Azkali grammar
Azkali grammar is the structural rules which the Azkali language follows, including the rules for words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Parts of speech
There are seven different parts of speech that are commonly identified by linguists in Azkali: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adpositions, conjunctions, and interjections. It is generally not possible to identify which part of speech an Azkali word belongs to by itself. However, a large amount of words belong to multiple parts of speech.
Nouns
Azkali nouns are overtly declined for six grammatical cases (the ergative, absolutive, possessive, privative, dative, and instrumental) and three numbers (the singular, paucal, and plural), with any form or realization of grammatical gender being completely absent. Azkali nouns are constructed agglunatively, contrasting with verbs. In addition, Azkali also features a robust inverse number system, though it is only regularly used in formal speech.
Affixes occur in a relatively set order, displayed in the below noun template chart:
| Content | (Definite article) | NOUN ROOT | Case | Number | (Definite article) | (Inverse number) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slot | (1a) | 2 | 3 | 4 | (1b) | (5) |
Case
Case inflection in Azkali is fairly straightforward; the affixes only change depending on the lack of presence of a root final vowel. There are six grammatical cases in Azkali. The ergative case is used for subjects of transitive verbs. The absolutive case is used for subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs. The possessive case is used for direct ownership. The privative case is used to mark the lack of direct ownership. The dative case is used to mark the indirect object of an action, as well as the purpose of an action. In addition, in extremely formal varieties of Azkali, the dative case is occasionally used to denote a noun that is owned by the noun in the phrase with the possessive case. Finally, the instrumental case is used to mark that the noun is the instrument in which the action is achieved, or occurs; the instrumental case can be used for both physical objects, or ideas and concepts.
In formal varieties of Azkali, the possessive case is used more like a genitive case; the distinction here is that in most forms of Azkali, the possessive case is used purely in the context of possession. Contrastingly, in formal varieties, it's use has broadened to include generic modification. In colloquial forms of Azkali, generic modification is marked by adpositions.
The following chart shows each case suffix.
| Case | Vowel ending | Consonant ending |
|---|---|---|
| Ergative | -n | -en |
| Absolutive | ∅ | |
| Possessive | -k | -ek |
| Privative | -z | -az |
| Dative | -ti | -eti |
| Instrument | -gez | -ez |
Shown below are several examples of these cases in use for various words, and their respective meanings. Note the usage of (-∅) for nouns rendered in the absolutive case.
| Word | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| akimateya - (a) relative
(as in family) |
nedhathu -
(a) message |
koroz - (a)
bridge | ||
| Case | Ergative | akimateyan
(relative) |
nedhathun
(message) |
korozen
(bridge) |
| Absolutive | akimateya(-∅)
(relative) |
nedhathu(-∅)
(message) |
koroz(-∅)
(bridge) | |
| Possessive | akimateyak
(the relative's (...)) |
nedhathuk
(the message's (...)) |
korozek
(the bridge's (...)) | |
| Privative | akimateyaz
(lacking a relative) |
nedhathuz
(lacking a message) |
korozaz
(lacking a bridge) | |
| Dative | akimateyati
(to a relative) |
nedhathuti
(to a message) |
korozeti
(to a bridge) | |
| Instrumental | akimateyagez
(done with a relative) |
nedhathugez
(done with a message) |
korozez
(done with a bridge) | |
Number and inverse number
Number inflection always follows, when even present, case. As mentioned before, there are three grammatical numbers in Azkali - the singular, which is unmarked, the paucal, and plural. The following chart shows each number suffix; one should note that when used in combination with the dative case, the number affixes take the vowel ending form, due to the presence of a vowel at the end of the dative affix.
| Number | Vowel ending | Consonant aside from "tz" ending | "Tz" ending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | ∅ | ||
| Paucal | -tz | -etz | -et |
| Plural | -rek | -erek | |
For nouns that end with "tz", a special affix for the paucal number exists. For example, the paucal version of the word leizitz, meaning lizard, is leizitzet, not the expected leizitzetz.
Pronouns
In Azkali, pronouns are often combined with determiners to form the pronoun part of speech.
Personal and reflexive pronouns
The following table shows each personal pronoun in Azkali, declining for case and number. In addition, there are also reflexive pronouns included; while not a case in itself, in most Azkali grammars, the reflexive pronouns are included with the personal ones.
| Singular | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ergative | Absolutive | Possessive | Privative | Dative | Instrumental | Reflexive | ||
| 1st | go | en | goz | get | gokoz | go ten | ||
| 2nd | tu | tuek | tukoz | tet | tukoz | tu ten | ||
| 3rd | Masculine | mai | maik | maiz | het | hekoz | ha ten | |
| Feminine | kut | kurez | kutek | keiz | ||||
| Neutral | hakel | harek | heiz | |||||
| Paucal | ||||||||
| 1st | tzo | tzen | tzeiz | tzego | tzo ten | |||
| 2nd | tzu | tzuk | tzuiz | tzeutu | tzu ten | |||
| 3rd | tzare | rutzez | tzak | tzaiz | tzere | tzare ten | ||
| Plural | ||||||||
| 1st | ko | komo | tzaoz | geo | geo ten | |||
| 2nd | ku | kumu | zku | tzauz | teo | teo ten | ||
| 3rd | kei | keime | ezkei | eztzeu | keo | keo ten | ||
Verbs
Like most agglutinative languages, Azkali features very few irregular verbs: between four and five in most dialects (though some, particularly Southern Azkali dialects, have as many as twenty irregular verbs). Verbs conjugate for 3 tenses, far past, past, and nonpast, and 4 moods, indicative, conditional, hypothetical, and imperative, though in two verbs, to be and to have, marking for person exists. The auxiliary verb itu, conveying a future tense, also changes depending on grammatical aspect, of which there are three: the imperfective, perfective, and bisective.