Sondiv Grammar
Sondiv is a language with non-concatenative morphology, characterized by its biconsonantal and triconsonantal roots. Similar to Arabic, Sondiv's root system forms the basis of its system of word inflection and derivation, accomplished through a large number of patterns in which the roots can appear.
Nouns
Nouns decline for two numbers, singular and plural. Subjects are marked with suffixes copied from the prefixes of verbs, and objects are marked with prefixes copied from the suffixes of verbs.
There are twenty-four basic patterns for noun derivation, referred to by Roman numerals in parentheses e.g. (xvii). Each pattern is associated to a broad semantic category, such as "Animate A" or "Animate B".
Nouns can be derived from verbs. As an example, consider the noun suvek. It follows pattern (i) and is derived from the causative form of the verb uvuk, meaning "to flash." The causative form, suvuk, translates to "to cause to flash," with both verbs sharing the root w-v-k. The corresponding class (i) noun for this root is wvek, pronounced as uvek. Due to its causative nature, the prefix s- is added, resulting in suvek, referring to something that causes flashing or light emanation.
Proper nouns
There are three patterns for names, two for male names and one for female names, by means of which proper nouns can be derived from a root.
Determiners
There is a pattern used to create determiners from a root.
Adjectives
There is a pattern to form adjectives from roots. Adjectives have three forms of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. For example, if tezu means good, then mbetsu translates to better, and mbetes signifies best, taking into account the devoicing of z to s next to voiceless sounds like t and at the end of a word.
Verbs
Sondiv verbs have a complex structure. Taking the verbs isut "to hear" and istub "to enforce" as examples, both are infinitive forms categorized as class (xiii) nouns, which have no plural forms.
The three main tenses in Sondiv are imperfect (associated with the vowel i), perfect (associated with the vowel a), and gnomic (associated with the vowel u). Using isut as an illustration:
- Imperfect: isit "hears (no object)"
- Perfect: asat "heard (no object)"
- Gnomic: usut "hears (no object)"
The imperfect tense is used in the present and situations where the action is ongoing or occurs in the future, while the gnomic tense is employed for generic statements and general truths.
The verb forms used when there is an object, denoted as "(something)" below, would be as follows:
- Imperfect: isita "hears (something)"
- Perfect: asatu "heard (something)"
- Gnomic: usuti "hears (something)"
For instance, to say I heard you, one would say Usu asatu ala, translating literally to "you heard I."
Similarly, the verb istub follows a comparable pattern:
- Imperfect: istib "enforces (no object)"
- Perfect: astab "enforced (no object)"
- Gnomic: ustub "enforces (no object)"
- Imperfect: istiba "enforces (something)"
- Perfect: astabu "enforced (something)"
- Gnomic: ustubi "enforces (something)"
A subjunctive form exists, marked by the prefix idi- and appearing to attach to the gnomic form, but using an imperfect object suffix. However, this form originated from an old future tense form formed by prefixing the imperfect form of to be to the class (xiii) infinitive. The subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses in the context of expressing wishes and desires, for example "I hope he hears me" or "I hope he enforces the rules". The subjunctive forms are as follows:
- idisut "hears (no object)"
- idisuta "hears (something)"
- idistub "enforces (no object)"
- idistuba "enforces (something)"
Command forms (i.e. imperative forms) are formed by separating root consonants with one or more instances of -u-, and adding a final -i if there is an object. For instance:
- Sut! "Hear! (no object)"
- Suti! "Hear (something)!"
- Sutub! "Enforce! (no object)"
- Sutubi! "Enforce (something)!"
Passives are formed by adding the suffix -ev to the root. Participles are formed with the suffixes -en (imperfect), -an (perfect), and -on (gnomic).
Syntax
External history
The basic word order of Sondiv was originally intended to be subject-verb-object. However, since the suffix on the subject is always the same as the prefix on the verb, and the suffix on the verb is always the same as the prefix on the object, this resulted in a large amount of identical vowels following each other at word boundaries. Because of this, Peterson instead opted for the order of object-verb-subject in most cases, limiting the amount of such vowel hiatus.
Word order
Sondiv uses a somewhat unique approach to conveying actions and their participants, which distinguishes it from languages that rely on case marking, word order, or a combination of both to accomplish this. In Sondiv, the number of participants and their respective actions are instead primarily determined by the semantics of the verb itself, with the aspect of the verb playing a secondary role. In effect, the "case" prefixes employed in Sondiv lack inherent meaning, and the role(s) assigned to each participant are entirely lexical.
To illustrate this, consider the following set of nouns: len "girl," dob "boy," and yos "flower." Below are a few example sentences:
- Ilen iktir. - "The girl is sleeping."
- Alen aktar. - "The girl slept."
- Ilen idiya adob. - "The girl holds the boy."
- Alen adayu udob. - "The girl held the boy."
- Ilen isima ayos udob. - "The girl gives the boy a flower."
- Alen asamu uyos idob. - "The girl gave the boy a flower."
These examples showcase how the participant roles and actions are determined by the inherent semantics of the verbs. Notably, the "case" prefixes, while present, do not carry specific meaning in themselves.
In the Sondiv language, the typical order of information presentation involves bringing new information, usually the object, to the front, i.e. the word order is typically object-verb-subject. Taking the last sentence as an example:
- Uyos asamu alen idob. - "The girl gave the boy a flower."