An Introduction to Sheeyiz Grammar
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Key concepts of syntax and orthography
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9. Sheeyiz Syntax
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The environment of Sheeyiz is an Earth-like planet inhabited by humanoids.
Sheeyiz language (ϫփᶕ§ħᶕʎᶕҕ) was created in the Sethen continent eastern region on planet ᶑϣḟᶂᶕṅ around 1600 years ago, as a pidgin to communicate with the conquering Toroňgan military who spoke Talan. Use of the pidgin suited the Toroňgan military, who didn't want the natives to become fluent in Talan. A significant amount of the early vocabulary and the SVO word order were from Talan, but the phonology and noun-adjective word order were from ϫփᶕ§ůoᶑϫůoϫ ("Naastnaat"), a lingua franca in the area at that time.
1500 years ago, the Toroňgan military took Sheeyiz with them when they conquered the mountain areas west of the Sethen. By 1400 years ago, parts of the Sethen region had started breaking away from Toroňgan control and the mountain areas were already retaken by Naastnaat-speaking armies.
Classical Period Sheeyiz (800-900 years ago) allowed only SVO word order and flat phrase structures, with word compounding mostly imported from Naastnaat, minimal affixes and a heavy emphasis on relative clauses. Sheeyiz was the dominant language in the then-independent coastal area of the Sethen where it was spoken, under the patronage of the Gummaak kingdom.
Around 800 years ago, the coastal regions where Sheeyiz was spoken were gradually conquered by Naastnaat-speaking peoples. Written Sheeyiz was not permitted in public, and the spoken language entered a period of significant change in phonology and grammar. The first stem ending appeared in what had previously been a very isolating morphology and native creation of Naastnaat-style compound words increased. These changes led to this period being derisively named the "Mutation Period" by later grammarians nostalgic for the Classic Period and the name stuck.
Over the last 500 years, there has been significant immigration of Naastnaat speakers into the Sethen. Under the influence of Naastnaat, Sheeyiz has copied its VSO word order for most situations and also copied Naastnaat's case system and definite determiner.
This altered word order has been accompanied by writing word roots together as hyphenated phrases (groups of word roots joined by ḻőϣҕ symbols (§) instead of spacing words apart as was traditionally done). This word layout design was a cultural choice, aimed at providing a distinct identity to the written language by reviving a characteristic root-joining symbol from the Classical Period of Sheeyiz. A development arising from the VSO word order is having simple verbs and pronouns being blended together where phonologically suitable, with pronouns in nominative case largely acting like verb suffixes.
Language reform was instituted 110 years ago (1913 equivalent in the Earth calendar) to reduce the number of syllables in Sheeyiz noun words by streamlining some suffixes, to regularize Naastnaat-style word compounding, and to reform spelling (including 2 new letters added to the Sheeyiz version of the alphabet).
PARTS OF SPEECH
(1) Sheeyiz has nouns, proforms (pronouns and similar words), verbs, modlifiers, prepositions, conjunctions and determiners as its main parts of speech, with function words (clitics and particles), attributives and interjections as the remaining formally recognized parts of speech.
(2) Modifiers describe nouns (acting as adjectives) or describe verbs (acting as adverbs). Adverbs have a fixed form and are variable in position. They usually precede a hyphenated phrase verb, especially for adverbs of time. In a separated verb phrase, they follow the verb except when they are an adverb of time. However adverb position can also depend on emphasis or convenience.
(3) Adjectives follow nouns and can add an ending when their related noun has a case ending. Nouns with a case ending can be an attributive form of a noun and also act like adjectives. These latter modifier words however don't change case to match the noun they describe, they retain their own case ending.
(4) Determiners follow nouns or noun phrases. The determiner role in a phrase can be provided by a determiner word (which can display case) or by an (in)definiteness suffix (which can follow a case suffix). The determiner word can be υҕᶗ "the" or ϫɵ "a" or another 'numeric multiplier' word or a quantitative determiner such as ϫϣᶂᶂᶗ "all", υɵffᶕ "many", ᶗᶙ "some" ҕᶕ "a few" or ᶑɵů "none" or the proximal determiner ᶑɵůҕŋ "here" or distal determiner ᶑO "over there".
(5) The definite determiner υҕᶗ indicates something that has been identified and discussed with the listener previously. The indefinite determiner ϫɵ indicates something that isn't fully identified for the listener but is nevertheless being discussed with the listener now. (If this identification aspect isn't relevant, then any translation of "a" into Sheeyiz should be as the numeric adjective ϫɵőᶗ "one" rather than as the determiner ϫɵ.)
SENTENCE COMPONENTS
(6) The traditional view of Sheeyiz grammar is that the essential core of a sentence is either a subject role + verb phrase or a subject role + predicate phrase (noun phrase, adjective phrase, or preposition + noun phrase). Either of these comprises a minimally sufficient main clause to be a sentence (yᶗεᶗ). Extra main clauses can be added to the sentence if they are introduced by a conjunction. Phrases and clauses in Sheeyiz are known as ᶗdъυọᶑ.
(7) A common sentence pattern is to start with a noun phrase the speaker wants to highlight (the topic). So Sheeyiz sentences typically have one of four formats: verbal, predicate, topic & verbal or topic & predicate. In a topic sentence, the topic noun is considered a complex noun phrase (even if it's a single word) and the topic pronoun must appear in the verb phrase or predicate in place of it.
(8) Clause adjuncts may be added after the main clause, or one may be before it if there is no topic. They are typically relative clauses.
SENTENCE ORDER AND PUNCTUATION
(9) Sheeyiz has two different word order/punctuation regimes for clauses. The historical regime places the subject before the predicate and these words are separated with spaces. The second (sometimes called "modern") regime is known as "hyphenated phrase" style; at least some of the clause components and the subject and predicate are connected in written form by the § symbol (not spacing) in reverse word order. The modern regime is unavailable where there is a relative pronoun
(10) For verb clauses using the historical regime (with space separation), this results in a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order. Case suffixes are omitted, provided the verb is supplied with all its objects in the correct order (dative object precedes accusative object) or all verb objects may be omitted.
(11) The term 'hyphenated phrase' normally refers to use of the § symbol to link the words of the phrase in written form. For example:
Note: The latter allows grammatical operations on the noun (plurality, attributive state and case) via its connected pronoun, but the combination is considered a noun phrase rather than an extension of a pronoun.
(12) For verb clauses using the modern hyphenated phrase regime, this results in a VSO word order. A personal or topic pronoun subject in nominative case is directly incorporated into a simple verb root where possible (without §) and then also any pronoun objects if possible (until a case suffix has been used for an object). Where subject pronoun incorporation is not possible, or the subject is not a personal or topic pronoun, then the subject has the punctuation symbol § to join it to the verb. If the verb clause lacks an explicit subject, then this is written as a pair of § symbols with nothing between them.
(13) The hyphenated phrase use of the § symbol is ceased (also known as "broken") where a subject noun is a hyphenated noun phrase, a proper noun or a relative pronoun, so use of space-separated words then resumes until the next phrase. This cessation also happens if a verb object is a hyphenated noun phrase, a complex noun phrase or a proper noun.
OTHER USES OF THE § SYMBOL
(14) Open-form compound words are the combination of a personal/topic pronoun, noun, verb or qualifier with a following "qualifier equivalent"; which is a qualifier root, a root with qualifier suffix, or (pro)noun with case suffix. In all cases, these roots are joined by the § symbol.
(15) Proper names of people and places have in front of them the function word ϫփᶕ (in one of several forms) followed by the § symbol. The same function word is also used as an equivalent to opening quotation marks. The same function word (in the form §ϫփᶕ) may follow a proper name or close the quoted material.
(16) The name of the § symbol is ḻőϣҕ, pronounced "woozh".
Three simple pronoun-incorporated verb examples
ᶀħɯᶀħᶕⱷᶗůυůọ
kshükshithen
"I see her", from ᶀħɯ"see" plus ᶀħᶕ "I" plus ⱷᶗů "her".
ᶀħɯᶀőOⱷᶗů
kshükwaathen
"They (females) see her", from ᶀħɯ "see" plus ᶀЄεo "they (female)" plus ⱷᶗůọ"her".
ᶙᶗḟfЄʎOᶀħᶕҕ
vemb'zhaakshizh
"They (males) are beside me (male)", from ᶙᶗḟ "are beside" plus fᶕʎo "they (male)" plus ᶀħᶕҕ "me (dative, male)".
A sentence with a closed-form compound word, which blocks further use of suffixes
ᶀħɯⱷᶗů§ϫᶗⱷdυъᶗυ ṅ ᶀħᶕħ ϫɵ
kshüthen tethzjed ' kshish tö
"She sees my male dog" (spoken by a male), from ᶀħɯ "sees" plus ⱷᶗů "she" plus ϫᶗⱷdυъᶗυ "male dog" plus ṅ "that" plus ᶀħᶕħ"mine (male)" plus ϫɵ "a".
A sentence with two hyphenated qualifier predicate clauses separated by a conjunction
ᶑᶗṅ ϫőo˛ɯ§ᶀɵʂŋҕυъᶗ fof εᶗy§ᶂᶗḟọᶕϫ ⱷᶗůᶑọ|
seng twaawü körhgzhje baab ref pemait thensa
"The sister was happy while her brother was ill."
[Sentence [PredC [QP in.the.past] [QP happiness-like.QLZ=sister-E-DEF]] [Conj whilst] [PredC [QP ill=brother-ATTR-INDEF] [RC [GenP 3sf-F.GEN]]]]
A sentence with a full verbal clause by means of a pronoun-incorporated verb
ᶀħɯ˛ɵᶀħᶀőOᶀħᶕ˛Єůҕ|
kshüwokshkwaakshizh'nzh.
"They (females) saw me (male) (but I didn't know they saw me)."
[Sentence [VC [V see-PFV-3pf-E-1s-M.ACC]] ]
Note: If I saw them see me, then dative case for me, ᶀħᶕҕ,would be used instead.
A sentence with a verbal clause with noun subject and object, plus relative clause on the object noun with related clause adjunct and implicit nominalization
ⱷɵŋɵᶀ§ḟϣυъdυъᶗ§ᶂᶕyЄůoϫ ħᶕṅŋҕ ȫᶗů ᶀħᶕʂ§foůdᶗ|
thögok mujzje pif’naat shinggzh when kshirh baanze
"The warrior stabbed a bone which is broken now. "
[Sentence [VC [V stab-PFV=warrior-DEF=bone-N.ACC-INDEF] [Adjunct [Subj 0.REL-ng] [VP [QP now] [V have=break-Ø.NMZ] ]]]]
A sentence with determiner-containing words of different genders
ϣṅŋҕϣ˛ϣ υɵḟɵᶀħᶀħᶗ§ḟᶗŋҕᶕυъ ᶙᶕυъ υҕᶗᶕůҕ ůϣfọᶕůҕ ϫɵőᶗůO|
ungzhuwü dömökshkshe megzhij vij nubainzh töwenaa
"I gave each of the two men a fish."
[Sentence [VC [QP each-like.QLZ] [Compound give-PFV-1s=man-M.DAT-DEF] [Det double.DET-M.DAT] [Object fish-N.ACC-INDEF]] [QP one.N.ACC] ]
Gloss Legend:
Ø indicates a possible grammar feature is not present.
0 indicates the pronoun does not indicate gender or number.
1 indicates first person ("I"), 2 indicates second person ("you") and 3 indicates a third person pronoun ("he"/"she"/"they").
ACC is accusative case suffix (indicates an object of a verb).
ATTR indicates an attributive phrase or relative clause will follow this word in 'attributive state'.
DAT is dative case suffix (indicates the beneficiary of a verb action).
DEF is definiteness ("the") and INDEF is indefiniteness ("a/an/some").
E indicates required spelling/sound changes that are not directly related to morphology (bridging or linking consonants).
F is female gender, M is male and N is neuter.
GEN is genitive case suffix (indicates a noun is "of" another noun)
INS is instrumental case suffix (indicates a noun is the means or tool for achieving a verb action)
m indicates agreement with m-nasality, n indicates n-nasality and ng indicates ŋ-nasality.
NMZ is nominalization, forming a noun from a verb or adjective.
NOM is nominative case, which indicates the subject of a verb or predicate. It is unmarked in Sheeyiz.
p indicates a plural pronoun, s indicates a singular pronoun
PFV indicates the perfective aspect, meaning a completed action.
QLZ is qualification, forming an adjective from a noun or verb.
REL indicates a relative pronoun.
The combined gloss and syntax structure analysis is in a format where it can be pasted into ConWorkshop's Syntax Trees tool and will show a diagram of the sentence structure.
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