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The reasoning for this rather unusual classification is down to phonotactic patterning: these five groups all behave somewhat differently and serve as a more useful distinction than point of articulation when describing the phonology of Ahgo. The pair or triplet given for each phoneme refers an important feature of the language which is the alternation between various allophonic realisations despite the relatively low number of underlying sounds, making the variation richer on the surface. | The reasoning for this rather unusual classification is down to phonotactic patterning: these five groups all behave somewhat differently and serve as a more useful distinction than point of articulation when describing the phonology of Ahgo. The pair or triplet given for each phoneme refers to an important feature of the language which is the alternation between various allophonic realisations despite the relatively low number of underlying sounds, making the variation richer on the surface. For instance, long vowels (romanised by doubling the vowel) and nasal vowels (romanised using a tilde) are not analysed as phonemic. | ||
===Romanisation=== | ===Romanisation=== | ||
| Line 76: | Line 76: | ||
==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||
With regards to syntactic patterning, only three significant word classes can be posited: verbs, nominals and adverbials. Nonetheless there is a degree of mobility between the three. | Ahgo does not mark words for number, person or case. With regards to syntactic patterning, only three significant word classes can be posited: verbs, nominals and adverbials. Nonetheless there is a degree of mobility between the three. | ||
=== Verbs === | === Verbs === | ||
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The nominalisation slot creates a deverbal nominal and the adverbialisation slot creates and adverbial and so serve to change the class of the word; the possession slot is only used on deverbal nouns and not on regular verbs. | The nominalisation slot creates a deverbal nominal and the adverbialisation slot creates and adverbial and so serve to change the class of the word; the possession slot is only used on deverbal nouns and not on regular verbs. | ||
====Stems==== | |||
Each verb has a set of primary stems formed more or less predictably from a combination of affixes. The first stem, the stative indicative, is used as the lemma when citing words, such as ''oada'' "to shine": | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! | |||
! Stative | |||
! Active | |||
! Translative | |||
! Causative | |||
! Passive | |||
|- | |||
! Indicative | |||
| '''''oada''''' | |||
| ''oahda'' | |||
| ''oadna'' | |||
| ''oadsa'' | |||
| ''oasda'' | |||
|- | |||
! Optative | |||
| ''oase'' | |||
| ''oahdse'' | |||
| ''oadne'' | |||
| ''oadse'' | |||
| ''oasdse'' | |||
|} | |||
All of these terms are to an extent ad hoc. For instance the passive stem is only used to form deverbal nominals; there is no true passive construction syntactically. | |||
===Nominals=== | ===Nominals=== | ||
Nominals are mostly unmarked and the main kind of affixation, while resembling case marking, results in adverbialisation, thus changing the class of the word. Nominals can | Nominals are mostly unmarked and the main kind of affixation, while resembling case marking, results in adverbialisation, thus changing the class of the word. Nominals can however be marked for possession or be incorporated into a verb. | ||
===Adverbials=== | ===Adverbials=== | ||
Adverbials are used to denote a place, time or manner. | Adverbials are used to denote a place, time or manner. Their formation sometimes resembles case marking or conjunctions more than traditional adverbs, but serves that role as well. | ||
Some prominent adverbialising suffixes: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! Locative | |||
| ''-da'' | |||
|- | |||
! Temporal | |||
| ''-go'' | |||
|- | |||
! Benefactive | |||
| ''-ba'' | |||
|} | |||
===Deixis=== | |||
The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. What does get commonly marked is deixis: whether something is close to or far away from the speaker or a previous referent; unspecified deixis is also possible. On nominals deixis is generally spatial while on verbs it is temporal (proximal working roughly as a present tense and distal as a non-present one); adverbial deixis can be either depending on the characteristics of the adverbial in question. | |||
The deictic stems are as follows: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! Neutral | |||
| Ø- (unmarked) | |||
|- | |||
! Proximal | |||
| ''e-'' | |||
|- | |||
! Benefactive | |||
| ''o-'' | |||
|} | |||
Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ''ee'' and ''oo'' as well as verbal and possessive prefixes ''e-'' and ''o-''. Neutral deixis sometimes surfaces epenthetically as ''a-'' due to phonotactic constraints, but is not underlyingly explicitly marked. | |||
==Syntax== | ==Syntax== | ||
The word order is strictly SOV, with adverbials generally preceding the nominals followed by the verb. | |||
===Valency=== | |||
====Transitivity and inversion==== | |||
Transitivity is explicitly marked and through an inversion marker on the verb the roles of agent and patient can be swapped without a change in word order, the purpose of which is topicalisation, leaving the topic in the subject position. | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=ao bao e<u>hh</u>eahwa | |||
|gloss=ao dog PROX-<u>TR</u>-see.ACT.IND | |||
|translation=Ao is looking at the dog | |||
}} | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=ao bao e<u>ss</u>eahwa | |||
|gloss=ao dog PROX-<u>INV</u>-see.ACT.IND | |||
|translation=Ao is being watched by the dog | |||
}} | |||
Inversion is especially important when the subject is being omitted as person markers do not exist: | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=ehheahwa | |||
|gloss=PROX-TR-see.ACT.IND | |||
|translation=I am looking at it | |||
}} | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=esseahwa | |||
|gloss=PROX-INV-see.ACT.IND | |||
|translation=it is looking at me | |||
}} | |||
====Incorporation==== | |||
There is a limit on two unmarked nominal arguments of a verb. There are two ways to introduce more arguments, one of which is to incorporate the third nominal into the verb. | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=ao bao od<u>sãmm</u>oyya | |||
|gloss=ao dog DIST-TR<<u>water</u>>consume.CAUS.IND | |||
|translation=Ao gave the dog water to drink | |||
}} | |||
====Adverbialisation==== | |||
The other method is to completely remove the valency of the nominal by turning it into an adverbial, which is why this process sometimes resembles case marking. | |||
{{gloss | |||
|phrase=meh<u>d</u>՚ ao bao odsãmmoyya | |||
|gloss=fire-<u>LOC</u> ao dog DIST-TR<water>consume.CAUS.IND | |||
|translation=Ao gave the dog water to drink by the fire | |||
}} | |||
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]] | [[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]] | ||
[[Category:Languages]] | [[Category:Languages]] | ||