Consonants
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | |
Nasal | m | n | ||
Plosive | p | t | k | |
Fricative | s | |||
Approximants | w | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ |
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Morphology
The only morphology outside of pronouns and possessive markers is reduplication, which is carried out by duplicating the first syllable of a word, signifying optional plurality for nouns (but never with numbers) and iterativity for verbs. Many of the things indicated in many languages by morphology are indicated by syntax. Note that pronouns and possessive markers do mark person and number in and of themselves.
Syntax
The basic word order is SVO and head-initial and the alignment is nominative-accusative. Syntax is heavily based on serial verb constructions and relative clauses, which take the place of adpositions. Likewise, stative verbs take the place of adjectives. Take, for instance;
Mi yiti suru pora run yara kora.
1S go throw ball be.round ALL goal.
"I threw the round ball in the goal."
Verb Complexes
There are two tenses, past and non-past, and two basic aspects, perfective and imperfective (note that there are also iterative verbs, which are inherently imperfective, but this is treated as derivation). Note that non-past perfective verbs imply gnomic meaning or future tense. By default verbs are non-past imperfective; the other tense/aspect combinations are expressed with the following auxiliary verbs before the main verb:
past perfective | ya |
past imperfective | say |
non-past perfective | naw |
Ti ya risa tipan.
2S PST.PFV receive eat
"You were eaten."
Ti ya risa karu tipan.
2S PST.PFV receive grue eat
"You were eaten by a grue."
There are two moods, indicative and imperative; imperative mood is marked by moving the verb to initial position, and if the agent is 2nd sg., omitting the agent. Take, for instance:
Tipan myora pika.
eat carrot be.big
"Eat the big carrot."
Tipan tya myomyora pika.
eat 2P carrot.P be.big
"You guys, eat the big carrots."
Verb negation is marked with a negative auxiliary, ay. Take, for instance:
Tya ay tipan myomyora kin.
2P NEG eat carrot.P be.little
"You guys didn't eat the little carrots."
Ay tipan myora kin.
NEG eat carrot be.little
"Don't eat the little carrot."
Ay tya tipan myomyora kin.
NEG 2P eat carrot.P be.little
"You guys, don't eat the little carrots."
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are mandatory, as there is no verb agreement, and we can't assume that everyone will tolerate deducing them from context like the Japanese do.
These are the personal pronouns:
Sg. | Pl. | |
1st | mi | mya |
2nd | ti | tya |
3rd | si | sya |
Demonstratives may be either proximal or distal, and may be either pronominal, attributive, or adverbial. These are the pronominal demonstratives:
Sg. | Pl. | |
Prox. | ki | kya |
Dist. | ri | rya |
Prox. | kay |
Dist. | ray |
These are the adverbial demonstratives:
Prox. | kama |
Dist. | rama |
Interrogatives
There are no word order changes involved in interrogative sentences; interrogatives are located where their non-interrogative antecedents would be located in a given sentence.
There are the following interrogative pronouns:
Sg. | Pl. | |
Anim. | ni | nya |
Inan. | pi | pya |
Anim. | nay |
Inan. | pay |
Place | wara |
Time | wan |
Reason | way |
These are the possessive stative verbs:
Sg. | Pl. | |
1st | ma | mani |
2nd | ta | tani |
3rd | sa | sani |
Prox. | ka | kani |
Dist. | ra | rani |
Anim. int. | na | nani |
Inan. int. | pa | pani |
Other | ku | ku |
Si yi myora ma.
3S EQU carrot POSS.1S
"It is my carrot."
Si yi myora ku taynasora
3S EQU carrot POSS dinosaur.
"It is the dinosaur's carrot."
Note that these verbs can be used to express predicative possession as main verbs in addition to being used attributively. Take, for instance:
Myora ma.
carrot POSS.1S
"The carrot is mine."
Myora ku taynasora
carrot POSS dinosaur.
"The carrot is the dinosaur's."
Nouns
Nouns which are not qualified by numbers may optionally mark singular versus plural number. They are otherwise not marked.
The primary manners in which nouns are qualified aside from reduplication are with possession and with relative clauses. Even things such as diminutives and augmentatives are expressed via relative clauses, e.g. with kin "be little" or pika "be big".
Note that simply stringing multiple noun phrases together acts like and in English; to express what is expressed with compounding in Germanic languages one uses possession instead.
Nominal negation is expressed with kayna, which is syntactically a verb (it can be used as a main verb to indicate that its subject does not exist), placed after the noun in question in a relative clause.