Shattering Conlangs 02 - Ketsa and Alisi - Word order and Nominal Grammar

[becka_sutton]

Post one here

Yes, as the subject says today we're dealing with the the word order and nominal grammar in my two conlangs. It's a long post so I'm adding a cut.

Ketsa

Word order in Ketsa is actually fairly free in that people can understand it no matter what order the words are in because the cases. In spite of this it has a definite tendency towards Verb-Subject-Object (VSO).

So yes the language has cases.

Cases:

It's a Tripartite Language which means the subject of a transitive verb, the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb all take different cases (this gets even worse in language two which manages to add in features of Active-Stative but more on that when we get there). As a result the language has both a passive and an antipassive voice.

Ergative: The subject of a transitive verb. Suffix -ada

Accusative: The object of a transitive verb. Suffix -tso

Absolutive: The subject of an intransitive verb. No suffix

Genitive: Marks nouns that modifies other nouns. Usually possessive. Suffix -wat

Dative: Indirect Objects. Suffix -nyak

Vocative: Identifies the person or thing being address. Suffix -la

Noun Class (aka Grammatical Gender):

Ketsa has three noun classes:

• Spirit - Things possessed of divine essence. Gods, spirits, human beings, magical creatures and things (even ones with no consciousness). Abstract concepts also fit here. -ago

• Physical/Animate - Non-magical animals and plants. -pak

• Material/Inanimate - Non-magical things -eka

Other Stuff:

• There are markers for dual and plural. Dual -ma and Plural – zan

• The infix -te- represents a human who does something.

Sample Nouns:

Blanpak is the word for Crane (in the unmarked absolutive case). If you remember my original attempt at this language you'll remember the animal verbs and suspect that Cranes may have something to do with dancing. You'd be right.

Basic order is root-class-case. Certain infixes such as the -te- mentioned above go between the root and the class. And So:

	Crane	Magical Dance	Magical Dancer	Mundane Dance	Mundane Dancer
Ergative	Blanpakada	Blanagoada	Blanteagoada	Blanekaada	Blanteekaada
Accusative	Blanpaktso	Blanagotso	Blanteagotso	Blanekatso	Blanteekatso
Absolutive	Blanpak	Blanago	Blanteago	Blaneka	Blanteeka
Genitive	Blanpakwat	Blanagowat	Blanteagowat	Blanekawat	Blanteekawat
Dative	Blanpaknyak	Blanagonyak	Blanteagonyak	Blanekanyak	Blanteekanyak
Vocative	n/a	n/a	Blanteagola	n/a	Blanteekala

Alisi

Word order in Alisi is fairly free in that people can understand it no matter what order the words are in because of the cases. In spite of this it has a definite tendency towards Subject Object Verb (SOV).

So yes the language has cases.

Cases:

Alisi is a nominative-accusative language with four cases.

• Nominative - unmarked

• Accusative - sa

• Genitive: Marks nouns that modifies other nouns. Usually possessive. - mi

• Dative: Indirect Objects. - ŗu

Noun Class (aka Grammatical Gender):

Alisi has three noun classes:

• Male -no

• Female -qu

• Inanimate -lla

Other Stuff:

• Alisi doesn't usually inflect for plural though it does have an optional plural affix for humans.

Sample Nouns

• Word structure is case-root-class

• The Alisi word for Crane is a borrowing from Ketsa and therefore has different root from dance and dancer but I've included them to for consistency.
  

	Crane	Dance	Dancer
Nominative	Balanaqu	Qilalla	Qilaqu
Accusative	Sabalanaqu	Saqilalla	Saqilaqu
Genitive	Mibalanaqu	Miqilalla	Miqilaqu
Dative	Ŗubalanaqu	Ŗuqilalla	Ŗuqilaqu

Post three here