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Madokkian
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Grammar
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 4 Jul 2018, 20:10.

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Nouns:
Plurality-
Nouns are marked for plural or dual number. Plurality is shown through partial reduplication of the final syllable of a noun: Liwé > Liwéwé (noodles). Dual number is shown through full reduplication of the noun, orthographically with a hyphen separating them: Naga-naga (a pair of eyes).
Associative plural can be used with kinship terms and personal names to indicate the marked noun's family or close friends. It's formed by adding the word 'sa' after the name. [Xibali sa = shivali and her family]
When numerals are used, plurality is optional.
Mass nouns are grammatically singular but can be made singulative with the suffix -li. This category lacks strict boundaries and many nouns may be used as either mass nouns or count nouns.
Wat 'water' > Watli 'a drop of water'

Reduplication-
Other than plurality, reduplication can be used to form colors out of nouns; this is rare in everyday speech but very common in poetic language. Usually full reduplication is used.
Augmentatives can be formed through full reduplication of a noun plus changing the first consonant to b or adding b in the case of a vowel. [Liwé > Liwébiwé = huge noodles????]

Possession-
Noun-noun possession is formed using possessive personal prefixes covered later under adjectives. Syntactically, the possessed noun with attached possessive personal prefix comes first, followed by the unmarked possessor.
U-liwéwé xibali
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
-noodle-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
shivali
Shivali's noodles

Alienable and Inalienable possession differ slightly. The above only applies to alienable possession, which is the most common kind by far. Inalienable is used with kinship terms, body parts, pets, and owned land. There's no prefixes used with inalienable possession, it's just juxtaposition in the order possessee-possessor.
Order-
(DEM/POS)-noun-(PL) (NUM) (ADJ) (POSSESSOR) (REL.CLAUSE)

Pronouns:
Personal pronouns are not considered a separate part of speech from nouns and they are rarely used in everyday speech. There are many possible 3rd person pronouns as leftovers from when Madokkian was more isolating and used noun classifiers which could optionally be used as pronouns.
PersonSingularDualPlural
1stJaiJakuJaya
2ndSutSudaiSéya
3rdKóngKuvaiKaya
4thBai

Possessive pronouns-
These are formed by adding the prefix o- to the personal pronouns. When used as adjectives, they take on shortened enclitic forms shown below under adjectives.

Demonstrative pronouns
As with the possessives, there are separate but obviously related pronominal and adjectival demonstrative forms. There is a 2-way distinction between proximal and distal demonstratives- i for proximal (i- prefix as its adjectival form) and u for distal (u- prefix as its adjectival form). [Uyangani 'that school']
A noun can take either a possessive pronominal adjective prefix or a demonstrative prefix, not both.

Adjectives:
When used to describe nouns, adjectives are placed after the noun and are not modified.
Jikabibi tvai haxi
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-cat-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
two red
My two red cats


Predicative Adjectives-
Adjectives that serve as a complete predicate can act as verbs and take all normal verbal morphology.
Yakaovite
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-happy-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech

I was happy.


Possession-
If it's personal adjective possession like my noodles, there's possessive prefixes for that. [Liwé > Jiliwé = my noodles]. Demonstrative adjectives are also prefixes [Iliwé = these noodles]. There are separate stand alone pronoun forms for all these tho. If it's one noun possessing another, like shivali's noodles, then the order is Possessor-possessive prefix.thing getting possessed [Xibali uliwé = shivali her-noodles].
Possessive Prefixes-
PersonSingularPlural
1stJi-Ja-
2ndSi-Wa-
3rdU-Wa-


Verbs:
Person and Number-
PersonSingularDualPlural
1stYa-Yake-Yane-
2ndSu-Sus-Sane-
3rdKu-Kak-Kane-
4thBa-

Dual is falling out of use and only 1D is regularly used by young speakers, where Yake- is shortened to Yak. Furthermore, the plurals are shortened so that the second syllable is reduced to the consonant n; this nasal becomes part of the previous coda and assimilates to the following place of articulation when followed by a consonant.
Kanchomte ne?
3PLUnknown code-eat-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
QInterrogative
question

Did they eat?


Object Suffixes-
Object suffixes distinguish only 3 persons and no numbers. 1st person is C-ma or V-m, 2nd is C-si or V-s, 3rd is C-u or V-ku. If a verb ends in k and -ku is added, the irregular -kku is suffixed. Yok > Yayokku 'Love > I love her'
Suchomte jiliwé ne? Ye, yachomu.
2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
-eat-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-noodles QInterrogative
question
yes 1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-eat-3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee

Did you eat my noodles? Yeah, I did.

These are attached to the tense suffix, if there is one. In this case, they take the simple form of -m, -s, and -k.

Negation-
Verbs are conjugated for negative by using the prefix kvó- which replaces the person and number prefix. In Standard Mdk, the pronoun is obligatorily placed after the verb in subject position, but in colloquial mdk this is optional.
Kvóchasam jai, sut ne?
NEGNegative (polarity)
not
-hungry 1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
QInterrogative
question

I'm not hungry, are you?


Tense-
Four tenses are distinguished in Standard Madokkian- Present, which is unmarked, Recent Past, Distant Past, and Future. In colloquial Madokkian, however, Recent and Distant Past are becoming conflated into a single Past Tense and the Future Tense is also used as a general irrealis mood. Tense is often left unmarked if it can be inferred from context.
Present: Unmarked. Present is very general and used for actions that are occurring close to the time of speaking, began in the past but have present effects, or will definitely start soon.
Yalau, therefore, can mean "I'm going right now", "I was going and still am", or "I'm about to go".
Recent Past: Marked by the suffix -te which attaches directly to the verb root. The Recent Past in Standard Madokkian is usually used for events that have happened within the past couple days. Depending on context, however, this can change to within the past day or many years ago (for example in the context of history books). In colloquial Madokkian, this is the most common Past Tense and is used for just about everything.
Yachomte sasa
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-eat-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
also
I ate, too

Distant Past: Marked by the suffix -nde which attaches directly to the verb root. The Distant Past in Standard Madokkian is used for events that happened more than a couple days ago; usually a week or more earlier. In colloquial Madokkian, though, this is usually reserved for myths, legends, literary hyperbole, and children's exaggerations.
"Mam, yachasam, yachomnde!"
Mom 1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-hungry 1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-eat-DPSTUnknown code
"Mom, I'm hungry, I haven't eaten in forever!"

Future: Marked by the suffix C-vi or V-pvi which attaches directly to the verb root. The Future Tense is used for events that will probably happen in the future. In colloquial Madokkian, it is often used for events that may or may not happen, similarly to subjunctive and conditional moods. This is frequently combined with the 2nd person prefix as a polite request as opposed to the normal 'harsh' imperative form. Most irrealis constructions require the verb to be in future tense.

Moods-
Imperative: All affixes are stripped from the verb for a singular command. The bare verb root is fully reduplicated if ordering multiple people.
Chom! 'Eat!' and Chom-chom! 'Eat, all of you!'
The negative imperative is formed with the negative particle kvai after the verb.
Chom kvai! 'Don't eat!'
Interrogative: This is formed with the sentence final particle 'ne', but in colloquial speech is often placed both sentence initially and finally.
Ne kanechomte jikabibi ne?
QInterrogative
question
3PLUnknown code-eat-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-cat-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
QInterrogative
question

Did my cats eat?


Copula-
Nominal Predicates:
The positive copula for nominal predicates is wa. In present tense indicative positive, the copula is absent: Jai yangji 'I'm a student', Yawate yangji 'I was a student'. There is a separate negative copula, kwa: Yakwa yangji 'I'm not a student'. The copula is required in present tense if the statement is negative.
Locational Predicates:
For expressing location, the verb tté is used. Like wa, it is dropped in present positive and has a separate negative form: kwotté. When used without any prepositions, it carries the meaning of being at or near somewhere; it can, however, be used with any locational preposition.
Yakwottéte yangani
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
-not.be.at-PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
school
I wasn't at school.
Kóttépvi oyo yangani.
3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
-be.at-FUTFuture (tense)
action occurring after the moment of speech
away school
He'll be outside of the school.


Clause Types-
Existential clauses use the existential word mfai (natively called a verbal particle) which is placed in the same spot a verb would be, though it does not inflect for person, number, or tense. This clause structure is only used if the subject is unidentified:
Mfai kabi kiya yangani
there.is cat on school
There's a cat on the school.

If the subject is known, the locative copula tté is used instead.
Mfai may be negated with the prefix kvó-.
Kvómfai kabi kiya yangani
NEGNegative (polarity)
not
-there.is cat on school
There isn't a cat on the school.


Existential clauses for expressing predicate possession (clauses using 'have') are much different than in English. A simple genitive is not allowed as a predicate, so the possessed noun must be stated. Structurally, the existential word mfai is used along with personal possessive markers.
Mfai sikabi ne?
there.is 2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
-cat QInterrogative
question

Do you have a cat?
Mfai ikabikke ukabi xibali
there.is PROX-cat-SBC 3S-cat shivali
This cat is Shivali's (lit. There is this cat, which is Shivali's cat)


Subclauses
The clitic -kke attaches to the last word in a dependent clause and begins the subclause.
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