Verse:Hmøøh/Talma/Literature

Netagin (barīts Natāgīn) is a triconsonantal language inspired by Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, spoken in Western Cuadhlabh. This page describes Ancient Netagin.

Todo

• final -ʔ to block initial seimhiu in descendants
• need more binyanim (~ 10 like Arabic)
• passive binyanim?
• yarifi = wheel
• bīlan = woman
• mufgōrin = castle
• qabatxōt = alligator
• Imperatives? Moods/seq of tenses?

Roots

• n-t-g: ???
• r-s-d: study
• z-ʔ-r: go
• k-d-d: fly
• w-r-š: love
• b-n-š: hide

Phonology

Ancient Netagin had the following consonants (note no /l/!):

m n ŋ tʰ t kʰ k ʔ b d g f s ts ɬ tɬ ʃ ħ h z ʕ w r j

⟨m n ŋ t ṭ k q ʔ b d g f s ts x tx š ħ h z ȝ w r y⟩

The following vowels were used:

i iː u uː
a aː oː
aj aw

⟨i ī u ū a ā ō ay aw⟩

Stress is marked with an acute accent.

Morphology

Nouns and adjectives

Gender and number

Three numbers: sg, du/col, pl

Four genders: masculine (air), feminine (earth), fire, water (inspired by Valyrian)

absolute, construct, possessed forms

Definite article: ha-(gemination)

Noun and adjective endings

	Singulative		Dual-collective		Plurative
	absolute	construct	absolute	construct	absolute	construct
Air	-i	-∅	-ūʔ	-ū	-āʔ	-ā
Earth	-an	-ā	-ōnūʔ	-ōnū	-ōnāʔ	-ōnā
Fire	-in	-ay	-ayyūʔ	-ayyū	-ayyāʔ	-ayyā
Water	-ōti, -ti	-at, -t	-(a)tūʔ	-(a)tū	-(a)tāʔ	-(a)tā

For example, below are the declensions of yarifi (m.) = 'wheel'; bīlan (f.) = 'woman, wife'; mufgōrin (t.) = 'castle'; qabatxōt (a.) = 'alligator':

Sample nouns

	Singulative		Dual-collective		Plurative
	absolute	construct	absolute	construct	absolute	construct
Air	yarifi	yarif	yarifūʔ	yarifū	yarifāʔ	yarifā
Earth	bīlan	bīlā	bīlōnūʔ	bīlōnū	bīlōnāʔ	bīlōnā
Fire	mufgōrin	mufgōray	mufgōrayyūʔ	mufgōrayyū	mufgōrayyāʔ	mufgōrayyā
Water	qabatxōti	qabatxat	qabatxtūʔ	qabatxtū	qabatxtāʔ	qabatxtā

Possessive suffixes

Air singulative nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	yarifiki	yarifikū	yarifikā
2	yarifini	yarifinū	yarifinā
3	yarifihi	yarifihū	yarifihā

Earth singulative nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	bilāki	bilākū	bilākā
2	bilāni	bilānū	bilānā
3	bilāhi	bilāhū	bilāhā

Fire singulative nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	mufgōrayki	mufgōraykū	mufgōraykā
2	mufgōrayni	mufgōraynū	mufgōraynā
3	mufgōrayhi	mufgōrayhū	mufgōrayhā

Water singulative nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	qabatxtiki	qabatxtikū	qabatxtikā
2	qabatxtini	qabatxtinū	qabatxtinā
3	qabatxtihi	qabatxtihū	qabatxtihā

Dual-collective nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	yarifūki	yarifūkū	yarifūkā
2	yarifūni	yarifūnū	yarifūnā
3	yarifūhi	yarifūhū	yarifūhā

Plurative nouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	yarifāki	yarifākū	yarifākā
2	yarifāni	yarifānū	yarifānā
3	yarifāhi	yarifāhū	yarifāhā

Pronouns

	First person			Second person			Third person
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Independent	ʔakti	ʔakkū	ʔakkā	ʔanni	ʔannū	ʔannā	hini (m) hinan (f) hinn (t) hitti (a)	hinnū	hinnā
Clitic	-ki	-kū	-kā	-ni	-nū	-nā	-hi	-hū	-hā

Verbs

Netagin verbs, perhaps similarly to those of Biblical Hebrew, mark aspect and person, but not tense. Non-concatenative morphology figures prominently in conjugation for valence and TAM, much like in Semitic and Proto-Indo-European. However, verbs can also be derived via derivational "mishqalim" patterns (with considerable overlap with nominal patterns).

Primary stems

• Binyan 1 verbs 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.
• Binyan 2 contains most monotransitive verbs, ("eat") including causativizations of Binyan 1 verbs ("make happy"). Can also have a telic (desired outcome was reached) meaning.
• Binyan 3 consists of verbs denote reflexive/reciprocal action ("get dressed", "kiss each other"), or change of state ("thicken").
• Binyan 4 contains causatives of transitive verbs ("feed") (and of some Binyan 2 and Binyan 3 verbs). Causatives of statives in the imperfective aspect may denote active maintenance of a state (as opposed to changing a state in the perfective aspect).

Binyan	Imperfective	Perfective	Participle	Action noun
1	1a2a3	-i12a3	1ō2i3	1a2ī3i
2	1u2u3	-u1a2ːō3	mu1a2ːī3	1a2ːī3āʔ
3	ʔa12ī13	-uni12i3	mi1ːū2ā3	ʔa12u3ti
4	ʔa12a3	-i1ːi2u3	ma12a3	ʔa12a3āʔ
5	ta12u3	-uta12i3	muta12i3	ta12ō3āʔ
6	ʔiš1a2a3	-uš1i2u3	muš1i2u3	ʔiš1a2u3t

¹ Shortens to i when a suffix is added.

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.

Affixes

Present tense affixes

	Singular	Dual-Coll.	Plural
1	-ti	-tū	-tā
2	-an	-nū	-nā
3	-∅	-ū	-ā

ʔabnaš 'steal'

	Singular	Dual-Coll.	Plural
1	ʔabnašti	ʔabnaštū	ʔabnaštā
2	ʔabnašan	ʔabnašnū	ʔabnašnā
3	ʔabnaš	ʔabnašū	ʔabnašā

Past tense affixes

	Singular	Dual-Coll.	Plural
1	t-	t-ū	t-ā
2	n-	n-ū	n-ā
3	h-	h-ū	h-ā

ʔabnaš 'steal'

	Singular	Dual-Coll.	Plural
1	tibbinuš	tibbinušū	tibbinušā
2	nibbinuš	nibbinušū	nibbinušā
3	hibbinuš	hibbinušū	hibbinušā

Syntax

Ancient Netagin is almost completely head-initial; the unmarked word order is VSO.

Waraštini.

I love you.