Wokuthízhű Grammar

Wokuthízhű Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Orthography

Wokuthízhű is a highly synthetic language. It is mainly head-final and the basic word order is subject-object-verb (SOV). It features polypersonal agreement.

Nouns

Nouns in Wokuthízhű decline for number and case. The numbers are singular, dual, and plural. There is an animate plural and an inanimate plural form. The cases are natural, unnatural, allative, ablative, instrumental, locative, superessive, and avertive. The natural case is used with animate subjects and inanimate direct objects, and the unnatural case is used with inanimate subjects and animate direct objects.

Adjectives

Wokuthízhű has a closed class of prefixal classifiers which fill the role of adjectives. The classifiers are categorized into several classes depending on how they interact with a following segment. To be used predicatively, these classifiers must be turned into stative verbs.

Verbs

Verbs in Wokuthízhű conjugate for tense, aspect, polarity, and evidentiality. They can also optionally be marked for modality. The tenses are present, immediate, and future; the aspects perfect and imperfect; and the polarities positive and negative. Verbs agree with their subject, direct object, and indirect object in person and number. The semantic interpretation of a verb varies depending on the animacy of its arguments.