Riagi

The concept behind Rjargi is to make a somewhat naturalistic language that places a heavy emphasis on the reasons behind actions and the relations between it's arguments. While at the same time establishing different way of communicating in a formal manner that centers on indirect, indefinite and generic ways of talking.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	-
Stop	/p/	/t/	/k/	/ʔ/
Fricative	/f/ - /ʃ/		-	-
Approximant	/ʋ/ - /ð/		/ɰ/	/h/
Flap	-	/ɾ/	-	-

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	/i/	/u/
Close-mid	/e/	/o/
Open	/a/	/ɒ/

Phonotactics

Basic Syllable structure is (C)V(V)

Syntax

Word Order

The general word order in Rjali depends on the definiteness of the nouns in the sentence, nouns precede the verb if they are definite and they follow the verb if they are indefinite. The subject goes before the object whenever possible.

Morphology

Verbs

Tense

Rjargi has four tenses:

• Past (pst)
• Present (prs)
• Future (fut)
• Gnomic (gno)

Aspect

Rjargi has five aspects:

• Perfective (pfv)
• Retrospective (ret)
• Continuous (cont)
• Prospective (prosp)
• Habitual (hab)

Verb Moods

Moods are divided in External, Internal and Evidential

• External
  • Permissive (prm): Used to express permission
  • Requisitive (req): Used to express requests or suggestions
  • Compulsory (cls): Used to express orders and commands
  • Impositive (ims): Used to express expectations or imposed actions
• Internal
  • Promissory (pms): Used to express for promises oaths or threats
  • Desiderative (des): Used to express willingness or intent
  • Aspirative (asp): Used to express hopes, fears or wishes
  • Necessitative (nec): Used to express needs or obligations
• Evidential
  • Factual (fac): Indicates the certainty of the action
  • Probable (pbl): Indicates the likelyhood of the action
  • Improbable (ipb): Indicates the unlikelyhood of the action
  • Potential (ptn): Indicates the posibility of the action

Nouns

Noun Cases

Nouns can be marked for up to two cases, an argument case and a thematic case

• Argument Cases
  • Nominative (nom): Agent, defaults to Agentive thematic case
  • Accusative (acc): Object, defaults to Patientive thematic case
  • Dative (dat): Indirect object, defaults to Benefactive thematic case
• Thematic Cases
  • Agentive (-): Agent
  • Patientive (pat): Patient, Theme
  • Instrumental (ins): Intrument, Sociate
  • Locative (loc): Location, Time
  • Benefactive (ben): Beneficiary, Recipient
  • Origative (ori): Origin, Source, Cause
  • Metative (met): Goal, Direction, Purpose

Pronouns

First Person		Dual Person		Second Person		Third Person
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fourth Person				Fifth Person
Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
-		-		-		-
Zero Person
Singular				Plural
-				-

• The First person plural is exclusive
• The Dual person singular indicates both the Speaker and the Addressee
• The Dual person Plural is an inclusive version of the first person plural
• The Fourth person is an indefinite category that encompasses First and Dual persons. "These ones think so" (referring to themselves)
• The Fifth person is similar to the fourth but covers Second and Third persons.
• The Zero person is a completely generic category. "One could say so"