Engála Grammar
Engála is a fusional language. It follows ergative-absolutive morphosyntactic alignment. The language is almost exclusively head-initial. The default word order is verb-object-subject (VOS) or verb-patient-agent (VPA), in that the ergative argument tends to come last, and the absolutive argument tends to come directly after the verb. Attributive adjectives, which are actually stative verbs in relative clauses, follow the nouns they modify. Other relative clauses also follow the nouns they modify. Possessors follow their possessees, and prepositions are the only adpositions in the language.
Nouns
Nouns decline for singular and plural number. Nouns fall into one of three classes: animate, edible inanimate, and inedible inanimate.
Class
Animate nouns
In the following table are some examples of how animate nouns form their plural:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| imé "rabbit" | azmé "rabbits" |
| mika "daughter" | asmíka "daughters" |
| ada "mother" | sada "mothers" |
| yentsi "son" | shentsi "sons" |
| ta "father" | atá "fathers" |
Edible inanimate nouns
Edible inanimate nouns in the plural are best translated as mass nouns in English. The singular, then, describes a unit of that mass. Some examples can be seen below:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mile "clover leaf" | emíle "clover" |
| sive "mint leaf" | etsíve "mint" |
| tulu "blade of grass" | edúlu "grass" |
| alu "drop of rain" | enalu "rain" |
| udzúgha "blade of wheatgrass" | edzúgha "wheatgrass" |
Inedible inanimate nouns
Here are some examples of how inedible inanimate nouns decline:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mina "nose" | tomína "noses" |
| uni "cloud" | tuni "clouds" |
| kada "incisor" | togáda "incisors" |
| ahéhe "body" | kwahéhe "bodies" |
| faba "back" | továba "backs" |
Ergative marking
The ergative argument is marked with an preposition, which cliticizes to the preceding word as 'n if that word ends with a vowel, as in the following example:
- Chulya wika'n un.
- I held the mouse.
Here, un is the first person singular pronoun, and wika is "mouse". After a consonant, the preposition takes the form en, and does not cliticize, as seen below:
- Chulyon en wika.
- The mouse held me.
Pronouns
The personal pronouns of Engála are shown in the following table:
| Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Emphatic | Plain | Emphatic | ||
| First Person | un | chalyun | we | chaiwe | |
| Second Person | is | chalis | sis | chaisís | |
| Third Person | Rabbit | me | chaime | sas | chaisás |
| Non-Rabbit | zha | chaizha | |||
| Inanimate | tu | chaidu | |||
Verbs
Verbs have a plain form and a reduplicated form, which appear to convey perfective and imperfective aspect, respectively (for example meganun "I am blue" vs. mimeganun "I was blue" or "I am being blue"). They agree in number and person with the absolutive argument of the sentence, i.e. the object of transitive verbs and the subject of intransitive verbs. Verbs also have a reflexive form, which seemingly does not show agreement. There are stative verbs, indicating being in a state or having a certain quality.
Stative verbs
Below is the paradigm for the stative verb "to be blue":
| Plain | Reduplicated | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| First Person | meganun | megangu | mimeganun | mimegangu |
| Second Person | meganis | megentsís | mimeganis | mimegentsís |
| Third Person | megen | megentsás | mimegen | mimegentsás |
| Reflexive | megemí | mimegemí | ||