Væyne Zaanics Grammar
Væyne Zaanics is an inflected language, with both fusional and agglutinative features. It is a constructed language both in-universe and out-of-universe, and has a fairly regular morphosyntax.
Nouns
Nouns are declined by case and number, and belong to one of two main declension classes: 'light' and 'dark'.
Pronouns
Pronouns generally have a comparatively regular declension, with the exception of personal pronouns, and much the same features as nouns.
Adjectives
Adjectives agree with nouns in class, case and number.
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for tense, and have finite, infinitive and participle forms, and like nouns fall into two main conjugation classes: 'light' and 'dark'. They do not display (mandatory) agreement with their dependents (i.e. the subject and object), but can have marking of them, such as the subject and object. Pronominal subjects and objects can be marked on verbs by affixing clitic forms of pronouns to the verb when there is no overt, nominal subject/object in the clause.
Object marking on verbs
Væyne Zaanics features head-marking on its verbs, in the form of object marking. Object marking differs from object agreement. In agreement, the morphological markers must appear whether or not the clause contains a standalone object. This is not the case in Væyne Zaanics, where the object is marked on the verb only when the clause lacks a standalone object. An illustration of this can be observed by contrasting the two examples below:
In the example above, there is a direct object present, drega (“book”), and no marking of the object on the verb.
On the contrary, the -aw suffix appears in this second example, and any overt object is absent[1].
References
- ↑ Peterson, David (2015). The Art of Language Invention : from Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the words behind world-building. New York, New York: Penguin Books. .