Morphology

From Lortho
Revision as of 21:44, 30 April 2018 by Bbbourq (Talk | contribs) (Numerals)

Jump to: navigation, search


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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

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

^ top

The passive voice is formed by adding the suffix -im after the root before any other additional suffixes. The passive voice does not apply to the present tense at this moment.

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

^ top

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

^ top

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. 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). To see the written numerals, you can check them out on the orthography page. Ordinal numbers are still a mystery.