PSJ grammar and SJ grammar developments
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Well the title says it all already
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 14 Jan 2019, 14:41.
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1. PSA Grammar
?FYI...
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
[top]Nouns
Nouns in Proto Sanju-Jutean displayed no number marking whatsoever.
The case distinction was threefold, an unmarked nominative, accusative marked by the clitic =itai, and an oblique case marked by =ueǵe. The oblique was used mainly for the recipient of ditransitives and the object of prepositions. The nominative was used for transitive agents and volitional intransitive subjects, while the accusative was used for transitive objects and non-volitional intransitive agents, thus characterizing split-S alignment.
[top]Pronouns
Proto-Sanju-Jutean pronouns displayed a two way number distinction, with clusivity distinguished in the first person plural. There was a fourway gender distinction in the third person.
Proto-Sanju-Jutean Pronouns | ||||||
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First | Second | Third (human) | Third (animate) | Third (inanimate) | Third (abstract) | |
Singular | tau | naɣa | raa | obu/oɣu* | axxa | egi |
Pl. Inclusive | pa | naɣa pe | raa pe | obu pe oɣu pe | axxa pe | egi pe |
Pl. Exclusive | panaɣaxal | |||||
* obu/oɣu and their respective plural forms are in free variation |
There are also two demonstrative pronouns, proximal yah and distal yama, that pattern exclusively as nouns, requiring for instance a genitive construction to operate adnominally.
[top]Verbs
PSJ verbs were inflected by the means of postposed particles, or perhaps clitics, that marked mood, voice, comparison, and polarity. Adjectives are not distinct from verbs.
Voice and Mood particles cannot co-occur, sharing a single slot in the paradigm.
The Voice contrast is at least fourfold, with possibly also a passive.
Active: unmarked
Causative: wo
Reflexive efe
Reciprocal: fut
Passive: gu
There were three Modal clitics, the exact uses of which are still tentative:
Indicative: unmarked
Conditional: =će
Hortative: =pe
Subjunctive: =tsa
It is, however, fairly certain that they were phonologically bound.
There is also an imperative formed by full reduplication of the verb root.
Proto-Sanju-Jutean also displayed a comparative particle, at, which was used primarily in stative verbs (i.e. adjectives) but that was also usable with non-statives
The Negative particle xal is unambiguosly phonologically independent.
The general order of root and particles is:
ROOT MOOD/VOICE COMP NEG
[top]Syntax
Word order is relatively free, although it tends towards SOV in pragmatically neutral contexts.
PSJ displays serial verb constructions where the subject is always shared, but not necessarily objects and obliques. Mood, voice and comparative markers could go on either verb of the construction (but not both?), while the negative always went after both verbs.
Yes/No questions are marked by sentence final particle gaa. In content questions the content words are moved to the end of the sentence after gaa, sometimes leaving a cataphoric general noun behind. There seems to be a degree of variety regarding what are the content words, several general nouns being possible for each option (i.e. both 'place' and 'room' being used to ask 'where' questions).
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