Sceptrian

Sceptrian (batop lushan /ˈbäˑtəp luˈʃãˑ/ or simply lusha) is an a priori language created for the fantasy world Akekata by juhhmi.

History

Lore: Sceptrian language, named after the Sceptre peninsula, derives from Lutian language used in the Empire of Western Sceptre. With 12 million native speakers, Sceptrians outnumber those speaking Khattish and Guddean, the other two main West-Herookuan languages.

Actual: I weren't sure how to continue with Aoma (except for translations which I haven't been interested in) so I decided to begin creating a new language based on my scribbles. Remarkably, the script was created after the phonology had been decided. But I have to promise that one day I'll have a good proto-language first, realistic daughter languages second, scripts third and modern languages fourth...

Problems: As mentioned above, I'm still too lazy to create a proto-language...

Basic Grammar

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.

Phonology

Scetprian features 32 consonants, some of them with interesting lateral features, twelve vowels with long versions and four diphthongs. Nasalization, rhotacization and breathy voice are used as well.

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 version.

		Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m			n ń /n/			ng /ŋ/
Plosive	Voiceless	p			t			k	q
	Voiced	b			d			g
	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/
	Lateral				sl /ɬ/
Affricate	Voiceless				ts /t͡s/	tsh /t͡ʃ/
	Lateral				tsl /t͡ɬ/
Approximant	Simple						j
	Lateral				l
Trill		pr /ʙ/			r ŕ /r/

The liquids r and l can appear as syllabic consonants: tlsl /tˡl̩ɬ/, prn /pr̩n/ and trk /tr̩k/

• In eastern dialects, pr is realized as /ʙ/

Letter h has three allophones: /x/ appears word-finally, /ç/ with front vowels and /h/ with back vowels tihtóhnah /tiçtɔhnäx/ (assassinator). It's also used after consonants to indicate breathy voice.

Vowels

Monophthongs

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

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/. 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.

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 is between vowels and they don't form a diphthong, apostrophe is used: tai vs. ta'i

Sounds

Vowel form

There are five ways of sound altering which may be used for grammatical purposes (mainly number, genitive case and imperfective aspect)

• Lengthening: paata /pä:tä/, péete /pɛ:te/-/pɛe̯te/, póote /pɔ:te/
  • Not used word-finally.
• Lateral (release): plo /pˡə/, tla /tˡä/
  • 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: pho /pʰə/~/ɸə/, bho /bʱə/~/βə/, tha /tʰä/~/θä/, dha /dʱä/~/ðɑ/.
  • In casual register, aspirated plosives of unstressed syllables turn into the corresponding fricatives as shown above.
• Nasalization: on /ə̃~ɘ̃/ (compare oń /ən/) when n in coda
  • Close vowels (u, o, ó and i) are always nasalized between two nasals and all vowels after short ng: mónge /mɔ̃ŋẽ/, but nasalization does not occur with open vowels and long ńg: nańge /näŋ:e/.
• Rhotacization: or /ɚ/, ar /ä˞/ (compareoŕ /ər/~/r/ and aŕ /är/)
  • Nasalization does not occur simultaneously with rhoticization, except in Faanish dialect (near the border of Negovia): karon → karn /kæ̃˞/

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 is used for example to express adjective gender and to create different verb forms.

Full

• First:
  • e→é, o→ø, a→æ, u→i
  • ai→ei, ou→oi
• Second:
  • e→ee, o→ó, a→aa, u→uu
  • ai→ii, ou→óo

Partial

• When root contains vowels é, ó, i, æ or diphthongs ei, oi, the apophony is only partial: luwidh, luwidh, luwuudh
• With ø and long vowels, all forms are usually the same. Formal register uses ée as the second apophony of ee.

Phonotactics

• 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, fkos, ksaru. Affricate ts takes may be accompanied only by w, j, n or m: tsma. Combination /sl/ has turned into /ɬ/.
  • Lateralization and aspiration may never appear together, and nasalized rhoticization is only found in Faanish dialect.
• 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.
• Coda (final) may consist of up to three consonants with possible structures: NS, FS, LS; NF, SF, LF; NL, SL, FL; NSF, LSF, NSL (Nasal, Stop, Fricative, Liquid). Three-consonant clusters are rare word-medially and receive a schwa after the non-lateral stop: kamps /kämps/ → *kampsta → kamposta /kämpəsˈtä/
  • Approximants j, w and plain voiced plosives never appear as coda (final) even though they may be written that way: nad /nät/. Voiced fricatives rarely appear as coda.
  • In coda, plosives with lateral release, however, will reflect the voicing of the onset: gatl /gädˡl̩/ vs. katl /kätˡl̩/
• 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, codas tend to become onsets of the following syllable, if possible.
  • Voicing status must be the same for consonants touching at syllable boundaries and the voiced one reduces into voiceless: katba /kätpä/ vs. kat ba /kät^(h) bä/

Stress

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, stress is placed on even-numbered syllables.

• If the to-be-stressed syllable contains the schwa o, the preceding syllable is stressed in two-syllable words and the following in words with more than three syllables.
  • Syllable with nuclear o is only stressed when it comes second and the preceding syllables has also o as nucleus. Then it appears as /ɘ/.
• A syllable with a long vowel, the closing diphthong or a syllabic consonant is always stressed and steals the stress from neighboring syllables. This also moves the secondary stress from fourth to

Inflected and affixed word forms have the same stress as the base word (even monosyllabic body): gat → gatan /ˈgɑˑ.tän/, gatle /ˈgɑˑ.tˡe/

Interrogatives are formed by changing the primary stress onto the first syllable and a rising pitch. This is indicated with ¿.

Orthography

Script

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

The Sceptrian script was derived from the ancient temple marks as were the Aoman and Northern (Latin) scripts.

Diacritics on vowels mark different sounds.

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 eńge /eŋ:e/ or eŋŋe.
• Labialization of plosives is indicated by PuV (V is any vowel except u) or with w.

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.

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: Ǧë śošēŧã
• Modern: Gler shosleethan

Morphology

The most complete study of the basic structure of modern Sceptrian words was recently 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.

Pronouns

Pronouns are used to refer people or things. 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 orkho. (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 ruu (he is dancing by himself, alone) vs. ónlatepón su (he is dancing with him); sónkephón (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..."), kepan (I'm being washed)

Demonstrative

See 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, where DAT with LAT; COM with LOC; CAU with ABL; ABL with VOC. 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. 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 either vowel a, ó or 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.

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 (+sublative (surface))
• Locative-temporal (LOC-TEMP): Place (+superessive); time (when/duration...verb telicity); with some adpositions
• Ablative (ABL): Movement from (+delative); causal construction with particle ...
• 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	(ə)lF	N	Ning	u	ush	P	Pl	l
Ergative	AA	AslA	ii	Fee	Fele	Neen	Nenge	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
Instrumantal-comitative	Ah	Ash	ish	Fos	Fosh	Nos	Nosh	uh	ush	Ph	Ps	-dh
Lative	AgA	AglA	iki	Fko	Fklo	Nongo	Nongo	ugu	uglu	Póo	Plóo	lo
Locative-temporal	AkhA	AlkhA	ikhi	Fku	Fklu	Nongu	Nongu	ukhu	ulkhu	Pu	Plu	lu
Ablative	ApA	AplA	ipi	Fp	Fpl	Nop	Nopl	upu	uplu	PPo	PPol	lp
Vocative	Ae	Asl	ii	Fé	lFé	Né	Nin	-wé	-wésh	Pé	Plé	lé

• A: vowels a and ó
  • Ae: ae = æ and óe = ø
• 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
  • 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 → tun (stick → stick's)

Possessive affixes

Possessive affixes draw a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession: Óntesoson dothee gats/vakuhoz. (A man is watching his house/ his own hand.)

• Interpretations: gat dothi (the house which the man has temporarily settled in = rented), doth gathos(os) (man with his house which he has purchased), gat dothor (the house which was inherited and is now owned by the man)

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 non-finite verb forms which utilize some possessive suffixes in adverbial clauses <-- something from Aoma (lettex) & Finnish (kävellessäni)

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, "witnessing" occurs

Derivational Morphology

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

Noun→adjective:

• Base noun may describe an abstact quality, feature: "weakness"→"similar to weakness"/"having weakness"/"without weakness"
• similarity, having something: dh suffix to abstract gender and animate u-ending, voicing of fricatives (h→gh, no change with affricates), nasals into ng, voicing of plosives + o (q→g), l-declension as in INS-COM
  • full of, having something: previous suffixed with ol
• material:
• origin, relation:
• absence, without:
• doing: washing
• result: washed = clean (wanted vs. unwanted?)

Noun→noun:

• place, region
• collection:
• being, person, creature:
  • doer, agent:
  • experiencer, patient:
  • origin:
  • characteristic: kauneus-->kaunotar
• diminutive:
• augmentative:
• abstract quality, feature: ...i

Noun→verb

• From core nouns: "way-markers" → how the verb reflects the core noun+case/adjective: table... depends on the core (
• ABS = "happens", "is"
• COM = "using"
• GEN + k = "similarity":
• DAT + k = "making"/"becoming" (no k with Abstract): zurmu → zurmjik (strong person.AN → strengthen.3SG.INAN.GNO), zurp → zurpeik (strong, durable object.IN → hardens) & zurma → zurmak (strength → intensifies)
• LAT + t = movement
• frequentative
• momentane
• feel: hyväksyä, oudoksua, ...

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. Changes include mirroring onset into coda: notlu luwidhulk (at/near beautiful objects)

Vowel change is used to indicate the gender, base for inanimate, first apophony with animate and second apophony with abstract gender: eja luwuudh, doth luwidh, tes luwidh

Polite adjectives are formed from the abstract form with predicative prefix nga and attributive suffix æ

Adverbs

Adverbs are derived from

Verbs

missing verbs:

• "to be": apposition trk doth (a man is a smith) vs. doth trk (the smith-man, the smith is a man); predicative before luwidh doth (a man is beautiful) vs. attributive after doth luwidh (a beautiful man)
  • Emphasizing ma: trk dothma (it is the man who is a smith)
• "to have": various possessive forms, e.g. soput trng dothi ("profession of a smith for the man")

Tense

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

Aspect

Gnomic-static aspect is used to indicate general truths (sun rises) and static situations (I can speak English). It can be used with expressions of time to specify when something was static ("Clothes-on-me these yesterday")

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

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.

Mixing agent and subject endings...

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

Momentane vs. frequentative derivations; different ways for different stems/categories (make sound, move,

Conjugation

Transitivity, animacy and cases: Ónzaiton dothee pof. (A man (ERG) is lifting a feather (ABS).), Bousón doth. (The man falls.) Bouson pof. (The feather (ABS) falls.).

• ónzaiton dothee pof vs. ónzaitón dothee su (the man is lifting him)

Obs! subject+object (& agent) agreement: Zaiton pof. (Ón)bouson dothee pof. (A feather rises. A man is dropping a feather.)

Who needs conjugation? People in formal situations! --> register!

• Otherwise neither agent prefixes nor 3SG ending, only pronouns/names

Root

Verbs are given in their 3SG.INAN GNO form which is used to form all of the third person forms

First and second person forms use the first apophony 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	-	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
• + indicates voicing of the final consonant together with aspiration

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

• Prefixes may be separated from vowel-beginning verbs with a glottal stop or reduplicated initial consonant:

Mood

Indicative ("normal")

Some duplication with subjunctive ;) + second apophony

imperative with apophony of 3SG.INAN GNO form and present inceptive

Negation

Inability

• Second apophony in verb root and an infix (precedes absolutive suffix)
  • PRES: ost (SG), osht (PL)
  • PAST: out
  • FUT: oz

Unwillingness

• Intranslative suffix (after absolutive suffix)
  • PRES
    • 1st person: net (SG), nget (PL)
    • 2nd person: fep (SG), vep (PL)
    • 3rd person: set (SG), slet (PL)
  • PAST: nait
  • FUT: nort
• Translative affix (placed after the ergative prefix, but in casual register verb-initially)
  • PRES:
    • 1st person: no (SG), ngo (PL)
    • 2nd person: fo (SG), flo (PL)
    • 3rd person: so (SG), slo (PL)
  • PAST: me
  • FUT: mor

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

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

Second apophony of negation infixes with subjunctive mood.

Voice

Sceptrian distinguishes between two voices, active and antipassive. Antipassive is used to reduce the valency of the verbs by removing the object of a transitive clause.

• Irregularities‽

Reflexive with double conjugation:

History of ABS-ERG - Why Sceptrian has it, but Aoma uses NOM-ACC?

• Passive (~ Aoman 2nd passive... participle form) + causal form: *Pózaiton pofos dothpe. (The feather was lifted by a man.) --> pónzaiton dothpee pofos.

Active construction

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 circumfix remains untouched.

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 and is suffixed with the emphasizing clitic ma in the formal register.

Doth ónzait(ma) (pofos).
/dəθ ɔ̃zaɪ̯t(mä) (pəfəs)/
doth-Ø ón-zait-Ø(/ma) (pof-os)
man-ABS 3SG.AN.PRES.IPFV-lift-ANTIP(.FORM) (feather-INS)
The man is lifting (a feather).

Ideas: Instrument and turning it into an agent. Here I used the object-agreement

• Ónzaiton dothee pof vakuhosozh. (...with his own hand...)
  • Ónzaiton pof vakuhos dothir.
  • Onzaiton pof tuph dothish slokli. (A feather is being lifted with the man's stick for them.) Inanimate agent conjugation, and DAT inflected!
• Vakuh ónzait pofos. (a hand lifts the feather)/(someone intentionally lifts the feather with their hand) Notice animate conjugation!
  • Tup onzait pofos dothpo. (a stick, which is being held by a man, lifts the feather) ABL as causative.

Non-finite forms

Gerund

• Base nouns or their abstract variants serve as gerunds which describe the action:

Infinitives

• PRES -ó, PST -ou, FUT

Participles

• PRES, PST, FUT agent & patient (employer vs. employee) (passivity?) tekemä, tehty

Gerundives

• (merged auxiliary verbs as prefixes): can, be permitted, should, must

Relative form with word-order and prefix?

Adpositions

Prepositions used with lative, locative and ablative cases

• voi (in) forms illative, inessive, elative
• soi (on) to emphasize the surface aspect
• oist (under) for movement under something
• moi (touching) when objects are in touch with each other
• oil (as) forms translative, essive, exessive
• koi (per) distribution: "for each", "every" (temporal), "from each"
• jon (... between)
• boi (... the middle of)
• tsoi (... front of)
  • with time nouns in locative = before
• hoi (... behind)
  • with time nouns in locative = after

Postpositions

• pón (through) with lative
• phó (along) with lative
• pló (opposite to) with locative
• sós (with) with comitative to express a greater degree of endowment (ornative)
• óp (about)

Numerals

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

Numeral system

Number	Cardinal	Determiner	Ordinal	Fraction	Multiplicative adverb	Multiplicative adjective	Group
One	ipi
Two

Syntax

Word order

• VAO usually, SV(O) in antipassive
• adjectives precede nouns while possessives follow

Clauses

Noun clauses

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

participles

Adverbial clauses

non-finite forms + possessive suffixes to indicate subject

Conditional clauses

subjunctive

Register

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

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

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

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)

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

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

Lexicon

• batop language
• dhoku head
• doth man
• eja day
• eva light
• joqó disgust
• kep wash
• keslan blood
• kuth dog
• luva pleasure
• luwi beauty
• math cat
• mel water
• not object
• óomi largeness
• pof feather
• su it/he?
• tes eye
• tup stick
• vakuh hand
• vang drink.N
• zurmu strong person

• bous goes down
• kep washes
• latep dances
• tes(o)s sees
• vangost drinks
• zait goes up