Grammar 1
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The basics of Suntran
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 7 Apr 2015, 07:44.
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2. Date & Time
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Suntran's word order is OSV. Its morphosyntactic alignment is ergative-absolutive. However, it is polysynthetic, and as such one word can make up an entire sentence. Whilst OSV is the order for words within a sentence, SOV is the order for components within a word. See the following examples:sekauto iemanō īseblit.
se-kauto i-emanō ī-se-blit
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-car 3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them-human 3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them.ERGErgative (case)
TRANS subject; agent-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-drive
The humans drive the car.
nīsekoā.
nī-se-koā
2PSecond person plural (person)
addressee (plural).ERGErgative (case)
TRANS subject; agent-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-eat
You (pl.) eat it.
In the first example, the car is placed first as the patient of the verb, then the humans as the agent, and finally the verb (containing information on who did it to what). In the second single-word example, however, nī (the agent) comes before se (the patient), with the verb remaining final.
The list of personal pronouns (only used as word components) is as follows:
1S - mer
2S - mi
3S - se
1P.INC - nes
1P.EXC - nel
2P - nis
3P - i
1S.ERG - met
2S.ERG - mit
3S.ERG - set
1P.INC.ERG - neser
1P.EXC.ERG - neler
2P.ERG - nī
3P.ERG - ī
Two cases that can be applied to components of a word, coming before that component in the word, are the dative (to or for something) and the instrumental (by or with something).
DAT - an
INSTR - et
And here are some examples using them:
metanmiklō'ōn.
met-an-mi-klō-ōn
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I.ERGErgative (case)
TRANS subject; agent-DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location-2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)-apologise-PASTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
I apologised to you.
iet'totātelm.
i-et-totā-telm
3PThird person plural (person)
neither speaker nor addressee, they/them-INSTRInstrumental (case)
'with' 'using'-magic-kill.
They kill by magic.
Suffixes applied to words have a certain requirement - vowel harmony. The vowels in a suffix must all be the same as the preceding vowel in the word. In the references below, they are listed with the letter x in place of vowels - these xs should be replaced with the relevant vowel when used. There is no suffix for the present tense - words without a suffix are assumed to be present.
PRES - Ø
PAST - xn
FUT - lxr
PRES.PERF - lxnxr
PAST.PERF - xnxr
FUT.PERF - lxrxn
There is one more suffix, that also follows the vowel harmony rule - the passive voice.
PASS - xt
If two identical vowels or consonants coincide, they are separated by a glottal stop represented by <'>. This occurs particularly when applying suffixes to words ending in vowels. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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