Anbirese/Syntax

The overall syntax of Tíogall resembles that of Irish or Biblical Hebrew.

Constituent order

Tíogall is almost completely head-initial, except for compound words which are head-final. The constituent order is VSO. Background information (usually in the order time-manner-place) and question words may be placed before the verb (unlike in Irish), after the subject, or after the direct object. However, no constituent may come between the verb and the subject.

Tiann b'aeillirne dhána?
/ˈtiən ˈb‿eːʀəlnə ɮaːnə/
why love-PRES.2SG-EMPH 1SG.DEP-EMPH
Why do *you* love *me*?

Noun phrase

Adjectives

Adjectives always follow their head nouns.

Possessive noun phrases

In possessive noun phrases the possessed noun uses the construct form, and the possessor (indefinite or definite) is placed after it. For pronominal possessors, the disjunctive pronoun is used.

Verb phrase

Negation

• interrogative: is-L
• negative: ní

Sentence phrase

Predicate nouns and adjectives

Tíogall is zero-copula, like Hebrew. A predicate adjective is placed before the subject, and the copula pronoun is used. On the other hand, a predicate noun has the "logical subject" placed after the preposition de, d'- + pronoun.

Zodhma diú cathar.

A flower is a plant.

Zodhma diú.

It's a plant. (lit. A plant is in it.)

When the subject is a definite noun, the pronoun is not mandatory with predicative adjectives:

Árd (hí) an gcamhna.

/aːlt ən ˈgawnə/

The woman is tall.

Árd hí.

/aːlt hiː/

She is tall.

Predicate nouns are negated by placing déar /deːl/ 'there is no' in front of the predicate noun.

Predicate adjectives are negated by placing ní (h) in front of the adjective:

Ní h-aonan ú cua ní sheolacht hú.

I don't do it because it's not legal.

Existential sentences

Existential sentences use a French-like construction.

Leo diú mród.

/ʁɵː dʉː mɾɵːt/

to-3SG.M in-3SG.M apple

There's an apple.

(There's an apple there = Leo diú mród diú.)

"X has" uses a similar construction to existentials:

Lion rúbh.

/ʁɪn ɾʉːv/

to-1SG dog

I have a dog. (lit. To me is a dog.)

Modal constructions

• dri + X = "X must/has to" (lit. it is on X)
• oith go + X = "X may"/"it is permissible for X" (lit. it goes through with X)
• geil + X = "X wants" (lit. it is away from X)
• le + X + siarna = "X needs" (lit. X has a need)

Conjunctions

• ar: 'and'
• lú: 'or'
• ach: 'but'
• ri-N: 'that (relative clause)'
• bhfá: 'that (complement clause)'
• cua-N: 'because'
• sean-L: 'when, if'

Dependent clauses

Relative clauses

Tíogall makes a distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses.

The relativizer ri^N (negative rint) is used for restrictive relative clauses. A resumptive pronoun may be used when the head is not the subject of the relative clause, and is mandatory when the head is a prepositional object or a possessor.

Verbs in relative clauses may be placed anywhere within the relative clause, subject to the constraint that the verb and (syntactic) subject may not be separated unless the head of the relative clause is the subject. If the head of the relative clause is its subject, then the verb is mutated or inflected like an adjective. Otherwise, the relativizer ri-N is used.

an léiste (an) mbothnúigh óiŋŋe

the spirit that endures suffering (lit. the spirit enduring suffering)

an léiste ri zslaithigh hí

the spirit that she shows

an léiste ri dtnáigh hí dí

the spirit she believes in (lit. the spirit that she believes in it)

In the past tense, a participle modifying the head as an adjective puts the head into a patient role in the relative clause (by split ergativity). Hence, agents of a transitive verb must use the preposition ro plus a resumptive pronoun.

G'laí an shlachan h-arŋaín rún stámh.

The number I got was 6.

A non-restrictive relative clause is marked with a pause (rendered as a dash "–") before the relative clause.

Nominalized relative clauses use cuar 'those':

cuar mímhaoghaigh ú

those who misuse it

Time clauses

There are two ways of forming time clauses.

The first construction is a clause introduced with a time conjunction such as (d'air = 'when') and using a finite verb form (i.e. the verb form is used with a subject).

The second construction is a clause introduced with a preposition (such as de, d' = 'at, in') followed by the verbal noun which may take a possessive prefix for the subject. Thus the non-finite time clause marks aspect or tense relative to the tense of the main clause rather than absolute tense. Non-finite time clauses are considered a little more literary than finite time clauses.

Infinitive clauses

In Modern Tíogall, infinitives or verbal nouns go to the end of the clause for common modal constructions (e.g. want, need, must, may).

Drion ean le ghnúi.

on-1SG water to drink.VN

I have to drink water. (lit. It is on me to drink water.)

Oith góis le shnóisill.

go_through.PRES with-2SG to continue You may continue. (lit. It goes through with you to continue.)

For emphasizing the object, "want/need/etc. an X to Y", a resumptive pronoun can be used after the verbal noun. (Alternatively the emphatic clitic -na/-ne can be used on X.)

Geilin tána le cháis ú!

from-1SG something to eat.VN 3SG.M-DEP

I want something to eat!

Not all constructions with the verbal noun use the infinitive-final order:

Ní h-airŋín lion áichir ú.

I didn't succeed in finding it.

The infinitive-final order arose from constructions corresponding to modal verbs in English: originally the order was something similar to *Drion gnúi ean ("on-1SG drink.VN water"), then Drion ean le ghnúi (originally "I want water to drink") became more common, eventually to the exclusion of the original construction, which is archaic or high-register today for common modal expressions.

Passive constructions

Use 'take' or 'get' + VN

Syntactic pivots

In normal registers, syntactic pivoting (the practice of omitting a subject entirely in a clause when the previous clause has it as a subject, e.g. He took my gift and went) is disallowed: a pronoun can be used as a subject in the following clause if the previous clause has its antecedent as its subject. So when asked to translate "Dark am I yet beautiful", the average Tíogall speaker will probably give Mocht ná ach subhan ná.