Nankôre

Nankôre
Nankôre
Pronunciation	[/nan.'ko:re/]
Created by	–
Native to	Nanhoshka Kôya
Native speakers	3,232,430 (2014)
Language family	Nahenic Nankoric Nankôre
Official status
Official language in	Koya Island
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nk
ISO 639-2	nnk

Introduction

Nankôre, from the words nan ("man, human") and kôre ("speech"), is spoken by the Nanhoshka people of Kôya Island. There are two main dialects, the Konishmak, located in the Northeastern Coastal Mountains, and the Sapshira, encompassing the western and southern parts of the country. The dialects differ chiefly in pronunciation and differences in certain lexical items, but are otherwise mutually intelligible.

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 Moshir Ainu. 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, was discovered to contain 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.

Like Minhast and Nahónda, Nankôre is an SOV language. However, unlike its relatives, Nankôre is not a polysynthetic language but is relatively sparse in terms of affixes for determining syntactic relations. Nouns do not receive case or number marking, nor are they marked for gender. Word order within the verb complex is rather strict, but core, patient, and obliques may occur in various orders. The verb complex consists minimally of a main verb, which possesses suffixes for marking evidentiality, and the copula, which contain a rich set of affixes to mark the core arguments for various syntactic features: number, tense, voice, agency, etc.

The language is neither an Ergative-Absolutive language, like Minhast, nor is it a Active-Stative language, like Nahónda. Instead, its morphosyntactic alignment falls under the Direct-Inverse type. The nominal hierarchy is complex; at least ten noun classes based on animacy can be identified, and within those classes sub-hierarchies are observed based on semantic features, although discourse processes (e.g. the introduction of new arguments that are roughly equal in animacy with previously established arguments) may affect how direct-inverse marking is expressed.

Phonology

Orthography

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 the digraphs <ch> and <sh> to make transcription of the language more accessible to American readers.

Allen-Mills	American Media	IPA
'	(n/a)	ʔ
a,ā, â, á	a,ā,â, á	a, a:
e	e	e
i	i	ɪ, i
o, ô	o, ô	o, o:
u	u	u
c	ch	tʃ
s	sh	s, s̺, ʃ
š	sh	ʃ
h	h	ɦ
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 <s> in the Allen-Mills system is pronounced /ʃ/ or /s̺/ when followed by [i] (e.g. sinkokah /ʃin'kokah/ "orca"), or in coda position (Nanhoska /nan'hoʃka/ "the True People"). A few decades after the Allen-Mills transcription system was developed, a sound shift appeared 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 <sh> is often used in words where the /s/ >> /ʃ/ has already occurred, e.g. akôsh vs. the original akôs transcription. The grapheme <ô> is used to indicate vowel length for /o:/, and <ā> for /ɑ:/.

Although the American Media orthography system is the most widely used system, the Allen-Mills has long been used in academic publications, and will be used throughout the rest of this article, unless otherwise noted.

Consonants

Nankôre has a small inventory of consonants, only thirteen 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:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Apical	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p	t					k	ʔ
Affricate					t͡ʃ
Fricative			s	s̻	ʃ			ɦ
Approximant						j
Flap			ɾ

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i u ɪ e o ɛ a
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Morphology

Nouns

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-/ta-, is added to both the first verb in the verb phrase 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-/ta- correctly (see section on Verbs for additional details regarding inverse marking).

The Nankôre nominal hierarchy has been traditionally classified along two axes, the first marking the noun class, and the second marking levels of hierarchy within a given class. Animacy along classes decrease as one traverses from Supernatural/Phenomonological onwards towards the Ephemeral. Animacy decreases as one goes down the Level axis. The following table illustrates the animacy relations between the noun hierarchies, although in reality, animacy is more complex than the table would suggest, as discourse and other contextual elements may influence a native speaker's expression of the hierarchy in a given utterance.

Table of Nominal Animacy hierarchy

	Noun Class
Level	Supernatural & Phenomonological	Human	Animals		Lower Animals	Riverine	Weather	Plants	Geophysical	Material	Ephemeral
			Mammals	Birds
1	Gods, the Earth, the Sun, the Sky/Heavens	Adults >> Children	predator >> prey		Reptiles (excluding snakes)	Rushing rivers	Clouds	Forests	Mountains	Liquid, usually in a container	Magic
2	Demons	Older >> Younger	wild >> domesticated		Slow-moving rivers	Rain	Snakes	Large Trees	Glaciers	Food	Actions
3	Human & Animal Spirits	Male >> Female	Pet (usually carnivorous) >> Non-Pet (usually raised for food)		Amphibians	Streams, brooks, springs	Snow	Small Trees	Cliffs, jagged outcroppings, tumuli, boulders	Fabrics, fibers, skins, clothing	Emotions
4	Destructive Forces of Nature	Large >> Small			Fish	Lakes	Wind	Fruit/Nut Trees	Flat land or gently rolling landscape; plains	Wood	Thoughts
5	Lightning	Strong >> Weak			Breeze		Crustaceans	Bushes/Shrubs		Buildings	Disease
6	Ocean	Quick >> Slow			Insects		Moving Water	Prairie grass		Metals	States
7	Thunderstorms	Intelligent >> Unintelligent	Carnivore >> Herbivore >> Carrion Eater		Worms		Air	Leafy plants		Jewels and gemstones	Abstractions
8	Fire	Fertile >> Infertile	Stud >> Gelded	Flight >> Flightless	Mollusks		Muggy weather	Mushrooms/Fungi/Mosses/Gelatinous sea invertebrates		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:

1. If one of the nouns is newly introduced information, 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
2. HOWEVER, if the new noun is topicalized with the clitic =si, it is considered the agent.
3. Another pattern, where a new noun is introduced 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.
4. 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.

Derivational

• -no: Diminutive suffix, e.g. kuras (woman), kurasno (girl)
• -CV(C) reduplication: Augmentive, e.g. kurasras (big woman); analogous to Minhast augmentation
• -ra-CV(C) infixation + reduplication: Augmentive-Deprecative: nahón -> na-ra-hón-ho (big/fat, ugly man); very similar to Minhast -ra- infixation and reduplication of first syllable, e.g. Minhast kas~ka~ra-slub "large dog, hunting hound" < kaslub "dog"

Adjectival Suffixes

Nankôre lacks a separate word class for adjectives. They may be expressed as attributive verbs, e.g. Aryak neshkak itá, "Aryak is smart", Kanko shoykar sip'itá', "Kanko (an indigenous vegetable) makes good" (for your health), or a suffix may be attached to the noun it modifies. These suffixes are called adjectival suffixes. Some of these suffixes are etymologically derived from an attributive verb, e.g. -kerek > karyak itá "to be red". Others appear to be derived from separate roots, c.f. "Aryak-arku", ("clever Aryak") vs "Aryak neshkak itá" ("Aryak is clever"). Theoretically an unlimited number of suffixes may be appended to the noun, but in practice the number of adjectival suffixes seldom exceeds three. The suffixes may appear in any order, so long as the meaning is comprehensible. Nevertheless it appears that scope determines the ordering of the suffixes: suffixes with wider scope tend to appear towards the end e.g. "Kenenkor-pita-shune-une itá" (bed plush-red-soft-very 3S.COP ) "It is a very soft, red and plush bed."

While the number of adjectival suffixes are considerable, they remain for the most part a closed class. Moreover, with a few exceptions, each adjectival suffix may be expressed by a corresponding stative verb.

There are seven observed categories of adjectival suffixes:

1. Quality
2. Quantity
3. Strength
4. Size
5. Color
6. Tactile
7. Other Attributes

Demonstrative Clitics

Type	Spatial	English Translation	Example
Proximal	=skoro	this one near me; now	nan=iskoro "this man here"; oriyat=hepi "today"
Medio-Proximal	=hori, =ori	that one by you; just awhile ago	nan=hori "that man next to you";
Distal	=nko, =kekori	yonder, that one near him/her/them; yesterday, a few days ago	nan=inko "yonder man""
Invisible	=nanak	that one beyond the horizon, or occluded by a distant object	nan=nanak "that man (e.g. on the other side of the mountain)"

Number

Nouns do not inflect for number, is usually determined by context, but a numeral joined by the Connective si= to its head noun can be used to indicate plurality, eg:

ôhi sikurasno.
/'o:ɦi ʃi ku'raʃno/
ôhi si=kurasno
two CONN girl
two girls

If the noun is a core argument, then the copula obligatorily marks for number. Number is indicated on the copula by the affix -n-. For plural Agents, it is infixed, and for plural Patients, it is suffixed. Additionally, if the copula is marked with the Inverse prefix, the prefix redundantly encodes number by vowel length, eg ta- for the singular, and tā= for the plural. Some examples are given below:

Example of a HA singular Agent acting on a LA singular Patient:

kurasno rompóy rayrokor nitá'.
/ku'raʃno rom'poɪ 'raɪrokor nɪ'taʔ/
kurasno rompóy Ø-rayro=kor Ø-ni-Ø-itá-ʔ
girl.HA dog.LA DIR=play=EVID.HEAR DIR-PST-HS-COP-LS
I heard that the girl played with the dog recently.

Example of a HA plural Agent acting on a LA singular Patient:

kurasno rompóy rayrokor nintá'.
/ku'raʃno rom'poɪ 'raɪrokor nɪn'taʔ/
kurasno rompóy Ø-rayro-kor Ø-ni-n-itá-'
girl.HA dog.LA play-EVID.HEAR DIR-PST-HP-COP-LS
I heard that the girls played with the dog recently.

Example of a LA singular Agent acting on a HA plural Patient:

rompóy kurasno tarayrokor tānintá'.
/romp'oɪ ku'raʃno ta'raɪrokor 'ta:nɪntáʔ/
rompóy kurasno ta=rayro=kor tā-ni-n-itá-ʔ
dog.LA girl.HA INV=play-HEAR INV.LS-PST-HP-COP-LS
I heard that the dog played with the girls recently.

Example of a LA plural Agent acting on a HA plural Patient:

rompóy kurasno tarayrokor tānintan.
/romp'oɪ ku'raʃno ta'raɪrokor 'ta:nɪntan/
rompóy kurasno ta=rayro=kor tā-ni-n-itá-n
dog.LA girl.HA INV=play=EVID.HEAR INV.PL-PST-HP-COP-LP
I heard that the dogs played with the girls recently.

Quantifiers

Quantifier	Substantive	Attributive
All	kamun	kamun si=
Most	toman	toman si=
Some	cene	cisi= cis=
Many	etco	etcisi= etci= etc=
Both	hani	hanisi= hansi= has=
Each	nune	nisi= nis=
Few	cato	catci= catc=
Another/Other	hane	hanesi= hanse=

Interrogatives

Header text	Header text	Notes
Who	ra', rā	Possibly cognate with Minhast redad
What	pôh	c.f. Minhast bak
When	tu'a
Where	nahí'	c.f. Minhast nakki. Also, note dialectal variant enket (Sapshira dialect)
Why	penóh
Which	yôri-	C.f. yôhori, to choose, Minhast yāhuran (to make a turn at an intersection of a path, road)
Polarity	aní	Used for yes-no questions, occurs in sentence-final position. Cognate with Minhast ni (Classical, Horse Speaker, and Salmonic dialects)
	=yo	Like ani, used for yes-no questions. However, it cliticizes to the first word of the clause.

The Interrogatives manifest WH-movement, appearing immediately before the auxiliary itá' with rising intonation and a slight pause after the main VP. The Irrealis suffix -hi often accompanies WH-words but is often dropped, as in the second example, especially among younger speakers. However, it is required for polar questions, i.e. questions marked with aní, in which case its allmorph -ha is used.

Okep nari ayrarke, penóh hô'itáhi?
'okɛp 'na:ɾi aɪ'ɾaɾke pe'noɦ ɦo:ʔɪ'taɦi
Okep nari ayrarke, penóh Ø-hô-Ø-'itá-ʔ-hi
PN child spank why DIR-HOD-HS-COP-LS-IRR
Why did Okep spank (her) child earlier this morning?

Ka tahone, ra' taspitá?
ka ta'ɦo:nɛ ɾaʔ taʃpɪ'ta
Ka ta=honé, ra' ta-sp-Ø-itá-ʔ
2S INV.SG=cry who INV-CAUS-HS-COP-LS
Who is making you cry?

The following two sentences are polarity questions, with no difference in meaning. The third sentence, containing both polarity markers =yo and sentence-final particle ani, implies incredulity:

Koykâre cori yoskara sip'itáha' aní?
/koɪ'ka:ɾɛ 'tʃoɾi 'joʃkaɾa ʃɪpʔɪtaɦa a'ni/
koykâre cori yoskara sip-Ø-itá-ʔ-hi aní
boy house burn CAUS-DIR.PRS.HS-COP-LS-IRR Q
Did the boy burn the house (down)?

Koykâryo cori yoskara sip'itáhi?
/koɪ'ka:ɾjo 'tʃoɾi 'joʃkaɾa ʃɪpʔɪ'taɦi/
koykâre=yo cori yoskara sip-Ø-itá-ʔ-hi
boy=Q house burn CAUS-DIR.PRS.HS-COP-LS-IRR
Did the boy burn the house (down)?

Koykaryo cori yoskara sip'itáha aní?
/koɪ'kaɾjo 'tʃoɾi 'joʃkaɾa ʃɪpʔɪ'taɦa 'ani/
koykâre=yo cori yoskara sip-Ø-itá-ʔ-hi ani
boy=Q house burn CAUS-DIR.PRS.HS-COP-LS-IRR Q
Did the boy burn the house (down)?

With the exception of the polarity particle aní, interrogatives can also serve as conjunctions, provided that the interrogatives is joined to the dependent clause with the connective si=:

Hôryak kosno nitá' penóh si-Okep nari ayrarkekór ho'itá'.
hôri=ak kosno Ø-n-Ø-itá-ʔ penóh si=Okep nari ayrarke-kór Ø-ho-Ø-'itá-ʔ
NEG=1S hear DIR-PST-HS.COP-LS why CONN=PN nephew spank-HEAR DIR-HOD-HS-COP-LS
I did not hear/receive the news why Okep spanked (her) nephew early this morning.

Neither a pseudo-incorporated noun or adjunct may appear between the Interrogative and the copula. The next sentence is well-formed, with the pseudo-incorporated noun appearing before the interrogative penóh (why), whereas the next sentence is unfelicitous, since PINs are barred from appearing between the WH-word and the copula:

Koykâre yoskara cori penóh itá'?
koykâre yoskara cori penóh Ø-itá-ʔ
boy burn house why DIR.PRS.HS-COP-LS
Why did the boy burn the house (down)?

*Koykâre yoskara penóh cori sip'itá'?
koykâre yoskara penóh cori sip-Ø-itá-ʔ
boy house burn why CAUS-DIR.PRS.HS-COP-LS
Why did the boy burn the house (down)?

Interrogatives can also serves as Conditionals by a =si Topicalization structure:

Ra'si karámpo taneknek ta'itá', siakos tamáko itá'
'raʔʃi ka'ɾampo ta'nɛknɛk 'taʔɪtaʔ 'ʃakoʃ ta'mako ʔɪ'taʔ
Ra'=si karampo ta=neknek ta-Ø-itá-Ø, si=akos tamakó Ø-Ø-itá-ʔ
Who=TOP bear INV=kill INV-HS-COP-LS CONN=1P danger.liability DIR-HS-COP-LS
Whoever slaughtered the bear (in this manner) is a danger to us all.

The Topic marker =si should not be confused with the Connective si= that is linking the embedded clause to the matrix clause. The former is an enclitic, whereas the latter is a proclitic.

Among the Interrogative pronouns, ra' ranks the highest in animacy; nevertheless, Interrogative pronouns are lower than non-Interrogative nouns in the animacy hierarchy.

Yôri- is always prefixed to the noun it modifies and can never appear as an independent word. It can be prefixed to pôh and ra' , i.e. yôripoh and yôra' , where it takes the meaning "which one", yôripoh for Noun Classes II and III, the sentient members of Class I, and yôra' for the rest.

Pronouns

The first group of pronouns are the simple independent pronouns. The animacy of each pronoun is arranged in the following hierarchy:

Pronominal hierarchy
1st >> 2nd >> 3rd

Plurality generally does not affect the animacy level across persons. However, if two 3rd person arguments have the same animacy and one of the arguments is plural, then the plural argument is assigned a higher animacy level.

The following table lists the forms of the simple independent pronouns:

Intransitive Independent Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
		Long Form	Short Form
1S	ak	akôs	aóy yoy
2S	kā ka	kakôs	koy
3S	tā ta	takôs	toy

If used as a core argument, the singular forms and the plural short forms may appear just before the clause-final copula itá,e.g. Nitori kā itá! (You are a fool); sometimes the pronoun is cliticized to the main verb, e.g. Nitoriká 'itá!, in which case a final long vowel is shortened and is appended with the glottal stop. They may also be used to emphasize a noun, in which case the pronoun precedes the noun linked with the connective si=, as in tā si=naho (She/Her, the mother).

Transitive Portmanteau Pronouns

Singular				Plural
	1S	2S	3S	1P	2P	3P
1S	--	yakká'	kattá'	--	yakkóy	nattóy
2S	akká'	--	kattí	yakkós	--	natós
3S	yettá'	kattí	kettá'	yanós		tarós
Plural x Plural
1P				--	okóy koy	otóy toy
2P				kakkóy	--	koy
3P				okkóy toy (!)	ottóy toy	toy

As earlier stated, nouns in Nankôre are not inflected, nor are case clitics attached to them to indicate case relations. Transitive verbs take two NPs as core arguments. The case relations of the two arguments are determined by the position of the noun in the animacy hierarchy; the core argument that is higher in the animacy hierarchy is assigned the Agent role, and the other argument is assigned the Patient role. However, an inverse affix tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= is prefixed to the primary verb, as well as a redundant ta- affix that is added to the auxiliary to alter the argument structure and promote the lower-animacy argument to Agent role.

[OBSOLETE] Unlike the Intransitive forms, the portmanteau Transitive forms come before the main verb, not the auxiliary verb, e.g. Akostos karok tā'itá' , "I ate it". Sometimes the portmanteau is cliticized to the main verb, as in Akostos=karok tā'itá' . If the Inverse marker appears simultaneously with the Transitive portmanteau pronoun, the preverbal Inverse marker tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= cliticizes to the portmanteau pronoun. Since the Inverse voice is double-marked, the Inverse form of the auxiliary itấ' also is used, as in the improbable sentence, Takostos karok tahortā'itá'/Takostoskarok tahortā'itá' , from Tā-akostos-karok tahortā'itá' , "He/she/it ate me".

Obliques cannot be inserted into the verb complex. If oblique arguments appear outside their clause, they must be joined to it with the connective clitic si=. Context alone determines the semantic role of the oblique. To illustrate, the sentence Maska si=ohipna koykare ekán itá (anthill=CONN twig boy twist COP.PST), i.e. "The boy inserted the twig into the anthill", the oblique noun maska (anthill is marked with the clitic si= to join it to the rest of the sentence.

Verbs

The verb phrase in Nankôre require at a minimum an initial verb, plus the copula. An initial verb may be the main verb itself, or an auxiliary. A sort of division of labor exists between these components components; a certain set of clitics or affixes may attach to one of the components, and another to another.

The following set of markers cliticize to the first verb of the VP, which may be either the main verb, or a coverb. All preverbal clitics attach to the the initial verb.

• Initial Verb

1. Inverse
2. Aspect

However, a set of bound morphemes, occurring as suffixes, attach exclusively to the main verb, regardless if it is the initial verb of the VP or not:

• Main Verb

1. Evidentials

Finally, the copula hosts the following set of morphemes, which are not clitics but actual affixes:

• Copula

1. Inverse
2. Tense
3. Number
4. Voice
5. Irrealis

The Verb Phrase Structure

The following example demonstrates a complex verb predicate, with the Inverse marker ta= cliticizing to the coverb yam (accompany) in the Imperfect aspect, followed by the main verb yayak (go up a mountain) with the Hearsay Evidential suffix -kor, and finally the copula marked with the redundent Inverse clitic ta'=.

Rompóy kurasno tayampo yayak hosmakór ta'nitá'.
/rom'poɪ ku'raʃno ta'yampo 'yayak hoʃma'kor taʔnɪt'aʔ/
Rompóy kurasno ta=yam=po yayak hosma-kor ta'-∅-nitá-ʔ.
dog.LA girl.HA INV=accompany=IMPF go.up.mountain-EVID.HEAR INV-HS-PST.COP-LS
The dog was going up the mountain with the girl, I heard.

Diagram of the Nankôre Verb Phrase

The verbal elements follow a relatively strict order. The required elements for a VP to be well-formed are the Main Verb and the Copula. Adjuncts are unbound morphemes, and exhibit rather free order; however, they are barred from appearing between the Inverse Marker and any following verb, be it the Coverb or the Main Verb. If a Coverb appears between the Inverse Marker and Main Verb, an adjunct may appear between the Coverb and Main Verb. However, if the Inverse Marker is not followed by a Coverb, then an adjunct may not appear between the Inverse Marker and the Main Verb. Moreover, if Pseudo-Noun Incorporation (PNI) takes place, an adjunct may not intervene between the Main Verb and the Pseudo-incorporated noun (PIN).

Coverbs

Coverbs are auxiliary verbs that serve to provide additional syntactic information to the main verb itself, or to the core arguments. There are two classes of coverbs, Directionals-Positionals coverbs, and Modals. Directional and positional coverbs serve as a way of indicating case relations of the core arguments, somewhat like Applicatives in other languages, such as those of its distant cousin Minhast. In fact the older linguistic literature often refers to these coverbs as "Applicative Verbs". The Directionals-Positionals coverbs always precede the Modals.

Directional-Positional Coverbs

Directional and positional coverbs have both a long and short form. The long form, also called the Independent Form, may serve as a bona fide standalone verb, or it may serve as a coverb provided that no clitics attach to it. Thus the coverb sanha, in its long form, means "to go towards, to approach" as an independent verb, but its short form, san, always indicates motion towards an entity; this sort of syntactic relation is usually handled by the Allative case in languages which indicate case marking on the noun. Clitics that otherwise attach to the main verb, such as the Inverse marker and and aspect markers, move to and attach to the first occurring coverb of the VP. Clitics attach only to the short form. Additionally, morphophonemic alternations may take place when the Inverse marker ta= cliticizes to the coverb, such as in the Subessive cor-.

Goal Coverb Forms

	Long	Short	Coverb + Inverse
Goal	sanha	san	tasan

Anut America sanha kamukkor itáʔ.
anut america sanha kamuk-kor itáʔ
PN.HA PN.LA going.towards fly-EVID.HEAR COP.DIR
Anut supposedly flew to America.

Rompóy sikatti yacor pitasi san yapokor itáʔ.
rompóy si=katti yacor san yapo-kor itáʔ
dog CONN=PN.HA ball.LA going.towards throw-EVID.HEAR COP.DIR
Kathy tossed the ball towards the dog.

Katti yacor san yapokor rompóy itáʔ.
Katti yacor san yapokor rompóy itáʔ
PN.HA ball.LA going.towards throw-EVID.HEAR dog COP.DIR
Kathy tossed the ball towards the dog.

Kurasno siyacor rompóy tasan nahoyra ayorkor ta'itáʔ.
Kurasno siyacor rompóy ta-san nahoyra ayor-kor ta-ʔitáʔ
girl CONN=ball.LA dog.HA INV-going.towards do.repeatedly bring-EVID.HEAR dog INV-COP
The dog repeatedly brought back the ball to the girl.

• Benefactive

Directional and Positional Coverbs

	Long	Short	Coverb + Inverse	Sample Sentence	Translation	Comment
Goal	sanha	san	tasan	Anut America sanha kamuk-kor itá.	Anut supposedly flew to America.	-kor = HEARSAY.EVID, is suffixed to the main verb.
Dative	tohta	toht	tatóh	Anut nanna tatóh ittáh tanno ta'itá.	Anut gave his mother water.	c.f Minhast dative applicative -dut-, menā' "mother", hittu "give", dannua "water"
Benefactive	nasko	nas	tanas	Nanhoska karen tā-nas eynakor itá.	It is said the (sacred) tree gave (life) for the people.	c.f. Minhast postposition =nī, =ni
Comitative	yampe	yam	tam	Anut yam temenkor itá	Anut walked beside the river with him.	temen = to perform an activity by a river
Instrumental	makôr	mak	tamak	Ehok mak-nahoyra yurasnanetkor itá.	The adolescent struck (it) repeatedly with a club.
Ablative	risa	ris	tars	Šôni Nan Kamun Koryas ris mankor itá	First Man emerged from (out of) the snow.	c.f. Minhast applicative -raħk- Šôni Nan = "the First Man" Kamun Koryas "All Snow" (the birthplace of First Man)
Locative	neyhi	ne	tan	Yonka asrok ta-n akunkor hô'itá.	I heard that a fly buzzed inside Yonka('s mouth) this morning.	asrok = fly, insect
Vialis	nahke	nak, nahk	tanak, tanahk	Ka pohak ta-nahke šokor-nui itá'	I saw the river take you through the cave.	c.f. Minhast applicative -naħk-, -ni- pohak = cave šokor = to flow -nui- = VIS.EVID
Prolative	roskar	ros	taros	Ak piri roskar hô'itá'.	I crossed the street earlier this morning	piri = street, road, path
Superessive	oros	or	tor	Ayôhe arupenrô or yaunkekor hô'itá.	The airplane flew over Ayôhe township earlier this morning.	arupenrô = airplane yaunke = to fly
Subessive	yorha	yor	toyor, cor	Ekurki saska yor-ro kahorokor itá.	The turtle swam underneath the ice.	ekurki = turtle saska = ice kahoro = to swim
Ablative-Superessive	isuk	suk, su	task, tasku	(Example)	(Example)
Ablative-Subessive	royna	roy	taroy	(Example)	(Example)
Riverine	temen	tem	tatem	No si-kurasno tem rohnaskor itá.	The girls supposedly were playing by the river.
Montaigne	yayak	yay	tay	Kahno côri yay cire/ciri itá'	The old man went up the mountain.

Modals

Modal verbs follow the Directional-Positional coverbs. Modals include a wide range of expressions, such as ability, potentiality, similitude, desire, inclination, etc.

	Modal	Meaning
Potential	makan
Necessitive	nehái
Desiderative	tasmi
Inceptive-Inchoative	yari
Resumptive	kenoy

Aspect

The verb, in contrast to the copula, encodes aspect with clitics that attach to the end of the word. If a coverb appears, the aspect marker will cliticize to the coverb, otherwise it will cliticize to the main verb. Nankôre possesses several aspect markers, as illustrated in the following table:

	Aspect Marker	Meaning
Perfect	-Ø
Semelfactive	=no	completed in one single motion/act, e.g. hit
Simple Imperfect	=ro
Durative/Repetitive	=nahoyra, =noyra	several times
Habitative	=(h)osma, =sma	often
Factive	=yosir	(general truth statement, e.g. "The sun rises in the east")
Continuative	=namporo	to continue
Cessative	=ciri	to stop
Terminative	=ruykáno	to finish
Incipient	=kara	about to
Approximative	=tontoro	almost, nearly
Frequentative	=nokori, -(o)nkori	often

Main Verb

The main verb is believed to be descended from a verbal noun and carries the main semantic meaning of the verb phrase. The main verb hosts the Inverse Marker tā-/ta-, aspect, and evidential/modal markers. As mentioned earlier, the Inverse and aspect markers may detach from the main verb and attach to a converb, while the modal/evidential suffixes remain tightly bound to the main verb.

Moods and Evidentials

The Mood and Evidential markers occur as bound suffixes of the main verb. Unlike the Inverse and aspect markers, they do not detach from the main verb but remain bound to the main verb.

Evidentials
Neutral	-∅
Emphatic-Factual	-mas
Hearsay	-kor
Visual	-nui
Inferential	-yay
Intentive	-neat, -ne
Dubitative	-anene

The Copula

In terms of morphological complexity, the copula hosts more affixes and clitics than the main verb; in addition to redundantly marking the Inverse voice, it also encodes tense, number, irrealis, inchoativity, and causation through a complex series of affixation.

The copula serves two purposes:

• To links noun phrases to their predicates:

Nan konkekma yorika itáhi?
/nan kon'kekma 'yo:rika ɪt'ahi/
nan konkekma, yôri-ka ∅-itá-ʔ-hi
human snake which-2S DIR-PRS.COP-S-IRR
Are you man or snake?

• To serve as a host for tense, number, animacy, and voice markers to the verb phrase.

Kanro kacekak hôsipnitá'.
/'kanro ka't͡ʃekak ho:sipnɪ'taʔ/
kanro kacek=ak ∅-hô-sip-nitá-ʔ
old.man hide=1S DIR-HOD-HS-PST.COP-LS
I hid the old man yesterday.

Ea? Kacek ka, yôrikani hôsipnitáhi?
/ea 'kat͡ʃek ka, yo:ri'kani ho:ʃɪpni'tahi/
ea kacek ka yôri-kani ∅-hô-sip-nitá-ʔ-hi
MIR hide 2S which-place DIR-HOD-CAUS-HS-PST.COP-LS-IRR
Really? Where did you hide him?

Copula Affixes

The Inverse marker ta'- indicates a lower animate NP is the Agent acting on a higher animate NP whose role is that of Patient. The marker occurs in two locations: as a clitic to the first verb of the VP, and as a bound prefix to the copula itá'.

Number is marked on both core arguments: for transitive clauses, singular HA arguments are null-marked, and LA arguments are marked with the suffix -ʔ. For plurality, plural HA arguments are marked with a prefixed or infixed -n-, while the LA argument is marked with the suffix -n for plurality. Additionally, the vowel of the Inverse marker lengthens when the LA argument is plural; for example, the singular LA argument of the present tense copula is ta'ita', whereas the plural form of the verb is tā'inta'. The Hodiernal tense is an exception: the vowel of the Inverse marker neither undergoes vowel lengthening, nor does it receive compensatory stress; the form *tāhô'intá' is ungrammatical, the form tahô'intá' instead. This is presumably because the vowel of the tense marker, -ô-, suppresses lengthening of a preceding vowel according to Nankôre phonological rules, thus moving the stress rightward.

The Inchoative consists of a the prefix yis-, which frequently occurs as a circumfix, y- + -s-, for certain conjugations. The affix causes the Inverse affix ta(h)- to palatize; the -s- segment of the circumfixal form may occur before or after a pluralizing -n- affix, or the tense-bearing prefix of a given conjugation. Knowing which form of the Inchoative, and where the -s- segment occurs is unpredictable and requires memorization. When used in transitive sentences, it serves to mark the Inceptive aspect. The -s- component has been shown to be cognate with the Minhast inchoative affix -saxt-.

The Causative is marked with the affixes sip- or -sp-, which is cognate with the Causatives in Minhast -šp- and Nahónda -ps-. As Causatives typically increase the valency in a clause's argument structure, the Causee is typically the Patient argument, and the target of the Causee is a si- marked argument phrase that follows the matrix clause; a slight pause usually occurs before the si- connective. The construction suggest the Causee's target is an anti-topic, although it may be fronted at the beginning of its governing clause by the si- connective for topicalization.

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 Cire=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 cire 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 cire 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 cire=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.

The Copula - Transitive Paradigm

Present			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	itá'	itán	yistá'	yistán	sip'itá' (pis'itá')	sip'itán (pis'itán)
		PL	nitá'	nitán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnitá' (pisnitá')	sipnitán (pisnitán)
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’itá'	ta’itán	castá'	castán	taspitá'	taspitán
		PL	tānitá'	tānitán	casnitá'	casnitán	tāsipnitá'	tāsipnitán
Hodiernal Past ‡
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hô'itá'	hô'itán	yôsitá'	yôsitán	hôsipnitá'	hôsipnitán
		PL	hô'intá'	hô'intán	yôsintá'	yôsintán	hôsipnintá'	hôsipnintán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	tahô'itá'	tahô'itán	costá'	costán	tāhópsintá'	tāhópsintán
		PL	tahô'intá'	tahô'intán	cosnitá'	cosnitán	tāhópsintá'	tāhópsintán
Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	nitá'	nitán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnitá'	sipnitán
		PL	nintá'	nintán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnintá'	sipnintán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’nitá'	ta’nitán	casnitá'	casnitán	tasipnitá'	tasipnitán
		PL	tānintá'	tānintán	casnintá'	casnintán	tāsipnintá'	tāsipnintán
Medio-Distal Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hitá'	hitán	yistá'	yistán	hispitá'	hisiptán
		PL	hintá'	hintán	yisintá'	yisintán	hisipnitá'	hisipnitán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	tahitá'	tahitán	castá'	castán	tasiphitá'	tasiphitán
		PL	tāhintá'	tāhintán	casintá'	casintan	tāsiphintá'	tāsiphintán
Distal Past
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	pitá'	pitán	yipsitá'	yipsitán	pisiptá'	pisiptan
		PL	pintá'	pintán	yipsintá'	yipsintán	pisipnitá	pisipnitán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’pitá'	ta’pitán	caspitá	casipnitán	tápsipnitá'	tápsipnitán
		PL	tápsintá'	tápsintán	casipnitá	casipnitán	tápsipnitá'	tápsipnitán
Medio-Proximal Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	nitáh	nitahán	yisnitáh	yisnitahán	nisiptáh	nisiptahán
		PL	nintáh	nintahán	yisnitahá	yisnitahán	nisipnitáh	nisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	ta’nitáh	tantahán	casnitáh	casnitahán	tasipnitáh	tasipnitahán
		PL	tānintáh	tānintahán	casnintáh	casnintáhan	tāsipnitáh	tāsipnintahán
Immediate Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	hitáh	hitahán	yistáh	yistahán	hisipitáh	hisiptahán
		PL	hintáh	hintahán	yisnitáh	yisnitahán	hispintáh	hisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	Low Animate Agent	SG	tahitáh	tahitahán	castáh	castáh	tahisipitáh	tahisiptahán
		PL	tāhintáh	tāhintahán	cahsintáh	cahsintahán	tāhispintáh	tāhisipnitahán
Distal Future
			Low Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	pitáh	pitahán	yipsitáh	yipsitahán	pisiptáh	pisiptahán
		PL	pintáh	pintahán	yipsiptáh	yipsiptahán	pisipnitáh	pisipnitahán
			High Animate Patient
			Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
			SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
	High Animate Agent	SG	ta’pitáh	taptahán	capsitáh	capsitaháh	tapsiptáh	tapsiptahán
		PL	tāpintáh	tāpintahán	capsintáh	capsintahán	tápsipnitáh	tápsipnitahán

‡ Note the irregular Indicative Hodiernal tense form; the Inverse marker does not lengthen as it does for the rest of the paradigm.

The Copula - Intransitive Paradigm

Tense	Number	Indicative		Inchoative		Causative
Present	SG	itá'	itán	yistá'	yistán	sip'itá' (pis'itá')	sip'itán (pis'itán)
	PL	nitá'	nitán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnitá' (pisnitá')	sipnitán (pisnitán)
Hodiernal Past	SG	hô'itá'	hô'itán	yôsitá'	yôsitán	hôsipnitá'	hôsipnitán
	PL	hô'intá'	hô'intán	yôsintá'	yôsintán	hôsipnintá'	hôsipnintán
Past	SG	nitá'	nitán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnitá'	sipnitán
	PL	nintá'	nintán	yisnitá'	yisnitán	sipnintá'	sipnintán
Medio-Distal Past	SG	hitá'	hitán	yistá'	yistán	hispitá'	hisiptán
	PL	hintá'	hintán	yisintá'	yisintán	hisipnitá'	hisipnitán
Distal Past	SG	pitá'	pitán	yipsitá'	yipsitán	pisiptá'	pisiptan
	PL	pintá'	pintán	yipsintá'	yipsintán	pisipnitá'	pisipnitán
Medio-Proximal Future	SG	nitáh	nitahán	yisnitáh	yisnitahán	nisiptáh	nisiptahán
	PL	nintáh	nintahán	yisnitahá	yisnitahán	nisipnitáh	nisipnitahán
Immediate Future	SG	hitáh	hitahán	yistáh	yistahán	hisipitáh	hisiptahán
	PL	hintáh	hintahán	yisnitáh	yisnitahán	hispintáh	hisipnitahán
Distal Future	SG	pitáh	pitahán	yipsitáh	yipsitahán	pisiptáh	pisiptahán
	PL	pintáh	pintahán	yipsiptáh	yipsiptahán	pisipnitáh	pisipnitahán

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.

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	ho- ha-	nake "foot"	ha-nake	to scoot along the floor with one's foot; to kick around	Nahónda: ho-shishpa "to give" shishp = 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)

Numbers

The Nankôre number system is dozenal, i.e. base-12. The numbers thirteen through twenty-three are modified compounds consisting of the unit numbers shori (1) through shiktash (11) compounded to shin (12). The number twenty-four hanoshin can be analyzed as han-o-shin, where the affix -o- signifies "multiplied by", so hanoshin literally means "two times twelve". The multiplicative pattern continues until the number 144, which is called nakpa. The number 100 (nenanoshin >> nena ān-o-shin) is literally "four (and) eight times twelve". The ordinals for the numbers 1-7 are the cardinal numbers suffixed by -ak or -ok. Numbers 8-11 are the cardinal numbers suffixed with the ending -u. The ordinal for the number 12 is again suffixed with -ok, and the higher numbers with -nok. If the -nok affix is preceded by a consonant followed by -i-, the -i- may be dropped, provided that this does not form the impermissible consonant cluster -CCC- sequence.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
one	šôri	šoriak
two	hani, ôhi	hanyak
three	tusta, tak	tustak
four	nena, kayoka	nenak
five	sišak	catak
six	sirišo	siiršok
seven	kerišo	kiršok
eight	ān	anku
nine	karu	karku
ten	kaše	kasku
eleven	siktas	sistu
twelve	sin	sinok
thirteen	šorsin	šorsinok
fourteen	hansin	hanisnok, hanisnok
fifteen	tusin	tusnok
sixteen	ninsin	ninsinok, nisnok
seventeen	casin	casinok,casnok
eighteen	sirsin	sirsinok, sirisnok
nineteen	kirsin	kirisnok
twenty	ansin	asnok
twenty-one	karusin	karushnok
twenty-two	kasmin	kasminok
twenty-three	siksin	siksinok
twenty-four	hanosin	hanosnok
thirty-six	tustosin	tustosnok
one hundred	nenanosin	nenanosnok
one hundred forty-four	nakpa	nakpanok

Clitics and Particles

Temporal Deictic Particles and Clitics

The Temporal Deitic particles usually occur at the head of a sentence, e.g. Antak Anut Amerika san-kamuk hitá' , "A year ago, Anut flew to America". In multiclausal sentences, the clause in which they appear have scope over the all other clauses following it. At least one, yorai, cannot appear after the initial clause. These particles may also attach to the main verb in reduced form as clitics, as in Anut Amerika san-kamuk-entak hitá'.

Independent	Clitic	Meaning	Example
yoráy	=yoráy	Once upon a time; back then	Example
inkát	=(i)nkát	Several years ago	Example
šeyhori	=šeyhor	A few years ago	Example
antak	=(e)ntak	A year ago	Example
kake	=(e)kak	Several days ago, last week	Example
nateha	=nate	The day before yesterday	Example
kirá	=kira	Yesterday	Example
yohori	=ho	Earlier this morning	Example
tantori	=tora	Just awhile ago	Example
yot	=(e)yót	Now	Example
nas	=(e)nas	Soon	Example
kesór	=k(e)sor	Tomorrow	Example
nekós	=n(i)kos	In the next few days	Example
nankóy	=n(a)koy	In the indeterminate future	Example

Syntax

Word Order

Nankôre's canonical word order SOV, more specifically, SOV₁V₂, where V₂ represents the copula itá. Although the core argument NPs do not take any overt case marking, the animacy hierarchy and direct-inverse system of marking usually provide enough information to identify the Agent from the Patient. Thus, OSV₁V₂, SVO₁ V₂, and other orders are found, both in speech and text. When pronouns appear as core arguments, they usually appear after the main verb, resulting in OV₁SV₂. Very often, the pronoun cliticizes to the verb:

Minhaste kôryak itá'
/'minɦaʃte 'ko:rjak ɪt'aʔ/
minhast kôre=ak ∅-∅-itá-ʔ
Minhast.language speak=1S DIR-HS-COP-LS
I speak the Minhast language.

Nevertheless, for all word order variants, the only restriction is the copula is restricted to clause-final position.

Fronting a constituent is used for emphasis, as in the following sample, where the O argument has been fronted before the S argument. Fronted constituents are typically followed by an audible pause, as in the following example:

Makse, rihat kakno itá
/'makʃɛ̯ ɾi'hat 'kakno ɪt'aʔ/
makse rihat kak=no ∅-∅-itá-ʔ
mouse.LA falcon.HA seize=SEM DIR-HS-COP-LS
It was the mouse the falcon seized in one fell swoop.

Constituents can also be backgrounded. An O argument can be moved from its usual preverbal position to an intervening position between the main verb and copula. This form of backgrounding, available only to O arguments, is known as Pseudo-Noun Incorporation (PNI). It serves discourse functions similar to full noun incorporation found in its Minhast and Nahónda relatives, backgrounding the incorporated NP, decreasing valency, and providing additional specificity to the semantics of the main verb. The following example of compares and contrasts the default SOV₁V₂ word order, with that of a SV₁OV₂:

• Default SOV₁V₂ Order

Makse rihat tayôreno ta'itá
/'makʃɛ̯ ɾi'hat ta'yo:reno ;taʔɪt'aʔ/
makse rihat ta=yôre=no ta-itá-ʔ
mouse.LA falcon.HA INV=bite=SEM INV-HS.COP-LS
The mouse bit the falcon.

• Pseudo-Noun Incorporation, SV₁OV₂ Order

Makse yôreno rihat 'itá'
/'makʃɛ̯ 'yo:reno ɾi'hat taʔɪt'aʔ/
makse yôre=no rihat ∅-itá-ʔ
mouse.LA bite=SEM falcon DIR-COP-LS
The mouse falcon-bit.

Pseudo-noun incorporation (PIN), like full noun incorporation found in Nankôre's relatives, Minhast and Nahónda, lowers valency, transforming transitive clauses to intransitive clauses. The use of the Inverse marker is no longer needed, as the PIN has been reduced to an adjunct. As such, the PIN no longer occupies a core position, its saliency reduced due to the PNI process.

As in many SOV languages, modifiers precede their heads:

Sirkos sirohpa
/'ʃirkos ʃiroɦpa/
sirkos si=rohpa
foreigner fine.cloth
This fine foreign cloth

The Noun Phrase

Possession

Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective si=, followed either by the verb ras to indicate inalienable possession e.g. Koykare si=naho ras, "The boy's mother", or ocité for alienable possession, e.g. Koykare si=maska ocité. If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ta'/tah is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable Maska si=koykare tah-ocité, "The anthill's boy".

The Verb Phrase

The verb phrase is made up of the verb complex, and its predicate. The verb complex must end with the appropriate form of the auxiliary itá. Itá was originally a copula but later on accreted voice, tense, and the secondary ta- Inverse marker. The main verb precedes the copula and may be separated from it by a de-focused noun or by one or more adjuncts. De-focused nouns appear immediately after the main verb, and adjuncts cannot be inserted between the two (see "Quasi-Incorporation" below). Coverbs appear before the main verb. The primary ta- Inverse marker cliticizes to the first verb of the verb complex, which may be either a coverb, or the main verb.

Pseudo-Noun Incorporation

Nankôre canonical word order is SOV₁V₂, but under certain circumstances, the O-argument may occur between V₁ and V₂, i.e. SV₁OV₂. The O-argument becomes backgrounded, thereby assuming a peripheral role; as a result, the clause is effectively detransitivized. As a result, the Inverse marker ta- cannot occur in these derived intransitive clauses; it must be omitted for the clause to remain grammatical. This operation is called pseudo-noun incorporation, and occurs cross-linguistically in unrelated languages, e.g. Dutch and Hungarian. A feature of Nankôre psuedo-incorporation is that adjuncts, which typically can occur in most positions of a clause, including clause-finally, cannot occur between V₁ and the relocated O-argument.

Pseudo-incorporation may eventually evolve into full noun incorporation, as in the case of Nankôre's distant relatives, Minhast and Nahónda. Both exhibit full noun incorporation. Like Nankôre, both languages add the incorporated noun after the verb root, e.g. Minhast Ušnirumpakekaru << ušn-ruppumak-ek-ar-u (hit-face-3S.ABS+1S.ERG-PST.PFCT-TRANS) "I hit him in the face, I face-hit him", Nahónda klomenatsoyetolayo<< kloma-natsoye-Ø-t-ola-yo (speak-wisdom-3S.PT-1S.AGT-PST-AGT) "I gave him counsel, I wisdom-speak to him. Most languages that exhibit noun incorporation attach the incorporated noun before the verb root; placement of the incorporated noun after the root is rare among incorporating languages. The process by which Nankôre performs pseudo-incorporation, namely by placing the O-argument between the primary verb and auxiliary verbs, may explain why Minhast and Nahónda place their incorporated nouns after the verb. Proto-Nahenic may have also placed a pseudo-incorporated noun after the primary verb but before the auxiliary verb, an order which the descendant languages preserved.

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 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 ta-/tā-/tāh- surfaces, as in Joe Sara ta-soyka inupe ta'itá (Sara is stronger than Joe). Other examples:

1) Joe Sara soyka soyka ta'itá (Joe is taller than Sara; lit. "Joe big bigs Sara").

2) Joe Sara tā-hatka nahamos ta'itá (Sara is less tan than Joe).

3) Joe Sara hatka hatka ta'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 ta-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 ta-).

To express the superlative, the auxiliary verb norhe/norhâ appears before soyka and hatka, 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).

Table of Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Meaning
C	Single Consonant
V	Single Vowel
VV	Long/Geminate Vowel
PN	Proper Noun
NP	Noun Phrase
VP	Verb Phrase
OBL	Oblique argument
DEN	Denonym
AGT	Agent
PT	Patient
DIR	Direct Voice
INV	Inverse Voice
CONN	Connective
HA	High Animate
HS	High Animate Singular
HP	High Animate Plural
LA	Low Animate
LS	Low Animate Singular
LP	Low Animate Plural
NEG	Negator
CAUS	Causative
INCH	Inchoative
SEM	Semelfective
PNI	Pseudo-Noun Incorporation
PIN	Pseudo-Incorporated Noun
SG	Singular
PL	Plural
REM.PST	Remote Past Tense
HOD	Hodiurnal Past Tense
PST	Past Tense
PRS	Present Tense
IMM.FUT	Immediate Future Tense
FUT	Future Tense
IMPF	Imperfect Aspect
PRF	Perfect Aspect
IRR	Irrealis