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Yrkyr: Difference between revisions
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Words for hundreds and even higher numbers are formed in the same way (''-kehm'' is added to make hundreds, ''-mek'' - for tens of thousands and ''-kyrom'' - for millions). In the compound numerals the lesser numeral is simply put after the bigger one: ''sylkanihs ahm'' - "twenty six". In order to make an ordinal numeral, the prefix ''tla-'' is added to the corresponding cardinal numeral. Exceptions are ''lapyn'' - "first", ''tlakʷa'' - "second" and ''tlaš'' - "third". | Words for hundreds and even higher numbers are formed in the same way (''-kehm'' is added to make hundreds, ''-mek'' - for tens of thousands and ''-kyrom'' - for millions). In the compound numerals the lesser numeral is simply put after the bigger one: ''sylkanihs ahm'' - "twenty six". In order to make an ordinal numeral, the prefix ''tla-'' is added to the corresponding cardinal numeral. Exceptions are ''lapyn'' - "first", ''tlakʷa'' - "second" and ''tlaš'' - "third". | ||
==Vocabulary== | |||
Almost all of Yrkyr basic vocabulary is of a native Yrharian origin, but the vocabulary size is still fairly small. The core vocabulary (kinship and geographic terms, words for celestial bodies, body parts, animals and some plants) can be traced to Proto-Yrharian, while a large amount of other native words can be found only in the North-Yrharian branch or in Yrkyr only. Prior to the Mtari colonization Yrkyr did not borrow much from its neighbouring languages, instead it invented new native words for newly introduced terms and cultural items. Even after the Mtari colonists took over much of Yrharian lands and almost wiped out other native population there, the Yrkyr people were still living in a relative isolation in northern taiga regions. Around a century ago contacts with the Mtari became much more frequent, they introduced new technologies to Yrharians, most notably metals and agriculture and thus many new loanwords entered Yrkyr, which were soon adapted to its phonology, since most of the population remained monolingual. Nowadays a large portion of Yrkyr words (primarily nouns) are of the Mtari origin. Bilingual speakers tend to simplify the grammar, especially the verb morphology in their speech, using calques from Mtari instead, and thus the language changes very quickly. | |||
==Syntax== | |||
In terms of basic word order, Yrkyr has been classified as the '''SOV''' (Subject–Object–Verb) language. But the actual word order is completely free, since the language is not subject-prominant, like English, but instead a topic-prominent one, meaning that the first word in a sentence is usually the topic of discussion regardless of its grammatical function. In neutral (zero-focused) sentences the noun of the highest animacy will be the first and the verb - the last word. But generally speaking, word order is not fixed by syntactic rules. The only compulsory part of the sentence is the verb, which due to its complex morphology can convey meaning of the whole sentence on its own, like in ''Myltešarmotorkyrapaŋ'' (myl-te-yš-árym-o-tórk-ráp-as-ŋ ) - "I’m cutting this piece of fabric with a knife", which is formed from the verb root ''rap'' meaning "to cut" and the noun ''arym'' - "fabric". | |||
In terms of the [[w:Head-directionality parameter|head directionality]] Yrkyr is considered mostly head-final, except for [[w:Complementizer|complementizer phrazes]] where a complementizer can come either before or after its complement. Still, this is the only case of head-iniality in Yrkyr. Overall the syntax is very simple, since most information, that would be expressed by the syntax in English, is conveyed via morphology. | |||
[[Category:Languages]] | [[Category:Languages]] | ||