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| The overall syntax of Anbirese resembles that of [[w:Irish|Irish]] or [[w:Biblical Hebrew|Biblical Hebrew]].
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| ==Constituent order==
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| Anbirese is almost completely head-initial, except for compound words which are head-final. The constituent order is VSO. Background information (usually in the order {{sc|time-manner-place}}) and question words may be placed before the verb (unlike in Irish), after the subject, or after the direct object. However, no constituent may come between the verb and the subject.
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| {{gloss
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| |phrase=Þjeon ael skidneo ljeonneo?
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| |gloss=why love/PRES 2SG-EMPH ACC-1SG-EMPH
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| |IPA=/ɕɔ̀n‿ɛw skìdnɔ jɔ̀nɔ/
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| |translation=Why do *you* love *me*?
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| }}
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|
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| ==Noun phrase==
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| ===Adjectives===
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| Adjectives always follow their head nouns.
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| :'''''n skradeui flum'''''
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| :''the black spider''
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|
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| ===Possessive noun phrases===
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| In possessive noun phrases the possessed noun uses the construct form, and the possessor (indefinite or definite) is placed after it. For pronominal possessors, the disjunctive pronoun is used.
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|
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| ==Verb phrase==
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| ===Negation and other preverbs===
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| *interrogative: ''is-N''
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| *negative: ''þjeor-L''
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| ===Infinitive absolute===
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| As in [[w:Biblical Hebrew|Biblical Hebrew]], VERB.VN + VERB + SUBJECT is an emphatic construction meaning 'SUBJECT [surely, definitely] VERBs'. It has a distinct literary flavor, much like saying "return he will" in English. A clause in this form can also have a concessive force.
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| ===Circumstantial verbs===
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| djeo + VN: ''Xjerin hu djeo sngima eok moela'' = 'He entered praising and thanking'
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| ==Sentence phrase==
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| ===Predicate adjectives===
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| Anbirese is zero-copula, like Hebrew. A predicate adjective is placed before the subject, and the copula pronoun is used.
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| When the subject is a definite noun, the pronoun is not mandatory with predicative adjectives:
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| :'''''Ard hi eo ȝámeon.'''''
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| :/aɾd çi ə ɣámən/
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| :''The woman is tall.''
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| :'''''Ard hi.'''''
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| :/aɾd çi/
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| :''She is tall.''
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| Predicate adjectives are negated by placing ''þjeor (L)'' in front of the adjective:
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| :''Þjeor on na lu kin þjeor bjoleoct hu.''
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| :/ɕɔɾ un na lü t͡ɕin ɕɔɾ bjuwɔkt hü/
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| The construction ''lid'' + subject + ''djeo'' + adjective may also be used in literary writing.
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|
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| ===Predicative nouns===
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| On the other hand, a predicate noun has the "logical subject" placed after the preposition ''djeo'' + pronoun.
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| :'''''Sjeoþma dju keozir.'''''
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| :''A flower is a plant.''
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| :'''''Sjeoþma dju.'''''
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| :''It's a plant.'' (lit. ''A plant is in it.'')
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| Predicate nouns are negated by placing ''djer'' 'there is no' in front of the predicate noun.
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| ===Predicative locatives===
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| Predicative locatives use the copula ''lid'', which is negated to ''jeol''.
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| '''''Lid na djeon svar.''''' = 'I'm in the house.'
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| '''''Lid eo nghéozir aebna.''''' = 'The flowers are mine.'
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| ===Existential sentences===
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| Existential sentences also use ''laidh'':
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| :'''''Lid mrót.'''''
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| :be-PRES.ANA apple
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| :''There's an apple.''
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| (There's an apple there = ''Lid mrót dju.'')
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| "X has" uses a similar construction to existentials:
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| :'''''Ljeona sob.'''''
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| :to-1SG dog
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| :''I have a dog.'' (lit. To me is a dog.)
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| ===Modal constructions===
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| *''eor'' + X = "X must/has to" (lit. it is on X)
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| *''oez go'' + X = "X may"/"it is permissible for X" (lit. it goes through with X)
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| *''kjel'' + X = "X wants" (lit. it is away from X)
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| *''aeb'' + X + ''sjéorn'' = "X needs" (lit. X has a need)
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| ===Wh-questions===
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| Who- and what-questions use cleft constructions, using the interrogative in conjunction with a relative clause describing it.
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| *''Þva (n) forx eo sos?'' = Who feeds the man? (lit. Who is it that feeds...)
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| *''Þva rjeo vforx eo sos?'' = Whom does the man feed?
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| In the preterite:
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| *''Þva rjeo vforxin um eo sos?'' = Who fed the man?
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| *''Þva rjeo vforxin u n sos?'' = Whom did the man feed?
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| ===Conjunctions===
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| *{{abbtip|/ʔak/|''ag''}}: 'and'
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| *{{abbtip|/suː/|''sú''}}: 'or'
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| *''níor'' = nor
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| *{{abbtip|/ʔax/|''ach''}}: 'but'
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| *{{abbtip|/ɾɪ/|''ri-N''}}: 'that (relative clause)'
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| *{{abbtip|/ˈɾiːnə/|''rinne''}}: negative form of ''ri''
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| *{{abbtip|/vaː/|''bhfá''}}: 'that (complement clause)'
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| *{{abbtip|/kuə/|''cua-N, cuín''}}: 'because'
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| *{{abbtip|/fɛn/|''fen-L''}}: 'if'
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| *{{abbtip|/dɛl/|''d'air-L''}}: when
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| *''cort'' = then
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| ===Answers to yes-no questions===
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| ==Dependent clauses==
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| ===Relative clauses===
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| Anbirese makes a distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses.
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| The relativizer ''ri<sup>N</sup>'' (negative ''rinne'') is used for restrictive relative clauses. A resumptive pronoun may be used when the head is not the subject of the relative clause, and is mandatory when the head is a prepositional object or a possessor. For clarity, the emphatic clitic ''-na/-ne'' may be added to the resumptive pronoun, especially in formal registers.
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| Verbs in relative clauses may be placed anywhere within the relative clause, subject to the constraint that the verb and (syntactic) subject may not be separated unless the head of the relative clause is the subject. If the head of the relative clause is its subject, then the appropriate participial form of the verb is mutated or inflected like an adjective. Otherwise, the relativizer ''ri-N'' is used.
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| :'''''an léiste (an) mbothnúigh coíol'''''
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| :''the spirit that endures suffering'' (lit. the spirit enduring suffering)
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| :'''''an léiste ri zslaithigh hí (í)'''''
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| :''the spirit that she shows''
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| :'''''an léiste ri dtnáigh hí dí'''''
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| :''the spirit she believes in'' (lit. the spirit that she believes in it)
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| In the past tense, a participle modifying the head as an adjective puts the head into a ''patient'' role in the relative clause (by split ergativity). Hence, agents of a transitive verb must use the preposition ''ro'' plus a resumptive pronoun.
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| :'''''G'laí an slachan (ri) arŋaín rún stámh.'''''
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| :''The number I got was 6.''
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| In poetry, verbs in ''ri''-clauses may appear in any position after the ''ri''.
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| A non-restrictive relative clause is marked with a pause (rendered as a dash "–") before the relative clause.
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| Nominalized relative clauses use ''cuar'' 'those':
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| :'''''cuar mímhaogha ú'''''
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| :''those who misuse it''
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| ===Time clauses===
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| There are two ways of forming time clauses.
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| The first construction is a clause introduced with a time conjunction such as (''d'air'' = 'when') and using a finite verb form (i.e. the verb form is used with a subject).
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| The second construction is a clause introduced with a preposition (such as ''ar'' = 'upon') followed by the verbal noun which may take a possessive prefix for the subject. Thus the non-finite time clause marks aspect or tense relative to the tense of the main clause rather than absolute tense. Non-finite time clauses are considered a little more literary than finite time clauses.
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| ===Infinitive clauses===
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| In Modern Anbirese, infinitives or verbal nouns go to the end of the clause for common constructions, like modal constructions (e.g. want, need, must, may).
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| For emphasizing the object, "want/need/etc. an X to Y", a resumptive pronoun can be used after the verbal noun. (Alternatively the emphatic clitic -nna can be used on X.)
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| :'''''Geilin tánna le cháil ú!'''''
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| :from-1SG something to eat.VN 3SG.M-DEP
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| :''I want something to eat!''
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| :'''''Tir hairŋín lion ú le áichir.'''''
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| :''I didn't succeed in finding it.''
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| The infinitive-final order arose from constructions corresponding to modal verbs in English: originally the order was something similar to {{recon|''Aran gnúi enŋ''}} ("on-1SG drink.VN water"), then ''Aran enŋ le ghnúi'' (originally "I want water to drink") became more common, eventually to the exclusion of the original construction, which is archaic or high-register today for common modal expressions.
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| ===Passive constructions===
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| Use 'take' or 'get' + VN
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| ===Syntactic pivots===
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| In normal registers, syntactic pivoting (the practice of omitting a subject entirely in a clause when the previous clause has it as a subject, e.g. ''He will take my gift and go'': in Anbirese this sentence would be translated to ''Tobhta hú mídhadh ná ag tarta hú''.) is disallowed for verbs: a pronoun can be used as a subject in the following clause if the previous clause has its antecedent as its subject. However, it is used for adjectives: "Dark am I yet beautiful" can be translated as ''Mocht ná ach sumhan'' /mɔxt naː ax sʉːn/.
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| [[Category:Anbirese]]
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