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Complete guide for reckolian conjugation
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 20 Nov 2016, 14:22.

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I-Conjugation and word order

The default reckolian word order is S-O-V, which means that the subject is usually first, the object second, and the verb third. However, this order is very free and can easily be broken for emphasis, aesthetic and/or musicality (especially in poetry). One could almost say that reckolian has no default word order, but there are some interactions between verb conjugation and the used word order which enforces the SOV order as the default one, and which we are going to describe hereafter. But first let's talk about the conjugation:

Reckolian verbs agree with the subject of the sentence; they have sixteen possible variations which are divided in the following 4 categories:

-Singular: 1st person, 2d person, 3rd person (abstract, masculine animate, feminine animate and inanimate).
-Dual (seldom used in modern reckolian; related to the azotarian paucal): 2d person, 3rd person.
-Plural: 1st person inclusive, 1st person exclusive, 2d person, 3rd person (abstract, masculine animate, feminine animate and inanimate).
-And impersonal, which is used to:
*express sentences without a subject (ex: "suàt" 'it is raining')
*mark that the verb is not in infinitive without having to agree with the subject (more on that below).

PersonReckolianEnglishPersonReckolianEnglish
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
junţàI eat12First person inclusive (person)
speaker and addressee; you and me/us
junţàhwe(and you) eat
2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
junţàţyou eat1PEFirst person plural exclusive (person)
we (exclusive)
junţàjawe eat
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
.ABSTAbstract (gender/class)
abstract, intangible, idea
junţòit eats2PSecond person plural (person)
addressee (plural)
junţàżayou eat
3SMThird person singular masculine (person)
he
junţòmhe eats3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them
.ABSTAbstract (gender/class)
abstract, intangible, idea
junţòxõthey eat
3SFThird person singular feminine (person)
she
junţòṡshe eats3PMThird person plural masculine (person)
he-PL
junţòxõmthey eat
3SIThird person singular inanimate (person)
it
junţòtit eats3PFThird person plural feminine (person)
she-PL
junţòxõṡthey eat
2DSecond person dual (person)
addressee (you two)
junţàṡyou two eat3PIThird person inanimate plural (person)
those, these
junţòxõtthey eat
3DThird person dual (person)
neither speaker nor addressee (they two)
junţòsthey two eatIMPERImpersonal (valency)
Has no arguments
junţàt[it] eats



Verbs also change depending on tense and mood, conjugating in Present, perfect past, imperfect past, perfect future, imperfect future, conditional and imperative:

PresentImp. PastPer. PastImp. FuturePer. FutureConditionalImperative
junţàjunţìmajunţìtajunţòmajunţòtajunţoxàjunţàr
I eatI was eatingI ateI will be eatingI will eatIf I ateLet's eat!


That being said, let's dive into the complex mechanics which describes how and when to conjugate reckolian verbs.

II-Pronoun dropping and impersonal forms

The main usage of the impersonal verbal form is to form sentences without a subject:

Suàt. It is raining.

It is also used to express the passive voice, in which case a subject may be added in instrumental case:

Pìdza junţìtat. The pizza has been eaten.

Pìdza ùxim junţìtat. The pizza has been eaten by me.

When the subject of the sentence is a pronoun, it is usually dropped as the verb conjugation clearly shows which one it is. The pronoun can sometimes be kept for emphasis, but this is considered to be informal:

Jùnţu junţà. I eat food (standard phrasing) Jùnţu junţà ùxa. it's me who eats food (uncommon phrasing, except in informal conversation).

When the subject of the sentence is an ergative noun(transitive verbs), and when the SOV word order is used, then the verb loses its agreement with the subject and becomes impersonal. The agreement is also often dropped when the SOV order is broken but when the SO order is still kept, however this usage is chiefly colloquial and nonstandard:

-Koţlòn naĉù osò. The cat sees a dog. (OSV)
-Naĉù koţlòn osòt. The cat sees a dog. (SOV)
-Naĉù osò koţlòn. The cat sees a dog. (SVO, standard)
-Naĉù osòt koţlòn. The cat sees a dog. (SVO, colloquial)

When the subject is an absolutive noun (intransitive verbs), it is optionnal regardless of the word order to drop the agreement with the subject. Note that the academy of reckolian advises to only drop the agreement when the subject is close to the verb, as keeping the agreement may sound redundant when the subject is very close to the verb, and dropping the agreement when the subject is far from the verb may sound overly formal and may be confusing, especially in speech:

Nàĉa ùmt gṡùṡ. or Nàĉa ùmt gṡùt. He has a cat.

It is also common in colloquial speech, though nonstandard, to always keep the verb agreement when the ergative form of the subject is indistinguishable from its absolutive form (which is the case for most neuter nouns and some masculine nouns).

One last note: when imperative has a pronoun as a subject, keeping the pronoun and dropping the verb agreement express a direct order from the speaker, which is less formal than subjunctive, and may even sound rude:

Ùża junţùxi ! I want that you eat !

III-Interrogative and negative moods

Unlike in english and many other languages, negative and interrogative aspects are not expressed by adding an adverb or changing the word order. Instead, suffixes are added to verbs: -òh for negation and -ìx for interrogation (but if the verb ends in a vowel, the suffixes are -h and -x respectively). In those verbal forms, the word stress always falls on the last syllabe.

The negative aspect is rather straightforward, it is used to express that a statement is not true or to express the opposite:

Koţlòni osà. I see the dog; Koţlòni osàh. I don't see the dog.

The interrogative aspect however is a bit different from english: if the sentence is built the same way as an affirmative sentence, without interrogative pronouns, that means the speaker questions the status (affirmative/negative) of the verb, and if there is an interrogative pronoun, for instance, 'sazìĉ' (when), then, as negative and interrogative cannot be combined, the speaker could either be asking when it is true or when it is not. Here are some examples to make all this clearer:

"Junţitàţìx ?" can either mean "did you eat ?" and "did you not eat ?".

This question may be answered by "qìm" (yes/of course, i did eat) or "xòh" (no/indeed, i did not eat). It may also be answered by repeating the verb in its affirmative or negative aspect, but it is very formal and chiefly literary: "Junţità" (yes/of course, i did eat) or "Junţitàh" (no/indeed, i did not eat).

"Ròg junţitaţìx ?" can either mean "what did you eat ?" and "what did you not eat ?".

This is why it is often important, in order to avoid ambiguity, to repeat the verb in its affirmative or negative aspect when answering such question, as the answer "Pìdza" (pizza) would be ambigous, and could either mean "Pìdza junţìta" (i ate pizza) or "Pìdza junţitàh" (i did not eat pizza).

Note that the latter implies that the answerer ate everything he could but pizza.

IV-Conditionnal, irrealis and subjunctive

Unlike in several indo-eurpean languages, conditionnal in reckolian is actually used to express the condition under which a statement is true, rather than the statement itself, which in reckolian stays in indicative:

Junţoxà ùĉo jùnţic, làṡ If I ate a lot of food, I would be fat.

To express the irrealis mood (imagining what would happen if something that is not true were true), the particle hìza is used; it often accompanies a conditionnal verb. This particle is placed directly after the verb in affirmative aspect, and directly before otherwise. Such sentences usually pictures the consequences of a different outcome to an event of the past:

Junţoxà hìza ùĉo jùnţic, làṡ If I had eaten a lot of food, I would have been fat.

This particle is also used to give a conditionnal aspect to a copula-sentence:

Ùx mokpàn. I am happy. Ùx zòr hìza, mokpàn. If I were alive I would be happy.

In a subjunctive reckolian subordinate, the verb is simply put in its impersonal form. If the subject is implied or if there is none, nothing else is added, but if a precise subject is needed, then the corresponding pronoun is placed right before the verb in the ergative. The verb is always at the beginning of the subordinate, only preceded if applicable by its ergative subject. If the subject of the subordinate is the same as in the main clause, infinitive is preffered:

Xorgà junţàk pìdza. I want to eat pizza.
Xorgà junţàt pìdza. I want pizza to be eaten.
Xorgà ùża junţàt pìdza. I want that you eat pizza.

When the subordinate is a copula-sentence, the above rules are also observed, except that the verb is, as always, implied:

Xorgà mokpàna. I want to be happy/I want hapiness.
Xorgà ùża mokpàna. I want you to be happy.

V-Infinitive, verbal nouns and participles

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