Aporese

Aporese is the official and most widely spoken language of the country of Apore. A member of the Möqqic branch of the Iropo-Antilonian language family, it is distantly related to Bearlandic, though after millennia of separation, there are only a limited number of cognates which generally look so different that most lexical resemblances are either chance or the result of borrowing. Just to give you an idea: Aporese såp "hole" is cognate to Bearlandic haus "house" (<PIA *sagʷs "cave"), lat "sun" is cognate to zoll "sun" (<PIA *zĺds) and pedi "do" is cognate to tú "do" (<PIA *póid-). However non-coincidental similarities exist as well, such as dzöysi ~ zʉs "sister" and lepi "go" ~ lop "walk".

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ň /ɲ/	(ng /ŋ/)
Stop	p b	t d			k g	q
Affricate		c /ts/ dz		č /tʃ/ (dž /dʒ/)
Fricative	f v	s z	tl /ɬ/	š ž /ʃ ʒ/	ǧ /ɣ/		h
Approximant		r	l	j

In native words, /ŋ/ only occurs allophonically before other velar consonants. In loanwords it can also appear in other positions, making it marginally phonemic. Some speakers merge it with /n/.

The phonemic status of /dʒ/ is currently unclear.

Due to a historic sound change, /s/ becomes /ʃ/ before stops. This rule is still productive, as evidenced by recent loanwords. However, it is not always reflected in writing.

Vowels

Aporese has nine monophthongs:

	Front unrounded	Front rounded	Back
High	i	ü /y/	u
Mid-high	e	ö /ø/	o
Mid-low			å /ɔ/
Low	ä /æ/		a /ɑ/

Possible diphthongs include /ɑi æi ei ie øy yø ɑu ou oi uo/. For the most part, they are written the same as the vowels they are composed of, with the exception of /øy/, which is written as <öy> rather than <öü>.

Verbs

There are two main classes of verbs: one whose citation form (third person singular present indicative) ends in -ip, and one whose citation form ends in -i. Verbs are conjugated for two tenses (present and past), two finite moods (indicative and subjunctive), and have both present and past infinitives and participles. In addition, there exist a few periphrastic verb forms as well.

Ip-conjugation: qöysip "vomit"	Present	Past	Subjunctive
1sg	qöys-pan	qöys-pin	qöys-pin-an
2sg	qöys-pis	qöys-pis	qöys-pin-is
3sg	qöys-ip	qöys-pit	qöys-pin
1pl	qöys-piň	qöys-pitiň	qöys-pin-iň
2pl	qöys-piš	qöys-pitiš	qöys-pin-iš
3pl	qöys-par	qöys-pir	qöys-pin-ar
Infinitive	qöys-pad	qöys-pit
Participle	qöys-pinu	qöys-pitu

I-conjugation: cadi "know"	Present	Past	Subjunctive
1sg	cad-an	cad-in	cad-in-an
2sg	cad-is	cad-is	cad-in-is
3sg	cad-i	cad-at	cad-in
1pl	cad-iňi	cad-atiň	cad-in-iň
2pl	cad-iši	cad-atiš	cad-in-iš
3pl	cad-ar	cad-ir	cad-in-ar
Infinitive	cad-in	cad-it
Participle	cad-nu	cad-itu

Irregular: je "be"	Present	Past	Subjunctive
1sg	jan	šin	šinan
2sg	jis	šis	šinis
3sg	je	šit	šin
1pl	jiň	šiňi	šiniň
2pl	jiš	šiši	šiniš
3pl	jasar, je	šar	šinar
Infinitive	jes	šit
Participle	janu	šitu

In the third person plural, jasar is normally only used when no explicit subject is specified. If there is a subject, je is usually preferred.

Jasar baikiš.
be.PRES.3PL young-PL.MASC
They are young.

Künčir je baikiš.
boy-PL be.PRES.3SG young-PL.MASC
The boys are young.

The future tense is made periphrastically with the verb jivi + infinitive.

Jivan žitin makid.
FUT-1SG eat-PRES.INF chicken-GEN
I'm going to eat chicken.

Progressive tenses are made with je + present participle.

Jäk jan aispinu Aporid aisuna.
1SG.NOM be.PRES.1SG speak-PRES.PRTC Apore-GEN language-ACC
I'm speaking Aporese.

Passives are also made with je + participle, though in this case the past participle is used in the past tense and optionally also in the present tense. Especially in more formal situations, the potentially ambiguous construction using a present participle is preferred.

Šöys je žitinu žerme.
salmon be.PRES.3SG eat-PRES.PRTC bear-INSTR
The salmon is eaten by a bear.

Nouns

Nouns have two genders, two numbers and six cases. Their inflection is mostly agglutinative, with clearly separate number and case morphemes, though some cases have different endings in the singular than in the plural.

There are several ways to form the plural. As a general rule, masculine nouns have plurals in -š and feminine nouns have plurals in -r, though there are exceptions to this, such as the masculine noun künči "boy, son", whose plural is künčir. In addition, some nouns have a plural in -n, and ňet "human being" has a suppletive plural qöyke, which takes singular case endings.

		"bear"	"woman"	"language"	"human being"
Singular	Nominative	žer	fräči	aisu	ňet
	Genitive	žerid	fräčid	aisud	ňetid
	Dative	žeran	fräčin	aisun	ňetan
	Accusative	žerna	fräčina	aisuna	ňetna
	Locative	žeriž	fräčiž	aisuž	ňetiž
	Instrumental	žerme	fräčime	aisume	ňetme
Plural	Nominative	žeriš	fräčir	aisun	qöyke
	Genitive	žeršid	fräčirid	aisunid	qöykid
	Dative	žeršež	fräčirež	aisunež	qöykan
	Accusative	žeršas	fräčiras	aisunas	qöykena
	Locative	žeršiž	fräčiriž	aisuniž	qöykeniž
	Instrumental	žeršan	fräčiran	aisunan	qöykeme

Adjectives

Adjectives precede their heads. They do not agree in case, gender or number when used attributively, though they do agree in gender and number when used predicatively.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	rousa	rousi
Plural	rousaš	rousar

rousa blaisi
red blood
red blood

Blaisi je rousi.
blood be.PRES.3SG red-FEM.SG
Blood is red.

Pronouns

Person		1st	2nd	3rd masculine	3rd feminine
Singular	Nominative	jäk	žäk	sämi	ši
	Genitive	mid	gid	sämid	šid
	Dative	minan	ginan	sämin	šinan
	Accusative	mäk	gäk	sämin	šina
	Locative	miquriž	giquriž	sämiž	šiquriž
	Instrumental	miqume	giqume	sämime	šiqume
Plural	Nominative	bie	fie	sånu
	Genitive	bid	fid	sånud
	Dative	binan	finan	sånun
	Accusative	bos	fos	sånus
	Locative	biquriž	fiquriž	sånuž
	Instrumental	biqume	fiqume	sånume

Interrogative pronouns do not have separate singular and plural forms. They are inflected as follows:

	"who"	"what"
Nominative	bi	bas
Genitive	bad
Dative	binan	banan
Accusative	bina	bana
Locative	baže
Instrumental	bame

The demonstrative pronouns are šeda (proximal), jarda (distal) and da (unspecified). They are inflected as regular nouns with plurals ending in -n.

Numbers

1. bå
2. šuma
3. cäži
4. caštra
5. fie
6. jäči
7. čaipa
8. bup
9. ňep
10. töyň

The numbers 11-19 are formed by prefixing töy- to the units: töybå "11".

The word for "twenty" is plata, the other tens are formed by suffixing -ta: cäžita "thirty", caštrata "forty", etc. "Hundred" is surža.

Other numbers are expressed as tens - ja - units: caštrata ja šuma "42". In rapid speech, the conjunction ja may be left out, and the suffix -ta may be dropped from all other tens than plata: cäži čaipa "37", plata fie "25".

The first two ordinals are keri and jarig. Other ordinals are formed by suffixing -(a)l: cäžil "third", bupal "eighth". Ordinal forms of compound numbers add -(a)l to the last part, except if this is bå or šuma, in which case keri and jarig are used: fieta ja čapail "57th", bupta ja jarig "82nd".

Syntax

Word order

The word order is relatively free, though it is usually SVO or sometimes SOV. Modifiers usually precede their heads, with the notable exception of possessive pronouns following them. Adverbs do not have a fixed position and may be placed anywhere.

Žäk ňauma jis dzaknu žärina mid.
2SG.NOM again be.PRES.2SG drink-PRES.PRTC beer-ACC 1SG-GEN
You're drinking my beer again.

Relative clauses

Relative clauses contain a participle and are placed before the noun they modify, just like most other modifiers.

Jarže tlepnu at je papat mid.
there sleep-PRES.PRTC man be.PRES.3SG father 1SG-GEN
The man who's sleeping over there is my father.

Note that the head is only marked for case according to its function in the main clause. Its function in the relative clause is often not explicitly expressed and has to be inferred from the context. Compare the following two sentences, noting the different case marking on the word böraq:

Jäǧpin jarda böraqiž.
be.born-PST.1SG that village-LOC
I was born in that village.

Jivan lepin jäk jäǧpitu böraqan.
FUT-1SG go-PRES.INF 1SG.NOM be.born-PST.PRTC village-DAT
I'm going to the village where I was born.

Which participle to use depends on whether the event described in the relative clause happened before, during or after the event described in the main clause.

Accusative with infinitive

Indirect statements, i.e. sentences with a clause depending on a verb meaning something like for example "say", "think" or "know", are expressed using an accusative with infinitive construction. In this construction, the subject of the clause is put in the accusative case and followed by an infinitive verb.

Tamat kičena žüötpit ǧietana.
say-PST.3SG king-ACC kill-PST.INF goat-ACC
He said the king had killed a goat.

As in relative clauses, tense marking in accusative with infinitive constructions is relative to the tense in the main clause.

Locative absolute

A locative absolute is a construction which indicates a time, a circumstance or a condition. It consists of a noun in the locative case followed by a participle.

Miquriž aispinu žäk bal tleisinis.
1SG-LOC speak-PRES.PRTC 2SG.NOM PT be.silent-SUBJ-2SG
When I talk you are silent.