Tpaalha Grammar

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

Tpaalha is a fusional language. It follows nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment. The language is mostly head-final, with some head-initial features. The default word order is subject-object-verb (SOV). The language has postpositions, although postpositional phrases follow the nouns they modify. "True" adjectives precede the nouns they modify, however, these are few in number. Most terms that function as adjectives are instead postpositional phrases with nouns, which may indicate whether the quality described was acquired on purpose or accidentally, and which follow the nouns they modify. Similarly, relative clauses follow the nouns they modify, and possessors follow their possessees.

Nouns

Nouns decline for case and number. There are two cases, nominative and partitive, and three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. The dual is used for when there are two of something, and the plural for three or more of something.

Case

The nominative is the unmarked form, with the partitive being built off of it by means of prefixes.

Nominative

The nominative can be used to indicate the subject as well as a definite object of a transitive verb, as in the following example (uzyih "opossum" and ug "child" are both nominative singular):

Uzyih ug khaidó.

The opossum saw the child.

Partitive

The partitive can be used to indicate an indefinite object, as in the example below (gug "child" is in the partitive singular):

Uzyih gug khaidó.

The opossum saw a child.

Noun declension

The declension of nouns depend on the initial (and to some extent, final) sounds of the noun root. In particular, noun roots beginning with the velar stops k and g and/or consonant clusters differ in how they decline. Plural forms (especially plural partitive forms) often feature voicing of the initial consonant of the root. Sound changes also sometimes affect the form of the dual stem.

Vowel-initial roots

Vowel-initial roots such as uzyih "opossum" decline in the following manner:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	uzyih	uzyipsyi	zguzyih
Partitive	guzyih	guzyipsyi	uzguzyih

Consonant-initial roots

Roots beginning with gr such as graam "sap" decline somewhat differently, with the plural prefix simplifying to z-:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	graam	gransyi	zgraam
Partitive	ugraam	ugransyi	uzgraam

Roots beginning with kn such as knaan "nose" inflect in a yet again different manner, with voicing in the partitive plural:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	knaan	knansyi	zuknaan
Partitive	uknaan	uknansyi	uzgnaan

Roots beginning with sht such as shtah "leaf" show assimiliation in addition to voicing in the partitive plural:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	shtah	shtaksyi	zushtah
Partitive	ushtah	ushtaksyi	uzzhdah

Pronouns

There are personal pronouns for the first and second person only. For the third person, demonstratives are used instead. Personal pronouns decline for singular and plural number. There are also separate possessive pronouns for alienable and inalienable possessors. The personal pronouns are shown in the following table:

		Singular		Plural
		1st person	2nd person	1st person	2nd person
Plain		nany	luy	tah	usy
Possessive	alienable	nanya	luya	tava	uzya
	inalienable	nanyi	linyi	tanyi	inyi

Verbs

Verbs have finite and non-finite forms, which all conjugate for polarity and voice. Finite verbs additionally conjugate for tense. There are two tenses, perfect and imperfect; two polarities, positive and negative; and two voices, active and passive.

Motive vs. active

In addition, finite verbs in the active voice also have separate "motive" and "active" forms (not to be confused with the active voice itself). Non-finite forms and passive voice forms do not make this distinction. The passive is marked with an auxiliary, which is in form "active" (as opposed to motive), but which has no corresponding motive form. The active in Tpaalha is the more generic form, and the motive has a locative meaning, indicating that the action is being done in physical relation to something. For example, the verb baan "to jump" in the active can mean "to do a jump", "to jump (a certain number of times)", "to jump (for some purpose)", and in the motive it means "to jump (onto/to/across something)". This feature was inspired by the Sodna-lɛni language by Sylvia Sotomayor, which has only two cases, sessile and motile, which have to do with motion.

Verb conjugation

As an example, the full paradigm of baan "to jump" is shown in the table below:

		Active Voice		Passive Voice
		motive	active
Non-Finite	positive	baan		baan luok
	negative	banulh		baan ilgulh
Imperfect	positive	bantsu	banó	baan ilgó
	negative	bansyu	banyisyó	baan ildyisyó
Perfect	positive	bantsur	banow	baan ilgow
	negative	banyisyur	banyisyow	baan ildyisyow

The positive non-finite form and the active positive imperfect form can sometimes look very different, mostly due to vowel truncation, as seen in the following pairs:

Non-Finite	Imperfect
foulh	wo
ruolh	ruló
nuos	nuzó
nyih	insyó
tur	tyo