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==Syntax==
==Syntax==


Wistanian follows a fairly rigid syntax and tight grammar for a number of historical reasons. Firstly, due to its mixing with the Nati language, Taliv lost most of its irregularities and exceptions. Secondly, as the Katapu began to teach Wistanian, they had spread false information to "make more sense" of the language, which resulted in further simplification that was later adopted as standard. In Wistanian's infancy, it was almost engineered to be as efficient as possible. However, learners were still able to incorporate features from their native language into Wistanian, providing it with several of its current syntactical quirks (e.g., imperative word order was introduced by the Nati learners).  
Wistanian follows a fairly rigid syntax due to its recent creolization and standardization at its in-universe conception. In almost all cases, Wistanian is verb-initial, followed by the nominative, accusative, instrumental, then purposive noun phrases.


===Lexical Categories===
===Lexical Categories===


Wistanian has four traditional lexical categories (parts of speech): the noun ('''davagg'''), the verb ('''anai'''), the particle ('''mauvaldul'''), and the honorifics ('''garajil''').  
Wistanian has six lexical categories, the noun, verb, particle, coordinator, honorific, and interjection.  


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
! style="text-align: center;" | Nouns
! style="text-align: center;" | Nouns
| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic;" | davagg
| Any word that can act as a subject or object the verb and is able to be either the head or attributive in a compound.
| Any word that takes on nominal morphology and can act as a subject or object the verb.
|-
|-
! style="text-align: center;" | Verbs
! style="text-align: center;" | Verbs
| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic;" | anai
| Any word that takes on verbal morphology and describes a state or action.
| Any word that takes on verbal morphology.
|-
|-
! style="text-align: center;" | Particles
! style="text-align: center;" | Particles
| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic;" | mauvaldul
| Any word that has a grammatical role and cannot take on any additional morphemes.
| Any word that has a grammatical role and cannot take on any additional morphemes.
|-
! Coordinator
| Any word that connects two or more words of a similar lexical category or two or more clauses.
|-
|-
! style="text-align: center;" | Honorifics
! style="text-align: center;" | Honorifics
| style="text-align: center; font-style:italic;" | garajil
| A polite title used with many proper nouns.
| A polite title used with many proper nouns.
|-
! style="text-align: center;" | Interjection
| Any word that can stand alone and expresses a feeling or platitude.
|}
|}


===Word Order===
===Word Order===


Wistanian is predominately head-initial and verb-initial. This is manafested in that particles are always expressed first in a particle phrase (PartP), head verbs are expressed first in a verb phrase (VP), and head nouns are expressed first in a noun phrase (NP).  
Wistanian is predominately head-initial and verb-initial. This is manifested in that particles are always expressed first in a particle phrase (PartP), head verbs are expressed first in a verb phrase (VP), and head nouns are expressed first in a noun phrase (NP).  


  '''viga dari aa garauda bi.'''
  '''viga dari aa garauda bi.'''
  vig-a    dari aa  garauda bi.
  vig-a    dari aa  garauda+bi.
  eat-DUR boy  ACC food   goodness
  eat-IPV boy  ACC food+good
  "The boy is eating good food."
  "The boy is eating good food."


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Most of time, declarative and interrogative sentences will be expressed as verb-subject-object (VSO). However, imperative sentences use verb-object-subject (VOS). In the formal register of the Western Dialect, the word order changes dramatically into subject-object-verb (SOV), due to the SOV word order of the Bwolotil language spoken in those areas.  
Most of time, declarative and interrogative sentences will be expressed as verb-subject-object (VSO). However, imperative sentences use verb-object-subject (VOS). In the formal register of the Western Dialect, the word order changes dramatically into subject-object-verb (SOV), due to the SOV word order of the Bwolotil language spoken in those areas.  
Phrases that begin with a relativizer particle (See 4.3.3) are expressed at the end of the NP that it modifies. Temporal phrases that begin with the particle '''auv''' (when/during) will typically be expressed at the beginning or end of a sentence, although some dialects and registers allow it after the VP.


  '''auv bimaj daridd, auzunwaj aa ujadi va jin, lu.'''
  '''auv bimaj daridd, auzunwaj aa ujadi va jin, lu.'''
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