended with the glottal stop. They may also be used to emphasize a noun, in which case the pronoun precedes the noun linked with the connective si=, as in tā shi=naho (She/Her, the mother).

Transitive Portmanteau Pronouns

Singular				Plural
	1S	2S	3S	1P	2P	3P
1S	--	akak	akat	--	akakos, akakosh	akatos, akatosh
2S	akak	--	kat	akoska, akoshka	--	katakos, katakosh
3S	akat	kat	tat	akosta, akoshta	kakosta, kakoshta	takosta, takoshta
Plural x Plural
1P				--	akoskos, akoshkosh	akostos, akoshtosh
2P				akoskos, akoshkosh	--	kakostos, kakoshtosh
3P				akostos, akoshtosh	kakostos, kakoshtosh	takostos, takoshtosh

As earlier stated, nouns in Nankôre are not inflected, nor are case clitics attached to them to indicate case relations. Transitive verbs take two NPs as core arguments. The case relations of the two arguments are determined by the position of the noun in the animacy hierarchy; the core argument that is higher in the animacy hierarchy is assigned the Agent role, and the other argument is assigned the Patient role. However, an inverse affix tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= is prefixed to the primary verb, as well as a redundant ta- affix that is added to the auxiliary to alter the argument structure and promote the lower-animacy argument to Agent role.

Unlike the Intransitive forms, the portmanteau Transitive forms come before the main verb, not the auxiliary verb, e.g. Akostos karok tā'itá' , "I ate it". Sometimes the portmanteau is cliticized to the main verb, as in Akostos=karok tā'itá' . If the Inverse marker appears simultaneously with the Transitive portmanteau pronoun, the preverbal Inverse marker tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= cliticizes to the portmanteau pronoun. Since the Inverse voice is double-marked, the Inverse form of the auxiliary itấ' also is used, as in the improbable sentence, Takostos karok tahortā'itá'/Takostoskarok tahortā'itá' , from Tā-akostos-karok tahortā'itá' , "He/she/it ate me".

Oblique arguments on the other hand are treated as adjuncts, and are thus bound to their clause with the connective clitic si=. Context alone determines the semantic role of the oblique. Because obliques are considered adjuncts, they may not come between the core arguments and the verb, and therefore must appear either before or after the clause nucleus. To illustrate, the sentence Maska si=ohipna koykare ekán itá (anthill=CONN twig boy twist COP.PST), i.e. "The boy inserted the twig into the anthill", the noun maska (anthill) is the oblique argument and is marked with the clitic si= to join it to the rest of the sentence, e.g. Ohipna koykare ekán itá si=maska.

Verbs

The verb phrase in Nankôre require at a minimum an initial verb, plus the copula. An initial verb may be the main verb itself, or an auxiliary. A sort of division of labor exists between these components components; a certain set of clitics or affixes may attach to one of the components, and another to another.

The following set of markers cliticize to the first verb of the VP, which may be either the main verb, or a coverb. All preverbal clitics attach to the the initial verb.

• Initial Verb

1. Inverse
2. Aspect

However, a set of bound morphemes, occurring as suffixes, attach exclusively to the main verb, regardless if it is the initial verb of the VP or not:

• Main Verb

1. Evidentials

Finally, the copula hosts the following set of morphemes, which are not clitics but actual affixes:

• Copula

1. Inverse
2. Tense
3. Number
4. Voice
5. Irrealis

The Verb Phrase

The following example demonstrates a complex verb predicate, with the Inverse marker ta= cliticizing to the coverb yam (accompany) in the Imperfect aspect, followed by the main verb yayak (go up a mountain) with the Hearsay Evidential clitic =kor, and finally the copular verb marked with the secondary Inverse clitic tā=.

Rompóy kurasno tayampo yayak hosmakór tā'itá'.
/rom'poɪ ku'raʃno ta'yampo 'yayak hoʃma'kor ta:ʔɪt'aʔ/
Rompóy kurasno ta=yam=po yayak hosma=kor tā'-itá'.
dog girl INV=accompany=IMPF go.up.mountain-EVID.HEAR INV-PST.COP
The dog was going up the mountain with the girl, I heard.

Diagram of the Nankôre Verb Phrase

The verbal elements follow a relatively strict order. The required elements for a VP to be well-formed are the Main Verb and the Copula. Adjuncts are unbound morphemes, and exhibit rather free order; however, they are barred from appearing between the Inverse Marker and any following verb, be it the Coverb or the Main Verb. If a Coverb appears between the Inverse Marker and Main Verb, an adjunct may appear between the Coverb and Main Verb. However, if the Inverse Marker is not followed by a Coverb, then an adjunct may not appear between the Inverse Marker and the Main Verb. Moreover, if Quasi-Noun Incorporation (QNI) takes place, an adjunct may not intervene between the Main Verb and the quasi-incorporated noun (QIN).

Coverbs

Coverbs are auxiliary verbs that serve to provide additional syntactic information to the main verb itself. There are three classes of coverbs, Directionals, Positionals, and Modals. Directional and positional coverbs serve as a way of indicating case relations of the core arguments, somewhat like Applicatives in other languages, such as those of its distant cousin Minhast. In fact the older linguistic literature often refers to these coverbs as "Applicative Verbs".

Directional and positional coverbs have both a long and short form. The long form, also called the Independent Form, may serve as a bona fide standalone verb, or it may serve as a coverb provided that no clitics attach to it. Thus the coverb sanha, in its long form, means "to approach" as an independent verb, but its short form, san, always indicates motion towards an entity; this sort of syntactic relation is usually handled by the Allative case in languages which indicate case marking on the noun. Clitics that otherwise attach to the main verb, such as the Inverse marker and and aspect markers, move to and attach to the first occurring coverb of the VP. Clitics attach only to the short form. Additionally, morphophonemic alternations may take place when the Inverse marker ta= cliticizes to the coverb, such as in the Subessive cor-.

Directional and Positional Coverbs

	Long	Short	Coverb + Inverse	Sample Sentence	Translation	Comment
Goal	sanha	san	tasan	Anut America sanha kamuk-kor itá.	Anut supposedly flew to America.	-kor = HEARSAY.EVID, is suffixed to the main verb.
Benefactive	nasko	nas	tanas	Nanhoska karen tā-nas-ro eyna-kor itá.	It is said the (sacred) tree gave (life) for the people.	Note also the inverse marker tā- -ro- = IMPF.
Commitative	yampe	yam	tam	Anut yam temen-kor itá	Anut walked beside the river with him.	temen = to perform an activity by a river
Instrumental	makôr	mak	tamak	Ehok mak-nahoyra yurasna-neat-kor itá.	The adolescent struck (it) repeatedly with a club.	-nahoyra- = Repetitive neat, ne'at = INTENTIVE
Ablative	risa	ris	tars	Shôni Nan Kamun Koryash ris man-kor itá	First Man emerged from (out of) the snow.	Shôni Nan "First Man" Kamun Koryash "All Snow" (the birthplace of First Man)
Locative	neyhi	ne	tan	Yonka asrok tā-ne akun-kor ho itá.	The fly buzzed inside Yonka('s mouth) this morning.	Note inverse marker -tāh asrok = fly, insect ho = earlier this morning.
Vialis	nahke	nak, nahk	tanak, tanahk	Ka pohak tā-nahke shokor-nui itáh	I saw the river take you through the cave.	pohak = cave shokor = to flow -nui- = VIS.EVID
Prolative	roskar	ros	taros	Ak piri roskar hô'itá'.	I crossed the street earlier this morning	piri = street, road, path
Superessive	oros	or	tor	Ayôhe arupenrô or yaunke-kor hô'itá.	The airplane flew over Ayôhe township earlier this morning.	arupenrô = airplane yaunke = to fly
Subessive	yorha	yor	toyor, cor	Ekurki saska yor-ro kahoro-kor itá.	The turtle swam underneath the ice.	ekurki = turtle saska = ice kahoro = to swim
Ablative-Superessive	isuk	suk, su	task, tasku	(Example)	(Example)
Ablative-Subessive	royna	roy	taroy	(Example)	(Example)
Riverine	temen	tem	tatem	No si-kurasno tem rohnas-kor itá.	The girls supposedly were playing by the river.
Montaigne	yayak	yay	tay	Kahno côri yay cire/ciri itá	The boy went up the mountain.

Aspect

The verb, in contrast to the copula, encodes aspect with clitics that attach to the end of the word. If a coverb appears, the aspect marker will cliticize to the coverb. Nankôre possesses several aspect markers, as illustrated in the following table:

	Aspect Marker	Meaning
Perfect	-Ø
Semelfective	=no	completed in one single motion/act, e.g. hit
Simple Imperfect	=ro
Durative/Repetitive	=nahoyra, =noyra	several times
Habitative	=(h)osma, =sma	often
Factive	=yosir	(general truth statement, e.g. "The sun rises in the east")
Continuative	=namporo	to continue
Inceptive	=otah	to begin
Cessative	=ciri	to stop
Terminative	=ruykáno	to finish
Incipient	=kara	about to
Approximative	=tontoro	almost, nearly
Frequentative	=nokori, -(o)nkori	often

Main Verb

The main verb is believed to be descended from a verbal noun and carries the main semantic meaning of the verb phrase. The main verb hosts the Inverse Marker tā-/ta-, aspect, and evidential/modal markers. As mentioned earlier, the Inverse and aspect markers may detach from the main verb and attach to a converb, while the modal/evidential suffixes remain tightly bound to the main verb.

Moods and Evidentials

The Mood and Evidential markers occur as suffixes of the main verb. Unlike the Inverse and aspect markers, they do not detach from the main verb but remain bound to the main verb.

Mode
Factual	-mas
Hearsay	-kor
Visual	-nui
Intentive	-neat

The Copula

In terms of morphological complexity, the copula performs more functions than the verb. The copula, in addition to redundantly mark the Inverse voice, also encodes tense, number, mood, and causation through a complex series of affixation. Note the irregular Indicative Hodiernal tense form; the Inverse marker does not lengthen as it does for the rest of the paradigm.

The Copula Paradigm

Present			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	itá'	itán	sip'itá' (pis'itá')	sip'itán (pis'itán)
		PL	nitá'	nitán	sipnitá' (pisnitá')	sipnitán (pisnitán)
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’itá'	ta’itán	taspitá'	taspitán
		PL	tānitá'	tānitán	tāsipnitá'	tāsipnitán
Hodiernal Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hô'itá'	hô'itán	hôsipnitá'	hôsipnitán
		PL	hô'intá'	hô'intán	hôsipnintá'	hôsipnintán
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’hô'itá'	ta’hô'itán	tāhópsintá'	tāhópsintán
		PL	tahô'intá'	tahô'intán	tāhópsintá'	tāhópsintán
Recent Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	nitá'	nitán	sipnitá'	sipnitán
		PL	nintá'	nintán	sipnintá'	sipnintán
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’nitá'	ta’nitán	tasipnitá'	tasipnitán
		PL	tānintá'	tānintán	tāsipnintá'	tāsipnintán
Medio-Distal Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hitá'	hitán	hispitá'	hisiptán
		PL	hintá'	hintán	hisipnitá'	hisipnitán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	tahitá'	tahitán	tasiphitá'	tasiphitán
		PL	tāhintá'	tāhintán	tāsiphintá'	tāsiphintán
Distal Past
			Low Animate Patient
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	pitá'	pitán	pisiptá'	pisiptan
		PL	pintá'	pintán	pisipnitá'	pisipnitán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’pitá'	ta’pitán	tapsipta'	tapsiptán
		PL	tápsintá'	tápsintán	tápsipnitá'	tápsipnitán
Medio-Proximal Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	nitáh	nitahán	nisiptáh	nisiptahán
		PL	nintáh	nintahán	nisipnitáh	nisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’nitáh	tantahán	tasipnitáh	tasipnitahán
		PL	tānintáh	tānintahán	tāsipnitáh	tāsipnintahán
Immediate Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hitáh	hitahán	hisipitáh	hisiptahán
		PL	hintáh	hintahán	hispintáh	hisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	tahitáh	tahitahán	tahisipitáh	tahisiptahán
		PL	tāhintáh	tāhintahán	tāhispintáh	tāhisipnitahán
Distal Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	pitáh	pitahán	pisiptáh	pisiptahán
		PL	pintáh	pintahán	pisipnitáh	pisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’pitáh	taptahán	tapsiptáh	tapsiptahán
		PL	tāpintáh	tāpintahán	tápsipnitáh	tápsipnitahán

Copula Affixes

The Inverse marker ta- indicates lower animate NP is the Agent acting on a higher animate NP whose role is that of Patient. The marker occurs in two locations: as a clitic to the first verb of the VP, and as a bound prefix to the copula itá'. In conjunction with the infix -n-, the bound form of the Inverse mnarker encodes plurality of the LA Agent as well via vowel lengthening in open syllables, or compensatory stress in closed syllables. The Hodiernal tense is an exception: the vowel of the Inverse marker neither undergoes vowel lengthening, nor does it receive compensatory stress. This is presumably because the tense marker -ô- suppresses lengthening of a preceding vowel according to Nankôre phonological rules, thus moving the stress rightward.

The Irrealis -hi is suffixed to the copula. It is obligatory for all Future tenses. It also surfaces in imperatives, yes-no questions which are marked with the -yo marker cliticizing to the first or second word of a sentence, as in Cire-yo tā'itá'-hi? "Did he die?", and in WH-questions when the event actually happening has not yet been established as having occurred; for example, Enket cire tā'itá'?, "Where did he die?" implies that the person's death is a fact, and it is only the location that is being inquired, versus Enket cire tā'itá'-hi? implies that not only is the location unknown, but the person's actual death happening still remains to be established. An interesting structure, called the "double interrogative", is a combination of a WH-word followed by a word bearing the -yo clitic, which also turns the question into yes-no question: Enket cire-yo tā'itá'-hi?, "Did he die, and if so, where?" The -hi suffix is believed to be cognate with the Minhast Irrealis clitic =š.

Derivation

Nankôre has a set of verbalizing prefixes that when attached to nominal roots, often body parts, create verbs. These prefixes are most likely the remnants of Proto-Nahenic noun incorporation, based on comparisons with Nankôre's distant relatives, Minhast and Nahónda; similar or even identical fossilized affixes have been found in these languages that likewise attach to nominal roots for body parts to derive verbs, e.g. Minhast kirim (from k-erum, literally "make sound with the mouth) and Nahónda teloma (from t-loma, note that Minhast /k/ maps to Nahónda /t/); kirim is the Minhast cognate of Nankôre kôre.

Verbalizing Prefixes

	Prefix	Sample Noun	Example	Meaning	Nahenic Cognates
Sound	k-	ore "mouth"	k-ore	to speak	Common Minhast k-irim "to speak" (NB: Nankôre ôre = "mouth" is cognate with Minhast erum = "mouth")
Striking	ya-	shipa "hand"	ya-shpa	to punch	Minhast, Horse Speaker dialect: wi-šnu "to strike, hit" (Minhast išna "fist", "knuckles")
Movement	ho- ha-	nake "foot"	ha-nake	to scoot along the floor with one's foot; to kick around	Nahónda: ho-shishpa "to give" shishp = hand; c.f. Minhast sespir = hand, Nankôre shipa = hand
Stability	pa-	are "eye"	p-are	to stare	Common Minhast p-uħta "to stand up" (from yuħta = "sole of the foot", cognate with Nankôre yohíhita = "flat surface")
Removal	ro-	ampe "body"	ro-yampe	to remove one's clothes	Common Minhast ruyyamb "to take off clothing" (but note that Minhast lost the original *yambet (body), replacing it with tarti (body)

Numbers

The Nankôre number system is dozenal, i.e. base-12. The numbers thirteen through twenty-three are modified compounds consisting of the unit numbers shori (1) through shiktash (11) compounded to shin (12). The number twenty-four hanoshin can be analyzed as han-o-shin, where the affix -o- signifies "multiplied by", so hanoshin literally means "two times twelve". The multiplicative pattern continues until the number 144, which is called nakpa. The number 100 (nenanoshin >> nena ān-o-shin) is literally "four (and) eight times twelve". The ordinals for the numbers 1-7 are the cardinal numbers suffixed by -ak or -ok. Numbers 8-11 are the cardinal numbers suffixed with the ending -u. The ordinal for the number 12 is again suffixed with -ok, and the higher numbers with -nok. If the -nok affix is preceded by a consonant followed by -i-, the -i- may be dropped, provided that this does not form the impermissible consonant cluster -CCC- sequence.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
one	šôri	šoriak
two	hani, ôhi	hanyak
three	tusta, tak	tustak
four	nena, kayoka	nenak
five	sišak	catak
six	sirišo	siiršok
seven	kerišo	kiršok
eight	ān	anku
nine	karu	karku
ten	kaše	kasku
eleven	siktas	sistu
twelve	sin	sinok
thirteen	šorsin	šorsinok
fourteen	hansin	hanisnok, hanisnok
fifteen	tusin	tusnok
sixteen	ninsin	ninsinok, nisnok
seventeen	casin	casinok,casnok
eighteen	sirsin	sirsinok, sirisnok
nineteen	kirsin	kirisnok
twenty	ansin	asnok
twenty-one	karusin	karushnok
twenty-two	kasmin	kasminok
twenty-three	siksin	siksinok
twenty-four	hanosin	hanosnok
thirty-six	tustosin	tustosnok
one hundred	nenanosin	nenanosnok
one hundred forty-four	nakpa	nakpanok

Clitics and Particles

Temporal Deictic Particles and Clitics

The Temporal Deitic particles usually occur at the head of a sentence, e.g. Antak Anut America san-kamuk tā'itá' , "A year ago, Anut flew to America". In multiclausal sentences, the clause in which they appear have scope over the all other clauses following it. At least one, yorai, cannot appear after the initial clause. These particles may also attach to the main verb in reduced form as clitics, and in the process replace the copula's tense affixes of the Direct Voice, as in Anut America ta=san-kamuk=inkát itá' "Several years ago Anut flew to America" (note that the Temporal Deictic clitic =inkát has replaced the past tense affix tā- in tā'itá' ). The absence of these particles contrasts with the Direct Voice Distal Past form suphitá' , in Anut America san-kamuk suphitá' , "Anut went to America a while back". Also note that the other verb voices do not lose their tense markers, as in Otok erashi ta-karok=inkat ta'itá' (boy crab INV-eat=several.years.ago INV.PST-COP) "The crab ate the boy."

Clitic	Meaning	Header text
=yorai	Once upon a time	Example
=(i)nkát	Several years ago	Example
=sheyhori	A few years ago	Example
=(a)ntak	A year ago	Example
=(e)kak	Several days ago, last week	Example
=nate	The day before yesterday	Example
=kira	Yesterday	Example
=ho	Earlier this morning	Example
=tora	Just awhile ago	Example
=(e)yót	Now	Example
=(e)nash	Soon	Example
=k(e)sor	Tomorrow	Example
=n(i)kos	In the next few days	Example
=n(a)koy	In the indeterminate future	Example

Syntax

Word Order

Nankôre's canonical word order SOV, more specifically, SOV₁V₂, where V₂ represents the copula itá. Although the core argument NPs do not take any overt case marking, the animacy hierarchy and direct-inverse system of marking usually provide enough information to identify the Agent from the Patient. Thus, OSV₁V₂, SVO₁ V₂, and other orders are found, both in speech and text. When pronouns appear as core arguments, they usually appear after the main verb, resulting in OV₁SV₂. Very often, the pronoun cliticizes to the verb:

Minhaste kôryak itá
/'minhasʃte 'ko:rjak ɪt'aʔ/
minhast kôre=ak itá
Minhast.language speak 1S COP.DIR
I speak the Minhast language.

Nevertheless, for all word order variants, the only restriction is the copula is restricted to clause-final position.

Fronting a constituent is used for emphasis, as in the following sample, where V₁ is fronted to form a V₁SOV₂ structure. Fronted constituents are typically followed by an audible pause, as in the following example:

Kakno, rihat makse no itá
/'kakno ɾi'hat 'maksɛ̯ no ɪt'aʔ/
kakno rihat makse no itá
seize.3 falcon.AGT mouse.PT SEM COP
The falcon seizes the mouse in one fell swoop.

As in many SOV languages, modifiers precede their heads:

Sirkos sirohpa
/'kakno ɾi'hat 'maksɛ̯ no ɪt'aʔ/
sirkos si=rohpa
foreigner fine.cloth
This fine foreign cloth

The Noun Phrase

Possession

Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective si=, followed either by the verb ras to indicate inalienable possession e.g. Koykare si=naho ras, "The boy's mother", or ocité for alienable possession, e.g. Koykare si=maska ocité. If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ta'/tah is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable Maska si=koykare tah-ocité, "The anthill's boy".

The Verb Phrase

The verb phrase may contain up to three independent verb stems or roots. All verb phrases must end with the appropriate form of the auxiliary itá. Itá was originally a copula but later on accreted voice, tense, and the secondary ta- Inverse marker. The main verb precedes the auxiliary and may be separated from it by a de-focused noun or by one or more adjuncts. De-focused nouns appear immediately after the main verb and adjuncts cannot be inserted between the two (see "Quasi-Incorporation" below). Positional or motion verbs appear before the main verb. The primary ta- Inverse marker cliticizes to the first verb of the verb phrase.

Quasi-Incorporation

Nankôre canonical word order is SOV₁V₂, but under certain circumstances, the O-argument may occur between V₁ and V₂, i.e. SV₁OV₂. The O-argument becomes backgrounded, thereby assuming a peripheral role; as a result, the clause is effectively detransitivized. As a result, the Inverse marker ta- cannot occur in these derived intransitive clauses; it must be omitted for the clause to remain grammatical. This operation is called quasi-incorporation, and occurs cross-linguistically in unrelated languages, e.g. Dutch and Hungarian. A feature of Nankôre quasi-incorporation is that adjuncts, which typically can occur in most positions of a clause, including clause-finally, cannot occur between V₁ and the relocated O-argument.

Quasi-incorporation may eventually evolve into full noun incorporation, as in the case of Nankôre's distant relatives, Minhast and Nahónda. Both exhibit full noun incorporation. Like Nankôre, both languages add the incorporated noun after the verb root, e.g. Minhast Ušnirumpakekaru << ušn-ruppumak-ek-ar-u (hit-face-3S.ABS+1S.ERG-PST.PFCT-TRANS) "I hit him in the face, I face-hit him", Nahónda klomenatsoyetolayo<< kloma-natsoye-Ø-t-ola-yo (speak-wisdom-3S.PT-1S.AGT-PST-AGT) "I gave him counsel, I wisdom-speak to him. Most languages that exhibit noun incorporation attach the incorporated noun before the verb root; placement of the incorporated noun after the root is rare among incorporating languages. The process by which Nankôre performs quasi-incorporation, namely by placing the O-argument between the primary verb and auxiliary verbs, may explain why Minhast and Nahónda place their incorporated nouns after the verb. Proto-Nahenic may have also placed a quasi-incorporated noun after the primary verb but before the auxiliary verb, an order which the descendant languages preserved.

Comparatives and Superlatives

Degrees of comparison are formed by placing the auxiliary verb soyka (to be big, i.e. to be more) or hatka (to be small, i.e. to be less) before a stative verb. Since two arguments are involved, namely the comparer NP and the compared NP, the phrase is structurally equivalent to a transitive clause, requiring an Agent and a Patient, and follows the rules governing the nominal animacy hierarchy. In the sentence Joe Sara soyka inupe itá (Joe is stronger than Sarah; lit. "Joe bigs strongs Sara"), soyka precedes the stative verb inupe (to be strong). Joe, being male, is higher in the animacy scale and so is assigned Agent status. If Sara were stronger, the Inverse affix tā-/tāh- surfaces, as in Joe Sara tā-soyka inupe tā'itá (Sara is stronger than Joe). Other examples:

1) Joe Sara soyka soyka tā itá (Joe is taller than Sara; lit. "Joe bigs bigs Sara").

2) Joe Sara tā-hatka nahamosh tā'itá (Sara is less tan than Joe).

3) Joe Sara hatka hatka tā'itá (Joe is smaller than Sara; lit. "Joe small smalls Sara").

4) Natos Suhe soyka makit itá (Natosh [masc.] runs faster than Suhe [fem.]; lit. "Natosh big runs Suhe").

5) Orôyo Paul tā-soyka soyka itá (The volcano is bigger than Paul; note that orôyo is less animate because it is a sessile object, hence the use of the inverse marker tā-).

To express the superlative, the auxiliary verb norhe/norhâ appears before soyka and hatka, e.g. Orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá (This is the largest mountain), or Sikôya orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá (This is the largest mountain in Kôya Island).