Morphology

Nouns

Introduction

Nouns in Lortho have three distinct features:

1. They are one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter
2. All nouns can be modified to denote case
3. All nouns end in a vowel (with few exceptions)

Gender

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
-i dharakhi mountain	-u dhammu chair	-a hadikha country, land

Exceptions:

There there are a couple nouns that do not follow the above rules for gender (this will increase as Lortho's lexicon grows):

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
tapas pasta		dhi water

Grammatical Case

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Lortho has ten cases. The vowels in parentheses are added if the word ends in a consonant. The following word will be used for demonstration:

• kansaptha
  (n. neut.)

1. woods, forest

Case	Affix	Example	Translation
Nominative	-	kansaptha	woods, forest
Accusative	-me	kansapthame	forest (direct obj.)
Dative	-mela	kansapthamela	forest (indirect obj.)
Genitive1	-nau	kansapthanau	of the forest
Lative2	-ina/ena	kansaptaina	in/into the forest
Ablative	-nat	kansapthanat	out of/from the forest
Allative	-dan	kansapthadan	to/towards the forest
Prolative	-dar	kansapthadar	through/via/by way of the forest
Instrumental	-len	kansapthalen	using the forest
Vocative	fa(l)-	fakansaptha	Hey, Forest!

¹ -nau is the alienable genitive whereas -tho is the inalienable genitive as seen in the endonym Lortho.
² The lative case also doubles as the locative case.

Possessive

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The personal possessive is formed using a prefix which is gender and number specific. We will use the following word:

• dhammu
  (n. fem.)

1. chair, seat

Person	Singular			Plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter	masculine	feminine	neuter
1st person	nidhammu	nudhammu	-	nimadhammu	numadhammu	-
2nd person	lindhammu	lundhammu	-	nanidhammu	nanudhammu	-
3rd person	lidhammu	ludhammu	ladhammu	limidhammu	limudhammu	limadhammu

Pluralization

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Each noun is pluralized by adding a suffix:

1. Feminine (-u) and Neuter (-a) nouns add the plural suffix -ne:
   • Examples:
   1. Feminine: kansaphu (n. fem) tree; pl kansaphune
   2. Neuter: hadikha (n. neut) land, country; pl hadikhane
2. Masculine nouns (-i):
   • Regular masculine nouns will add the infix -en- before -i:
   • Masculine nouns that end in -ni will add the infix -em-.
   • Examples:
   1. olakhi (n. masc) boat; pl olakheni
   2. phorenni (n. masc) peak, summit; pl phoɾennemi
   • If the noun ends in a consonant, the suffix -eni will be added:
   1. Example: tapas (n. masc) pasta; pl tapaseni

Indefinite Article

In Lortho, the definite article does not exist since the noun is inherently definite; i.e. the lack of the indefinite article indicates that the noun is definite. The indefinite article is handled by using the numeral one, ikhi.

Personal Pronouns

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	1SG	2SG	3SG	1PL	2PL	3PL
Masculine	hin	manni	i	minan	namin	nimi
Feminine	hun	mannu	u	munan	namun	nimu
Neuter			a		naman2	nima

² The 2nd person plural neuter, naman, is meant for addressing crowds or general audiences

Verbs

Introduction

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Verbs are conjugated in gender and in number which are governed by the subject (written or implied). For the most part the conjugations are simple and are formed through agglutination; however, there are slight fusional changes that occur when denoting aspect.

Conjugation

Regular Verbs

There are three main verbs in Lortho: -o verbs, -t verbs, and -n verbs. The conjugation tables below show a preview of how the regular verbs conjugate in each category. Conjugation in other tenses includes more fusional aspects.

-o verbs

The root is formed by subtracting the final "o."

	Present Tense
	konpharo [kon.'pʰɑ.ɾo] to speak root: konphar-
	Singular			Plural
	masc	fem	neut	masc	fem	neut
1st pers	konpharin	konpharun	-	konpharinan	konpharunan	-
2nd pers	konpharanni	konpharannu	-	konpharamin	konpharamun	-
3rd pers	konphari	konpharu	konphara	konpharimi	konpharimu	konpharima

-t verbs

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The root is formed by changing the final "t" to a "d."

	Present Tense
	phramit ['pʰɾɑ.mit] to push root: phramid-
	Singular			Plural
	masc	fem	neut	masc	fem	neut
1st pers	phramidin	phramidun	-	phramidinan	phramidunan	-
2nd pers	phramidanni	phramidannu	-	phramidamin	phramidamun	-
3rd pers	phramidi	phramidu	phramida	phramidimi	phramidimu	phramidima

-n verbs

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The root is the same as the infinitive.

	Present Tense
	shailan [ʃaɪ.'lɑn] to sit root: shailan-
	Singular			Plural
	masc	fem	neut	masc	fem	neut
1st pers	shailanin	shailanun	-	shailaninan	shailanunan	-
2nd pers	shailananni	shailanannu	-	shailanamin	shailanamun	-
3rd pers	shailani	shailanu	shailana	shailanimi	shailanimu	shailanima

Irregular Verbs

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Although labelled irregular, the verbs still have a regular feel in that they still use the same personal endings; however, the root is derived slightly differently. One example is the verb harlan.

	Present Tense
	harlan [hɑɾ.'lɑn] to be root: harl-
	Singular			Plural
	masc	fem	neut	masc	fem	neut
1st pers	harlin	harlun	-	harlinan	harlunan	-
2nd pers	harlanni	harlannu	-	harlamin	harlamun	-
3rd pers	harli	harlu	harla	harlimi	harlimu	harlima

Moods

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Indicative

The indicative mood is the simplest of the moods and requires no extra suffixes.

Imperative

The imperative form of the verb is simply the root with the vocative case (which can be either implied or explicit). Currently, this is still in development. I must discover the explanations of the imperative mood in first person plural and second person plural.

Examples:

1. famannu, konphar!
   • Hey you, speak!
2. fanamin, nathar namineme!
   • Hey you, be quiet! (lit. quiet yourselves)
3. shailan!
   • Sit!

Vocabulary:

1. konpharo (konphar-) v. to speak
2. natharo (nathar-) v. to quell, pacify
3. mannu pronoun you (fem. sing.)
4. namin pronoun you (masc. pl.)
5. shailan (shailan-) v. to sit
   

Subjunctive

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The subjunctive mood has many different facets. For now, we will talk about wants/wishes.

In the present tense, the expression of want is done by using the verb hankhan to want + infinitive.

Examples:

• hankhan-in    kilikho kansaptha-me
want   -1MSG  see.INF forest.N -ACC
  I want to see (the) forest

Passive Voice

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The passive voice is formed by adding the suffix -im after the root before any other additional suffixes.

Example:

• madhit (madhid-) v. to give
  1. madhid-ikh-i    i       khanishu-me  u      -mela
give-  PST-3MSG PN.3MSG book.F  -ACC PN.3FSG-DAT
     He gave the book to her
     • The verb agrees with the subject he (i).
  2. madhid-im  -ikh-u    khanishu u      -mela
give  -PASS-PST-3FSG book.F   PN.3FSG-DAT
     The book was given to her
     • The verb agrees with book since there is no subject initiating the action; however, book is still affected by the action, hence the accusative case.

Negation

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Negation is accomplished by adding the prefix dha(k)-. The phoneme /k/ is added before verbs with either initial vowel or initial /h/, which in turn morphs into /kʰ/.

1. konpharo (konphar-)
   to speak
   • konpharin
     I speak
   • dhakonpharin
     I do not speak, I am not speaking
2. hankhan (hankhan-)
   to want, wish
   • hankhanin
     I want
   • dhakhankhanin
     I do not want
3. artemit (artemid-)
   to continue
   • artemidin
     I continue
   • dhakartemidin
     I do not continue

Adjectives

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Adjectives behave a little differently than most natural languages. All adjectives are roots since they must agree in gender with the noun which they modify; however, they do not agree in number. For placement, adjectives must be placed in front of the noun which they modify.

Numerals

The counting system is base 10 (i.e. decimal, 0-9). Cardinal numbers, like adverbs, do not take any suffix to agree with the noun they modify (cf. Adjectives). You can see the written numerals on the orthography page. Ordinal numbers are still a mystery.