Kharulian Morphosyntax

Throughout its grammar, Kharulian cares about the following distinctions:

• Animacy: the animate category includes humans, animals, celestial bodies, and natural forces that appear to have agency, while the inanimate category includes everything else.

• Grammatical number: singular, dual, and plural for animates; only singular and plural for inanimates.

• Obviation: only the most topical third person gets third person marking, all others get fourth person (obviate) marking.

Noun Phrases

Pronouns

Strictly speaking, Kharulian has no independent pronouns. Instead, it uses its verb agreement affixes liberally to add information about person and number where needed.

(in addition to the normal verb agreement), the demonstrative el is predicated, resulting in the following table of “pronouns”:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st Person	mel	madzgaal	madel
1st Inclusive	—	itykaal	idel
2nd Person	tel	teklaal	telel
3rd Person	iil	iklaal	ilel
4th Person	anel	algaal	alnel
Inanimate	sel	—	juel

Nouns

Nouns decline for number and case by adding suffixes and/or changing the noun stem. Unless otherwise specified, the resulting forms are stressed on the same syllable that the root is stressed on; if this would put the stress beyond the last three syllables, the stress is on the second-last syllable instead.

Number

Inanimate nouns distinguish singular and plural.

The plural is formed by voicing and palatalizing the last consonant. If the last vowel in the stem is a or e, this also shifts to e or i in the plural, and a shift from a to e also palatalizes the previous consonant. For example, the plural of mas “house” is mezy (/mʲɛʒ/); the plural of et “food” is idy (/idʒ/); the plural of kuim “rope” is kuimy (/kʷimʲ/). If the last consonant is already palatalized, then the final consonant doesn’t change, which may result in the plural being the same as the singular.

Some a-stem nouns go even further, switching a preceding fricative or affricate to a stop. For example, “leg” is tsap, but “legs” is teby (/tʃɛbʲ/).

Regardless of the stem changes, the writing system marks plurality with a final j.

Animate nouns distinguish singular, dual, and plural.

The dual is marked with the suffix -lÉja if the stem ends in a consonant, where E is a copy of the last vowel in the stem; stress moves to the copy vowel. If the stem ends in a vowel, the dual is marked with the suffix -kla, and stress moves to the second-last syllable. If the stem ends in two consonants, the dual is marked with -‘lga, and the stress moves to the a in the oblique cases.

The plural is marked with the suffix -el if the stem ends in a consonant (which voices and palatalizes that consonant); if the stem ends in a vowel, lengthen that vowel and add -l. In the oblique forms, the -el is stressed.

Nouns that have no specific referent (i.e. they refer to the kind in general) appear in the singular. They take obviative agreement (if animate), but don’t take the a- prefix that obviative nouns usually require.

Teny niazliuu anané.

teny  niazliu-u  anan-é   
bear  fish-ACC   4s>4s-eat

Bears eat fish

Case

Kharulian nouns inflect for four cases:

• The nominative, which is the citation form.

• The accusative, marked by -o; if the stem ends with a vowel, lengthen that vowel instead.

• The genitive, marked by -i; -jy if the stem ends with a vowel.

• The dative, marked by -Em, were E is a copy of the last vowel in the stem (a if the last vowel in the stem is a schwa); just -m if the stem ends with a vowel.

In all singular oblique cases, the final consonant of the stem is voiced (and final s becomes r).

Some stem changes happen only for animate nouns:

• The genitive -i palatalizes the last consonant of the stem and raises the last vowel of the stem, just like inanimate plurals.

• The dative also palatalizes the last consonant if the echo vowel is e or i.

Some nouns use a different stem (the oblique stem) in all forms except the nominative singular. For example, the word tójiot “helpful spirit” has the oblique stem tuiit-; the word mur’n “river” has the oblique stem munz/m’nz. If the noun is inanimate and the oblique stem ends in two consonants, then the nominative plural has an epenthetic schwa added to the end to prevent an illegal consonant cluster; for example segiby’m “pen” has the oblique stem segimp-, but the plural is segimpy’ [ʃeˈɟim.pʲə].

Non-singular nouns add the case marker after the number marker, and the number marker is treated as part of the stem for the purposes of stem changes induced by the case marker and for choosing the vowel to copy for the dative.

Here are full declensions of a few nouns:

Number	Case	mas “house”	kuim “rope”	cuéclet “flower”	ura “husband”	nuiin “wife”	tójiot “helpful spirit”	mur’n “river”
Singular	Nominative	mas	kuim	cuéclet	ura	nuiin	tójiot	mur’n
	Accusative	maro	kuimo	cuécledo	uraa	nuiino	tuiito	munzo
	Genitive	marui	kuimui	cuécledui	úrajy	nuiini	tuiiti	munzi
	Dative	máram	kuímuim	cuécleduem	úram	nuíinim	tuíitim	múnzum
Dual	Nominative	—	—	—	urakla	nuiinlija	tuiitlija	munz’lga
	Accusative	—	—	—	uraklaa	nuiinlijaa	tuiitlijaa	m’nz’lgaa
	Genitive	—	—	—	uráklajy	nuiinlíjajy	tuiitlíjajy	m’nz’lgajy
	Dative	—	—	—	uráklam	nuiinlíjam	tuiitlíjam	m’nz’lgam
Plural	Nominative	mezy	kuimy	cuéclidy	úraal	nuíinel	tuíitel	munzel
	Accusative	mezio	kuimio	cuéclidio	uraalo	nuiinelo	tuiitelo	m’nzelo
	Genitive	mezi	kuimi	cuéclidi	ureeli	nuiinili	tuiitili	m’nzili
	Dative	mézim	kuímim	cuéclidim	uráalem	nuiinélem	tuiitélem	m’nzélem

In general, the cases are used in the following situations:

• The nominative is used for the subjects of clauses (both transitive and intransitive) and when a noun appears in isolation (e.g. when answering a question with a single noun phrase)

• The accusative is used for the direct object of intransitive sentences; however, if the direct object is inanimate, the accusative is only used if the noun phrase is definite. It’s also used for the objects of locative postpositions when describing static position.

• The genitive is used to mark alienable possessors, i.e. when the possessed thing is anything but a body part or family member.

• The dative is used:

  • for the indirect object (recipient or beneficiary) of a ditransitive verb;

  • for the object of a locative postposition when describing motion towards;

  • for inalienable possessors.

  • for experiencers that are syntactic subjects.

Body parts, kinship terms, and words referring to the family are inalienably possessed (take a dative possessor) while all other nouns are alienably possessed (take a genitive possessor). By default, the possessor goes before the possessed noun, but this order is usually reversed when an inanimate noun possesses an animate noun.

Locative postpositions imply position when the argument is accusative, motion towards when the argument is dative.

Numerals

Numerals in Kharulian can be used as nouns on their own (e.g. when counting or doing arithmetic), or they can be placed directly before a singular noun to count that noun: ugen am “four leaves”, luee niazliu “three fish”. For ordinal numbers, put the numeral in the genitive case instead: ugini am “the fourth leaf”, lueejy niazliu “the third fish”.

Two is different: it goes after the noun it counts, and that noun is placed in the genitive case:

Kuni tsaro manujarrí.

kun-i    tsar-o    ma-nuja-rrí
dog-GEN  pair-ACC  1s-3d-fear 

I’m afraid of the two dogs

Verbs

The citation form of a verb is the verbal noun — usually the same as the bare verb root — which is a noun representing the action itself.

To make the verb finite, you need to add prefixes to indicate the subject and, if present, either the direct or the indirect object. Most semantically transitive verbs can be made intransitive (implying an obvious or generic object) simply by omitting object marking.

The subject prefixes are:

Person	Number	Prefix
		Before Consonant	Before Vowel
1st	Singular	ma-	m-
	Dual	madzga-	madzga-
	Plural	mad’-	mad-
1st Incl.	Dual	ityka-	ityka-
	Plural	ity’-	id-
2nd	Singular	te-	t(i)-
	Dual	tekla-	tekla-
	Plural	tel-	tel-
3rd	Singular	i-	i-
	Dual	ikla-	ikla-
	Plural	il-	il-
4th	Singular	an-	an-
	Dual	alga-	alga-
	Plural	alna-	aln-
Inanimate	Singular	sa-	s-
	Plural	u-	j(u)-

In the prefixes ending in a consonant, that final consonant is palatalized if followed by /e/, /i/, or another palatalized consonant, unpalatalized otherwise. The 2nd singular and inanimate plural prefixes before vowels are exceptions; they’re /tʃ/ and /ɣʷ/ respectively, regardless of the following vowel.

If the stem starts with /e/, this assimilates to a prefix ending in /a/ or /i/, producing a long vowel.

Double-Consonant Verbs

Kharulian has a class of verbs called double-consonant verbs, which the writing system represents with two initial consonants. The spoken form actually has a vowel between those consonants, since Kharulian doesn’t allow initial consonant clusters, but this vowel often drops away in the conjugated forms. Examples include kezip “to write”, lezim “to sleep”, and tsajiojy “to cough”.

Double-consonant verbs have a series of altered stems that are used in certain finite forms:

• The short stem drops the vowel between the first two consonants and voices both consonants.

• The crossed stem drops the vowel, switches the two consonants, and devoices both if possible. (Some double- consonant verbs don’t switch the consonants, but still devoice them if possible.)

• The injected stems replaces the vowel between the first two consonants with another vowel. There are three variants:

  • Inject O replaces the vowel with an o and unpalatalizes the first consonant.

  • Inject E replaces the vowel with an e and palatalizes the first consonant.

  • Inject Y replaces the vowel with a schwa and palatalizes the first consonant.

Note that the phonological processes apply to these forms: if the first consonant is a stop and the first vowel is a (which it usually is), then that stop will appear as a fricative or affricate in the plain stem; and if one of the consonants is a fricative while the other is a sonorant like /l/ or /n/, the fricative will voice in the crossed stem.

Here are the altered stems of the example verbs:

Stem	kezip	lezim	tsajiojy
Short	-gzip	-lzim	-dwjiojy
Crossed	-skip	-zlim	-cytojy
Inject O	-kozip	-lozim	-tojiojy
Inject E	-kezip	-lezim	-tejiojy
Inject Y	-ky’zip	-ly’zim	-ty’jiojy

Suffixed Stems

Many verb stems change to a suffixed stem when suffixes are added. The most common change is deletion of an unwritten vowel between two consonants at the end of the stem. As with double-consonant verbs, these consonants sometimes switch places in the suffixed stem; unlike with double-consonant verbs, whether the consonants switch or not depends only on the verb stem.

Participle Forms

Kharulian verbs have two participle forms, which are used to form relative clauses.

• The perfective participle is marked with the -on suffix, which also voices the last sound of the stem. It’s used to indicate that the noun has already been affected by the verb.

• The imperfective participle is marked with the -sa suffix, which becomes -za if the stem ends in a voiced consonant and -ra if the stem ends in a vowel. It’s used to indicate that the verb is still affecting the noun.

Participle forms can’t take other verb suffixes, but they must still be marked for the person and number of the subject and object (if applicable).

Case endings can be added to the participle forms to make converbs, which are used for multiple-verb constructions. The following forms are available:

• Perfective participle + accusative (-ono), used to express a preceding event; “having done X, we did Y”.

• Perfective participle + dative (-onom), used to express the purpose of an action; “to do X, we did Y”.

• Imperfective participle + accusative (-saa), used to express a simultaneous event: “while doing X, we did Y”. It’s also used for manner adverbials: “we did Y in an X-ing manner”.

Again, converbs must still be marked for the person and number of the subject and object. These agreements are often the same as those of the main verb, but they don’t have to be.

Auxiliary Constructions

Kharulian has a collection of auxiliary constructions. For some auxiliary verbs, the lexical verb is gnomic, while others put the lexical verb into a specific converb form. In either case, the lexical verb must take the same person/number prefixes as the auxiliary verb. (This distinguishes true auxiliary verbs from ordinary verb-converb complexes, in which the verbs can disagree on their person/number marking.)

Negation

The auxiliary verb ar is used for negation. It takes a main verb in the gnomic form.

The verb ar has the following aspect forms:

• The imperfective -ery.

• The progressive -an.

• The habitual -ázan.

• The past habitual -ázegy.

• The perfective -uee.

• The experiential -ezy.

It doesn’t have momentane, protractive, recent perfect, or prospective forms; all of these become simple perfectives when negated.

When the subject is inanimate, ar uses a different stem, il, which has the following aspect forms:

• Imperfective -ily.

• Progressive -in.

• Habitual -ízian.

• Past habitual -izy’gy.

• Perfective -ii.

• Experiential -izy.

Examples:

Icap eer.

i-cap    i-ar  
3s-read  3s-NEG

He doesn’t (i.e. can’t) read.

Ciókot mar’jius maran.

ciókot  mar'-jius         mar-a-n           
sunset  1s>INAN.SG-watch  1s>INAN.SG-NEG-HAB

I don’t usually watch the sunset.

Vurílim alnelíaraa madzárar madezy.

Vuríli-m    alnelíara-a  madz-árar  mad-e-zy    
Vurili-DAT  fall-ACC     1p-travel  1p-NEG-EXPER

We’ve never been to Vurili in the fall.

Noun Incorporation

Kharulian verbs can easily incorporate nouns to create compounds and to keep animates as core arguments of the verb. The incorporated noun usually represents the prototypical object or instrument of the verb. Body parts are especially prone to being incorporated to narrow the verb’s effect to that body part.

With double-consonant verbs, the stem the verb takes is usually predictable from the phonological form of the incorporated noun:

• If the noun ends in a vowel, use the crossed stem.

• If the noun ends in a consonant, use the full stem.

Clauses

Word Order

Kharulian is verb-final, with Subject-Object-Verb being the most common order.

However, all orders are possible, with the double-marking of case and polypersonal agreement making the relationships clear.

Polar Questions

Polar questions are formed using the particle/pseudo-verb ik. This element directly follows the word that’s being questioned. For a pragmatically neutral question, this is the verb:

Icap ik?

i-cap    ik
3s-read  Q 

Can he read?

Teny niazliuu anané ik?

teny  niazliu-u  anan-é     ik
bear  fish-ACC   4s>4s-eat  Q 

Do bears eat fish?

When the verb has aspect or mood suffixes, these appear as suffixes on the word ik rather than on the verb:

Vurílim alnelíaraa telárar isky’?

Vuríli-m    alnelíara-a  tel-árar   ik-sy' 
Vurili-DAT  fall-ACC     2p-travel  Q-EXPER

Have you ever been to Vurili in the fall?

The aspect forms are:

• Imperfective igy.

• Progressive igy’n.

• Habitual isykan.

• Past habitual isky’gy.

• Perfective igui.

• Momentane ickii.

• Protractive ijia.

• Experiential isky’.

• Recent perfect isky’n.

• Prospective igun.

Unlike a true auxiliary verb, ik never takes person/number agreement.

When applied to a noun, ik singles out that noun as the thing being asked about:

Teny niazliuu ik anané?

teny  niazliu-u  ik  anan-é   
bear  fish-ACC   Q   4s>4s-eat

Is it fish that bears eat?

Niazliuu teny ik anané?

niazliu-u  teny  ik  anané    
fish-ACC   bear  Q   4s>4s-eat

Is it bears that eat fish?

Answering

To respond to a polar question in the affirmative, repeat the main verb:

“Icap ik?” “Icap.”

i-cap    ik  --  i-cap  
3s-read  Q   --  3s-read

“Can he read?” “Yes.”

To respond in the negative, use ar conjugated appropriately:

“Icap ik?” “Eer.”

i-cap    ik  --  e-er  
3s-read  Q   --  3s-NEG

“Can he read?” “No.”