Siro

Siro

Phonology

Kodistian has the following vowels: a i u aa ii uu, and diphthongs ai au iu ui ia ua.

Its consonants are p t k m n r h.

Grammar

Verbs come in many conjugations -- the key is to remember the present tense stem, the past tense stem and the infinitive. Here is narinru 'to see', a typical nasal-stem verb.

ia nariim 'I see' mu narii 'you see' uran narittan 'he/she sees' uru narin 'it sees' iatam nariintam 'we see' mutam nariittam 'you see' urantam narittantam 'they see' (animate) uttam narintam 'they see' (inanimate) (Notice the consistent plural suffix -tam.)

Another example: katanru 'to stand': kataam, kataa, katattan, katan, kataantam, kataattam, katantam

The roots are narin- and katan- respectively. To form the present progressive, add the verb nirru to the root: narinniram, narinnira, narinnirtan, narinnirta, narinnirantam, narinnirattam, narinnirtantam, narinnirtatam (I am seeing, you are seeing, ...) katanniram, katannira, ... (I am standing, you are standing, ...)

For the past tense, in nasal root verbs, the nasal gets labialized and there is an infix -i-:

narimiim, narimii, narimitan, narimin, narimiintam, narimiittam, narimitantam, narimintam

There are also vowel-root verbs: an example is kankaru 'to shine':

kankaram, kankara, kankatan, kanka, kankarantam, kankarattam, kankatantam, kankatam (in present) kankaniram, kankanira, kankanirtan, ... (in present progressive) kankappam, kankappa, kankaptan, kankapan, ... (in past)

Some verbs are irregular, as in pahttaru 'to eat':

patram, patra, pahttatan, pahtta, ... (present) pahtaniram, ... (present progressive) pahttiim, pahttii, pahttitan, pahttin, ... (past)