Ris

Ris
Rhánzi ris

Pronunciation	[/ˈr̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/]
Created by	–
Native to	Italy, Cyprus; Sicily
Native speakers	301,486 (2012)
Language family	Menmer languages Ris
Early form	Proto-Men
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`ri`
ISO 639-2	`ri`
ISO 639-3	`qri`
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Ris is my attempt to unite the sketchy constructed languages of mine; those lost forever in incomprehensible grammar, unsatisfying aesthetics and cumbersome phonologies. They stand united by the one shared feature - their relationship to the Greek language; my greatest influence no matter the language.

The Ris language, ῤάνζι ρις /r̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/, is a language isolate, and is thus not known to be related to any extant language. Ris has a normal-sized inventory of consonants and a fair amount of allophony. It is a fusional language and is morphosyntactically active-stative and with a fluid subject. The morphology is evenly split between nominal and verbal inflections.

Information

The Ris language, ῤάνζι ρις /r̥ʰand͡z͎ɪ rɪs͎/, is a constructed language, but does have a fictional background set in the real world. It is spoken on Sicily and on Cyprus and has about 300,000 native speakers. Or 1. Depends on how you count.

Grammatically speaking, the Ris language is morphologically fusional with a few agglutinative characteristics. It has enclitic pronouns representing the core arguments of agent and patient.

It also has an unsusual morphosyntactic alignment; the active-stative one, in the fluid subject subtype. This implies a system of control and volition, closely tied to a distinction in animacy.

Phonologically and phonaesthetically, the language is modelled after Greek. Other influences are native American languages, the Shona language and to certain degree Swedish.

Phonology

Consonants

The following is the inventory of consonants in the Ris language. There are 18 contrastive consonants.

**Ris consonants**
Consonants
		Bilabial	Denti-alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		Bilabial	plain	apical	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	plain	m /m/	n /n/			[ŋ]
Plosives	aspirated	ph /pʰ/	th /tʰ/			kh /kʰ/	[ʔ]
	unvoiced	p /p/	t /t/			k /k/
	ejective	b /pʼ/	d /tʼ/			g /kʼ/
Fricatives	unvoiced			s /s ~ s̺/	h /ç ~ x ~ h/
Fricatives	voiced		z /d͡z ~ d͡z̺ ~ z̺ ~ z̺/		[ʝ]
Trills	aspirated		r /r̥ʰ/
Trills	voiced		r /r/
Approximants		ou, u /w/			i /j/
Laterals			l /ʎ/

Consonant allophony

Allophony is common to many consonants, and sandhi forces them to be realised different in different environments.

The glottal fricative

The phoneme /h/, the so called glottal fricative, is in free variation with the unvoiced palatal fricative /ç/ as well as the unvoiced velar fricative /x/.


ἒντρο
hentro
/ˈhɛntrɔ/	=	/ˈxɛntrɔ/	=	/ˈçɛntrɔ/
I am normal, okay

The velar fricative is the most common one, but the phones are all affected by palatalisation from front vowels, producing the palatal fricative [ç].


ὐο			ἠστιμι
hyo			héstimi
/ˈhʉ̩.ɔ/	=	[ˈhʉ̩.ɔ]	/ˈheːs͎tɪmɪ/	→	[ˈçeːs͎tɪmɪ]
to leave .ind.m.			pride .f

Palatalisation

Palatalisation applies to velar consonants and occurs due to two main factors:

Internally: Front vowels and the palatal approximant, /j/, tend to palatalise preceding consonants if the syllable is stressed.
- C[-pal, +velar] → C[+pal, -velar] / _V[+front, +stress]
Externally: A final near-close near-front vowel, /ɪ/, palatalises the initial consonant of the following word.


ρακι			τη			ἠστιμι			τι κατέρριστουας?
raki			té			héstimi?			ti katérristouas?
/ˈrakɪ/	→	[ˈracɪ]	/ˈteː/	→	[ˈteː]	/ˈheːstɪmɪ/	→	[ˈçeːstɪmɪ]	/ˈtɪ kaˈtɛrrɪstwas/	→	[ˈtɪ caˈtɛrrɪstwas̟]
root .in.gen			how			pride. .f.pat			What are you writing?

Phonological processes

Vowels

There are 7 vowel phonemes in the Ris language. In Ris, the system of vowels are known as ptégna i rhaki - 'the hollow triangle', due to their symmetrical places of articulation.

All vowels may be long, but the phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ change their quality when long; they are then pronounced /eː/ and /oː/ respectively.

**Ris vowels**
		Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	short			y /ʉ/
Close	long			ý /ʉː/
Near-close	short		i /ɪ/		ou /ʊ/
Near-close	long		í /ɪː/		oú /ʊː/
Close-mid		é /eː/				ó /oː/
Mid
Open-mid		e /ɛ/				o /ɔ/
Near-open
Open	short			a /ä/
Open	long			á /äː/

Other than that, my vowels are rather simple. No mystics quirks at all. Well, that's if you choose to ignore the vowel harmony and umlaut process in the Damian dialect. Makes it a tad more interesting, in my opinion.

Orthography

Ris is primarily written in the Latin alphabet, but the original alphabet was in fact Greek. In its classical and modern form, the alphabet has 24 letters, ordered from alpha to omega; or ai mḗ otḗma in Ris. The below table shows the two alphabets and the Ris names for the letters, as well as the pronunciation in Standard Ris and the colloquial Ouis dialect.

Orthography
Greek		Latin		Pronunciation
Greek		Latin		Ris	Ouis
Α α	άλπα	A a	ai	/a/
Β β	βήτα	B b	bou	/b/	/β/
Γ γ	γάμμα	G g	gou	/g/	/ɣ/
Δ δ	δέλτα	D d	da	/d/	/ð/
Ε ε	έψιλαν	E e	egnás	/ɛ/
Ζ ζ	ζήτα	Z z	za	/d͡z ~ d͡z͎ ~ z ~ z͎/
Η η	ήτα	Ē ē	etḗma	/eː/	/eɪ̯/
Θ θ	θήτα	Th th	tha	/tʰ/	/θ/
Ι ι	ιότα	I i	iou	/ɪ/
Κ κ	κάππα	K k	kau	/k/
Λ λ	λάπτα	L l	la	/l/
Μ μ	μύα	M m	ḗma	/m/
Ν ν	νύα	N n	ḗna	/n/
Ξ ξ	ξία	X x	ḗxa	/ks͎ ~ gz͎/
Ο ο	ομίκραν	O o	ognás	/ɔ/
Π π	πία	P p	pau	/p/
Ρ ρ	ρό	R r	ría	/r/	/ɹ/
'Ρ ῤ	ῤαυ	Rh rh	rhau	/r̥ʰ/	/r/
Σ σ ς	σίγμα	S s	sa	/s͎/
Τ τ	τάυ	T t	tau	/t/
Υ υ	ύψιλαν	Y y	hytḗma	/ʉ/	/ʏ/
Φ φ	φία	Ph ph	pha	/pʰ/	/f/
Χ χ	χία	Kh kh	kha	/kʰ/	/x/
Ψ ψ	ψία	Ps ps	ḗpsa	/ps͎/
Ω ω	ώμεγα	Ō ō	otḗma	/oː/	/oɪ̯/

Diacritics

The Ris alphabets, both the Latin and Greek one, use a few different diacritics to modify the pronunciation. There are five diacritics that mark the following:

A stressed vowel in a syllable.
A long vowel in a syllable.
An aspirated vowel; preceded by /h/. Can also mark the phoneme /r̥ʰ/.
A stressed, aspirated vowel.
A long, aspirated vowel.

The use of aspiration here does not refer to the co-articulating process, but rather that the vowel is preceded by an /h/, a "glottal fricative".

Stressed vowels

Stressed vowels are marked with an acute accent, <´>, in the Latin script. In the Greek alphabet, the diacritic is the acute accent as well, only slightly different; <΄>. These mark that the syllable with the vowel is to be stressed, and thus articulated stronger, than other syllables.

File:Greek acute.png	File:Greek grave.png	File:Latin eta.png
Acute	Grave	Eta
File:Greek asper.png	File:Greek asper acute.png	File:Latin eta acute.png
Spiritus asper	Asper acute	Eta acute

Long vowels

Long vowels are vowels pronounced vowels articulated for a longer period of time. These get a grave accent in the Greek alphabet, <`>, and a macron in the Latin script, <¯>. Long vowels grave accent in the Greek script when stressed. In the Latin alphabet, however, the stressed long vowels get a second acute accent above the macron, <' ̄́'>.

As previously mentioned, all vowels can be long vowels, but there are two vowels that change their quality when elongated; the /ɛ/ and /ɔ/. These are raised to /eː/ and /oː/ respectively. In the Latin script these are marked as expected, <ē> and <ō>. However, in the Greek script, they are replaced by the letters eta <η> and omega <ω> respectively.

Aspiration

Aspiration, when a vowel is preceded by /h/, is marked by a so-called dasia in the Greek script, <῾>. In the Latin manner of style though, the letter <h> precedes the vowel, as it does phonetically.

In the Greek script, the dasia can be combined with the acute and grave accent, producing <῞> and <῝>.

The dasia can also be placed on the Greek ro sign, <ρ>. The pronunciation of <ῤ> becomes /r̥ʰ/, an aspirated voiceless alveolo-dental trill.

Morphology

Verbal

Conjugation

Main article: Ris conjugation

The Ris verbs agree with 4 moods, 6 aspects and 2 voices. It is split into two paradigms; one for each voice.

First paradigm

The first paradigm is in the active voice. The verbs are conjugated as follows. It is presented in the first person patientive singular, with a suffixed "-o".

káter- - to write
	Indicative	Subjunctive	Jussive	Imperative
Perfective	kátero	katérro	katerévo	káterro
Imperfective	káterto¹	katérratho	kateréutho²	katérratho
Inceptive	hékatro	hékatro	hékatrevo	hékatro
Cessative	kateráskho	katérraskho	katerépso	katérraskho
Causative	katerazo	katérrazo	katerépso	katérrazo
Iterative	kékatro	hékhatro	kékatrevo	hékhatro

káteratho is an alternative form.
katerépto is an alternative form.

Pronouns

Declension

Independent

Ris independent personal pronouns are not compulsory in the language. Ris is as such a pro-drop language. The pronouns decline according to 3 persons, 3 numbers, and 7 cases.

Enclitic

Ris enclitic personal pronouns are attached at the end of verbs, and indicate the subject and object of the verb. The object is only marked if it is not an apellative noun.

The enclitic pronouns only decline according to the core cases, the patientive and agentive.

If the subject is in full control of its actions, it is marked with the agentive. If it is not, it gets the patientive.
The object is always in the patientive.

The indicative enclitics are used when the verb is in the indicative or jussive moods, and the subjunctive when it is in the subjunctive or imperative.

Ris pronominal enclitics
		singular			dual			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative (and jussive)
Subject	Patientive	-o	-i	-a	-on	-in	-an	-ouna	-ia	-asi
Subject	Agentive	-ōn	-īn	-en	-ōne	-īne	-ene	-ounen	-ien	-asīn
Object	Patientive	-mi	-s	-i	-min	-ns	-in	-mou	-tsa	-as
Subjunctive (and imperative)
Subject	Patientive	-a	-ei	-ai	-an	-ēn	-en	-ouna	-ia	-asi
Subject	Agentive	-en	-ēn	-ēn	-ene	-ēne	-ēne	-ounen	-ien	-asīn
Object	Patientive	-mi	-s	-i	-min	-ns	-in	-mou	-tsa	-as

Nominal

The nominal morphology is split into a number of classes.

Declension

Main article: Ris declension

Declension of *gýtē*
Animate marked collective
ma.an	gýtē - fish
	singulative	dual-collective	plurative
Patientive	gýtē	gytḗn	gytḗr
Agentive	gytḗr	gytḗrne	gytḗra
Dative	gytḗs	gytḗnse	gytḗi
Instrumental	gytḗn	gytḗnne	gytḗs
Genitive	gýtēa	gýtēan	gytēái
Locative	gýtēia	gýtēian	gýtēiar
Vocative	gýta	gýtan	gytár

Grammar

Morphosyntactic alignment

Ris is a fluid-S active-stative language, and thus different to English, which is nominative-accusative. Compare the following example from Georgian:


Vaxt’angi ekimi iqo				Ninom daamtknara			Ninom ačvena suratebi Gias
	vaxt’ang-i	ekim-i	iqo		nino-m	daamtknara		nino-m	ačvena	surat-eb-i	gia-s
	Vakhtang-pat	doktor-pat	be aor.3sg		Nino-agt	yawn aor.3sg		Nino-agt	show aor.3sg	picture-pl-pat	Gia-dat
	S	S	VERB_intrans		S	VERB_intrans		A	VERB_trans	O	OBJECT_indirect
	'Vakhtang was a doctor.'				'Nino yawned.'			'Nino showed the pictures to Gia.'

A table of the Ris control and volition distinction in the core arguments, illustrating the two-way distinction in the subject of intransitive clauses.

Control

Control, volition or activity marks how much an argument intented for an action. There are two cases in the language to indicate high and low-control:

Patientive - low-control; little volition; the patient of an action.
Agentive - high-control; high degree of volition; the agent of an action.

The alignment grants that the three core arguments of a verb the agent, subject, and object are marked according to their role as well as the control they have over the action, how active they are.

The subject is the sole argument of an intransitive verb: I run or You fall

If the subject is in full control of its actions, it is marked with the so-called agentive case. Compare I run. If the subject cannot help the action, or simply experiences it, the patientive case is used; compare You fall.

The agent is the subject of a transitive verb: I hit him or You met her

In most active-stative languages, the agent of a transitive verb is always perceived as active in the action, in full control. However, in Ris, the same distinction as with subjects of intransitives apply. This means that it too may be marked with either the patientive or agentive.

The object is never in control of an action, and thus always in the patientive case: I hit him

Number

Ris has three numbers, all of which are equally common in the language. The Ris numbers are different to those of English, instead using a so-called collective-singulative distinction.

The distinction infers that the basic form of a noun is the collective, which is indifferent to the number and unmarked. However, in Ris, the collective form has an additional meaning, and can also signify duals. It is thus the singulative that most often goes unmarked.

Singulative

The singulative (sg) denotes one, single noun, and roughly corresponds to the English equivalent of singular. A singulative noun is a single item, either of a collective noun or even a mass noun.


thýo trḗma				mnío klī́ta mna				íntrai pákima ḗs?
/ˈtʰʉ̩ɔ ˈtreːma/				/ˈmnɪ̩ːɔ ˈklɪːta mna/				/ˈɪntraɪ̯ ˈpakɪma eːs/
thý	-o	trḗ	-ma	mní	-o	klī́ta	mna	ín-	-trai	paki-	-ma	ḗs
to want	-ind.prfv.1.sg.m	wheat.unm.inan	-pat.sg	to see	-ind.prfv.1.sg.m	wolf.ma.an.pat.sg	one	to be	-subj.prfv.1.sg.m	time.unm.inan	-pat.sg	you.2.dat.sg.an.
I want a grain of wheat.				I see a wolf.				Do you have a minute?

Dual-collective

The dual-collective number (dc) is a special number to the Hrasic language. The dual-collective primarily marks the collective sense, whereas English uses the plural. It does however also signify two nouns, a pair, in certain contexts.

Plurative

The plurative (pl) marks when there are multiple nouns, but more than two. It does not have the collective sense that the English equivalent does.

Gender

There are two genders in the Ris language, the animate (an) and inanimate (inan). The animate gender includes only living animals and insects, as well as supernaturals like spirits and deities. The inanimate gender mainly denotes non-living objects, abstractions as well as flowers and microorganisms.

In the 2nd and 3rd person singular personal pronouns as well as verbs, the animate splits into a feminine (f.an) and masculine (m.an) animate gender. These mark only natural gender.

Case

There are 7 grammatical cases in Ris. Most of these are rather common to the Indo-European languages.

**Ris cases**
Cases and usage
Case	Usage	Example
Nominative	The independent form of nouns; the lemma.	The dog
	Subject of high-control intransitive verbs; without a patient.	The dog bites.
	Subject of high-control intransitive verbs; without a patient.	The man fell.
	Subject of a transitive verb; with a patient.	The dog bit the man.
Accusative	Object or patient of a transitive verb.	The dog bit the man
	Indicates a duration of time.	I did it for many years
	In indirect statements.	He said I was ugly.
	To mark location.	I am at home.
	After certain prepositions.	Between one and ten; near you.
Dative	Indirect object of a ditransitive verb.	He gave the man a pen
	Dativus finalis; dative of purpose.	I fight for the king! Call for help!
	Dativus commodi; dative of benefit or malefic.	Open the door for him; this one is not for children.
	Dativus lativus; dative of movement.	I'm going to Siberia; I come from home.
	Dativus modi; dative of manner and cause.	He died from a disease.
	Dativus possessivus; dative of possession.	There is a book to me; I have a book.
	After certain prepositions.	Get away from me.
Instrumental	Instrumentalis instrumenti; the means of the action.	He writes with a pen.
	Instrumentalis auctoris; the performer of actions.	Opened by the mayor; caught by a net.
	Instrumentalis modi; the manner of means of an action.	Go by the short cut.
Genitive	Symbolises ownership	The dog's bone
	Marks objects related to the subject in composition	The group member
	Symbolises lacking	Go without me
	Marks origin of nouns.	I moved from the house
	Marks origin of nouns	It is from France
	Marks concerned, associated nouns	On the Origin of Species.
	Marks concerned, discussed nouns.	Talking about films.
	Indicates cause	It's because of the snow.
	Marks abstract cause	Thanks to/despite him.
Semblative	For comparations, and semblatives.	It is like a fish.
Semblative	For comparative adverbials.	I dance like a god; I dance godly.
Vocative	Direct address.	Hey, John!
	Disjoint address.	You are right, Mary.
	Exclamation.	Poor me! Wretched life!

Core cases

The Ris language is an active-stative language with fluid subjects, dependent upon semantic volition or control. This means that it marks the object of a transitive verb and the subject of a intransitive verb with the same patientive case, and marks the agent of the transitive verbs separately, with the agentive case.

In the fluid subtype however, the subject of an intransive verb may be marked like the agent of the transitive, if the subject has sufficient control over the action.

Patientive

The patientive, or undergoing case, (pat) is the case used to indicate both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb, in addition to being used for the citation form of nouns.

As the patientive is the citation form of nouns, there is little consistency in the patientive endings. They differ due to class, gender and etymology.
The patientive is also marked on verbs, and agrees with both the subject and object. Although patientive pronouns exist, they are often dropped.


ā́nkouro		gráni ínistan		tágren kḗrax
/ˈaːŋkʊrɔ/		/ˈgranɪ ˈɪnɪstan/		/ˈtagrɛn ˈkeːraks/
ā́nkour	-o	gráni	ínistan	tágren	kḗrax
trip.act.ind.perf	-pat.1.sg	pig.unm.an.pat.dc	exist.act.ind.ipfv.3.dc.pat	hit.act.imp.perf.2.sg.agt	bird.ma.an.pat.sg
I tripped		Pigs exist.		Hit the bird

Agentative

The agentative (agt) case is used to mark the subject, or agent, of transitive verbs. However, intertwined with the Ris language's distinction on control and volition, there is a distinction on intransitives, marking high control intransitives with the agentative argument.

On verbs, the agentive uses the suffix <-in> to agree with a high-control subject, or an agentive noun. It is used if the agentive pronoun is omitted. However, this is not completely true; please see the section on inverse marking.


(éu) katḗro ktérma				tṓu tethoū́ri			ā́nkourōn
/ˈɛu̩ kaˈteːrɔ ˈktɛrma/				/ˈtʊː tɛˈtʰʊːrɪ/			/ˈaːŋkʊroːn/
éu	katḗr	-o	ktérma	tṓu	tethoū́r	i	ā́nkouro-	-in
I.1.agt.sg	write.act.ind.perf	-pat.1.sg	letter.ma.inan.pat.sg	you.2.agt.sg	run.act.ind.itr	-agt.1.sg	trip.act.ind.perf	-agt.1.sg
I am writing a letter.				You are running around.			I trip on purpose

Agentive versus patientive

Confer the difference between the English intransitives "He tripped" and "He talked". In Ris, the former argument would be marked with the patientative case, since he is undergoing the verb, and the latter would be marked with the agentative, since he is in full control of his actions and the agent of the verb.

Being a fluid-S language, however, the simple "He tripped", might be marked with the agentative, should he intentionally have done so. Most often, this conveys a slight semantic shift, and "He tripped" might be interpreted as "He's faking a fall". Some verbs are are inherently high control, for example, the dynamic action "to cook" can hardly be performed unintentionally, likewise is the word for "to talk" somewhat difficult to perform involuntarily, except for sleep-talking.

The semantic shift is illustrated below with the word ánthēro, "to meet", which may be interpreted differently, depending on whether marked with the patientive or agentive pronoun, and wether it has a patientive or agentive suffix.


(éu) ánthēroi				(ei) ánthēroi				(éu) ánthērōni
/ˈɛʊ̩ ˈantʰɛrɔɪ̯/				/ˈɛɪ̯ ˈantʰɛrɔɪ̯/				/ˈɛʊ̩ ˈantʰɛroːnɪ/
éu	ánthēr	-o	-i	ei	ánthēr	-o	-i	éu	ánthēr	-ṓn	-i
I.1.agt.sg	meet.act.ind.perf	-pat.1.sg	-3.pat.sg	I.1.pat.sg	meet.act.ind.perf	-pat.1.sg	-3.pat.sg	I.1.agt.sg	meet.act.ind.perf	-agt.1.sg	-3.pat.sg
I met him/I met up with him.				I bumped into him.				I met up with him.

Inverse marking

Both the agentive and the patientive can be the subject or agent of a verb. The choice between the two depend on the degree of control with the subject. High-control subjects get the agentive, low-control subjects get the patientive.

Normally, a verb with a high-control subject would get the agentive enclitic personal pronouns "-in" suffixed. However, in verbs that are inherently high control, this is often omitted in casual speech. "To write" is an example; you rarely write unconsciously, so the agentive suffix is not necessary.

This has led to an interesting phenomenon: If a verb has inherently strong control, instead of being an agentive suffix, the enclitic pronoun instead inverts the control of the verb. For example:

The inherently low-control "to fall" becomes "to trip intentionally; to fake a fall", when using the agentive, as expected.
The inherently high-control "to speak" becomes "to sleep-talk; to ramble" - which means the control is diminished with the agentive suffix.

This leads to the inverted agentive (in-agt), which works like a patientive, and the agentive-like inverted patientive (in-pat).


ā́nkouro		ā́nkourōn		rháo		rhaṓn
/ˈaːŋkʊrɔ/		/ˈaːŋkʊroːn/		/ˈr̥ʰaɔ̩/		/r̥ʰaˈoːn/
ā́nkour	-o	ā́nkour	-ṓn	rhá	-o	rha	-ṓn
to fall.act.ind.prf.	-pat.1.sg	to fall.act.ind.prf.	-agt.1.sg	to say.act.ind.prf.	-inv.pat.1.sg	to say.act.ind.prf.	-inv.agt.1.sg
PAT - I fall.		AGT - I fake a fall.		IN-PAT - I speak.		IN-AGT - I sleep-talk, ramble.

Instrumental

Instrumental proper

The instrumental (ins) case serves a number of purposes in the Ris language. Primarily, it is used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which an action is conducted.


thēróuna nasḗrne			napsántan as...			ktérman kátergo tī́kmēnne
/tʰeːˈrʊna naˈseːrnɛ/			/naˈpsantan as/			/ˈktɛrman ˈkatɛrgo ˈtɪːkmeːnɛ/
thēróuna	nasḗr	-ne	napsántas	-n	as	ktérman	kátergo	tī́km	-ēnne
to travel.act.ind.ipfv.1.pl.in-agt	boat.ma-inan.	-ins.sg	to learn.act.pcp	-ins.sg	this.prox.3.sg	letter.ma-inan.pat.dc	to write.act.ind.ipfv.1.sg.in-agt	pen.ma-inan.	-ins.dc
We go by boat			By learning this... or By stealing this...			I write letters with pens

Inanimate subjective instrumental

On subject of control in the Ris verbs, inanimate agents of transitive verbs: subjects such as "the knife" in the sentence "The knife slices the bread" could impossibly be marked with the agentive case, since the subject has no control of its actions. Nor is it experiencing the slicing, and can as such not be marked with the patientive. Instead a construction with the mediopassive and instrumental used.

Of course if desired, the agent can be reintroduced, which means a switch from passive to active.


gva rega amagvan gava									uvanun tutann
/ˈɡwa ˈr̥ɛɡa aŋˈaɡwan ˈɡøwa/									/uˈwana ˈtutanː/
g	-va	ury	-a	a-	magv	-an	gava		⟨u⟩vaun⟨un⟩	tuta	-nn
I.1.sg.m	-m.agt	bread/col.n.	-n.pat	m.ins-	knife/col.m.	-m.ins	cut/ind.neu.m.sg		⟨n.ins⟩stone/n.col⟨n.ins⟩	hit/med.dyn-stat.m.sg	--pat.1.sg
I cut bread with knifes								I am hit with stones

Marking the inanimate noun with the agentive is incorrect. This is a distinction quite well known in natural languages, and even the Proto-Indo-European language is supposed to have made the distinction.


vanev ittimann				vanun tutinn				yatva vanum titann
/ˈwanɛw itˈtiŋanː/				/ˈwanun ˈtutinː/				/ˈjatwa ˈwanuŋ ˈtitanː/
vana	-ev	ittim	-ann	vana	-un	tuti	-nn	yat	-va	vana	-um	tita	-nn
stone/n.pl.	-n.pl.agt	hit/ind.dyn.n.pl	--m.pat.1.sg	stone/n.pl	-n.pl.ins	hit/med.dyn-stat.m.sg	--m.pat.1.sg	someone/m.sg	-m.agt	stone/n.pl	-n.pl.ins	hit/ind.dyn.m.sg	--m.pat.1.sg
*Stones hit me				I am hit with stones				Some guy hits me with stones

Comitative instrumental

The Ris instrumental also bears comitative and quantitative senses, indicating actions in company with other subjects, amounts, as well as lacking:


amnayya gan?					gva amnan imgimna						gvayya yarmunan
/aˈŋ͡majːa ɡøn/					/ɡwa aˈŋ͡man iŋˈɡiŋ͡ma/						/ˈɡwajːa ˈjar̥ŋunan/
amn	-a	-yya	g	-an	g	-va	amn	-an	imgim	-na	g	-va	-yya	yarm	-un	-an
you/2.sg.c	-c.pat.sg	-cop.act.ind.stat	I/1.sg.m	-m.ins	I/1.sg.m	-m.agt.sg	you/2.sg.c	-m.ins	make/act.ind.dyn.c.pl	--pat.3.n.sg	I/1.sg.m	-m.agt.sg	-cop.act.ind.stat	hair/n.sg	-n.ins	-n.neg
Are you with me?					I make it with you.						I am with no hair. or I have no hair.

Animate subjective instrumental

The last use of the instrumental, similarly to Russian and in part to English is to reintroduce a subject in a passive clause, very similarly to the adpositional phrase "by me" in English, as in "He was killed", and later; "He was killed by me". Using the instrumental with a reflexive mediopassive gives a reinforced statement, confer the Spanish disjunct prepositional pronouns:

Me lavo - «I wash myself»
A mí me lavo - «As for myself, I wash myself»


gva muni minan?						mumnayyiz gan			ethunann gan
/ɡwa ˈŋ͡muni ˈŋinan/						/ˈmuŋ͡majːiz ˈɡøn/			/ˈθunanː ɡøn/
g	-va	muni	min	-an		mumnayyiz	g	-an	thuna	-nn	g	-an
I/1.sg.m	-m.agt.sg	see/med.ind.dyn.c.sg	you/2.pl.c	-m.ins		discover/medpcp	I/1.sg.m	-m.ins	talk/med.ind.dyn.c.sg	--m.pat.1.sg	I/1.sg.m	-m.ins
I'm seen by you					.	Discovered by me			Me, I speak of myself.

Locative

Locative proper

See also: Ris possession

The locative case (loc) vaguely corresponds to the English spatial prepositions of "by", "at", "in", and "on". However, the Ris locative also bears a temporal usage, similarly to English "in an hour", "today", "after three o'clock".

The Ris language does have adpositions in the traditional sense, to control the exact location of the locative.


Amnayya azimat?				ʔineyna enazamut.					amagyat
/aˈŋ͡majːa azˈiŋ͡mat/				/ˈʔinɛjna ɛnˈazaŋut/					/aŋaɡˈjat/
amna	-yya	azima	-t	ʔiney	-na	en-	azama	-ut	am-	agy	-at
you/2.sg.c.pat	-cop.act.ind.stat	home/sg.n	-n.loc	lie/act.ind.stat.n.sg	-it/n.pat.3.sg	below.locp-	house/2.sg.c	-n.loc	after/behind.locp-	hour/f.sg	-f.loc
Are you at home?				It lies below the house.					In an hour

Lative locative

Related to location is movement, and the locative can through a construction with the lative particle ‹a› /a/, transform the locative meaning to a lative or translative one. Before a null-onset, it is pronounced /aɦ/.

The particle and the proclitic adpositions will be marked green.


Gam a azimat!				ʔinena a enazamut.						Ann erʔit.
/ɡøŋ aɦazˈiŋat/				/ˈʔinɛna aɦ ɛnˈazaŋut/						/anː erˈʔit/
gam	a	azima	-t	ʔine	-na	a	en-	azama	-ut	a-	-nn	erʔi	-t
come/act.dir.pos.m	latp	home/sg.f	-f.loc	lay/act.ind.dyn.n.sg	-it/n.pat.3.sg	latp	below.locp-	house/n.sg	-n.loc	latp	-m.pat.1.sg	anger/f.sg	-f.loc
Come home!				Put it below the house.						I am getting angry.

Possessive locative

The third purpose of the locative case is that it is also the main tool to express possession, a construction very close to the Celtic and Finnish equivalents, confer:

Minulla on talo - I have a house (literally: There is a house at me)

This is the one of the ways of expressing alienable possession in Ris, and it is as such never used for inalienable constructions.


gat azamayya				Manim gat azamayya!
/ˈɡ͡bøt aˈzaŋajːa/				/ˈŋ͡mønin ˈɡ͡bøt aˈzaŋajːa/
g	-at	azama	-yya	emin	g	-āt	azama	-yya
I/1.sg.m	-c.loc	home/sg.n.pat	-cop.act.ind.stat	see/act.dir.pos.c.pl	I/1.sg.m	-c.loc	home/sg.n.pat	-cop.act.ind.stat
My house				Behold my house!


azamayya gat ta trasino						Atnvayya gat girgemn.
/ aˈzaŋajːa ˈɡ͡bøt wa taˈtr̥asino/						/ atˈŋ͡majːa ˈɡ͡bøt ˈɡirɡemn/
azama	-yya	g	-at	ta	trasino		atn	-va	-yya	g	-at	girge	-mn
home/sg.n.pat	-cop.act.ind.stat	I/1.sg.m	-f.loc	def art.n	green(n.sg.pat)		dog/sg.n	-agt.n.sg	-cop.act.ind.stat	I/1.sg.m	-f.loc	see/act.ind.dyn.n.sg	-you.m.pat.2.sg
My green house							My dog barks at you.

Animacy

A table of the different Attian stages of animacy and salency.

Just as the Ris language makes a difference regarding gender, a fairly strong distinction in animacy^[*] is made, mainly for semantical and grammatical reasons, since there is no morphological distinction.

The Ris rules of animacy dictates that no inanimate objects may stand in the agentative case. Inanimate nouns are perceived as incapable of actually performing deliberate actions. Inanimates that are the subjects of an action are therefore most often marked with the instrumental case. This construction forces the speaker to directly name an animate agent, use a passive construction, or to use an indefinite pronoun. Inanimate, or less animate nouns also have a lesser probability to be compatible with verbs connected with higher degrees of animacy, like the words for "to talk", "to think" and "control".

There are several different degrees of animacy, which at times also intertwine with salency. The grading goes from Very high to Very low and spans 7 degrees. The top and most animate nouns are humans, and especially men and leaders. Women normally rank as at least as animate as men, but they can in certain circumstances be degraded to indicate inferiority. The least animate substantives are minerals, abstraction and in part; plants.

Don't blame the stone

Men vathim vana.

—Anathir t'Armavir, Descriptions of the language, p. 35

Don't blame the stone is a well known Attian saying, invented by the Attian grammarian Athanir t'Armavir. It's idiomatic meaning is that one should not blame the tool when it is not the master of its own actions. It also carries grammatical significance, since the Attian language does not allow inanimate nouns to be the agent of a verb. An equivalent phrase in English would be: It isn't the gun that kills, but the one who pulled the trigger.

Below is an example of someone hit with stones. Here, the subject impossibly could be marked with the agentive, taking their inanimacy in regard. Instead, you may put the subject in the instrumental case, and mediopassivise the verb. Alternatively the subject is degraded to an oblique, and a new subject is introduced.


vanev ittimann				vanun tutinn				yatva vanum titann
/ˈwanɛw itˈtiŋanː/				/ˈwanun ˈtutinː/				/ˈjatwa ˈwanuŋ ˈtitanː/
vana	-ev	ittim	-ann	vana	-un	tuti	-nn	yat	-va	vana	-um	tita	-nn
stone/n.pl.	-n.pl.agt	hit/ind.dyn.n.pl	--m.pat.1.sg	stone/n.pl	-n.pl.ins	hit/med.dyn-stat.m.sg	--m.pat.1.sg	someone/m.sg	-m.agt	stone/n.pl	-n.pl.ins	hit/ind.dyn.m.sg	--m.pat.1.sg
*Stones hit me				I am hit with stones				Some guy hits me with stones

Both verbs and nouns have different inherent animacy. Both the type of noun and verb are thus essential to interpret whether it can be the in the agentative case. Some verbs are more inherently animate than others in the Ris language, determining whether inanimate subjects may perform them; the word "to speak", thana, is used unexclusively for humans. Less animate subjects cannot perform this verb and are therefore coupled with another, more appropriate, one. Please note that only because inanimate nouns are less likely to perform more animate actions, more animate nouns may act out inanimate verbs.

Below is table with example nouns and verbs with their respective animacy. Please note that the first two degrees most often intertwine. It is common for slightly sexistic or separatistic speakers to use work-arounds when speaking about women or children: Instead of saying that they are capable, they would say they can do (it). In other terms; stative or generic verbs describing characteristics are less likely to be used with women. They have to satisfy with the appropriate dynamic verb.


Degrees of Animacy
Very High	High	Medium high	Medium	Medium low	Low	Very low
man	women, children	infants, pets	animals, weather	plants	minerals	abstractions
to talk		to communicate	to bark, to be noisy	to be green	to be heavy	to be complicated

Classes

There are a multitude of declensional classes in the Hrasic languages, below are the four most common ones. These decline with either a marked dual-collective or a marked singulative number.

Morphology