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==Background==
==Background==
Line 32: Line 44:


For a little over a century the origins of the language and its people remain clouded in mystery.  Physically, the Nanhoshka people look distinct from the Northwest Pacific Native Americans just 862 kilometers from the eastern shore, but their physical features bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Minhast people of the Republic of Minhay, who live much further away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean close to Japan and Ainushir.  Because of these physical resemblances, both anthropologists and linguists started exploring a possible relationship between the two peoples.  Recent genetic research uncovered that both the Nanhoshka and Minhast belong to the haplogroup C-M212, indicating a common ancestry.  Linguists had a more difficult task in establishing a relationship.  Finally Benson et. al. compiled an extensive Swadesh list and internally consistent sound correspondences between the two languages.  Most importantly, a set of affixes that were quite conservative were revealed, notably the Causative affix, and a set of fossilized affixes which are prefixed to body parts to derive verbs.  In addition, a third language, Nahónda, also previously classified as a language isolate, contained common vocabulary and affixes which it shared with both Nankôre and Minhast.  Therefore, both Nankôre and Minhast, along with Nahónda, are now recognized as belonging to the same language family, which has been named the Nahenic language family.
For a little over a century the origins of the language and its people remain clouded in mystery.  Physically, the Nanhoshka people look distinct from the Northwest Pacific Native Americans just 862 kilometers from the eastern shore, but their physical features bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Minhast people of the Republic of Minhay, who live much further away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean close to Japan and Ainushir.  Because of these physical resemblances, both anthropologists and linguists started exploring a possible relationship between the two peoples.  Recent genetic research uncovered that both the Nanhoshka and Minhast belong to the haplogroup C-M212, indicating a common ancestry.  Linguists had a more difficult task in establishing a relationship.  Finally Benson et. al. compiled an extensive Swadesh list and internally consistent sound correspondences between the two languages.  Most importantly, a set of affixes that were quite conservative were revealed, notably the Causative affix, and a set of fossilized affixes which are prefixed to body parts to derive verbs.  In addition, a third language, Nahónda, also previously classified as a language isolate, contained common vocabulary and affixes which it shared with both Nankôre and Minhast.  Therefore, both Nankôre and Minhast, along with Nahónda, are now recognized as belonging to the same language family, which has been named the Nahenic language family.
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==Phonology==
==Phonology==
=== Consonants ===
===Orthography===
===Consonants===


Nankôre has a small inventory of consonants, only fourteen in number.  Noteworthy is the paucity of voiced consonants which contributes to the limited number of consonants in the Nankôre language.  The following table contains the entire consonantal inventory:
===Vowels===
===Prosody===
====Stress====
====Intonation====


{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="width: 660px; text-align:center;"
===Phonotactics===
|-
<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->
!
 
!Bilabial
 
!Dental
 
!Alveolar
===Morphophonology===
!Apical
==Morphology==
!Post-alveolar
<!-- How do the words in your language look? How do you derive words from others? Do you have cases? Are verbs inflected? Do nouns differ from adjectives? Do adjectives differ from verbs? Etc. -->
!Palatal
 
!Velar
 
!Glottal
===Nouns===
|-
 
! style=""|  Nasal
 
| m
==== The Noun Template ====
|  
 
| n
root - derivation - adjective - demonstrative/decessives
|  
 
|  
==== The Nominal Hierarchy ====
|
Nankôre nouns, at first glance, appears very simple. They are not inflected for case, gender, nor do adpositions indicate their directional or positional relationships.  Number is distinguished only in pronouns. Nevertheless, the nominal system has a complex hierarchy of animacy, which although unmarked, is a semantic feature of the noun and pronoun. This hierarchy of animacy is used to determine the syntactic roles of the core arguments of a clause, namely that of Agent and Patient.  Arguments that are higher in the Animacy Hierarchy are by default considered Agents, whereas lower animacy arguments are considered Patients.  If the syntactic roles of two core arguments are reversed, namely a lower animacy argument acts as an Agent on a higher animacy Patient argument, a special construction known as the Inverse Voice, involving the prefix ''tā(h)-'', is added to both the main verb and the auxiliary verb ''itá'''.  Thus, the Inverse Voice is doubly-marked.
|
 
|
Where a given NP falls within the animacy hierarchy must be memorized in order to use the verbal inverse prefix ''tā(h)-'' correctly (see section on [[Nankôre#Verbs|Verbs]] for additional details regarding inverse marking).
 
The Nankôre nominal hierarchy has been traditionally classified along two axes, the first marking category, and the second marking levels of hierarchy within a given category.  Animacy along categories decrease as one traverses from Supernatural/Phenomonological onwards towards the Ephemeral.  Animacy decreases as one goes down the Level axis.  The hierarchy is arranged according to the following table:
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|+ '''Table of Nominal Animacy hierarchy'''
|-  
! rowspan="2" | Level
! rowspan="2" | Supernatural &<br/>Phenomonological
! rowspan="2" | Human
!  colspan="2"  | Animals
! rowspan="2" | Weather
! rowspan="2" |Lower Animals
!  rowspan="2"| Plants
! rowspan="2"|Geophysical
! rowspan="2"|Material
!  rowspan="2" |Ephemeral
|-
! Mammals
! Birds
|-
|-
! style=""|  Stop
! 1
| p
| Gods, the Earth, the Sun, the Sky/Heavens
| t
| Adults >> Children
|  
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| predator >> prey
|  
|  Clouds
|
| Reptiles (excluding snakes)
|
| Forests
| k
| Rushing rivers
| ʔ
| Water
|-
| Magic
! style=""| Affricate
|-
|  
! 2
|  
| Demons
|
| Older >> Younger
|  
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| wild >> domesticated
| ͡tʃ
| Rain
|  
| Snakes
|
| Large Trees
|  
| Slow-moving rivers
|-
| Food
! style=""| Fricative
| Actions
|  
|-
|  
! 3
| s
| Human & Animal Spirits
| s̻
| Male >> Female
| ʃ
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Pet (usually carnivorous) >> Non-Pet (usually raised for food)
|  
| Snow
|
| Amphibians
| h
| Small Trees
|-
| Streams, brooks, springs
! style="" |Approximant
| Fabrics, fibers, skins, clothing
|  
| Emotions
|  
|-
|  
! 4
|
| Destructive Forces of Nature
|  
| Strong >> Weak
| j
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Large >> Small
|  
| Wind
|  
| Fish
|-
| Fruit/Nut Trees
! style=""| Flap
| Lakes
|  
| Wood
|  
| Thoughts
| r
|-
|  
! 5
|
| Lightning
|
| Large >> Small
|  
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Strong >> Weak
|  
| Breeze
|}
| Crustaceans
 
| Bushes/Shrubs
===Vowels===
| Glaciers
{{Nankore_Vowels_IPA}}
| Buildings
 
| Disease
===Phonotactics===
|-
<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->
! 6
 
| Ocean
===Orthography===
| Quick >> Slow
<!--Explain your conlang's alphabet. Use the International Phonetic Alphabet to describe the sounds of your language. If you are unsure on how to use IPA then visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet and read up. -->
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Quick >> Slow
 
| Water
The Nankôre orthography is based on the Allen-Mills system, derived from the Latin alphabet.  However, a second system, the American Media system, has started displacing the Allen-Mills system.  Although based on the Allen-Mills system, the American Media system uses the grapheme <y>, and the digraphs <ch> and <sh>, to make transcription of the language more accessible to American readers.
| Insects
 
| Prairie grass
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;"
| Mountains
! style="width: 90px; " |Allen-Mills
| Metals
! style="width: 90px; " |American Media
| States
! style="width: 90px; " |IPA
|-
|-
! 7
| '
| Thunderstorms
| (n/a)
| Intelligent >> Unintelligent
| ʔ
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Carnivore >> Herbivore >> Carrion Eater
|-
| Air
| a,ā, â, á
| Worms
| a,ā,â, á
| Leafy plants
| ɑ, ɑ:
| Cliffs, jagged outcroppings, tumuli, boulders
|-
| Jewels and gemstones
| e
| Abstractions
| e, eh
|-  
| e
! 8
|-
| Fire
| i
| Fertile >> Infertile
| i, ih
| style="text-align:center"|Stud >> Gelded
| ɪ, i
| style="text-align:center"|Flight >> Flightless
| Muggy weather
| Mollusks
| Mushrooms/Fungi/Mosses
| Flat land or gently rolling landscape
| Stones, rocks, pebbles
| Death
|}
 
 
If two nouns with equal animacy but different number appear as core arguments, the plural noun is assigned a higher animacy status than the singular noun.  However, if animacy and number are equal, the most recently introduced noun, providing it was introduced as a core argument, is assigned the higher animacy status.
 
In situations were two nouns have equal animacy ''and'' equal number, the rules for assigning the position each core argument in the hierarchy is as follows:
 
# If one of the nouns is just newly  introduced info, it is considered less animate because the older noun has been presumably been the center of discourse and at least during part of the previous discourse it was agent. SOV order is  usually used, particularly if pragmatics and other contextual cues cannot disambiguate the syntactic roles
# HOWEVER, if the new noun is topicalized with the clitic ="=hat", it is considered the agent.
# Another pattern, where a new noun is introduced by an intransitive been as a Patient argument, it is regarded as the less animate argument once the older noun is reintroduced back into the discourse in a transitive construction. 
# If the animacy level of each argument cannot be resolved, then the unmarked SOV word order is used when context can't disambiguate syntactic roles.
 
===Verbs===
 
Verbs mark for [blah blah blah blah]
 
====Verb Template====
 
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|-
|-
| o, ô
! colspan="3"| Primary Verb Slot
| o, ô
! colspan="9"| Auxiliary Verb Slot
| o, o:
|-
|-
| u
| Inverse marker || Transitive Portmanteau Pronoun||  Primary Verb || Evidential|| Verb|| Caus|| Modality|| Aspect|| Intrans Pronoun|| Tense || Negator || Interrogative
| u
| u
|-
|-
| c
| Example || Example || Example || Example || Example || Example || Example || Example || Example|| Example||Example||Example
| c, ch
|}
| tʃ
 
|-
 
| s
 
| sh
An example of a sentence with a polymorphemic main verb demonstrates the templatic structure.  The first line is the normalized text.  The text that follows is denormalized text which indicates the morphemic boundaries of all the words.  The final text is a full gloss of the denormalized text.
| s, s̺, ʃ
 
|-
* Rompóy kurashno tayamyayakhoshmakor tā'itá'.
| š
* Rompóy kurashno ta-yam-yayak-hoshma-kor tā'itá'.
| sh
* dog girl INV-COMM.APPL-go.up.mountain-often INV.PST.COP
| ʃ
 
"The dog went up the mountain with the girl."
 
====Main Verb ====
The main verb is believed to be descended from a verbal noun.  The main verb hosts the Inverse Marker ''tā-/ta-'', applicative, aspect, and evidential/modal markers.  If a pronoun is used, it may cliticize to the first element of the verb.  However, one or more adjuncts may be inserted between the portmanteau pronoun and the verb, in which case the portmanteau cliticizes to the adjunct following it.
 
<!--
portmanteau=[INV-APP-ASP-EVID-MAIN.VERB] [AUX.VERB]
-->
 
 
=====Applicatives  =====
 
The Applicative affixes betray their origins as motion and positional verbs. However, Applicatives, unlike their locomotive verbal counterparts, also alter the argument structure of a clause by promoting an oblique NP to a derived Patient argument; this promotion of an oblique argument triggers the demotion of the original Patient argument to oblique status.  Applicatives are mutually incompatible with the Passive and Antipassive markers that are carried on the auxiliary verb (see section on Auxiliary Verbs below).  However, since the Applicatives increase the transitivity of a clause, thereby creating a derived Patient, the Inverse Prefix can be prefixed to the Applicative in the usual manner, namely, to mark lower animacy core arguments as Agents and higher animacy arguments as Patients in transitive clauses.  When the Inverse marker cliticizes to an Applicative, morphophonemic may alternations occur.
 
Because of their origin from motion and positional verbs, these affixes are prefixed to the main verb.
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|-
|-
| h
! !! Applicative Marker!!  Inverse Marker + Applicative Marker!!  Meaning
| h
| h
|-
|-
| k
! style=""| Dative/Allative
| k
| san-
| k
| tasan-
| to, towards
|-
|-
| r
! style=""| Benefactive
| r
| nas-
| r
| tanas-
| for
|-
|-
| m
! style=""| Commitative
| m
| yam-
| m
| tayam-, teym-, tem-
| with, along
|-
|-
| n
! style=""| Instrumental
| n
| mak-
| n
| tamak-
| by means of, using
|-
|-
| p
! style=""| Ablative
| p
| ris-
|p
| tarsh-
| from
|-
|-
| t
! style=""| Locative
| t
| ne-
| t
| tan-
| in, within
|-
! style=""| Vialis
| nak-
| tanak-, tank-
| through
|-
|-
| y
| y
| j
|}


 
! style=""| Prolative
Note that the grapeme &lt;s&gt; is pronounced /ʃ/ or /s̺/ when followed by [i] (e.g. ''shinkokah'' "orca"), or in coda position (''Nanhoshka'' "the True People"). A few decades after the Allen-Mills transcription system was developed, a sound shift in the northwestern Hoyampe dialect, whereby /s/ shifted to the voiceless apico-alveolar fricative  /s̺/ when followed by /i/ or in coda position.  A similar sound shift occurred at around the same time in the northeastern Konishmak dialect (possibly the result of the Hoyampe sound shift), but it was the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ that appeared.  It was this sound shift that spread out through most of the country, although there are some remote regions of the country that have not been affected by either sound shift.  As a result in foreign transcriptions &lt;sh&gt; is often used in words where the /s/ &gt;&gt;  /ʃ/ has already occurred, e.g. ''akôsh'' vs. the original ''akôs'' transcription
| rosh-
 
| torsh-
The grapheme &lt;ô&gt; is used to indicate vowel length for /o/, and &lt;ā&gt; for /ɑ/.
| across
 
|-
==Grammar==
! style=""| Elative
 
| nakri-
<!--
| takri-
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
| out of
|+ Animacy in Nankôre noun classes
|-
|+kapla
! style=""| Illative
| nak-
| tanak-
| into
|-
|-
| taaa
! style=""| Superessive
|}
| or-
-->
| tor-
 
| above
===Morphology===
 
 
==== Nouns ====
 
===== The Noun Template =====
 
root - derivation - adjective - demonstrative/decessives
 
===== The Nominal Hierarchy =====
Nankôre nouns, at first glance, appears very simple. They are not inflected for case, gender, nor do adpositions indicate their directional or positional relationships.  Number is distinguished only in pronouns. Nevertheless, the nominal system has a complex hierarchy of animacy, which although unmarked, is a semantic feature of the noun and pronoun. This hierarchy of animacy is used to determine the syntactic roles of the core arguments of a clause, namely that of Agent and Patient.  Arguments that are higher in the Animacy Hierarchy are by default considered Agents, whereas lower animacy arguments are considered Patients.  If the syntactic roles of two core arguments are reversed, namely a lower animacy argument acts as an Agent on a higher animacy Patient argument, a special construction known as the Inverse Voice, involving the prefix ''tā(h)-'', is added to both the main verb and the auxiliary verb ''itá'''.  Thus, the Inverse Voice is doubly-marked.
 
Where a given NP falls within the animacy hierarchy must be memorized in order to use the verbal inverse prefix ''tā(h)-'' correctly (see section on [[Nankôre#Verbs|Verbs]] for additional details regarding inverse marking).
 
The Nankôre nominal hierarchy has been traditionally classified along two axes, the first marking category, and the second marking levels of hierarchy within a given category.  Animacy along categories decrease as one traverses from Supernatural/Phenomonological onwards towards the Ephemeral.  Animacy decreases as one goes down the Level axis.  The hierarchy is arranged according to the following table:
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|+ '''Table of Nominal Animacy hierarchy'''
|-  
!  rowspan="2" | Level
!  rowspan="2" | Supernatural &<br/>Phenomonological
!  rowspan="2" | Human
!  colspan="2"  | Animals
!  rowspan="2" | Weather
!  rowspan="2" |Lower Animals
!  rowspan="2"| Plants
! rowspan="2"|Geophysical
! rowspan="2"|Material
!  rowspan="2" |Ephemeral
|-
|-
! Mammals
! style=""| Subessive
! Birds
| yor-
| chor- (Shapshira dialect: "toyor-")
| below
|-
|-
! 1
! style=""| Ablative-Superessive
| Gods, the Earth, the Sun, the Sky/Heavens
| suk-
| Adults >> Children
| tushk-, toshk-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| predator >> prey
| from above
| Clouds
|-
| Reptiles (excluding snakes)
! style=""| Ablative-Subessive
|  Forests
| roy-
| Rushing rivers
| toroy-
| Water
| from below
| Magic
|-
|-  
! style=""| Perlative
! 2
| tek-
| Demons
| tatek-
| Older >> Younger
| across
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| wild >> domesticated
|-
|  Rain
! style=""| Riverine
| Snakes
| tem-, ten-
|  Large Trees
| tatem, taten-
| Slow-moving rivers
| along a river
| Food
|-
| Actions
! style=""| Montaigne
|-  
| yayk-
! 3
| teyk-
| Human & Animal Spirits
| upwards on a mountain
| Male >> Female
|}
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Pet (usually carnivorous) >> Non-Pet (usually raised for food)
 
| Snow
====== Aspect ======
| Amphibians
 
| Small Trees
The Perfective Aspect is null-marked, but several non-Perfect Aspects are recognized:
| Streams, brooks, springs
 
|  Fabrics, fibers, skins, clothing
 
| Emotions
 
|-  
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
! 4
|-
| Destructive Forces of Nature
! !! Aspect  Marker!!  Meaning
| Strong >> Weak
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Large >> Small
! style=""| Perfect
| Wind
| -Ø||
| Fish
|-
| Fruit/Nut Trees
! style=""| Semelfective
| Lakes
| -no|| completed in one single motion/act, e.g. hit
| Wood
|-
| Thoughts
! style=""| Simple Imperfect
|-  
| -ro||
! 5
|-
| Lightning
! style=""| Durative/Repetitive
| Large >> Small
| -nahoyra|| several times
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Strong >> Weak
|-
| Breeze
! style=""| Habitative
| Crustaceans
| -(h)oshma, -shma|| often
| Bushes/Shrubs
|-
| Glaciers
! style=""| Factual
| Buildings
| -yoshir|| (general truth statement, e.g. "The sun rises in the east")
| Disease
|-
|-  
! style=""| Continuative
! 6
| -namporo|| to continue
| Ocean
|-
| Quick >> Slow
! style=""| Inceptive
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Quick >> Slow
| -otah|| to begin
| Water
|-
| Insects
! style=""| Cessative
| Prairie grass
| -chiri|| to stop
| Mountains
|-
| Metals
! style=""| Terminative
| States
| -ruykáno|| to finish
|-  
|-
! 7
! style=""| Incipient
| Thunderstorms
| -kara|| about to
| Intelligent >> Unintelligent
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center"| Carnivore >> Herbivore >> Carrion Eater
! style=""| Approximative
| Air
| -tontoro|| almost, nearly
| Worms
|-
| Leafy plants
! style=""| Frequentative
| Cliffs, jagged outcroppings, tumuli, boulders
| -nokori, -(o)nkori|| often
| Jewels and gemstones
|-
| Abstractions
|}
|-  
 
! 8
====== Modals and Evidentials======
| Fire
 
| Fertile >> Infertile
The Modal and Evidential suffixes occupy the final position of the main verb's template.
| style="text-align:center"|Stud >> Gelded
 
| style="text-align:center"|Flight >> Flightless
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
| Muggy weather
|-
| Mollusks
! colspan="2"|Mode
| Mushrooms/Fungi/Mosses
|-
| Flat land or gently rolling landscape
! style=""| Factual
| Stones, rocks, pebbles
| -mash
| Death
|-
|}
! style=""| Hearsay
| -kor
|-
! style=""| Visual
| -nui
|-
! style=""| Intentive
| -neat
|}
 
<!--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidentiality
-->
 
=====Auxiliary Verbs =====
 
Auxiliary verbs encode number, voice and tense.  Intransitive pronominal core arguments, if used as independent pronouns, precede the auxiliary.
 
((More stuff to follow))
 
======Animacy-Number Agreement Marking======
 
Transitive verbs mark number on core arguments by ablaut, or by adding a prefix, to the auxiliary.  These markers indicate the number of both the higher animate and the lower animate arguments.
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|-
! !! Higher Animate Singular !! Higher Animate Plural
|-
! style=""| Lower Animate Singular
| --
| t(i)-
|-
! style=""| Lower Animate Plural
| first /a/ lengthened to /a:/
| ita-
|}
 
Unmarked:
# Rompóy kurasno rayro ta'itá'. "The girl played with the dog."
# Rompóy kurasno tarayro ta'itá'. "The dog played with the girls."
 
Higher Animate Plural x Lower Animate Singular
# Rompóy kurasno rayro ti-ta'itá'. "The girls played with the dog."
# Rompóy kurasno tarayro ti-ta'itá'.  "The dog played with the girl."
 
Higher Animate Singular x Lower Animate Plural
# Rompóy kurasno rayro kor tā'itá'.  "The girl played with the dogs."
# Rompóy kurasno tarayro kor tā'itá'.  "The dogs played with the girl."
 
Higher Animate Plural x Lower Animate Plural
# Rompóy kurasno rayro ita-tā'itá'.  "The girls played with the dogs."
# Rompóy kurasno tarayro ita-tā'itá'.  "The dogs played with the girls."
 
======Voice and Tense======
 
The Nankôre verb is rich in voice and tense distinctions.  These distinctions are combined in an auxiliary verb, formed by adding one or more prefixes to the copular verb ''itá'' /ɪ'taʔ/, hence this auxiliary is called the ''itá''-verb.  The ''itá''-auxiliary verb is always clause final, the main verb and any other VP particles  preceding it.  Some voices also encode formality, with the long forms, e.g. ''man'itá', suphitá', tā'itá',  hô'itá', and pā'itá' '', used for formal situations, and the short forms ''manta'/nitá', supta', tayta', hoyta''', and ''pitáh'' for informal conversation among friends and family.
 
Note that the Present Inverse form ''tā'itá''' is identical in form with that of the Past Direct form. Fortunately, the Inverse Voice is double-marked: the enclitic ''ta='' and its allomorphs ''tā=/tah=/tāh='' cliticizes to the main verb so no ambiguity arises.
 
HAS = High Animate Singular
 
HAP = High Animate Plural
 
LAS = Low Animate Singular
 
LAP = Low Animate Plural
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|-
! !!colspan='4'| Present !! colspan='4'|Mythological Past !! colspan='4'| Distal Past !! colspan='4'|Past!! colspan='4'|Recent Morning Past !! colspan='4'| Future
|-
!  !! HAS x LAS !! HAS x LAP || HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP|| HAS x LAS ||HAS x LAP ||  HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP || HAS x LAS ||HAS x LAP ||  HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP|| HAS/LAS ||HAS x LAP ||  HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP|| HAS x LAS ||HAS x LAP ||  HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP|| HAS x LAS ||HAS x LAP ||  HAP x LAS ||HAP x LAP
|-
! style="" | Direct
| itá'|| itâ' || titá' ||titâ' ||man'itá', manta', nitá' || man'itâ', mantâ', nitâ' || timan'itá', timanta', tintá' || timan'itâ', timantâ', tintâ' ||  suphitá', supta'||suphitâ', suptâ'|| tisuphitá', cupta' || tisuphitâ', cuptâ'  || tā'itá', tayta' || tā'itâ', taytâ' || titā'itá', titayta' || titā'itâ', titaytâ' || hô'itá', hoyta' || hô'itâ', hoytâ' || tihô'itá', tihoyta' ||tihô'itâ', tihoytâ' || pā'itáhi, pitáh ||  pā'itâhi, pitâh ||  tipā'itáhi, tiptáh ||  tipā'itâhi, tiptâh
|-
! style=""| Inverse
| tā'itá', tayta'||x||x||x|| taman'itá', tamanta'||x||x||x|| tahorish'itá', taroshta'||x||x||x|| tahortā'itá', tahorta'||x||x||x|| tahorô'itá', taróyta' || x||x||x|| tahorpā'itáhi, torpáytah||x||x||x
|-
! style=""| Simple Causative
| shiphitá'||x||x||x|| mashpitá' ||x||x||x ||  ishpitá'||x||x||x|| tashpitá'||x||x||x|| hoshpitá'||x||x||x|| pashpitáhi, pashpitah||x||x||x
|-
! style=""| Double Causative
| shipshiphitá'|| mashishpitá'||  ishishpitá'|| tashishpitá'|| hoshishpitá'|| pashishpitáhi, pashishpitah
|-
! style=""| Intransitive Active
| kitá'|| mankitá'|| ishkitá'|| tākitá', takta'|| hôkitá', hokta' || pākitáhi, paktah
|-
! style=""| Intransitive Stative
| itá'|| mankitá'|| ishkitá'|| tākitá', takta'|| hôkitá', hokta' || pākitáhi, paktah
|-
! style=""| Passive
| horkitá'|| horankitá'|| horishkitá'|| hortākitá', hortakta|| horôkitá', horokta || horpākitáhi, horpaktah
|-
! style=""| Reflexive
| shorkitá' || mashorkitá'|| ishorkitá'|| tashorkitá'|| hoshorkitá' || pashorkitáhi, pashorkitáh
|-
! style=""| Reciprocal
| soshorkitá' || masoshorkitá'|| isoshorkitá'|| tasoshorkitá'|| hososhorkitá' || pasoshorkitáhi, pasoshorkitah
|-
! style=""| Middle/Inchoative
| hankitá'|| mankitá'|| yankitá'|| tankitá'|| honkitá'||pankitáhi
|}
 
<br/>
Nankôre has five intransitive voices, two basic Intransitive voices, one for Active verbs and another for Stative verbs; a Passive-Direct, a Reflexive, and a Reciprocal.  A submorpheme ''-k-'' is found in all four intransitive voices, although it is lacking in the Present Tense form of the Intransitive Stative Form.  The Active and Stative Intransitive forms are otherwise identical.
 
The Passive demotes a '''lower animate''' core argument, which is then relegated to oblique status or is dropped from the clause.  All Intransitive voices are incompatible with the Inverse marker ''ta=/tā=/tah=/tāh='' that cliticizes to the main verb.
 
<!--
Detransitive Voices I and II remove one of the core arguments in a transitive clause, thus changing its argument structure by decreasing its valency.  The Detransitive I voice removes the core NP argument that has the higher animacy level, and the Detransitive II voice removes the core NP that is lower on the Animacy Heirarchy.  The reason that "Passive" and "Antipassive" do not apply is because they are concerned with removing an Agent, in the case of the Passive, or a Patient in the case of the Antipassive.  However, it is important to remember that the Agent and Patient roles between the two core arguments of a transitive structure are determined by two factors: their positions in the Animacy Heirarchy with respect to one another, and the presence or absence of the Inverse marker ''ta=/tā=/tah=/tāh='' affix on both the main verb and the auxiliary.
 
# ''Nan rompóy yashpa tā'itá' '' "The man hit the dog"  (''nan''/man = Agent, ''rompóy''/dog = Patient; Direct Voice - Past Tense)
# ''Nan rompóy ta-yashpa tahortā'itá' '' "The dog hit the man"  (''nan''/man = Agent, ''rompóy''/dog = Patient; Inverse Voice - Past Tense)
# ''Rompóy yashpa tākitá' '' "The dog hit" (''tākitá''' = Detransitive I - Past Tense; here, the more animate ''nan''/man was removed, while ''rompóy''/dog which is lower on the Animacy Heirarchy was retained as Agent)
# ''Nan yashpa hortākitá' '' "The man hit" (''hortākitá''' = Detransitive II - Past Tense; here, the less animate  ''rompóy''/dog was removed, and the more animate argument ''nan''/man was retained as Agent)
 
In clause chains, the Detransitive I voice is used to remove the higher animate NP from the argument structure.  This allows for the lower animate argument to serve as the pivot for succeeding chains and allows the speaker to apply PRO-drop.  The Detransitive II voice, in removing the lower animate argument, ensures that the higher animate NP is retained to serve as the pivot for the succeeding clauses, thus again allowing the speaker to apply PRO-drop without causing ambiguity.  If a clause containing a verb in the Detransitive I voice is followed by another clause containing a verb in the Detransitive II voice, or vice versa, the result is similar to languages that use switch-reference to signal which argument is serving the role as Subject.
-->
 
====== Finals ======
The Irrealis ''-hi'' is suffixed to the copula.  It is obligatory for all Future tenses.  It also surfaces in imperatives, yes-no questions which are marked with the ''-yo'' marker cliticizing to the first or second word of a sentence, as in ''Chire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'' "Did he die?", and in WH-questions when the event actually happening has not yet been established as having occurred; for example, ''Enket chire tā'itá'?'', "Where did he die?" implies that the person's death is a fact, and it is only the location that is being inquired, versus ''Enket chire tā'itá'-hi?'' implies that not only is the location unknown, but the person's actual death happening still remains to be established.  An interesting structure, called the "double interrogative", is a combination of a WH-word followed by a word bearing the ''-yo'' clitic, which also turns the question into yes-no question: ''Enket chire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'', "Did he die, and if so, where?"  The ''-hi'' suffix is believed to be cognate with the Minhast Irrealis clitic ''=š''.
 
======Derivation ======
 
Nankôre has a set of verbalizing prefixes that when attached to nominal roots, often body parts, create verbs.  These prefixes are most likely the remnants of Proto-Nahenic noun incorporation, based on comparisons with Nankôre's distant relatives, Minhast and Nahónda;  similar or even identical fossilized affixes have been found in these languages that likewise attach to nominal roots for body parts to derive verbs, e.g. Minhast ''kirim'' (from ''k-erum'', literally "make sound with the mouth) and Nahónda ''teloma'' (from ''t-loma'', note that Minhast /k/ maps to Nahónda /t/); ''kirim'' is the Minhast cognate of Nankôre ''kôre''.
 
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
|+ '''Verbalizing Prefixes'''
|-
!
! Prefix
! Sample Noun
! Example
! Meaning
! Nahenic Cognates
|-
! Sound
| k-
| ore "mouth"
| k-ore
| to speak
| Common Minhast ''k-irim'' "to speak" (NB: Nankôre ''ôre'' = "mouth" is cognate with Minhast ''erum'' = "mouth")
|-
! Striking
| ya-
| shipa "hand"
| ya-shpa
| to punch
| Minhast, Horse Speaker dialect: ''wi-šnu'' "to strike, hit" (Minhast ''išna'' "fist", "knuckles")
|-
! Movement
| ha-
| nake "foot"
| ha-nake
| to scoot along the floor with one's foot; to kick around
| Nahónda: ''ho-sispa'' "to give" ''sisp'' = hand; c.f. Minhast ''sespir'' = hand, Nankôre ''shipa'' = hand
|-
! Stability
| pa-
| are "eye"
| p-are
| to stare
| Common Minhast ''p-uħta'' "to stand up" (from ''yuħta'' = "sole of the foot", cognate with Nankôre ''yohíhita'' = "flat surface")
|-
 
! Removal
| ro-
| ampe "body"
| ro-yampe
| to remove one's clothes
| Common Minhast ''ruyyamb'' "to take off clothing" (but note that Minhast lost the original ''*yambet'' (body), replacing it with ''tarti'' (body)
|-
|}
 
=====Positional and Motion Verbs=====
 
As an example, the auxiliary ''kohán'' passivizes the clause, resulting in a one-argument clause containing only the logical Patient.  Since there is only one core argument, the need for inverse marking no longer exists, and in fact the presence of both the passive auxiliary ''kohán'' and the inverse marker ''tā-/tāh-''' in the same sentence is ungrammatical. The same is true for the antipassive auxilliary ''norhe''/''norhâ'', that is the logical Patient is deleted leaving only the agent, and so once again, the presence of the inverse ''tā-/tāh-'' is ungrammatical.  When either the Agent or the Patient has been deleted by the passive or antipassive auxiliaries, one thing that must be noted is that the demoted arguments are fully deleted. In other languages that have passives and/or antipassives, demoted core arguments need not be deleted, in fact in many languages the demoted argument may still be retained in the sentence, but this time as an oblique argument.  Such is not the case in Nankôre; the former core argument cannot appear in the sentence.
 
The applicative verbs promote an Oblique argument to core status, thereby creating a derived Patient.  This results in a transitive sentence, and the inverse marker ''tā-/tāh-'' once again can be used to disambiguate the roles of the core arguments if a lower-animacy argument is an Agent.  Interestingly, unlike passivation and antipassivation, the demoted core argument, which is always the former Patient, can still appear in the clause as an Oblique argument, marked with the connective ''si-''  There are several of these auxiliaries, listed in the following table:
 
The Positional/Motion verbs usually appear at the beginning of the VP.
 
{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"  
|+ style="font-weight:bold"| Table of Applicative Auxiliary Verbs
|-
!  !! Positional/Motion Verb !! Sample Sentence !! Translation !! Comment
|-
! Directional
| sanha || Anut America sanha-kor kamuk itá. || Anut supposedly flew to America. ||  ''-kor'' = HEARSAY.EVID, attaches to the first verb of a VP.
|-
! Benefactive
| nasko|| Nanhoska karen tā-nasko-ro-kor eyna itá.  || It is said the (sacred) tree gave (life) for the people.|| Note also the inverse marker ''tā-'' <br/>''-ro-'' = IMPF. 
|-
! Commitative
| yampe || Anut yampe-kor temen itá  || Anut walked beside the river with him.|| ''temen'' = to perform an activity by a river
|-
! Instrumental
| makôr ||  Ehok yurasna makôr-nahoyra-kor neat itá. || The adolescent struck (it) repeatedly with a club.|| ''-nahoyra-'' = Repetitive <br/> ''neat'', ''ne'at'' = INTENTIVE
|-
! Ablative
| risa || Shôni Nan Kamun Koryash risa-kor man itá || First Man emerged from (out of) the snow.  || ''Shôni Nan'' "First Man" <br/>''Kamun Koryash'' "All Snow" (the birthplace of First Man)
|-
! Locative
| neyhi || Yonka asrok tāh-neyhi-kor akun ho itá. || The fly buzzed inside Yonka('s mouth) this morning.|| Note inverse marker ''-tāh''  <br/> ''asrok'' = fly, insect <br/> ''ho'' = earlier this morning.
|-
! Vialis
| nahke || Pohak tā-nahke-nui shokor-ken ka  itá || I saw the river take you through the cave. || ''pohak'' = cave <br/>''shokor'' = to flow<br/>''-ken-'' = CAUS<br/> ''-nui-'' = VIS.EVID
|-
! Prolative
| roshkar || Ak piri roshkar hô'itá'. || I crossed the street earlier this morning || ''piri'' = street, road, path
|-
! Superessive
| oros || Ayôhe arupenrô oros-kor yaunke hô'itá.|| The airplane flew over Ayôhe township earlier this morning.|| ''arupenrô'' = airplane <br/> ''yaunke'' = to fly
|-
! Subessive
| yorha || Ekurki saska yorha-ro-kor kahoro itá. || The turtle swam underneath the ice.|| ''ekurki'' = turtle <br/>''saska'' = ice<br/>kahoro = ''to swim''
|-
! Ablative-Superessive
| isuk || (Example)|| (Example)||
|-
! Ablative-Subessive
| royna || (Example)|| (Example)||
|-
! Riverine
| temen|| No si-kurasno temen-kor rohnas itá.|| The girls supposedly were playing by the river.||
|-  
! Montaigne
| yayak|| Kahno chôri yayak chire itá || The boy went up the mountain.||
|}
 
These auxiliaries are often confused for adpositions, or relational nouns, but unlike adpositions and locative nouns, these auxiliaries are full-fledged verbs.  If inverse marking is required, the prefix ''tā/tāh'' is still prefixed to the auxiliary verb.  Likewise, aspect and modality markers are attached to the auxiliary, a process that occurs only with verbs in the language, never with nouns.  Moreover, these auxiliaries can stand alone as independent verbs, such as ''Kosmakis Anut yampe itá'' "Anut walked with Koshmak" (''yampe '' = to be arm-in-arm; c.f. ''yanup'' "elbow").
 
==Syntax==
 
====Word Order====
 
Nankôre is classified as a SOV language.  The auxiliary verbs, such as the copula ''itá'', obligatorily appear in clause-final position.  Although the core argument NPs do not take any overt case marking, the animacy hierarchy and inverse system usually provide enough information to identify the Agent from the Patient, so OSV orders are also found in speech and text.  Although auxiliary verbs are obligatorily clause-final, the main verb may appear at the beginning of the clause for emphasis, as in ''Kakno, rihat makshe no itá'' >> seize.3, falcon.AGT mouse.PT SEM COP, lit. "It seizes it, the falcon the mouse in.one.act it.does", i.e. "The falcon seizes the mouse in one fell swoop."  Note that the fronted verb is followed by an audible pause.
 
As in many SOV languages, modifiers precede their heads, e.g. ''Shirkosh shi=rohpa,'' "This fine foreign cloth" (lit. "Foreigner fine.cloth").
 
====Possession====
 
Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective ''si=/shi='', followed either by the verb ''ras/rash'' to indicate inalienable possession e.g. ''Koykare shi=naho rash'', "The boy's mother", or ''ocité'' for alienable possession, e.g. ''Koykare shi=mashka  ocité''.  If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ''ta'/tah'' is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable ''Mashka shi=koykare tah-ocité'', "The anthill's boy".
 
====Comparatives and Superlatives====
 
Degrees of comparison are formed by placing the auxiliary verb ''soyka'' (to be big, i.e. to be more) or ''hatka'' (to be small, i.e. to be less) before a stative verb.  Since two arguments are involved, namely the comparer NP and the compared NP, the phrase is structurally equivalent to a transitive clause, requiring an Agent and a Patient, and follows the rules governing the nominal animacy hierarchy.  In the sentence ''Joe Sara soyka inupe tā itá'' (Joe is stronger than Sarah; lit. "Joe bigs strongs Sara"), ''soyka'' precedes the stative verb ''inupe'' (to be strong).  Joe, being male, is higher in the animacy scale and so is assigned Agent status.  If Sara were stronger, the Inverse affix ''tā-/tāh-'' surfaces, as in ''Joe Sara '''tā'''-soyka inupe  tā itá'' (Sara is stronger than Joe).  Other examples:
 
1) ''Joe Sara soyka soyka tā itá'' (Joe is taller than Sara; lit. "Joe bigs bigs Sara").
 
2) ''Joe Sara tā-hatka nahamosh tā itá'' (Sara is less tan than Joe).
 
3) ''Joe Sara hatka hatka tā itá'' (Joe is smaller than Sara; lit. "Joe small smalls Sara").
 
4) ''Natos Suhe soyka makit itá'' (Natosh [masc.] runs faster than Suhe [fem.]; lit. "Natosh big runs Suhe").
 
5) ''Orôyo Paul tā-soyka soyka itá'' (The volcano is bigger than Paul; note that ''orôyo'' is less animate because it is a sessile object, hence the use of the inverse marker ''tā-'').
 
 
To express the superlative, the clause must be antipassivized with the auxiliary verb ''norhe/norhâ'' e.g. ''Orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá'' (This is the largest mountain), or ''Sikôya orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá'' (This is the largest mountain in Kôya Island).
 
 
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->
 
===Constituent order===
===Noun phrase===
===Verb phrase===
===Sentence phrase===
===Dependent clauses===
<!-- etc. etc. -->
 
==Example texts==
==Other resources==
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->
 
 
 
==Phonology==
=== Consonants ===
 
Nankôre has a small inventory of consonants, only fourteen in number.  Noteworthy is the paucity of voiced consonants which contributes to the limited number of consonants in the Nankôre language.  The following table contains the entire consonantal inventory:
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="width: 660px; text-align:center;"
|-
!
!Bilabial
!Dental
!Alveolar
!Apical
!Post-alveolar
!Palatal
!Velar
!Glottal
|-
! style=""|  Nasal
| m
|  
| n
|  
|  
|
|
|  
|-
! style=""|  Stop
| p
| t
|
|
|
|
| k
| ʔ
|-
! style=""| Affricate
|
|
|
|
| ͡tʃ
|
| 
|
|-
! style=""| Fricative
|
|
| s
| s̻
| ʃ
|
| 
| h
|-
! style="" |Approximant
|
|
|  
|
|  
| j
|  
|  
|-
! style=""| Flap
|  
|  
| r
|
|
|
|
|
|}
 
===Vowels===
{{Nankore_Vowels_IPA}}
 
===Phonotactics===
<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->
 
===Orthography===
<!--Explain your conlang's alphabet. Use the International Phonetic Alphabet to describe the sounds of your language. If you are unsure on how to use IPA then visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet and read up. -->
 
The Nankôre orthography is based on the Allen-Mills system, derived from the Latin alphabet.  However, a second system, the American Media system, has started displacing the Allen-Mills system.  Although based on the Allen-Mills system, the American Media system uses the grapheme <y>, and the digraphs <ch> and <sh>, to make transcription of the language more accessible to American readers.
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="bluetable lightbluebg" style="text-align:center;"
! style="width: 90px; " |Allen-Mills
! style="width: 90px; " |American Media
! style="width: 90px; " |IPA
|-
| '
| (n/a)
| ʔ
|-
| a,ā, â, á
| a,ā,â, á
| ɑ, ɑ:
|-
| e
| e, eh
| e
|-
| i
| i, ih
| ɪ, i
|-
| o, ô
| o, ô
| o, o:
|-
| u
| u
| u
|-
| c
| c, ch
| tʃ
|-
| s
| sh
| s, s̺, ʃ
|-
| š
| sh
| ʃ
|-
| h
| h
| h
|-
| k
| k
| k
|-
| r
| r
| r
|-
| m
| m
| m
|-
| n
| n
| n
|-
| p
| p
|p
|-
| t
| t
| t
|-
| y
| y
| j
|}
 
 
Note that the grapeme &lt;s&gt; is pronounced /ʃ/ or /s̺/ when followed by [i] (e.g. ''shinkokah'' "orca"), or in coda position (''Nanhoshka'' "the True People"). A few decades after the Allen-Mills transcription system was developed, a sound shift in the northwestern Hoyampe dialect, whereby /s/ shifted to the voiceless apico-alveolar fricative  /s̺/ when followed by /i/ or in coda position.  A similar sound shift occurred at around the same time in the northeastern Konishmak dialect (possibly the result of the Hoyampe sound shift), but it was the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ that appeared.  It was this sound shift that spread out through most of the country, although there are some remote regions of the country that have not been affected by either sound shift.  As a result in foreign transcriptions &lt;sh&gt; is often used in words where the /s/ &gt;&gt;  /ʃ/ has already occurred, e.g. ''akôsh'' vs. the original ''akôs'' transcription
 
The grapheme &lt;ô&gt; is used to indicate vowel length for /o/, and &lt;ā&gt; for /ɑ/.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Morphology==
<!--
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Animacy in Nankôre noun classes
|+kapla
|-
| taaa
|}
-->




If two nouns with equal animacy but different number appear as core arguments, the plural noun is assigned a higher animacy status than the singular noun.  However, if animacy and number are equal, the most recently introduced noun, providing it was introduced as a core argument, is assigned the higher animacy status.
In situations were two nouns have equal animacy ''and'' equal number, the rules for assigning the position each core argument in the hierarchy is as follows:
# If one of the nouns is just newly  introduced info, it is considered less animate because the older noun has been presumably been the center of discourse and at least during part of the previous discourse it was agent. SOV order is  usually used, particularly if pragmatics and other contextual cues cannot disambiguate the syntactic roles
# HOWEVER, if the new noun is topicalized with the clitic ="=hat", it is considered the agent.
# Another pattern, where a new noun is introduced by an intransitive been as a Patient argument,  it is regarded as the less animate argument once the older noun is reintroduced back into the discourse in a transitive construction. 
# If the animacy level of each argument cannot be resolved, then the unmarked SOV word order is used when context can't disambiguate syntactic roles.
<!-- Insert transition here -->
<!-- Insert transition here -->


Line 1,296: Line 1,830:
-->
-->


===Syntax===
====Word Order====
Nankôre is classified as a SOV language.  The auxiliary verbs, such as the copula ''itá'', obligatorily appear in clause-final position.  Although the core argument NPs do not take any overt case marking, the animacy hierarchy and inverse system usually provide enough information to identify the Agent from the Patient, so OSV orders are also found in speech and text.  Although auxiliary verbs are obligatorily clause-final, the main verb may appear at the beginning of the clause for emphasis, as in ''Kakno, rihat makshe no itá'' >> seize.3, falcon.AGT mouse.PT SEM COP, lit. "It seizes it, the falcon the mouse in.one.act it.does", i.e. "The falcon seizes the mouse in one fell swoop."  Note that the fronted verb is followed by an audible pause.
As in many SOV languages, modifiers precede their heads, e.g. ''Shirkosh shi=rohpa,'' "This fine foreign cloth" (lit. "Foreigner fine.cloth").
====Possession====
Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective ''si=/shi='', followed either by the verb ''ras/rash'' to indicate inalienable possession e.g. ''Koykare shi=naho rash'', "The boy's mother", or ''ocité'' for alienable possession, e.g. ''Koykare shi=mashka  ocité''.  If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ''ta'/tah'' is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable ''Mashka shi=koykare tah-ocité'', "The anthill's boy".
====Comparatives and Superlatives====


Degrees of comparison are formed by placing the auxiliary verb ''soyka'' (to be big, i.e. to be more) or ''hatka'' (to be small, i.e. to be less) before a stative verb.  Since two arguments are involved, namely the comparer NP and the compared NP, the phrase is structurally equivalent to a transitive clause, requiring an Agent and a Patient, and follows the rules governing the nominal animacy hierarchy.  In the sentence ''Joe Sara soyka inupe tā itá'' (Joe is stronger than Sarah; lit. "Joe bigs strongs Sara"), ''soyka'' precedes the stative verb ''inupe'' (to be strong).  Joe, being male, is higher in the animacy scale and so is assigned Agent status.  If Sara were stronger, the Inverse affix ''tā-/tāh-'' surfaces, as in ''Joe Sara '''tā'''-soyka inupe  tā itá'' (Sara is stronger than Joe).  Other examples:
1) ''Joe Sara soyka soyka tā itá'' (Joe is taller than Sara; lit. "Joe bigs bigs Sara").
2) ''Joe Sara tā-hatka nahamosh tā itá'' (Sara is less tan than Joe).
3) ''Joe Sara hatka hatka tā itá'' (Joe is smaller than Sara; lit. "Joe small smalls Sara").
4) ''Natos Suhe soyka makit itá'' (Natosh [masc.] runs faster than Suhe [fem.]; lit. "Natosh big runs Suhe").
5) ''Orôyo Paul tā-soyka soyka itá'' (The volcano is bigger than Paul; note that ''orôyo'' is less animate because it is a sessile object, hence the use of the inverse marker ''tā-'').
To express the superlative, the clause must be antipassivized with the auxiliary verb ''norhe/norhâ'' e.g. ''Orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá'' (This is the largest mountain), or ''Sikôya orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá'' (This is the largest mountain in Kôya Island).
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->


===(Phrases and terms from FB - To be incorporated later) ===
===(Phrases and terms from FB - To be incorporated later) ===
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