Munja'kin Grammar

Munja'kin Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Dialogue

Munja'kin is a very analytic, strongly head-initial verb-subject-object language. Munja'kin lacks gender, number marking on nouns or any form of agreement, but it features switch-reference particles, clusivity, differential object marking and inalienable possession.

Nouns

Munja'kin's nouns are invariable and are not categorized into classes. Munja'kin does not use articles, so no distinction between definite and indefinite nouns is made. Some nouns like pagi may also be used as verbs, others like juru may be used as adjectives, the exact role is determined by word order, as verbs precede their arguments while adjectives follow nouns.

Pronouns

Munja'kin's pronouns distinguish clusivity and have a possessive form, which is most notably used after the preposition an to express inalienable inanimate possession or subordinate relationships.

	Singular			Plural
	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person	1st Person		2nd Person	3rd Person
				Inclusive	Exclusive
Plain	tun	si'o	lia	hin	tunga	si'ka	li'ka
Possessive	toni	sa'oi	li	hini	tungí	sa'kí	li'kí

Adjectives

Munja'kin's adjectives follow nouns and double as stative verbs, which precede nouns. Comparisons are made using the preposition puli (against).

Prepositions

Munja'kin's prepositions generally originate from verbs and co-occur with either the plain or the possessive form of a pronoun.

Hi and pa

Munja'kin has differential object marking: the preposition hi precedes displaced direct object proper nouns or pronouns while pa precedes displaced direct object non-proper nouns. When objects directly follow verbs (when the subject is implied by lanú, for instance), they do not take a preposition.

The an-mutation

An is a special preposition that causes a following consonant (but not a following cluster) to voice. It also becomes an-d- before z, l and r.

Effects of an

Initial sound	+an
p	an b
t	an d
ch	an j
k	an g
s	an-d-z
z
l	an-d-l
r	an-d-r

Syntax

Relative clauses

An serves as a relativizer and is followed by a verb's nominalized form. Relative clauses are VSO like the main clauses and use resumptive pronouns to relativize obliques.

Questions

Polar questions are only marked by intonation in Munja'kin, it has no question particle. Interrogative words are fronted in content questions.