Čúruχuy

Compositions

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Čúruχuy is a dialect of Kŵrakán. As such it shares many features and thus is an inflectionally, derivationally, and syntactically head-initial language of split-ergative/absolutive alignment (nom/acc in the active voice and erg/abs in the passive). There is a blend of agglutinative and fusional tendencies throughr most of its grammar, with analytic behavior filling the gaps. It features a system of initial mutation which marks for plurality and possession. The word order is somewhat free, but there is a preference for Verb-Initial in both declarative and interrogative statements.

Verbs

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The Main Verb

The verb inflects firstly for tense, and then also agrees with the "subject" in person and number. There is an epenthetic χ between vowels that introduces allomorphs of both the tense and person affixes.

The Tenses

The tense system is fairly straightforward. There is an unmarked Present tense, as well as a Past and Future tense, each marked with suffixes.

The Aspects

Čúruχuy has an unmarked Perfective. There is also a morphological Perfect suffix. In addition to this there are two Imperfective aspects, Progressive/Continuous and Habitual, both formed through a syntactic construction involving a copula, a gerund, and a postposition.

Mood, Voice, and Valency

There is an unmarked Active voice and Passive voice marked with an allomorphic suffix. The distinction between the voices is this: In the Active voice, the verb agrees with its Agent using a fusional affix - and the Patient, (alternatively "Object") is a free morpheme. In the Passive voice, the verb agrees with with it's Patient using a fusional affix - and the free morphemes are used for the Agent, which is treated like an Object.

This alternation of the verb's agreement between Agent and Patient introduces an irregularity in the construction of single-argument verbs, since depending on the verb's voice they could be the Agent or Object of a verb. This introduces a morphosyntactical alignment split between a Nominative-Accusative Active voice; and an Ergative-Absolutive Passive voice. Most verbs are ambitransitive, but a valency increasing prefix is sometimes affixed to the verb.

In the Passive voice, most verbs would be considered Labile. Their agreement is with the Agent in Active transitive clauses, and with the Patient in Passive transitive clauses. (Easy mnemonic: A with A; P with P)

While there is no proper morphological mood in Čúruχuy, the uninflected verb infinitive is used for commands. Jussive information is conveyed lexically.

Nouns

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The Noun

Nouns are moderately inflected. There are two series of initial mutations, Lenition and Fortition. Lenition is used to mark plurality, and Fortition is used to mark the Genitive case - on the possessum. The Genitive possessum is also obligatorily marked to agree with the possessor's grammatical person.
In derivation, compounding is frequent, and multiple derivational suffixes are readily accepted. Fusion and syncopation play a large role.

The Case Marking

Very little is done to mark case morphologically on nouns and none on pronouns. Genitive is distinct in that it is marked with an initial mutation.

The Article

There is no indefinite article and definite article does not agree with its noun in any category.

Pronouns

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Čúruχuy has both free and bound pronouns, and allomorphs of the bound forms.

Adjectives and Adverbs

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Adjectives and Adverbs are conflated entirely in Čúruχuy. They come in three forms, discrete morphemes unto themselves, and those derived from either nouns or verbs. Multiple derivational morphemes can be present.

Adpositions

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Čúruχuy uses postpositions. They immediately follow that to which they relate.