Flei/Old draft

Netagin
brítz nˀAthághín בְּרִיץ אֲ֬תָגִין ββρείτζ νἈθωγείν

Pronunciation	[/bʁitɬ naθɒˈʝin/]
Created by	–
Native to	Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey
Native speakers	393,000 (At least it's more than Irish, hallelujah) (2013)
Language family	Isolate Netagin
Official status
Regulated by	ˀAbhlóchath mBrítzí ˀAthághín (אב״א)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`nt`
ISO 639-2	`nt`
ISO 639-3	`qnt`
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.

Qúlátz dí ˀAthághígh: Brítz nˀAthághín

דף זה בעברית: נתגין

Netagin is intended to be my "real" jump-on-the-pseudo-Celtic-bandwagon - a morphophonological rather than syntactic imitation of Celtic, specifically within a Semitoid framework. It is an a priori language intended to have a Northwest Semitic and Irish aesthetic, (Indeed Tiberian Hebrew and Aramaic are the most stereotypically "Celtic" of all Semitic languages, with their use of lenition. So much that I was once tempted to make an Irish-looking Semlang. For the curious, it resulted in something like

A chathabh an séibhear an seabhar ba bhíth an dtóir?

Q write.3SG.M DEF scribe.ABS.DIR DEF book.ABS.DIR LOC house.CONST.GEN DEF purity.ABS.GEN

Did the scribe write the book in the house of purity?

This project can be considered a compromise between the two aesthetics, bent rather more toward the Semitic side.) and also as a semi-joke, though I'm not sure if it is best understood as laughing with or at Israelis/Modern Hebrew for their mutational challengedness. (So if any of you Semitic speakers and Semiticists are reading this please excuse the language's being in the Semitic-ness uncanny valley; it's part of the humor value.) It employs templatic morphology, animacy hierarchy-based person marking and mutation-triggering proclitics encoding multiple grammatical functions such as topic-prominence, TAM and modality/evidentiality.

Background

The Netagin language (Netagin: בְּרִיץ אֲ֬תָגִין ββρείτζ νἈθωγείν brítz nˀAthághín [bʁɨtɬ naθɒˈʝin] "speech in our manner"; Greek: νεθαγίν nethayín; Modern Hebrew: נְתָגִין nesogį́ or נְתָגִינִית nesoginís), as its name suggests, is a language isolate autochthonous to Cyprus and spoken in Cyprus and its Middle Eastern environs, including the Holy Land. (There are suspicions, however, that it may be related to Afroasiatic.) It shares with neighboring Greek extensive spirantization, nasal mutation and palatalization. Rather remarkably, however, Netagin additionally grammaticalized some of these sandhi processes, much like the insular Celtic languages and to a lesser extent Tiberian Hebrew. It is a fusional and templatic language utilizing consonantal (mainly triconsonantal) roots, with some agglutinative characteristics. The language has been small but vigorous up until modern times, and has influenced the local dialects of other languages. Currently the language is suffering from decline in speakers and attrition of its many unique grammatical features. The latter is especially severe in Israel as the marginalized speakers assimilate more Israeli roots, vocabulary and syntax, and omit mutations as in spoken Israeli Hebrew.

Phonology

The Netagin phonemic inventory contains 5 vowels and some 35 consonants, and secondary articulations are quite pronounced in said consonants' realizations. Consequently the phonology of Netagin has been colloquially summarized as "Proto-Semitic > Tiberian Hebrew sound changes applied in the wrong order and spoken in a Russian accent".

Consonants

**Netagin consonants**
Consonants
		Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		Bilabial	Labio-dental	plain	pharyngealized	plain	pharyngealized	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasals		m, mb /mˠ~mʲ/				n, nd, nˀ, nh /nˠ~ȵ/	nˤ, nḥ /nˤ/		ng /ɲ~ŋ/
Plosives	voiceless	p /pˠ~pʲ/				t /tˠ~t͡ɕ/	ṭ /tˤ~ɗˤ/		c /c~k/		q /q/		ˀ /ʔ/
Plosives	voiced	b, bp /bˠ~bʲ/				d, dt /dˠ~d͡ʑ/	dṭ /dˤ/		g, gc /ɟ~g/		gq /ɢ/		ˀ /ʔ/
Fricatives	voiceless		f, ph /fˠ~fʲ/	th /θ/	ṭh /fˤ~θˤ/	s /sˠ~ɕ/		š /ʂˠ~ʃ/	ch /ç~x/		qh /χ/	ḥ, fh /ħ/	h /h~ɦ/
Fricatives	voiced		bh /vˠ~vʲ/	dh /ð/		z /zˠ~ʑ/			gh /(j~)ʝ~ɣ/		r /ʁ~ʀ/	ˁ /ʕ/	h /h~ɦ/
Approximants		mh, mhf /w~vʲ/							y /j(~ʝ)/
Lateral app.						l /ɫ~ʎ/
Lateral fric.						ś /ɬ/
Lateral aff.						tz /tɬ/

The phoneme /tˤ/ is commonly realized as an implosive, [ɗˤ] word-initially.

In the standard pronunciation (but not in all dialects; notably not in the Ṭašálí dialect) all consonants except /j/, pharyngealized coronals, uvulars, gutturals (pharyngeals and glottals), lateral fricatives and affricates and dental fricatives are strongly palatalized when preceding a front vowel and (especially for coronals) velarized before a back vowel. (Some speakers also velarize and palatalize lateral obstruents /ɬ/ and /tɬ/.) This serves to more clearly distinguish plain consonants from their emphatic counterparts.

Phoneme	/ɣ/	/x/	/g/	/k/	/ŋ/	/ʂ/	/l/	/z/	/s/	/d/	/t/	/n/	/w/	/v/	/f/	/b/	/p/	/m/
Velarized	[ɣ]	[x]	[g]	[k]	[ŋ]	[ʂˠ]	[ɫ]	[zˠ]	[sˠ]	[dˠ]	[tˠ]	[nˠ]	[w]	[vˠ]	[fˠ]	[bˠ]	[pˠ]	[mˠ]
Palatalized	[ʝ(~j)]	[ç]	[ɟ]	[c]	[ɲ]	[ʃ]	[ʎ]	[ʑ]	[ɕ]	[d͡ʑ]	[t͡ɕ]	[ȵ]	[vʲ]		[fʲ]	[bʲ]	[pʲ]	[mʲ]

Y and slender gh are merged by many speakers.

Vowels

The vowels written with an acute accent can be analyzed as long vowels or tense vowels; one or more of both pronunciations may be realized simultaneously.

**Vowels**
	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	í /i(ː)/		[ɨ]		ú /u(ː)/
Near-close		i /ɪ/		u /ʊ/
Close-mid	é /e(ː)/		[ɘ]		ó /o(ː)/
Mid
Open-mid	e /ɛ/		[ɜ]		o /ɔ/
Near-open
Open			a /ä/		á /ɒ(ː)/

Front vowels /i e ɛ/ are centralized to [ɨ ɘ ɜ] after pharyngealized or uvular consonants.

Vowels are nasalized before /ʕ/, /ħ/ and /ʁ/.

Stress

In native words primary stress can only fall on the ultimate, or less commonly the penultimate syllable.

Orthography

Until recently the Greek alphabet and the Hebrew abjad (especially in Israel or by Jews) were more often used. However, recently the Latin script, especially imprecise renditions thereof, has been spreading to the exclusion of the Hebrew-based orthography.

Consonants

The dagesh (Netagin: tirpálí) is used to mark historical gemination (dagesh forte) that is nowadays realized only as gemination in resonants n, l, and r and non-lenition for the case of the lenitable letters b, g, d, ṭ, c, m, p, q, and t. The lenitable letters (Netagin: בֵּגָֿ״דֿ וֲּטֵֿכָֿ״םֿ וֻּפֶֿקָֿ״תֿ béghádh fa-ṭhéchámh fu-phéqháth [beˌɣɒð fasˤɘˌxɒw fʊfʲeχɒθ]) are written with a dagesh when they are not lenited. Mémh, however, often resists lenition after /ɪ/, /i/ or /j/. A word-medial dageshed lenitable consonant is not written as double letters in Latin script.

Syllable/word-final <ˀ> and <h> are silent. When a word-final he has a mappiq (homographic to the dagesh) it is not silent, but is to be pronounced /h/ (Romanized as hh and Hellenized as a doubled vowel).

Netagin consonant graphemes
Hebrew	Name	Latin	Greek	IPA
א	ˀálaph	ˀ	spiritus lenis	/ʔ/
בּ	báith	b	ββ	/b~bʲ/
גּ	gímhal	g	γγ	/ɟ~g/
דּ	dálath	d	δδ	/d~dʑ/
ה	hé	h	spiritus asper, vowel doubling (when word-final)	/h/
וּ	fó	f	ϝϝ	/f~fʲ/
ז	záin	z	ζ	/z~ʑ/
ח	ḥéth	ḥ	η	/ħ/
טּ	ṭéth	ṭ	ττ	/tˤ~ɗˤ/
י	yódh	y, i after a vowel	ι, ϊ after a vowel	/j/
כּךּ	cáph	c	χχ	/c~k/
ל	lámhadh	l	λ	/ɫ~ʎ/
מּםּ	mémh	m	μμ	/m~mʲ/
נן	nún	n	ν	/n/
ס	sámhach	s	σ, ς	/s~ɕ/
ע	ˁáin	ˁ	ω	/ʕ/
פּףּ	pé	p	φφ	/p~pʲ/
צץ	tzádhe	tz	τζ	/tɬ/
קּ	qóph	q	κκ	/q/
ר	réš	r	ρ	/ʁ~ʀ/
ש	šín	š	σζ	/ʃ/
שֹ	śín	ś	θζ	/ɬ/
תּ	tó	t	θθ	/t~tɕ/

Lenition (Netagin: taqídháˀ 'melting; dissolution') is marked with a lack of a dagesh in the Hebrew script, or a following h in the Latin script. The rafe may be used for improved contrast.

Lenition
Hebrew script	Latin	Greek	IPA
ב	bh	β	/v~vʲ/
ג	gh	γ	/ʝ~ɣ/
ד	dh	δ	/ð/
ו	fh	ϝ	/ħ/
ט	ṭh	τ	/fˤ~θˤ/
כך	ch	χ	/ç~x/
מם	mh	μ	/w~vʲ/
פף	ph	φ	/f~fʲ/
ק	qh	κ	/χ/
ת	th	θ	/θ/

Historical nasalization, or eclipsis (Netagin: carríṭháˀ 'befogging; making turbid'), is marked in the Hebrew script with a núní mecharríṭh ('befogging little nún'; rendered here as an iluy) in conjunction with a dagesh for lenitable consonants.

Eclipsis
Hebrew script	Latin	Greek	IPA
א֬, ה֬	nˀ, nh	ν- added	/n~nʲ/
בּ֬	mb	μβ	/m/
גּ֬	ng	νγ	/ɲ~ŋ/
דּ֬	nd	νδ	/n~nʲ/
וּ֬	mhf	μϝ	/w~vʲ/
ח֬, ע֬	nḥ, nˁ	ν- added	/nˤ/
י֬	ny	ν- added	/nʲ/
טּ֬	dṭ	ντ	/dˤ/
כּ֬	gc	γχ	/ɟ~g/
פּ֬	bp	μφ	/b/
קּ֬	gq	γκ	/gˤ~ɢ/
תּ֬	dt	νθ	/d~dʑ/

Vowels

Netagin vowel graphemes
Hebrew	Latin	Greek	IPA (Standard)	IPA (Țašálí)
אַ, אֲ	a	α	/a/	/o/
אָ¹	á	ω	/ɒ/	/ɒ/
אֶ, אֱ, אְ	e	ε	/ɛ/	/e/
אֵ	é	αι	/e/	/ej/
אִ	i	ι	/ɪ/	/i/
אִי	í	ει	/i/	/i/
אָ, אֳ	o	ο	/ɔ/	/o/
אֹ, אוֹ	ó	αυ	/o/	/oj/
אֻ	u	υ	/ʊ/	/u/
אֻו	ú	ου	/u/	/uj/
אְ	Ø

Disambiguation

In the Latin and Greek scripts interpuncts (·) are used to separate digraph combinations that are to be pronounced as two letters: piq·háˀ (they dream).

Unvocalized orthography

In the unvocalized Hebrew-based orthography it is generally accepted to indicate all mutations in addition to writing matres lectionis for certain long vowels. The diphthong ái and sometimes éi are written with two consecutive yódh.

Morphology

NB. Superscript ^L = lenition of the following consonant, ^N = eclipsis, ^D = following consonant is dageshed.

Nouns and Adjectives

See also: Netagin/Declension patterns.

Nouns and adjectives are inflected for number (singular, paucal and plural), gender (animate, honorific, inanimate and abstract; historically the latter two, being somewhat arbitrary with respect to abstract nouns, had been dubbed "masculine" and "feminine" after the Semitic genders they resemble), and four cases.

The mutations that accompany the words only affect other words in the same prosodic phrase or between words of a modifier-modified relationship.

Declensions with sound plurals

Animate plurals are typically sound (concatenative), while inanimate sound plurals are typically adjectives (and their nounless forms derived from them via the prefix m- if they don't have it already) and abstract/honorifics.

Animate declension: qinnáth ('stranger')
Case	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Direct	qinnáth	qinnáthú	qinnátháˀ
Genitive	qinnáthím^N	qinnáthann^L	qinnáthín^N
Instrumental	qinnáthámh	qinnátháigh	qinnáthígháˀ^L
Locative	qinnáthámh	qinnáthéim^N	qinnáthán

Inanimate declension: yáréph ('wheel')
Case	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Direct	yáréph^N	yiréphú	yirépháˀ
Genitive	yiréphí^L	yiréphann^L	yiréphái^N
Instrumental	yiréphégh^N	yirépháigh	yiréphgháˀ^L
Locative	yiréphín	yiréphéim^N	yiréphán

Uncountable/honorific declension: ˀimáˀ ('mother')
Case	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Direct	ˀimáˀ(^N if abstract)	ˀimáthéi	ˀimónáˀ
Genitive	ˀimath^N	ˀimáthann^L	ˀimónái^N
Instrumental	ˀimáthégh^N	ˀimátháigh	ˀimóncháˀ^L
Locative	ˀimáthín	ˀimáthéim^N	ˀimónín

Declensions with broken plurals

Broken plurals are nonconcatenative plurals that take singular case markers (they derive diachronically from collective noun patterns). Broken plurals only occur with (mainly less animate) nouns. Unlike in Arabic broken plurals induce no irregularity in agreement.

Broken plural patterns
Singular	Plural	Examples
C₁əC₂íC₃	C₁əC₂úC₃	brítz (language) > brútz psíph (vote) > psúph
C₁əC₂íC₃	C₁əC₂óC₃	fríaˁ (arrow, ray) > fróaˁ
C₁eC₂[a]C₃	C₁əC₂áC₃, C₁əC₂éC₃	śebhar (fish) > śbhár
C₁éC₂[a]C₃	C₁əC₂áC₃, C₁əC₂éC₃	létzí (sow, contemptible person) > letzí
C₁óC₂[a]C₃	C₁oC₂áC₃, C₁oC₂éC₃	nódhamh (sack) > nodhémh
C₁éC₂óC₃, C₁éC₂áC₃	ˀəC₁C₂íC₃, ˀəC₁C₂úC₃, ˀəC₁C₂áC₃	céthóaˁ (encounter) > ˀechtíaˁ léghóaˁ (season) > ˀelgúaˁ
C₁óC₂áC₃	C₁əC₂óC₃áˀ^N	póḥar (island) > paḥóráˀ
C₁áC₂íC₃	ˀəC₁íC₂úC₃	ˁáríaḥ (handle) > ˀaˁírúaḥ
C₁áC₂óC₃	C₁əC₂C₂éC₃	páthól (tree) > pitél
CəCCVːC	CəCáCóC, CəCóCéC, CəCáCúC	tidhpór (grammar) > tadháphór
CiCCəCáˀ	CəCCóCáˀ	misratzáˀ (attention) > masrótzáˀ

Derivational morphology

Patterns

CáCíC: quality adjective
CúCáC: resultative adjective
CéCóC^N: event
tiCCúC^N: event/place
tiCCáC/tiCCéC^N: instrument
maCCéC/maCCíC: profession
tiCCáCáˀ^N/tiCCéCáˀ^N: process
miCCúC^N: patient noun
miCCóC^N: resultative noun
CóCáCáˀ^N: degree/measure
CéCéiC, meCaCCéiC (Hebrew): wannabe X[-er]

Affixes

-ón: certain nouns, pejorative suffix
-úl: "network"/system of things
-í, -íy-: diminutive; person; (Semitic) nisba adjectival suffix
-íth^N, -úth^N (pl. -ínáˀ, -únáˀ) abstract noun suffix, probably of Semitic origin

Pronouns

Second person plural pronouns and verbs are used for politeness, and first person paucal is used for humility in very formal situations. Subject and direct object forms are usually omitted, except for topicalization or focusing. The short forms are adpositional object forms, which follow the adposition unlike other NPs.

The third person pronouns only refer to animates.

Personal pronouns
Case	Zeroth person	First person			Second person			Third person
Case	Zeroth person	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Nominative	ˀagáˀ	ˀaghd	ˀadú	ˀadáˀ	ˀann	ˀannú	ˀannáˀ	héhh	hennú	hennáˀ
Accusative	ˀácháˀ, cháˀ	ˀaghtí, tí	ˀáthú, thú	ˀátháˀ, tháˀ	ˀání, ní	ˀánú, nú	ˀánáˀ, náˀ	hethí, hí	hethú, hú	hetháˀ, háˀ
Genitive	ˀáchái^N, chái^N	ˀaghím^N, ghím^N	ˀáthann^L, thann^L	ˀáthái^N, thái^N	ˀaním^N, ním^N	ˀánann^L, nann^L	ˀánái^N, nái^N	hím^N	hann^L	hái^N
Instrumental	ˀáchnáˀ^L, chnáˀ^L	ˀaghámh, ghámh	ˀátháigh, tháigh	ˀáthgháˀ^L, thagháˀ^L	ˀanámh, námh	ˀánáigh, náigh	ˀán·gháˀ^L, nagháˀ^L	hámh	háigh	hagháˀ^L
Locative	ˀáchín, chín	ˀaghámh, ghámh	ˀáthéim^N, théim^N	ˀáthín, thín	ˀanámh, námh	ˀánéim^N, néim^N	ˀánín, nín	hámh	héim^N	hín

Interrogative pronouns
Case	'who'	'what'
Nominative	mí	ˀéi^N
Accusative	máˀ	ˀéi^N
Genitive	méi^L	ˀayyéi^L
Instrumental	mím	ˀéigh
Locative	mím	ˀéim

The demonstrative pronoun is used adnominally or pronominally. It may be used as a pronoun for inanimates.

Having arisen from historical gemination, the demonstrative pronoun resists mutations.

Demonstrative pronoun
Case	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Direct	dí	lú	cáˀ
Genitive	déi^L	lann^L	cái^N
Instrumental	dágh	léigh	cagháˀ
Locative	dó	léim^N	cín

There is another demonstrative pronoun, nadí, meaning 'that other' (similar to "obviative") or 'the former'. As in French or German, demonstratives do not encode distance; a place word (such as zán 'here', rán 'there', lehalán 'the following') is necessary in order to deictize the noun more precisely.

Verbs

Netagin verbs, perhaps similarly to those of Biblical Hebrew, mark aspect and person, but not tense. (Netagin, rather unusually, renders tense as proclitics on NPs instead.) Non-concatenative morphology figures prominently in conjugation for valence and TAM, much like in Semitic and Proto-Indo-European. However, unlike in Semitic languages verbs can also be derived via derivational "mishqalim" patterns (with a lot of overlap with nominal patterns), so there is not as much skew towards being noun-heavy as in Semitic.

Primary stems

For inflectional paradigms, please see Netagin/Primary stem conjugation.

The primary stems inflect with heavy use of transfixes. Comprising about 500 verbs, this class is the counterpart to strong verbs in Germanic. There are up to 4 primary patterns or "binyanim" that a root may take in Netagin:

In the Intransitive paradigm are verbs denoting intransitive actions ("come"), as well as stative verbs ("be cold"). It is often considered the most basic form. The difference between adjectives and stative verbs is roughly equivalent to the ser-estar distinction.
The Transitive paradigm contains most monotransitive verbs, ("eat") including causativizations of Intransitive verbs ("make happy"). Can also have a telic (desired outcome was reached) meaning.
The Reflexive pattern consists of verbs denote reflexive/reciprocal action ("get dressed", "kiss each other"), or change of state ("thicken").
The Causative pattern contains causatives of transitive verbs ("feed") (and of some Intransitives and Reflexives). Causatives of statives in the imperfective aspect may denote active maintenance of a state (as opposed to changing a state in the perfective aspect).

Note that there is no passive in Netagin - this function is mainly served by zeroth person in transitive verbs or with Reflexive verbs, or simply topicalization of the patient.

	Perfective	Imperfective	Participle	Action noun
Intransitive	C₁aC₂aC₃	C₁iC₂C₂aC₃	C₁óC₂éC₃	C₁C₂íC₃^N
Transitive	C₁C₂óC₃	C₁aC₂C₂í¹C₃	meC₁aC₂C₂íC₃	C₁aC₂C₂íC₃áˀ^N
Reflexive	ˀiC₁C₂é¹C₃	niC₁C₂é¹C₃	mi^NC₁úC₂áC₃	ˀaC₁C₂óC₃ath^N
Causative	ˀaC₁C₂aC₃	^NC₁éC₂aC₃	maC₁C₂áC₃	ˀaC₁C₂úC₃áˀ^N

¹ Attenuates to a before a stressed suffix beginning with a consonant.

Suffixes beginning with a vowel cause the vowel between C₂ and C₃ to be elided.

The infinitive (inf) is formed by leniting the first letter of the bare stem of the verb, or if said first letter is a guttural or n, adding fa-.

The participle is an agent noun or an adjective. Adverbializing it yields manner of action "as if to X".

The action noun (axn) or gerund is used in action noun constructions, which are of the form SUBJECT-gen AXN OBJECT-acc. It is of importance in forming relative clauses, for Netagin does not have a relativizer.

בֶּן אָתַןּ גְדִיב כַּ֬וֵּה וַּתַּתֵּ֬לַם.

Ben ˀáthann ghedhíbh gcaféh fatedtélamh.

FUT=1PC.GEN drink.AXN.SG.DIR coffee.SG.DIR INV-(1,3)-awaken/CAUS.IPFV

Our drinking coffee will keep us alert.

Derived stems

The derived conjugation generates the bulk of new verbs in Netagin. The inflection, incorporating various concatenative formatives from the primary inflection, is almost entirely linear.

	Perfective	Imperfective	Participle	Action noun
Intransitive	ˀe[STEM]	[STEM]	mi^N[STEM]	ˀa[STEM]íth^N
Transitive	ˀa[STEM]	ˀi^N[STEM]	mə[STEM]	[STEM]íyáˀ^N

The infinitive is formed in the same manner as for the primary stems.

Patterns

Many (nowadays, most) derived verb patterns are verbalized noun patterns.

Affixes

Unipersonal (suffix) conjugation

The suffix conjugation is used for inherently intransitive (unaccusative) or reflexive verbs, and imperatives. Unipersonal verbs are negated in the optative/imperative by núr^N.

**Unipersonal verb structure**
0	1	2
Stem/Voice/Aspect	Personal suffix	Imperative or Polarity/Focus

In the indicative the personal suffixes represent the subject; in the imperative they indicate the object.

Unipersonal suffixes
Person	Singular	Paucal	Plural
0	-c[h]¹áˀ
1	-d(i)/-gh(i)¹/-t[h]¹í³	-t[h]¹ú	-t[h]¹áˀ
2	-ann	-nú	-náˀ
3	-(a)²/-í³	-ú	-áˀ

The 0th, 1st and 2nd person forms are penultimately stressed; the 3rd person forms are ultimately stressed.

¹After vowels or mh.
²As indicative subject; not expressed without another suffix
³As imperative object.

Slot 2 suffixes
Netagin	Gloss
-n	Imperative (imp)
-chú	Affirmative focus (aff.foc)
-hí	Negative (neg)
-náˀ/-cháˀ*	Negative focus (neg.foc)

*In second person forms.

Bipersonal (prefix) conjugation

The prefix conjugation is used for non-imperative transitive verbs (verbs that can take an agent and a patient).

**Bipersonal verb structure**
−2	−1	0	1	2
Inverse prefix	Bipersonal prefix	Transitive stem/Voice/Aspect	Polarity/Focus	Pluractionality suffix

Inverse prefix
Netagin	Gloss
fa^D-	Inverse (inv)

The inverse prefix is called fó mágham ('flipping/inverting fó') in Netagin. Note that the inverse prefix geminates/de-lenites the personal prefix consonant.

Personal prefixes
Netagin	Gloss
b-	(2,0)
c-	(1,0)
h-	(1,2)
l-	(0,3)
n-	(2,3)
t-	(1,3)
y-	(3,3)

Polarity/focus suffixes
Netagin	Gloss
-(a)	Affirmative (aff)
-cú	Affirmative focus (aff.foc)
-hí	Negative (neg)
-náˀ	Negative focus (neg.foc)

All of the above suffixes are stressed. The focused suffixes emphasize the truth value and are therefore used to answer yes/no questions.

Pluractionality suffix
Netagin	Gloss
-nn	Pluractional (plax)

The pluractionality suffix never affects the thematic vowel in irregular verbs, unlike other suffixes beginning with a consonant.

Numerals

Numerals are essentially ordinary adjectives (below 100) or nouns (for 100 and higher units). Units larger than 100 turn their heads into the genitive case.

The collective and reciprocal is archaic for numerals above 3. Numerals exceeding ten only have periphrastic distributives, collectives and reciprocals (ḥáchúbh fa-hálódh mbúrégh '11 at a time'; ˀaˁathómhath tzúbhál nḥachúbháˀ 'a group of 30'; hálódh méˀath '1/100').

Netagin numerals
	n	nth	n each/at a time	n-fold; n-ad	1/n
0	séphar	*mesáphúr	-	-	-
1	hálódh	mehálúdh	halúdhládh	halálédh	-
2	gáḥéz	megáḥúz	gaḥuzḥáz	gaḥáḥéz	géḥáz
3	tzúbhál	metzábhúl	tzebhulbál	tzebhábhél	tzibál
4	méqhátz	memháqhútz	meqhutzqátz	meqháqhétz	miqátz
5	pazzím	mepházúmh	pezumhzámh	pezázémh	pizzámh
6	ˀalbán	melábhún	lebhunbán	lebhábhén	libán
7	qátzídh	meqhátzúdh	qetzudhtzádh	qetzátzédh	qittzádh
8	cóˁáš	mecháˁúš	ceˁušˁáš	ceˁáˁéš	céˁáš
9	ripúi	merápheh	rephuipheh	rephápheh	ripeh
10	ḥachúbh	meḥáchúbh	ḥachubhcábh	ḥacháchébh	ḥicábh
11	ḥáchúbh fa-hálódh	ḥáchúbh mehálúdh	-	-	-
20	gáḥéz nḥachúbh	megháḥúz nḥachúbh	-	-	-
21	gáḥéz nḥachúbh hálódh	gáḥéz nḥachúbh mehálúdh	-	-	-
100	méˀáˀ	maˀáthí	-	-	-
1000	ˀelaph	ˀalphí	-	-	-
10^6	ˀecatomíryó, ˀecat'	-	-	-	-
10^9	disecatomíryó, disec'	-	-	-	-

Grammar

Word order

The constituent order defaults to SXVO/SVOX, but topicalization may promote a constituent to first position. Adjectives and genitives usually follow the noun unless they are topicalized, focalized or used to form appositional collocations. Genitive/possessive pronouns always precede the possessed NP.

Two types of function words can be recognized in Netagin: proclitics (coordinating conjunctions, topic/focus, etc.), which attach to the host or to another clitic and form what counts as one word, and relators (prepositions and subordinating conjunctions) which occupy second position (a.k.a. Wackernagel's position) in their dependent noun phrases or clauses.

Number

There exist three numbers in Netagin: singular (sg) representing one object, paucal (pc) for a few, and plural (pl) for many. The paucal form usually denotes two to nine items, but the boundary between paucal and plural is quite fluid; a paucal could be used for a larger number for contrast with a much larger number of things. The plural number in pronouns also serves as an honorific; complementarily, using paucal pronouns where a plural is expected entails a "dishonorific", humble or pejorative meaning.

Nominal number

Nouns are declined for all three numbers.

Verbal number

Pluractionality denotes that an action is performed a plural (as opposed to singular or paucal) number of times or places, or the number of objects is plural. Pluractionality with a second person object, or lack of pluractionality with a first person object, may also be used to indicate politeness.

Politeness/Honorific

Honorific suffixes on nouns indicate that the speaker raises the referent. The second person honorific is above the first person in the animacy hierarchy while the second person familiar is below first person. Pluractionality is used for honorific objects.

הַבֲּ֬תֻורָא תִּרֵּנַפַןּ.

Ἁ-μΒαθουρώ θθιρραιρναφάνν.

Ha-mBathúráˀ tirrénaphann.

ha-N báthúr-áˀ t-[r-n-p]/ˀaCCaC-ann

FOC=deity-HON.DIR (1,3)-serve/CAUS.IPFV-PLAX

It is God I/we serve.

Cases

All cases have adpositions that govern them. High-register language relies more on case and less on adpositions.

Direct

The direct case (dir) marks a core argument of a verb, either subject or direct object. It should be noted that Netagin marks the recipient (usually the more animate patient), rather than the theme (the less animate patient), of most ditransitive verbs with the direct case; Netagin is thus a dechticaetiative language. Pronouns, unlike nouns, distinguish nominative (nom) and accusative (acc). The direct/accusative case is the case governed by prepositions that originate from verbs.

Genitive

The genitive case (gen) indicates possession, origin, cause, or concern. It is used also appositionally (in the order genitive-noun), where English would use a compound. The genitive case also has partitive uses.

Possessor-less genitives are possible and, by corollary, headless relative clauses.

Instrumental

The instrumental (ins) indicates instrument/means or comitation (with certain prepositions; the bare instrumental can optionally be used as a comitative for pronouns). What is considered the direct object of ditransitive constructions in dative languages is most often cast in the instrumental in Netagin. (Netagin, although a dechticaetiative language, does not have a dedicated dechticaetiative case.)

The inanimate instrumental singular is used as an adverb for adjectives.

Locative

The locative or allative case (loc) marks location or destination (often with locational prepositions), spatial, temporal or abstract. Some ditransitive verbs cause their themes to take the locative.

Hierarchy

Person, animacy and social status are all factors in the hierarchical person marking. The hierarchy is:

2.honorific > 1 > 2.familiar > 3.human > 3.other animate > 0 > 3.inanimate

By default the direction of transitivity is assumed to be from higher to lower animacy. Generally when a less animate participant acts on a more animate one, the verb is required to take an inverse-marking affix.

If neither participant outranks the other, then the priority is settled with degree of obviation: if the action proceeds from a more obviate to a more proximate one, the verb carries the inverse prefix.

Topic and focus particles

The topic marker, which is also the vocative marker, marks what the sentence is about. It is used frequently (at least to the same degree as in Japanese), but there can be at most one topic in a clause. Topic markers are usually absent in subordinate clauses (always in relative clauses).

The focus is used for new information or contrastive emphasis. The latter sense can be emphasized by fronting the focused constituent in front of the verb.

Nominal/Adjectival predication

Netagin is entirely devoid of copulas. Instead one uses the topic particle ha-^L with the subject, and the focus particle ha-^N on the predicate nominal.

הֲזְמָלִ אֶלָּא הַגַּ֬שֻּודָא.

Ἁ-ζεμώλ ἐλλώ ἁ-νγασζζουδώ.

Ha-zemhál ˀelláˀ ha-ngaššúdháˀ.

TOP=person.PL.DIR NEG FOC=thing-INAN.PL.DIR

People are not objects.

Sentences of this form are not always predication (although the following case could be analyzed as an eclipsed form of "As for me, it's this big one that I get...").

הֲאַגְדּ, הַמְּטָלֵם זָן; הֲאַןּ, הַמְּרָשִיחַ רָן.

Ἁ-ἄγδδ, ἁ-μμετωλαίμ ζών, ἁ-ἀνν, ἁ-μμερωσζείαη ρών.

Ha-ˀaghd, ha-meṭhálémh zán; ha-ˀann, ha-merášíaḥ rán.

TOP=1SG.NOM, FOC=NOMZ-big.INAN.SG.DIR here; TOP=2SG.NOM, FOC=NOMZ-small.INAN.SG.DIR there

Me, this big one; you, that small one.

Predication of possession

Predicative possession is constructed similarly to the dative construction in many languages, but the possessor is topicalized.

הֲאַגְדְּ חֵמָא חִצָּא אַקְדֻּול.

Ἁ-ἄγδδ ηαιμώ ηιτζζώ ἀκδδούλ.

Ha-ˀaghd ḥémháˀ ḥittzáˀ ˀaqhdúl.

TOP-1SG.NOM exist.IPFV-3PL excess.PL.DIR coin.PL.DIR

I have too many coins. (lit. Me-wise, there are excess coins.)

Focus affixes

Focus affixes mark the utterance as an answer to a question. Focused verbs are the usual response to polar questions.

"ˁAnnú?" "ˁAdtúnáˀ."

"Are you coming?" "No."

Focused verbs are also used for discourse functions.

כַּזַגְדִּכֻו רַקּ, נַג מטִּיג, נַג וַבִּיץ, נַג פַרְשִין מַּהְּבִּינִי תֻּובָסָא.

Χχαζαγδδίχου ράκκ, ναγ ματτείγ, ναγ ϝαββείτζ, ναγ φαρσζείν μααβεινεί ντουβωσώ.

Cazaghdichú raq, nagh mhaṭígh, nagh fhabítz, nagh pharšín mahhbíní dtúbhásáˀ.

be_embittered-1SG-AFF.FOC INF.write/IPFV, again INF/tranliterate/IPFV, again INF/vocalize/IPFV, again INF/decode/IPFV example-SG.GEN utterance-PL.DIR

I'm just sick of having to write, AND transliterate, AND vocalize, AND gloss example sentences.

Relative clauses

Netagin uses deranked relative clauses that employ a possessive construction using the action noun of the verb. Resumptive pronouns are required as oblique arguments in the RC, and may be used in subject/DO positions as well. The position of tense particles in the RC is useful for reconstructing the aspect of the clause; they are found on the most patient-like argument when the verb is perfective and the most agentive argument when the verb is imperfective. Relative clauses are negated with the prefix míl- ('un-, lack of') which is hyphenated to the verb.

הַוָרָשֹ לְאָ֬תָי דַ֬סִּילַת?

Ἁ-ϝωρώθζ λε-ὠθώϊ νδασσειλάθ;

Ha-fháráś le-ˀáthái ndassílath?

TOP=silver.SG.DIR RECENT_PAST=1PL.GEN earn/AXN-SG.GEN

What of the money we've been earning? [lit. as for the money of past-our earning]

Using the plural form of the verbal noun indicates pluractionality, which is required for plural absolutive NPs in relative clauses as well as for plural actions.

כֳּלָל וְּטֻונָא

χχολώλ ϝϝτουνώ

colál fṭhúnáˀ

bird.PL.DIR migrate/AXN.PL-GEN

birds that migrate

שְֹבָר אֲ֬גִיםּ שַֹבִּירוֹנָי

θζβώρ νἀγείμμ θζαββειραυνώϊ

śbhár nˀaghím śabírónái

fish.SG.DIR 1SG.GEN fish/AXN-PL.GEN

the fish I catch

RCs of the form "which is NP" can be rendered with apposition (FOC=[predicate NP]-INS).

אֲגִיםּ חָ֬שִי, הַמִּזְרֵגָם דְּיוֹם

ἀγείμμ νηωσζεί, ἁ-μμιζραιγώμ δδιαύμ

ˀaghím nḥáší, ha-mizréghámh dyómh

1SG.GEN sister.SG.DIR FOC=student.SG.INS still

my sister, who is still a student

Relative clauses may occur before the noun in poetry.

Instrument clauses

The sense of "by X-ing/having X do Y" is conveyed by an isomorphic construction, but the action noun occurs in the instrumental case.

אַנְעֻונִיָּתֵג גֶּשְלִין צְבָבֵל

ἀνωουνειιωθαίγ γγεσζλείν τζεβωβαίλ

ˀanˁúníyáthégh gešlín tzebhábhél

AXN-press-AXN-INS button-LOC three/times

by pressing the button thrice

Complement clauses

Complement clauses can be formed in two ways. The first is more common in literary usage, and makes use of raising:

נְרַמִּיץ הֶתִי דַנּיא לְטַּזְטֵּזֵג.

Νεραμμείτζ ἑθί δαννεί λετταζτταιζαίγ.

Neramítz hethí dhanníˀ leṭazṭézégh.

(2,3)-know.IPFV 3SG.ACC INF/cook mediocre-ADV

You know him/her to be a mediocre cook.

The second is more active in more common speech and uses a complementizer ṭú.

רִמַּצַןּ הֵהּ טֻּו לְדַנִּיא לְטַּזְטֵּזֵג.

Ριμματζανν ἁίι ττού λεδαννεί λετταζτταιζαίγ.

Rimatzann héhh ṭú ledhanníˀ leṭazṭézégh.

be.aware.IPFV-2SG 3SG.NOM COMP (0,3)-cook mediocre-ADV

You know s/he's not the best cook.

Questions

Questions do not use a question particle (except e.g. hén in leading "tag" questions), nor is there normally a change in word order.

Interrogatives
Netagin	Gloss
mí	who
ˀéi^N	what
mah	what (determiner)
léimáˀ	which one
mánabh	where
mór ˀášéináˀ	when
ˀamínáˀ	how
michlím	how much/many
ˀellú céináˀ	why

Clitics

Clitics serve a diversity of functions in Netagin. The order of pre-NP clitics is as follows: epistemic-tense-topic/focus.

Inpositional

Netagin adpositions come in second position (cf. the Latin phrase magna cum laude) unless the object is pronominal, in which case they are prepositional.

קִּב כִיםּ

γκιβ χειμμ

qibh chím

for 1SG.GEN

for me

תִּפְלוֹן אָ֬נָי תַּ֬ל אִ֬מַּת

θθιφλαύν νὠνώϊ νθαλ νἰμμάθ

tiphlón nˀánái dtal nˀimath

letter.INAN.DIR 2PL.GEN from mother-HON.GEN

a letter from your mother

The following lists common adpositions. If two cases are listed, the accusative case denotes movement to the position.

Adpositions
Adposition	Case	Gloss
tal^N	genitive	from
qibh^L	genitive	for the sake of
cí^L	genitive	in order that
qrúth^N	genitive	lest, in order that... not
ˁar^N	instrumental	with (accompanying)
ˀel^N	instrumental	without
déráˀ^L	accusative	because of
hídh^L	accusative	towards
maš^N	locative, accusative	in, within
cel^N	locative, accusative	above, over
dón^L	genitive, accusative	on, about
nótz^L	genitive, accusative	before, in front of
cad^L	locative	when
tar^N	locative, accusative	after, behind, for (locative)
meṭáˀ^L	locative, accusative	over, beyond, through
bach^N	locative, accusative	below, under
ferr^N	genitive, accusative	between, among
yirin^L	genitive	instead of

Usage of cí/qrúth/cad/nótz/tar

Purpose clauses and time clauses have a different structure than independent clauses. The subject is declined in the appropriate case and occupies first position, and the infinitive form is used for the verb.

מִּבְלוֹקִי קְרֻות תַקַם צָּפִיחַ

Μμιβλαυκεί κρούθ θακαμ τζωφείαη

Mibhlóqhí qhrúth thaqhamh tzáphíaḥ

ice-SG.GEN lest INF-melt.PFV early

lest the ice melt prematurely

Pronominal subjects follow the conjunction:

תַּר נֻו לָט!

Θθαρ νου λώτ!

Tar nú láṭh!

after 2PC.ACC INF.die.PFV

After you die! (hostile response to a command/request)

Discourse

Discourse particles
ha-^L	topic, vocative
ha-^N	focus, new information
dé^L	after all
ˀéibháˁ	don't you know?
hén	tag question

Epistemic

Epistemic modal particles
ṭim	"probably"
qáš	"must"
ca-^L	"can/might"
hégh	"I doubt that..."

Tense

Tense marking can be omitted or shifted depending on the context; narrative texts, for instance, will record tense relative to the present time of the story. Tense is marked on the most patientive argument available if the verb is perfective, and on the most agentive argument if the verb is imperfective.

Tense particles
Netagin	Gloss
l-	recent past
š-	historical, >20 years ago
ben	future

Attitudinal

Attitudinal clitics typically precede the verb.

Attitudinal particles
Netagin	Gloss
nac^L	happiness, excitement
šú^N	entreaty for empathy, "so"
ˀich^L	optative
dim^L	hope
qrúth^N	fear/warning, 'lest'

דִּיתִיב שֹֻו רַצַמְגְ!

Δδειθείβ θζού ρατζάμγ!

Díthíbh śú ratzamhgh!

today so be_saggy/PFV-1SG

I've been so exhausted today!

Jussive

וָּחִין בַּר וֲּעָן!

Ϝϝωηείν ββαρ ϝϝαωών!

Fáḥín bar faˁán!

order.PFV-3SG then INF-come.PFV

Let her come then! (lit. tell her to come)

Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions always come in second position.

Conjunctions
Coordinating
Netagin	Gloss
fa- (fu- / _C[+labial])	and (nominal/adjectival)
ˀis	and (sentential)
mó	or
ˀach	but
ˀóth	but/rather
Subordinating
Netagin	Gloss
ṭú^L	that [complement clause]
haṭhú^L	if
ˀaph	although, even if
bar^L	then
gún^N	because
habhráˀ^L	so, therefore

Loanwords

Netagin has many loanwords from various sources such as Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish, and Hebrew (ancient and modern).

from Israeli

Note that Modern Hebrew words use (a derivative of) the Ashkenazi vocalization, as the revivers of Hebrew adopted Ashkenazi Hebrew for its being superior representation of the structure of Tiberian Hebrew in comparison to Sephardi Hebrew. Some adaptations are made:

the Hebrew feminine ending -o is rendered as -áˀ.
the Hebrew vowel /ø/ is mapped to é.
the nasal vowels of Hebrew are mapped to VC[+nasal +homorganic] / _C and to Vn, Vmh or V / _#.
Hebrew consonantal values may be either orthographically or phonetically mapped, within Netagin constraints.

Diachronics from loanwords

Netagin's long history of borrowing allows reconstruction of much of the diachronic history of the language, by looking at the sound changes that have happened between the source word and the modenr recorded form.

Examples:

targūm (Aramaic 'translation') > tirgúmh ('translation')

Poetry

Netagin poetry may use meters ranging from Arabic/Turkish-like quantitative meters (leading to resemblance to Hebrew piyyutim) to more Greek- and Italian-influenced qualitative meters (the latter being altered to fit the predominantly iambic words of Netagin).

The following equivalences are considered rhyming (modulo homophony, e.g. -ú = -úmh):

sharing a stressed -VC,
sharing a stressed -CH ("mutations mutandis", e.g. -tann = -thann),
sharing a -H(CVC), where the first syllable is stressed. The C beginning the second syllable may be discounted in less serious contexts. (H is a heavy rime of the form -VV(C) or -VC(C), where VV is a long vowel)

To conform to meter or rhyme patterns initial consonant clusters may be broken: *bláth > beláth, or syllables may be elided.

Note that rhyming is often not transitive when initial mutations are considered; namely it is strongly discouraged to traverse both homophony and mutation (and is absolutely impermissible to do so simultaneously) in a given rhyme.

Sample

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לַבְרִיץ דִּי לַצְבַּש נוֹצִין.
Λα-βρείτζ δδεί λατζββάσζ ναυτζείν.
La-bhrítz dí latzbaš nótzín.
This language has been featured [lit. shown in front].

דִּי הַגּ֬וֹזָבִי, הַמַּעֲמוֹרָתִי, וֲּהַמֵּיגָת תְּ֬קֻוסֵג, לִפְסוֹף הַבְרָא וַּאַצְבָּש.
Δδεί ἁ-νγαυζωβεί, ἁ-μμαωαμαυρωθεί, ϝϝαἁ-μμαιγάθ νθεκουσαίγ, λιφσαύφ ἁβρώ ϝϝαἀτζββάσζ.
Dí ha-ngózábhí, ha-maˁamhóráthí, faha-méghath dteqhúségh, liphsóph habhráˀ faˀatzbaš.
It is useful/usable, natural, and well-done, hence it has been elected to be featured.

Dictionary

Please see Netagin/Dictionary.

Flei/Old draft

Background

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Stress

Orthography

Consonants

Vowels

Disambiguation

Unvocalized orthography

Morphology

Nouns and Adjectives

Declensions with sound plurals

Declensions with broken plurals

Derivational morphology

Patterns

Affixes

Pronouns

Verbs

Primary stems

Derived stems

Patterns

Affixes

Unipersonal (suffix) conjugation

Bipersonal (prefix) conjugation

Numerals

Grammar

Word order

Number

Nominal number

Verbal number

Politeness/Honorific

Cases

Direct

Genitive

Instrumental

Locative

Hierarchy

Topic and focus particles

Nominal/Adjectival predication

Predication of possession

Other dative-like uses of the topic marker

Focus affixes

Relative clauses

Instrument clauses

Complement clauses

Questions

Clitics

Inpositional

Usage of cí/qrúth/cad/nótz/tar

Discourse

Epistemic

Tense

Attitudinal

Jussive

Conjunctions

Loanwords

from Israeli

Diachronics from loanwords

Poetry

Sample

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Dictionary