Hngatil grammar
This article provides an overview of the grammar of the Hngatil language, a language spoken by 100,000 people in central and northwestern Azkali.
Verbs
Verbs are the most inflecting part of speech in Hngatil. Verbs in Hngatil are composed of a stem, containing the core meaning of the verb, and a series of prefixes and suffixes that convey the inflection. Only the verb stem is required, but is it very rare for only a verb stem to be used. The order in which affixes and the verb stem occur in is regular, and is represented by the chart below.
| Mood prefix | Verb stem | (Verb classifier) | Aspect suffix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
One of the main features that seperates Hngatil from other languages in Ukilen is it's lack of grammatical tense. Tense-like information is conveyed via lexical and grammatical aspect, of which there are many that convey tense-like information, as well as context.
Mood
Hngatil verbs conjugate for 5 moods:
- Indicative - used for factual statements from the viewpoint of the speaker
- Conditional - used for actions that are dependent on other actions
- Optative - used for actions that the speaker hopes to occur
- Presumptive - used for actions that are presumed or theorized to happen
- Inferrential - used for actions that the speaker has not personally witnessed
Aspect
Hngatil verbs conjugate for 16 aspects:
- Perfective - an action viewed without internal structure, i.e as a whole
- Momentane - an action that suddenly occurs, lacking internal structure
- Prospective - an action describing an event that occurs subsequently to a time or another verb
- Habitual - an action which regularly, habitually, occurs
- Progressive - an action that is ongoing and changing
- Stative - an action that is ongoing and not changing
- Gnomic - an action viewed as a general truth
- Continuative - an action that is still happening given to a reference time
- Inchoative - an action that is the beginning of a new state of being
- Cessative - an action that is the end of a state of being
- Iterative - an action that is repeated, with particular focus on the repeats
- Segmentative - an action that is repeated, emphasizing the action as a whole
- Revisionary - an action that is being returned to from a different action or state
- Serial - an action that is repeated, consisting of seperate distinct actions
- Reversative - an action involving the change of direction or intent
- Distributive - an action that occurs or is done or happens to/by a group or location