Sceptrian

Sceptrian
Batop Lushan
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|ˈbäˑtəp luˈʃãˑ]]
Created by	Ahuelni
Setting	Akekata
Native to	Sceptre
Native speakers	29,200,000 (7th 641)
Language family	West-Herookuan Lutian Sceptrian branch Sceptrian
Dialect	Yerzonian, Mulish, Fanish
Official status
Official language in	Empire of Sceptre
Recognised minority language in	Coast of Temples, Negovia
Regulated by	Tsagadhet Keping Batom Lushan (Bureau of the Purity of the Sceptrian Language)
Speakers of Sceptrian and its dialects

Sceptrian Batop Lushan
Progress: 92%
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Absolutive-ergative
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Verb-subject-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
3
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Sceptrian (batop lushan [ˈbäˑtəp luˈʃãˑ] or simply lusha) is an a priori artistic language created for the fantasy world Akekata by juhhmi. Sceptrian language, named after the Sceptre peninsula, derives from Lutian language used in the Empire of Western Sceptre. With 29 million native speakers, Sceptrians outnumber those speaking Khattish and Guddean, the other two main West-Herookuan languages.

Phonology

Sceptrian and its dialects feature 51 phonetic consonants, some of them with interesting lateral features. The language also has 25 phonetic vowels: twelve short, nine long and four diphthongs. Nasalization, rhotacization and breathy voice are used phonemically.

Consonants

If the romanization symbol is the same as in IPA, it is not duplicated. Not bolded romanization indicates that the sound appears as a vernacular or dialectal version.

		Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	[ɱ]		n (ń) [n]			ng [ŋ]
Plosive	Voiceless	p			t			k	q
	Voiced	b			d			g
	Breathy	ph bh [pʰ] [bʱ]		th dh [tʰ] [dʱ]				kh gh [kʰ] [gʱ]	qh [qʰ]
	Lateral	pl bl [pˡ] [bˡ]		tl dl [tˡ] [dˡ]				kl gl [kˡ] [gˡ]	ql [qˡ]
Fricative	Voiceless	ph [ɸ]	f	th [θ]	s	sh [ʃ]	h [ç]	kh h [x]	qh [χ]	h
	Voiced	w bh [β]	v	dh [ð]	z	zh [ʒ]		gh [ɣ]		h [ɦ]
	Lateral				sl [ɬ]
Affricate	Voiceless				ts [t͡s]	tsh [t͡ʃ]
	Lateral				tsl [t͡ɬ]
Approximant	Non-lateral						j
	Lateral				l [l] [l̥]
Trill		pr [ʙ]			r (ŕ) [r] [r̥]

The liquids r and l can appear as syllabic consonants: tlsl /tˡl̩ɬ/ (shallow), prk /pr̩k/ (wagon) and trs /tr̩s/ (smith)

• Vernacularly, both syllabic and obstruent-following alveolar trill r and lateral approximant l are pronounced as voiceless [r̩̊], [r̥], [l̩̊] and [l̥] when in contact with only voiceless consonants: trs [tr̩̊s] (smith) contrasting with trls [tr̩s] (while standard /trəls/) (smiths); gatl [gɑtl̥] (houses) whose pronunciation approaches [gɑtɬ].
  • Meslatu Hirke made his disputed suggestion in 7:693 that a similar process had led to the birth of sl as plural indicator, when original plural l turned first into voiceless and then into sl after a word-final glottal stop, which has disappeared entirely.
• In eastern dialects, pr is realized as [ʙ] and tr, tsr and trs often as [r̝]. In the dialects, aspirated plosives have been fully spirantized into their fricative counterparts, e.g. [tʰ]>[θ].
• Fricatives show properties of syllabic consonants word-initially and word-finally.

Nasal [ɱ] only appears as an allophone of nasals with labio-dental sounds /f/ and /v/. Before velar sounds (e.g. /k/) nasals turn similarly into [ŋ].

Letter h has four allophones: initial is always [h] despite frontness, [ç] appears elsewhere with front vowels, [x] appears word-finally and [h~ɦ] word-medially with back vowels tihtóhnah [tiçˈtɔɦ.näx] (assassinator). It's also used after consonants to indicate breathy voice.

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	o [ɘ]	o [ɤ]
Mid		o [ə]
Open-mid	é ø [ɛ] [œ]		ó [ɔ]
Near-open	æ
Open		a [ä]	a [ɑ]

All the nine main vowel sounds (bolded) have long versions as separate phonemes.

Schwa o is used as an epenthetic vowel (anaptyxis). When it is used to break consonant clusters (not indicated in native script) it is the simple schwa /ə/: *dŧ → doth /dəθ/ (man). When stressed, it is vernacularly realized as [ɘ], and in western dialects more clearly as [ɤ]: *dŧs → dothos [dəˈθɘˑs]

Vowel a is [ɑ] after voiced consonants. Vowel æ is often more open [a], though, in Western dialects, it has merged with é.

Diphthongs

In Sceptrian, there are only closing diphthongs which go up in the vowel chart:

• Back: ou /ɔʊ̯/
• Front: ai /äɪ̯/, ei /ei̯/, oi /œi̯/

If the syllable border (glottal stop) is between vowels and they don't form a diphthong, apostrophe is used: tai (for long) vs. ta'i (past)

• In native script, separate graphemes for diphthongs exist and glottal stop is not marked.

If diphthongs are followed by vowels, they are separated by a glottal stop in formal register.

• In casual speech, ouV becomes owV and ViV VjV: oua→ówa and aia→aja. If the following vowel is the same, a glottal stop breaks the former diphthong and the ending vowel is lengthened: ai'i→a'ii

Phonotactics

Onset

Basic syllabic structure is CV, where the onset (beginning) consonant can be of any type.

• It is possible to use liquids and approximants as glides (CLV) between the onset and the rime (ending).
• Up to two consonants with same voicing may appear in the onset (CCV), especially fricative-plosive combinations, but never two plosives: stak (fence), fkot (nest), ksaru (guard). Affricate ts takes may be accompanied only by w, j, n or m: tsma (doubt). Combination /sl/ has turned into /ɬ/.
• Lateralization and aspiration may never appear together, and nasalized rhoticization is only found in Fanish dialect.

Nucleus

The nucleus can be either a vowel or a liquid, thus CVC and CLC are also possible syllables.

• Vowels (diphthongs included) may exist as a stand-alone nucleic syllable (V), mostly in the beginning or at the end of a word.
• If nucleus is a liquid, plosives appear in codas only word-finally: dldlp /dˡl̩ˈdˡl̩p/ (bubble)

Coda

The coda (final) may consist of up to three consonants with possible structures: N, P, F, L; NP, FP, LP; NF, PF, LF; NPF, FPF, LFP, LPF (Nasal, Plosive, Fricative, Liquid).

• Final liquids appear as syllabic consonants
• Approximants j, w and plain voiced plosives never appear as coda (final) even though they may be written that way (no written schwa): nad /nä.də/ (stainy). Voiced fricatives may appear as coda.
• In coda, plosives with lateral release, however, will reflect the voicing of the onset: gatl [gädˡl̩] (houses) vs. katl [kätˡl̩] (knobs). Vernacularly, the lateral approximant weakens into a voiceless variant [l̥] when in contact with voiceless consonants: gatl [gätl̥].

Closed syllables, i.e. those ending in coda, are not as common word-medially as open syllables (ending in nucleus) are. When words are inflected, parts of codas tend to become onsets of the following syllable, if possible. Especially three-consonant clusters are rare word-medially and receive a schwa after a non-lateral stop: kamps /kämps/ (marsh) → kampsku → kamposku /ˈkäm.pəs.ku/ (at marsh)

• Voicing status must be the same for consonants touching at syllable boundaries and the voiced one reduces into voiceless: *katbas→katpas /kätˈpäs/ (fern) vs. oist baku /œi̯st^(h) bä.ku/ (under a table)

Suprasegmentals

Primary stress in a word is most often on the second syllable, and when there are four or five syllables, secondary stress is placed onto the final syllable. When there are more syllables, minor stress is placed on even-numbered syllables.

• If the to-be-stressed syllable contains the schwa o /ə/ or a syllabic consonant, the preceding syllable is stressed in two-syllable words and the following in words with more than three syllables.
  • In uninflected words, syllable with nuclear o is only stressed when it comes second and the preceding syllable has also o as nucleus. Then the stressed nucleus appears as [ɘ]. Contrast between stressed and non-stressed syllabic consonants may occur as voicing and devoicing respectively.
• A non-final syllable with a long vowel or a diphthong is always stressed and steals the stress from its neighboring syllable. This also moves the secondary stress from final to penultimate syllable, if primary stress falls on first syllable.

Inflected and affixed word forms have almost always the same stress as the base word (even monosyllabic with schwa): doth (man) → dothku [ˈdɘθ.ku] (near the man).

• Vocative and ergative cases as well as inflections with long vowels make an exception: dothee /dəˈθe:/ (by the man), dothé /dəˈθɛ/ (O man), gatóo /gɑˈtɔ:/ (to the house)

Interrogatives are formed by changing the primary stress onto the first syllable and adding a rising or dipping pitch. This is indicated with ¿: ¿Eikepoi? [ˈei̯˧˦ˈke˩.pœi̯˨˦] (Did you wash it?)

Morphophonology

Vowel form

There are five ways of sound altering which may be used for grammatical purposes (mainly number, genitive case and imperfective aspect). In the native script the following are marked on the vowel.

• Lengthening: paata /pä:tä/ (separation), ée [ɛ:]~[ɛe̯], óo /ɔ:/
• Lateral (release): pló /pˡɔ/ (opposite to), tlaf /tˡäf/ (sprig)
  • Western dialects keep the tongue on the alveolar ridge during vowel pronunciation so that the vowels have a distinct l-sound. Historically, this may have lead to the syllabic l.
• Aspiration/breathy voice: phó [pʰɔ]~[ɸɔ] (along), kébhar [kɛˈbʱɑ˞]~[kɛˈβɑ˞] (I will wash), tha [tʰä]~[θä] (abstract "it"), dhaka [dʱɑkä]~[ðɑkä] (abstract "that").
  • Aspirated plosives of unstressed, schwa-syllables turn into the corresponding fricatives. In casual register, this happens with all unstressed syllables. dhoku /ðəˈkuˑ/ (head)
• Nasalization: on [ə̃]~[ɘ̃]~[^NC] (compare oń /ən/) when n in coda
  • Vernacularly, nasalized schwa appears as a short syllabic nasal consonant of the same place as the directly preceding or following consonant
  • Close-to-mid vowels (e, i, u, o, and ó) are always nasalized between two nasals, and all vowels are after short ng: mónge /mɔ̃ŋẽ/ (indeed). Nasalization does not occur with open vowels (a and é) between nasals or with any vowel after a long ńg: dothé naańgé /dəˈθɛˑ nä:ŋ:ɛˑ/ (O sweaty man!).
• Rhotacization: or /ɚ/, ar /ä˞/ (compare oŕ [ər]~[r̩] and aŕ /är/)
  • Nasalization does not occur simultaneously with rhoticization, except in Fanish dialect (near the border of Negovia): karon → karn [kæ̃˞:] (soup)

Consonant form

Combining sounds

• Lateralization
  • s and z turn into sl and zh respectively
  • f & v → fl & w
  • l & r are geminated
  • m & n → ng and ng → ńg
• Aspiration
  • s and z turn into sh and zh
  • f & v are geminated
  • l & r → lh and rh
• Voicing and aspiration
  • r → qh, l → ldh, v → w

Apophony

Apophony in the stressed syllable is used for example to express adjective gender and to create different verb forms.

Apophony

Root	1st	2nd
e	ee	é
o	ó	ø
a	aa	æ
u	uu	i
ai	ii	ei
ou	óo	oi

• When the stressed root syllable has vowel ee, ó, aa, uu, ii or óo as nucleus, the apophony is only partial. joqódh>joqødh (disgusting)
• With é, ø, æ, i, ei or oi as root vowels, all forms are the same, e.g. luwidh (beautiful). Only formal register uses ée as the second apophony of é.

Orthography

Script

Toneka script from the early sixth era. Notice that the vowel form info-box romanization should have "o" instead of "a".

Tsrnet cursive script used for handwriting in modern Sceptre.

The Sceptrian alphabet script was derived from the ancient temple marks as were the Aoman and Northern (Latin) scripts. The modern alphabet is called Tsoklóp Lushan.

Diacritics on vowels mark different sounds. The diacritics may be used with consonants as well, especially in the plural forms of consonant-ending nouns: gat̆ (gatl "houses"), doŧ̆ (dolth "men"). With the diacritics, letter ts can be lateralized into tsl or aspirated into tsh.

The native Sceptrian script has a long history of being unicameral, not distinguishing between the upper and lower case. Only during the sixth era under the Tyranny of West, the flow of refugees from the Coast of Temples encouraged the introduction of case separation. In the developed fonts, capital letters were derived from the traditional Toneka and small letters from the cursive Tsrnet.

Short and long letter names with explanations

aa aat	ee eet	ée eet maatikipi (opened e)	ii iit	oo oot	óo oot guzbikipi (deepened o)	uu uut
ææ aat evadh (bright a)	øø oot gudh (dark o)	ai aat zaithon (rising a)	ei eet zaithon (rising e)	oi oot zaithon (rising o)	ou óot bousoson (falling o)
po poot	bo bóot	mo mool	wo wool	to toot	do dóot
tho toot hifdo (windy t)	dho dóot hifdo (windy d)	no nool	so siit	sho siit hifdo (windy s)	zo ziit	zho ziit gudh (dark z)
ngo góot slenguhpi (g using nose)	tso tsiit	lo lool	slo lool hifdo (windy l)	fo fiit	vo fiit gudh (dark f)	jo jool
ko koot	go góot	ho hiit	qho hiit surmudh (strong h)	qo koot venongp (k being swallowed)	ro rool
plo looh tisk (with l mark)	pon slenguhpi tisk (using nose mark)	por tisk prung (mark of trill)	pho tisk hifn (mark of wind)	poo tisk spiing (mark of length)

Romanization

Modern

Consonant variation:

• Letter r is used with consonants for /r̩/ and between vowels for /r/, but after vowels in the end of syllables for rhoticization or /ɚ/. Letter ŕ is used to emphasize the use of /r/ after vowels oŕ /ər/.
• Similarly letter n can appear syllable-finally with nasalization but ń always as /n/: an /ã/ vs. ań /an/.
• With ng /ŋ/, the accent signals lengthening nańgo /näŋ:ə/ or naŋŋo (sweaty).
• Labialization of plosives is indicated by PuV (V is any vowel except u) or with w.
• Breathry voice is indicated with an h straight after a plosive. The h is also used for corresponding fricatives which occur word-finally. This risk of confuse is one of the downsides of the simplified modern system: nath /näθ/ "a beggar" or /nätʰ/ "with stains".

Old

The old romanization system (or part of it) was used until western regions of Eastern Sceptre were joined with the Western Sceptre empire in 7th era 161, during the war against Empress Renula of Golden Islet. A revision was needed when both Sceptrian and Aoma were used in the same printing press and texts had to be distributed to westlang-using communities. Peter Martyea suggested in 7:189 that the payment according to number of pages may have favoured quick adaptation as the non-diacritic system induced much longer texts (see the comparison example).

Consonants:

• Nasal: ŋ ng /ŋ/
  • Texts from the first century of the seventh era use ǥ for word-initial /ŋ/.
• Fricative: ŧ th /θ/, đ dh /ð/, ś sh /ʃ/, ź zh /ʒ/, ħ qh /χ/
• Affricate: c ts /t͡s/, č tsh /t͡ʃ/
• Lateral: š sl /ɬ/, ǩ kl /kˡ/, ǧ gl /gˡ/

Compact equivalents of sound altering:

• Lengthening with a bar: ṓ /ɔ:/ and ō /ə:/
• Lateral release with a breve diacritic: tŏ /tˡə/
• Nasalization with a tilde: õ /ə̃/, on /ən/
• Rhotacization with a diaeresis: ö /ɚ/, or /ər/
• Aspiration with a grave accent: pò /pʰə/, pô /pʰɔ/

Comparison between the systems:

• Old: Ǧëǩ śošēŧã
• Modern: Glerkl shosleethan (maces of a knight)

Morphology

The most complete study of the structure of pre-modern Sceptrian words was done by Porutingatu of Jerzónó in year 362 of the seventh era. She collected, grouped and analyzed the fusional morphemes and listed the new rules to replace the outdated writings from the sixth era. By 370, her work had led to a new interest in linguistics and ultimately to the founding of Tsagadhet Keping Batom Lushan (Bureau of the Purity of the Sceptrian Language) which has been unifying and regulating the language along with its orthography since then.

Sceptrian utilizes fusional inflections and has an absolutive-ergative morphosyntactic alignment. The language is rather head-initial and its primary word order is verb-agent-object.

Pronouns

Pronouns are used to refer to e.g. people or things in sentences instead of using the original nouns. In Sceptrian, they exist in two numbers and are inflected according to six cases.

Personal

Second person includes polite versions as well which were adapted by Aoma-sperkers. Third person singular makes distinction between abstract (Ab), animate (An) and inanimate (In) pronouns while plural only between Ab-An and In.

Personal pronoun inflection

Case	1SG	1PL	2SG	2PL	2SG.POL	2PL.POL	3SG.Ab	3SG.An	3PL.A	3SG.In	3PL.In
ABS	na	mo	fo	po	Nith	With	tha	su	slo	hi	klo
ERG	næ	moslo	fø	poslo	Nithe	Widhes	thaa	suu	sloslo	hii	kloslo
DAT	nai	mokli	foki	pokli	Nithki	Withkli	thai	swi	slokli	hiki	klokli
POS	nar	moŕ	for	poŕ	Nithor	Withoŕ	thar	sur	sloŕ	hir	kloŕ
COM	nas	mosh	fos	posh	Nithos	Withosh	thas	sus	slosh	his	klosh
CAU	nape	moplo	fope	poplo	Nitti	Witti	thape	supe	sloplo	hipi	kloplo

• Comitative case is used to indicate company: Mo slosh arakha. (We were with them yesterday.)
• Causal describes the cause of an action or origin of something: Aitesosai næ su fope (I saw him because of (/thanks to) you), Hi supe foki. (It (is) from him to you.)

3rd person abstract pronoun is used in the formal register when introducing or referring to a person of higher status.

Reflexive

Self-pronoun ru for reflexive and reciprocal: tesosón ru (they are watching themself), ónlatepón ru (he is dancing by himself, alone) vs. ónlatepón su (he is dancing with him); sónkephón ru (they are washing each other) vs. sónkephón sloslo slo/soutu (they are washing them)

• reflexive is easier with others: anlatepan (I'm dancing by myself); ankepan (I'm washing myself) vs. ankep ("I'm washing it"), kepan (I'm being washed)

Demonstrative

Simple words for "this/these" and "that/those". When demonstratives are used with nouns, they behave similarly to adjectives. In the following examples, note that Sceptrian lacks the verb "to be":

• As a determiner, the demonstrative follows its head and other adjectives: Bouson qot ka. (This rock is falling.) Anzaitlon qoth rkildh kla. (I'm lifting these brown rocks.)
• For inanimate class, the pronoun is the same as the demonstrative word: Qot ka. (This is a rock.) Rkidh qot ka. (This rock is brown.) Qoth rkildh klo. (Those are brown rocks.)
• The determiner may precede its head and is then followed by a short pause. In this case, the "head" can rather be considered an attribute of the pronoun: Bouson ko qot. (That's falling, the rock, I mean.)

See also the table of correlatives.

Demonstrative pronoun inflection

Case	Proximal		Distal
	SG	PL	SG	PL
ABS	ka	kla	ko	klo
ERG	kaa	klaa	kó	kló
DAT	kai	klai	koi	kloi
POS	kan	klang	kon	klong
COM	kas	klash	kos	klosh
CAU	kap	klapa	kop	klopo

Table of correlatives

Determiners follow their heads and agree in number and with the cases mentioned above in the table, where DAT & LAT, COM & LOC, CAU & ABL and ABS & VOC are corresponding. Words follow the declension shown above or paradigms similar to noun cases.

		Interrogative	Demonstrative		Quantifier
			Proximal	Distal	Existential	Elective	Universal	Negatory	Alternative
Determiner		sho	ka (SG) kla (PL)	ko klo	jofa (some)	ota (any)	orka (every, all)	ze (no)	so (another) solo
Pronoun	Abstract	ashu	thaka	dhaka	jaafa	thata	thorka	theso	thaso
	Animate	¿soutu	saitu	soutu	jonfu	onta	ongka	souso	jonso
	Inanimate	¿ko	ka	ko	jofo	oto	orko	ze	so
	Out of two	¿tso	tsaka	tsoko	zho	tsoto	tsorko	tseso	tso
	Out of many	¿tsolo	tsalka	tsolko	zolo	tsolto	tsongko	tsleso	tsolo
Pro-adverb	Locative	sku	khau	khu	jofku	otku	orkhu	zengu	sokhu
	Temporal	sko	kha	kho	jofko	otko	orkho	zeng	sokho
	Comitative	shos	kas	kos	jofos	otos	orkos	zeos	sos
	Causal	spe	kap	kop	jov	otop	orkop	zenep	sonop
	Manner	shi	khai	khoi	jofai	otai	orkai	zei	soi
	What kind of	shodh	kadh	kodh	jodhi	othi	ordhi	zodhi	sothi

• Negative determiner ze has no plural form. Neither have pronouns "Out of two".
• Demonstratives are used when referring to listed items of equal animacy: proximal with the former and distal with the latter: Aitesoshóji math kuthos. Óomidh soutu. (I saw a cat and a dog. The latter was large.)
• Locative pro-adverb can be conjugated with lative, locative and ablative.

Nouns

Nouns in Sceptrian form the basis of derivational morphology and even the cases are utilized when forming new words. They are declined according to two numbers and nine cases, and the seven declensions are grouped in three genders which affect the verb conjugation and adjective agreement.

Gender

There are three grammatical genders or classes, abstract, animate and inanimate, which can be fully recognized from their singular dative form endings, k, i and ei. The seven declensional patterns or simply declensions, which are determined by their absolutive ending, are distributed among these classes.

• Abstract (Ab) class contains concepts, emotions, divine and magical subjects, verb forms etc., and they end in vowels a, æ, o, ó, ø and i.
• Animate (An) class is preserved for nouns related to living things, e.g. people, animals, body parts, plants and comestibles, whose ending is either a fricative (f, th, s, sh, h), nasal (m, n, ng) or vowel u. Mass nouns, such as meat, milk and food, have nasal endings.
• Inanimate (In) class has nouns such as objects, places and natural formations whose endings are either plosives (p, t, k) or consonant l. Inanimate mass nouns, e.g. sand, salt and water, appear in the l-ending group.

In official language, animate gender doesn't draw a distinction between masculine and feminine so that ras (horse) can stand for both "stallion" and "mare". If one wishes to emphasize the gender on a binary scale, clitics -duus and -tu may be added: gutsduus (bull). Some archaic words remain in dialects and in poetic use.

Number

There are two numbers, singular and plural, but abstract i-nouns and inanimate l-nouns are always singular. The declension according to number is complicated and fused with the class/case system explained and tabulated below.

Cases

• Absolutive (ABS): Unmarked base form for subjects of intransitive and objects of transitive verbs
• Ergative (ERG): Agents of transitive verbs
• Dative (DAT): Indirect object; alienable possession gat dothi (a house of (lit. "for") the man); comparison (with ADJ comparative)
• Possessive (POS): Inalienable possession dhoku dothor (the man's head)
• Instrumental-comitative (INS): Using something; "with someone", replaces "and" as Latin -que; in antipassive constructions
• Lative (LAT): Movement to; with adpositions
• Locative-temporal (LOC-TEMP): Place; time; with adpositions
• Ablative (ABL): Movement from (+delative); causal
• Vocative (VOC): addressing (people, gods); interjections Alæ! (Hello! lit. "Day!")

Genders and desinences

	Abstract			Animate						Inanimate
	A		i	F		N		u		P		l
	SG	PL		SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
Absolutive	A	Asl	i	F	(o)lF	N	Ning	u	ush	P	Pl	l
Ergative	AA	AslA	ii	Fee	Fele	Nee	Neng	uu	uushu	Pee	Ple	le
Dative	Ak	Akl	ik	Fi	Fil	Ni	Nil	(u)ji	(u)wi	Pei	Plei	lei
Possessive	An	Ang	ing	For	Foŕ	Nor	Noŕ	ur	uŕ	-N	Pong	lon
Instrumental-comitative	Ah	Ash	ish	Fos	Fosh	Nos	Nosh	uh	ush	Ph	Ps	-dh
Lative	AgA	AglA	iki	Fko	Fklo	Nong	Nongo	ugu	uglu	Póo	Plóo	lo
Locative-temporal	AkhA	AlkhA	ikhi	Fku	Fklu	Nung	Nungu	ukhu	ulkhu	Pu	Plu	lu
Ablative	ApA	AplA	ipi	Fp(o)	Fpl(o)	Nop	Nopl	upu	uplu	PPo	PPol	lp
Vocative	Ae	Asl	ii	Fé	lFé	Né	Nin	-wé	-wésh	Pé	Plé	lé

• A: vowels a, æ, o, ó and ø
  • Ae: ae = æ, æe = ææ, oe=é, óe = ø & øe = øø
• F: fricatives f, th, s, sh and h; voiced counterparts and affricates ts and tsh are followed by o before plosive endings.
• N: nasals n, m and ng
• P: plosives p, t, k and q
  • POS q→ng
  • INS ending Ph marks breathy voice and may turn the plosive into corresponding fricative /ɸ, θ, x, χ/ if followed by a plosive.
• - indicates that the original ending is replaced with the following: tup → tum (stick → stick's)

Possessive

Different possessive forms and interpretations:

• Dativus possessivus (alienable): gat dothi "the house which the man has temporarily settled in, i.e. rented"
• Comitative case with alienable possessive suffix: doth gathos "man with his house which he has purchased"
  • Inalienable possessive suffix alters the meaning: doth gathozh "man and his birthplace"
• Possessive case (almost inalienable): gat dothor "the house which was inherited and is now owned by the man".

The noun in possessive case is not inflected further. With dative case, inflection may be utilized in order to distinguish the dativus possessivus from the indirect object or benefactive: Onzaiton pof tuph dothish slokli. "The feather is being lifted with a man's stick for them." (Related to the feather ceremony when welcoming upper class members to a household.)

Possessive affixes, as shown in examples above, draw a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession: Óntesoson dothee gats/vakuhoz. (A man is watching his house/ his own hand.) With the basic suffixes, the root is inflected first and then suffixed.

Possessional suffixes

Person	Singular		Plural
	ALIEN	INAL	ALIEN	INAL
1st	(a)ń	(a)nga	(ó)m	(ó)ngó
2nd	(o)f	(ø)fo	(e)v	(ø)vø
3rd	(o)s	(o)zh	(o)sl	(o)zhol

• Irregular: Only VOC+possessive with 1SG: Posné! (My servant!), Polsmé! (Our servants!)

2nd person polite suffixes are added to absolutive base and the endings are then declined according to abstract gender:

• Singular: (a)tha, (a)tazha
• Plural: (a)dhó, (a)dózhó
• Example: gatathapa (from Your house)

See adverbial clauses which utilize some possessive suffixes with non-finite verb forms.

Adpositions

Adpositions are used with inflected nouns to add information about its location or relation to other nouns. Some Sceptrian adpositions can be used as stand-alone adverbs which may be conjugated according to noun declensions.

Prepositions

Prepositions are used with lative (to, towards), locative (at, near) and ablative (from) cases to alter the meaning.

• voi (in) forms illative, inessive, elative
• loi (out) for "out of", "outside" and "from outside"
• soi (on) to emphasize the surface aspect
• oist(i) (under) for movement under something
• roi (above) similarly to oist
• boi (down) for "down (a surface / to)", "down in (somewhere)" and "from down"; as an adverb as well
• zoi (up) used like boi
• moi (touching, around) with lative for terminative, locative for pertingent and ablative for initiative
• oil(i) (as) forms translative, essive, exessive
• koi (per) distribution: "for each", "every" (temporal), "from each"
• jon (... between)
• poi (... the middle of, among)
• tsoi (... front of; preceding)
  • with time nouns in locative = before
• hoi (... behind; following)
  • with time nouns in locative = after
• mots(i) (... on side)
  • combined with postpositional dei (right) or lai (left)
  • with time nouns in locative = ago

Postpositions

Postpositions appear with various cases and often come in groups.

• pón (through) with lative
• phó (along) with lative
• pló (opposite to, across) with locative
• sós (with) with comitative to express a greater degree of endowment (ornative); with ablative to indicate "without"; with lative for "in addition to"
• óp (about, concerning) with genitive; with ablative for "according to"
• ól (like) with genitive; as an adverb "similarly"
• jak (away, despite) with ablative; as an adverb as well
• mai (excluding) with ablative
• mak (except) with ablative
• mats (instead of) with ablative
• sai (including) with comitative
• sak (concerning, regarding) with comitative; with ablative to emphasize the causal aspect (due to, because of, thanks to)
• phe (for the sake of) with lative

Pronominal

When used with pronouns, separate adpositions only come with dative forms to indicate lative. Otherwise adpositions take possessive suffixes, inalienable for locative and alienable for ablative: voi nai (into me), voinga (inside me), voiń (from inside me)

Of the polite possessive suffixes, alienable is added onto the adposition and then the entire compound is conjugated for lative, locative or ablative: voitha (in You; attributive), voithaga (into You), voithakha (inside You; predicative), voithapa (from inside You)

Derivational Morphology

Verbs and adjectives are derived from nouns by adding suffixes and in some cases prefixes as well.

Noun

Many nouns share same origins and these endings are the most common forms of derivation:

• Suffixing verbs with once established ending vowels or consonant appropriate for the noun class.
• place, region, nearby area: abstract with LOC with sk-ending; fricative and u-ending ABS.PL with final t; nasal ABS.PL with final ku; plosive ABS.PL and l-declension receive an s-suffix
• collection, group: ABS.PL receives óf in animate, óp in inanimate class; mulfóf (school of fish)
• being, person, creature: ABS with (o)s: trs (smith; compare trk "smithy")
  • doer, agent: ERG with tu: kepeetu (washer)
  • experiencer, patient: ABS with (k)ois or (k)oit depending on animacy: kepois (person being washed)
  • origin: ABL with (o)su: ukopposu (person from north)
  • characteristic (from abstract quality): INS with final duplicated vowel and tu: luwishitu (beauty)
• material: ABS with (o)n (AN) or (o)l (INAN): koson (wood), qotol (stone)
• diminutive: reduplication of final sound with t between vowels and i between consonants: kosis (small tree)
• augmentative: reduplication of final sound with g between vowels and a between consonants: kosas (great tree)
  • apotheosis: augmentative with a-ending: kosonana (godwood)
• abstract quality, feature: ABS suffixed with (k)oti: dothoti (manliness)
• gerund (act of doing): via derivated verb suffixed with (o)pi: glerkurpi (mace-battering)

Adjective

Different cases and affixes are used for the derivation:

• similarity, having something: dh suffix to abstract gender and animate u-ending; voicing of fricatives (h→qh, no change with affricates); nasals "lateralized" + o; voicing of plosives + o (q→g); l-declension as in INS-COM: evadh (bright), dodh (masculine)
  • full of, having something: previous suffixed with ol: mel muvol (waters full of fish)
• material: ABS with (o)p: kosonop (wooden)
• origin, relation: ABL form with a final ó added or replacing the original ending vowel: kusupó (friendly)
• absence, without: ti suffixed to VOC form: evæti (lightless=dark)
• doing: on added after INS case: kephon (washing)
• who did: INS with ompu: kephompu (who washed = pessyt in Finnish)
• done by: INS with empo and possibly inalienable possessive suffix: kephemponga (washed by me)
• not done: LAT suffixed with tip: kepóotip (unwashed)
• experiencing: LAT suffixed with p: kepóop (being washed)
• result (wanted): LAT suffixed with pi: kepóopi (washed=clean)
  • if unwanted: LAT suffixed with pot: vangostóopot (drunk)
• possible: POS with ta: kenta (washable)
• requiring: LOC with rt: kepurt (needs to be washed)
• opposite, negation: VOC with tot

Notice that plural forms of adjectives may be derived from plural nouns: dolth kepson (men who are washing)

Verb

A declined core noun receives an ending which describes how the verb reflects the noun:

• In some cases, the vowel ending of nouns may simply be removed or the absolutive of a consonant-ending noun may also serve as a verb.
• ABS = "happens, is": kep (is washed)
• COM = "using": tuph (is poked with a stick), glerkh (is hit with a mace)
• POS + k = "similarity": melonk (is wet)
• DAT + k = "making/becoming" (no k with Abstract): zurmu → zurmjik (strong person → is strengthened), zurp → zurpeik (strong, durable object → hardens) & zurma → zurmak (strength → intensifies)
• LAT + t = "movement, quasi-inceptive": glerkóot (swings a mace, INTR), melot (flows), latepóot (is persuaded to dance, INTR; begins a dance with, TR), lehkot (runs)
• LOC + r = "frequentative": glerkur (is battered with a mace), melur (rains; drips)
• VOC + k = "momentane": glerkék (is hit once with a mace), melék (splashes once)
• POS + (o)v = "consider, feel": vongv (is considered strange = oudoksutaan in Finnish)
• Several endings can be stacked on verbs without turning it into a noun in between: melurék (shower of rain falls), tup(o)hkur (is often poked with a stick). When deriving, the r-ending are declined according to the l-paradigm.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Sceptrian agree with the gender, number and cases of their head. When an adjective is used as a predicative, it comes before its head, but when as an attributive, it comes after. Adjective declension follows approximately the same rules as noun declension. In the common dh-ending F-declension, o is added between dh and case-endings with consonants. Changes in both casual and poetic speech include mirroring onset into coda: dothklu jadaadhulk (near nice men)

DH-declension

	ABS	ERG	DAT	POS	INS	LAT	LOC	ABL	VOC
SG	dh	dhee	dhi	dhor	dhos	dhok	dhuk	dhop	dhé
PL	ldh(o)	dhele	dhil	dhoŕ	dhosh	dholk	dhulk	dholp	ldhé

Apophony in the stressed syllable is used to indicate the gender: base for inanimate, first apophony with animate and second with abstract gender: eja jadædh, doth jadaadh, latep jadadh

Polite adjectives are formed from the abstract form with predicative prefix nga and attributive suffix æ: ngaluwidh Nith (You are beautiful), shosleetha luwidhæ (a beautiful knight)

Comparison

Positive of an adjective is the base form.

• When two nouns are found equal in comparison, ii begins the clause, positive is placed before the primary noun (focus) in dative case and preposition oil (as) with final secondary noun in causative-ablative case (forming exessive): Ii luwidh foki oil supe. ("Same beautiful for you from the state of being her." You are as beautiful as she is.)
• Negating happens with ze being joined to the ii particle.
• When comparing amounts, fadh (many, much) and fidh (few, little) are used in place of the adjective and inflected according to their head, the primary noun is now in absolutive plural, no preposition is used and the secondary noun is in comitative: Ii fældh dolth lutush. (As many men as women.)

Comparative (more than) is identical to the vocative of positive adjective: luwidhé (more beautiful). Suffixed with ti, the comparative gains a meaning of "less": luwidhéti (less beautiful).

• Manner quatifiers orkai, jofai and zei can be used to indicate the degree: luwidhé orkai (much more beautiful), luwidhé jofai (slightly more beautiful), luwidhé zei (not more beautiful)
• When comparing two nouns adjective comes first (predicative comparative), the standard acquires the dative case, and comparative forms agree with their head in gender and number: luwildhé po swi (you all are more beautiful than he is)
• Pronoun comparison is also possible to construct with alienable possessional suffixes: luwildhév swi (you all are more beautiful than he is)
• When adjective comparative is not included, postpositional fadhé (more) or føødhi (less) can be used with noun plurals: dolth faldhé lutwi (more men than women)

Superlative is similar to noun apotheosis: the ending is reduplicated with é between consonants and j between vowels, and an a added to the end: luwidhédha (most beautiful). Similarly to comparative, ti gives the meaning of "least": luwidhédhati (least beautiful).

Adverbs

Adverbs are derived from adjectives through second apophony of the singular vocative form: zaivia jadædhé (I sing pleasantly)

Placed after adjectives and verbs: luwidh òomidhé (very beautiful < "largely")

Comparative adverb is formed by changing the vocative ending é into ei: zaivió jadædhei (she sings more pleasantly)

Superlative adverb is similar to adjective superlative in its reduplication but with an æ-ending: zaivie jadædhédhæ (you sing most pleasantly)

Verbs

Missing verbs:

• "to be": apposition trs doth (a man is a smith) vs. doth trs (the smith-man, the smith (who) is a man) and Berats trs (Berats, the smith, ...) vs. trs Berats (Berats is a smith); predicative before luwidh doth (a man is beautiful) vs. attributive after doth luwidh (a beautiful man)
  • Emphasizing ma: trs dothma (it is the man who is a smith)
  • Showing tense:
    • temporal adverbs, such as ta'ikhi (in the past)
    • subject person and tense verb conjugation on adjective
    • momentane verb derived from an adjective in past or future tense
    • "become" verb derivation -> "will be"
• "to have": various possessive forms, e.g. soput trsor dothi ("profession of a smith for the man")

Conjugation

In Sceptrian, primary conjugation of verbs indicates person, number and tense-aspect, and it includes affixation and apophony. Conjugation for different moods is slightly more complex.

Root

Verbs are given in their 3SG.INAN GNO form which is used to form all of the third person forms. With first and second person subjects, the first apophony is used in indicative inceptive and future. Polite second person forms use the second apophony

Affixes

Fusional conjugation affixes convey the person, number, tense and aspect (and honorific). Subject and object suffixes are almost always used with verbs, the antipassive being the only exception. Agent prefixes aren't often used in the casual register, mostly to form the reflexive, but they have to be used in the formal register.

Subject/object suffixes for tense and aspect

Tense	Aspect	1SG	1PL	2SG	2PL	2SG.POL	2PL.POL	3SG.A	3PL.A	3SG.INAN	3PL.INAN
GNO-STAT		a	ha	e	he	ahi	aqhi	ó	hó	(o)	l
PRES	PROG	an	han	en	hen	ang	aing	ón	hón	on	lon
	INCEP	ast	last	est	lest	æst	hæst	ós	lós	os	osl
PST	IPFV	ajin	hajin	ejin	hejin	azing	izing	ójin	hójin	oin	loin
	PFV	ai	hai	ei	hei	athi	idhi	óji	hóji	oi	loi
FUT		har	+har	her	+her	athar	idhar	hór	+hór	ho	+ho

• initial l in endings is for lateralization of the final plosive
• initial h is for aspiration of the final plosive or simply h after a vowel
  • if the final plosive is already breathy, o is added after it
• + indicates voicing of the final consonant together with aspiration
  • simple h becomes qh
• Formal register draws a distinction between abstract and animate genders by adding wa directly after the ó of animate and removing the j from past perfective. Same can be done with agent prefixes. Glerkøtówajin shosleetha. (A knight was swinging a mace.)

Agent prefixes for tense and aspect

Tense	Aspect	1SG	1PL	2SG	2PL	2SG.POL	2PL.POL	3SG.A	3PL.A	3SG.INAN	3PL.INAN
GNO-STAT		a	sa	e	se	æ	hæ	ó	só	o	lo
PRES	PROG	an	san	en	sen	nga	ngai	ón	són	on	lon
	INCEP	tsa	tsla	tse	tsle	tsæ	tshæ	tsó	tsló	so	slo
PST	IPFV	jan	zhan	jen	zhen	izæ	izhæ	jón	zhón	i	li
	PFV	ai	sai	ei	sei	thæ	dhæ	jó	zhó	oi	loi
FUT		ar	sar	er	ser	thar	dhar	ór	sór	or	lor

• Affixes may be separated from border vowels of verbs with a glottal stop or reduplicated initial consonant (unless risk of confusion with subjunctive): Ai(v)eva(v)oi. (I illuminated it.)

Examples: Ónbouson dothee pof. (A man (ERG) is lifting a feather (ABS).), Bousón doth. (The man falls.) Bouson pof. (The feather (ABS) falls.).

Tense

In Sceptrian, verbs are conjugated for three tenses: past, present and future. These tenses describe when an action took place relative to current moment as their names indicate.

Aspect

Gnomic-static aspect is used to indicate general truths Zaitó Hala. (sun rises) and static situations Mépa lusha. (I can speak Sceptrian). It can be used with expressions of time to specify when something was static Petsipha kas arakha. (dress-STAT.1SG this.COM yesterday.TEMP "I was dressed in these clothes yesterday (as well).")

Present progressive describes dynamic actions Anbaplóph lusha kha. (I'm reading Sceptrian at the moment). Present inceptive is used when an action is about to begin or someone is starting to do something.

• Inceptive is only used once: Subject inceptive with intransitive and mostly agent inceptive with translative verbs. Object ending is either PRES.PROG, when something was begun only a moment ago, or FUT, when something is about to begin.
  • Translative object inceptive if the object caused the initialization: Órlateepast. (He is about to take me to dancing through my initiative.)

Past imperfective is used with continuous activities which were happening before the present. The contrasting perfective aspect describes the event as a whole and having an endpoint in the past.

In future tense, no aspects are distinguished, but rather non-finite forms are used.

Endings with different tenses may be mixed:

• PRES retrospective: PST.PFV+verb+STAT: ai-tesos-Ø næ ka (I've seen this), ai-latep-a næ (I've taken myself dancing)
• PRES prospective: PRES.INCEP+verb(+FUT): tsa-lateep(-ar) (I'm starting to dance (and I'll be doing it for a while))

Mood

Moods express speaker's attitude towards the subject or their knowledge of it. They are divided into realis and irrealis moods: the former expresses factual statements while the latter indicates that an event hasn't taken place or the speaker is uncertain of a situation.

Realis

Gnomic-static verb form can be considered representing gnomic mood since it can't be used with other moods: Zaitó Hala urakha. (Sun rises tomorrow as well)

Indicative is the basic mood which is used for factual statements: Latepar urakha. (I'll dance tomorrow.)

Irrealis

Interrogative is not conjugated, but indicated through rising pitch and changing primary stress onto the first syllable. Formal register uses the particle shóo which is placed after the verb: ¿Rotlast shóo? (Shall we go?)

Imperative is the first apophony of base form (3SG.INAN GNO). It is used for commanding and may be accompanied by vocatives: Rót posné! (Go, O servant of mine!)

• The softer imperative is derived from the base with an r being added before present inceptive conjugated for person and number: Rótrest fo. (You should leave.). It is used as a hortative as well: Rótrlast! (Let's go!)

Subjunctive is formed through initial left-to-right reduplication and with second apophony in the original second syllable: if consonant-initial, CV body is duplicated, but if vowel-initial, VC part of the first and second syllable is duplicated: lalatép (may dance), akaktæsos (may hear), rorøt (may go)

• The first reduplicated syllable undergoes independent apophony depending on the subject.
• The mood is used when something is uncertain, doubted or wished

Particles

Particles are placed after a verb to alter or to specify its meaning.

Realis

• pai mirative (with soft imperative in present): Rótóji pai! (He went!?)
  • with adjectives or as an adverb: Luwi pai! (How beautiful!)

Evidentials (with causatives)

• atasi hearsay: Rotóji tasi fope. (I heard from you that he went.)
• tesei visual: Rótoutóji tesei nape. (I didn't see him go.)

Irrealis

• norka dubitative (with subjunctive): Rorøtóji norka. (I doubt he went.)
• gana volitive (with future subjunctive): Lalatépar gana. (I wish I could dance.)

Conditional (with subjunctive)

• ta apodosis: Arziizeither ta (I will raise you...)
• -ti- infixed between reduplicated form for protasis: boutiboisen (if you fall)

Hortatives (with soft imperative which itself works as an adhortative or dehortative with negation (unwillingness))

• Cohortative: Latéprlast kha! (Let's dance now!), Rótrlastonget khugu. (Let's not go there.)
• jokæ exhortative (inhortative through negation): Rótrest jokæ. (You really should go.)

Formal register differences:

• aktasosai (hears) conjugated for hearsay: Røtathi aiaktasosóji. (I heard from her that you left.)
• tesos (sees) conjugated for visual evidentiality: Rotóji tesosai. (I saw her go.)
• tsmaadhoré (doubtfully) used for dubitative
• tutaadhoré (wishfully) used for volitive
• alké permissive with dative: Rótest alké foki. (You may leave.)
  • prohibitive with negated (inability) imperative infinitive: Rótrostodi alké foki. (You aren't allowed to leave.)
• both conditional particles are used separately and they are prefixed with the subjunctive reduplication: Arziizeither zaita bouboisen bouti. (I will raise you if you fall.)

In literature to express the peaking pitch of ironical statements and lowered pitch of sarcastic expressions:

• jø verbal irony: Jótesosoi melurpi, jóbatophoi "Luwidh jø hi loi khu". (He saw the rain and said: "Beautiful day out there")
• gæ sarcasm: Uu, eiluwikoi gæ pai. (Oh, how beautiful you made it.)

Negation

Negation affixes

Manner→		Inability	Unwillingness
Form→		2nd apophony +infix (before patient-suffix)	Intranslative suffix			Translative infix (after agent-prefix)
Person→		All	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
PRES	SG	ost	net	fep	set	no	fo	so
	PL	osht	nget	vep	slet	ngo	flo	slo
PST		out	nait			me
FUT		oz	nort			mor

Examples: Ailatépoutóji. (I couldn't dance with him), ¿Tsefólateephar? (You don't want to begin dancing with me?)

Honoring negation for 2nd person polite forms consists of (second person) negation affixes with root second apophony and saal-particle placed after the verb: Képozathar saal. (You'll be unable to wash Yourself, unfortunately.)

Second apophony of negation affixes with subjunctive mood: Rorøthórnørt. (He may not be willing to go.)

Non-finite forms

Gerund

• Base nouns or their abstract variants may serve as gerunds, which describe the action of doing, but otherwise they are created with the suffix (o)pi added to a verb root. The suffic also helps to distinguish the forms.

Infinitives

• PRES -odi, PST -oudi, FUT ordi
• used with modal verbs
• subjunctive form created with duplication

Participles

Sceptrian participles work as adjectives. Following table shows which "case" and suffix the verb base (or gerund in formal register) takes.

Present participle suffixes

	IPFV	PFV
Patientive (LAT)	p	pi/pot
Negative (LAT)		tip
Active (INS)	on	ompu
Agentive (INS)		empo

• Also the "requiring" (FUT) form LOC+rt and "possible" (GNO) POS+ta
• Past forms are created by adding i to the end: kephoni (was being washed)
• Future forms with or: kephonor (will be washed)
• Examples shown already in derivations

Relative form with word-order and prefix? + formal register particle

Auxiliary verbs

In Sceptrian, auxiliary verbs are conjugated only for subject which may act as the agent of the clause. The verbs can either precede (dynamic, deontic) or come after (epistemic) different verb infinitives. Since regular object-patient conjugation can't be used, objects have to be written (no pro-drop) and they are declined into instrumental-comitative case.

• tut "want" (from tuta "craving, wish"): Tutajin kepoudi his. (I wanted to wash it.)
  • infinitive in lative case for "want something to be done": Tutan kepordiki his. (I want it to be washed.)
  • "be going to" (FUT): Tuutar latepordi. (I'm going to dance.)
  • "wish" (SBJV) mostly as the subjunctive of the absent to be-verb: Tutitan khau fos. (I wish you were here)
• mép "can, know how to" (dynamic) (from mépi "skill"): Mépa latepodi ("I can dance"; notice gnomic-static mood)
• kuut "can, may" (deontic / epistemic) (from kuutó "possibility"): Kuutest rotordi. (You may leave.), Fendógópot kuutó pai. (He may unexpectedly be dead.)
  • particle nor added after the verb for lower possibility i.e. "could, might": Fendógópi kuut nor. (It might be dead.)
  • particle ga added for "should, must": Fendógópi kuut ga. (It should be dead, as we wanted.)
• khet "must" (deontic) (from kheti "necessity"): Khetan rotodi. (I must go now), Kheetar rotordi. (I must go soon)
• khurd "dare" (from khurdi "daring"): ¿Khurde glerkékodi nas? (Do you dare hit me with a mace?)

Mixing tenses:

• Tutitai latepordi. SBJV.want-PST.PFV.1SG dance-INF.FUT "I would've wanted to dance"

Voice

Sceptrian distinguishes between two voices, active and antipassive. Passive is very similar to active since Sceptrian is absolutive-ergative, and thus isn't considered a true change in voice. Antipassive is used to reduce the valency of the verbs by removing the object of a transitive clause.

Active construction: verb-agent-object and verb-object-agent are used so that a comment (rheme) precedes the topic (theme). Emphasizing clitics are used to mark the topic.

Ónzaiton dothee pof.
/ɔ̃zaɪ̯tə̃ dəθe: pəf/
ón-zait-on doth-ee pof-Ø
3SG.AN.PRES.IPFV-lift-3SG.INAN.PRES.IPFV man-ERG feather-ABS
A man is lifting a feather.

Passive construction: To demote the agent (ERG), it's either removed or inflected into causal ablative (ABL). Verb is only conjugated for the object.

Zaiton pof (dothpo).
/zaɪ̯tə̃ pəf (dəθpə)/
zait-on pof-Ø (doth-po)
lift-3SG.INAN.PRES.IPFV feather-ABS (man-ABL)
A feather is being lifted (by a man).

Antipassive construction: Agent (ERG) transforms into subject (ABS) and object (ABS) takes the instrumental-comitative (INS) case. Word order becomes SV(O), and the verb is conjugated according to the agent only and the stressed syllable undergoes second apophony. The verb is also suffixed with the emphasizing clitic ma in the formal register.

Doth ónzeit(ma) (pofos).
/dəθ ɔ̃zei̯t(mä) (pəfəs)/
doth-Ø ón-zeit-Ø(or =ma) (pof-os)
man-ABS ANTIP\3SG.AN.PRES.IPFV-lift-ANTIP(or =ANTIP.FORM) (feather-INS)
The man is lifting (a feather).

Instrument and turning it into an agent:

• Ónzaiton dothee pof vakuhosozh. (...with his own hand...)
  • Ónzaiton pof vakuhp dothir. (the feather is raised by the man's hand)
  • Onzaiton pof tuph dothish slokli. (The feather is being lifted with a man's stick for them.) Inanimate agent conjugation, and dative of possession is inflected to avoid misinterpretation!
• Vakuh ónzeit pofos. (The hand lifts something, which happens to be a feather)/(someone intentionally lifts a feather with their hand) Notice animate conjugation!
  • Tup onzeit dothpo pofos. (The stick, which is being held by a man, lifts something, which happens to be a feather) ABL as causative since inanimate tup.

Numerals

Decimal base was adopted due to commerce, but traces of the former octal base remain.

Numerals are placed before their head. Last part of a cardinal determiner agrees with case through matching declension: opl tupl (two sticks)

Numeral system

Number	Number	Cardinal	Ordinal	Fractional	Multiplicative adverb	Multiplicative adjective	Group	Polygon
Zero	ozi	oz	ozhi	-	zeng (never)	-	ze (no)	-
One	ipi	ip	iphi	liku (whole)	ohu (once)	ipitse (onefold)	ipisi (singular)	ipirt (dot)
Two	opi	op	ophi	lopu (half)	ophu (twice)	opitse (twofold)	opisi (pair)	opart (line)
Three	oki	ok	okhi	loku	okhu	okitse	okisi	okart (triangle)
Four	óppi	óp	óphi	lóppu	óphu	óphitse	óphisi	ópart
Five	ofi	of	offi	lofu	offu	ofitse	ofisi	ofart
Six	ókki	ók	ókhi	lókku	ókhu	ókhitse	ókhisi	ókart
Seven	omi	om	ongi	lomu	ongu	omitse	omisi	omart
Eight	ngovi	ngov	ngovvi	longovu	ngovvu	ngovitse	ngovisi	jart
Nine	ngoipi	ngoip	ngoiphi	longoipu	ngoiphu	ngoipitse	ngoipisi	ngoipart
Ten	jopi	jop	jophi	lojopu	jophu	jopitse	jopisi	jopart

Eleven	Twelve	Thirteen	Fourteen	Fifteen	Sixteen	Seventeen	Eighteen	Nineteen	Twenty
ngoki	ngópi	ngofi	ngóki	ngomi	ophungovi	jopomi	jopingovi	jopingoipi	ophujopi
Twenty-one	Thirty	Fourty	Fifty	Sixty	Sixty-four	Sixty-five	Seventy	Eighty	Ninety
ophujopipi	okhujopi	offungovi	offujopi	ókhujopi	mouti	moutipi	ongujopi	ngowopi	ngoiphujopi
One hundred	One hundred and twenty-two	One hundred and sixty-six	Two hundred	Thousand	Three thousand four hundred	Ten thousand	Hundred thousand	Million	Billion
toti	toti(s) ophujopopi	toti(s) moutókki	ophutoti	mopi	okhumopi(s) óphutoti	tothutoti	tothumopi	hamisi	mowisi

• Multiplicative adverb form is used in front of the powers of ten (tens, hundreds, ...)
• Digits are annexed into the tens by using the cardinal or determiner form depending whether the digit begins with a vowel or not.
• Fractions are constructed by placing the l(o)-prefixed form after the multiplicative number: okhu lóppu ("thrice one quarter" = three quarters). The noun is in ablative case and only the fraction is inflected: lopuji tuppo (for one half of a stick)
• Large numbers (from hundred) are written separately from smaller, but in formal register s-letter is added between each power of ten.

Syntax

Word order

• VAO usually, VOA also very common, SV(O) in antipassive
• possessives follow nouns
• predicative adjectives precede and attributive ones come after nouns

Emphasizing clitics

Suffixes ma (for ABS) and noh (for ERG) are used to emphasize either the object or the agent: Ónzaiton dotheenoh pof. (It is the man who's lifting the feather) vs. Ónzaiton dothee pofma. (It is the feather that the man is lifting.). They are also used with verbs in antipassive constructions.

When both are used, information conveyed by the verb becomes veritable: Józaitoi dotheenoh pofma. (I can swear that the man lifted the feather.)

The suffixes are also used with alienable possessive forms to separate the possessor from indirect objects. Chosen depending on the ergativity of the possessum: Jóvakuhoi suu pof swima swi. (He gave her feather to him.)

Clauses

Conjunction

coordinating, correlative (and subordinate?)

Noun clauses

WIP ... to be redone

• Infinitive.tense + ... + causatives: Tesosan kepó vakuhos supe. (I see that he washes his hands) vs. Onluvakan kepóo vakuhos supe. (The washing of his hands brings me pleasure.)

Relative clauses

Nominalizing relative clauses with participles is common.

Using an emphasizing clitic to mark the antecedent for the class-appropriate proximal demonstrative pronoun (thaka/saitu/ka declined for number) which works as a relative pronoun - case chosen according to the embedded clause:

• Rotóji dothma saituh latepai. (leave-PST.PFV.3SG man.ABS-EMPH.ABS P.PROX.AN-COM dance-PST.PFV.1SG "The man, with whom I danced, left.")
• Tsóvangosor sahul dothelenos saitush latepai. (AGENT.PRES.INCEP.3PL.AN-is_drunk-FUT.3SG.INAN beer.ABS man-PL.ERG-EMPH.ERG P.PROX.AN-PL.COM dance-PST.PFV.1SG "The men with whom I danced are starting to drink beer.")
• Tsóvangosor sahulma dothele ka tutitai vangosordi. (AGENT.PRES.INCEP.3PL.AN-is_drunk-FUT.3SG.INAN beer.ABS-EMPH.ABS man-PL.ERG P.PROX.INAN SBJV-want-PST.PFV.1SG drink-INF.FUT "Men are starting to drink the beer which I would've wanted to drink."

Adverbial clauses

non-finite forms + possessive suffixes to indicate subject

Conditional clauses

subjunctive as explained in verb particle section

Register

Different endings which reflect the conversation situation: speakers, familiarity, formality, location...

Intimate

Agent prefixes aren't used. No t in inceptive. Due to apophony, subject suffix can be dropped from FUT/INCEP if 1st or 2nd person distinction is clear.

Casual

In casual register, verb forms are chosen differently when the subject is agent-like (he dances) or patient-like (he fell): latepóji (he danced AN) vs. bousoi (he fell INAN)

Formal

Mandatory use of pronouns and agent prefixes.

One may use inanimate verb forms as anti-honorific? Ondakon næ ka Nithki. (I humbly offer this to You)

Apophony of basic prepositions with root oi: Oisti Hala, óosti vakuhanga, ousti qorel (under the Sun, under my hand, under the earth)

In formal register, it is preferred to use only animate nouns as agents while abstract and inanimate are as antipassive subjects: luwi... nas ("beauty-of.yours it-un-eye-ful-makes me-with", your beauty makes me blind) vs. en fø na (you are making me blind)

Distinction between abstract and animate in some categories, such as verb conjugation (wa)

Can people with higher status be abstract or do they occupy a special animate category? (æ inside?)

Lexicon

See the dictionary page.