Kŵrakán

Compositions

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Kŵrakán 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 through 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", or agent, in person and number. There is an epenthetic /χ/ between vowels under this circumstance that introduces allomorphs of both the tense and person affixes. A verb also has two voices, as discussed below.

The Copula

Kŵrakán has a copula, it agrees with its "subject" like other verbs. Some of its forms are suppletive. The copula is involved in a number of constructions, chiefly: with gerunds, for the two imperfective aspects; and with participles, for attributives and simple indicatives.

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

Kŵrakán aspect is chiefly split between Perfective and Imperfective, where the Perfective is unmarked, and the two Imperfective aspects, Progressive/Continuous and Habitual, are both formed through a syntactic construction involving a copula, a gerund, and a postposition. There is also a morphological Perfect suffix.

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 a morphosyntactical alignment split between a Nominative-Accusative Active voice; and an Ergative-Absolutive Passive voice.

Most (although not all) verbs are ambitransitive, and do not require any special derivation to be used transitively, but some roots use a nearly fossilized prefix involved with valency increasing operations, this does not really affect their transitivity but rather how many arguments one can expect from this verb, generally raising the number from 2 to 3.

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

Nouns

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The Case Marking

In theory, Kŵrakán has the following cases: Nominative, Accusative, Ergative, Absolutive, Oblique, and Genitive. Very little is done to mark case at all.

First, nothing is done to mark morphosyntactic case (Nom, Acc, Erg, Abs, Obl) on nouns or pronouns, since their relation is communicated by their place in the verb phrase, verb transitivity, and whether the verb is in the Active or Passive voice. This leaves only the Genitive case, in which Possessum Nouns are marked with an initial mutation and a possessive affix agreeing in grammatical person and number with the Possessor.

In pronomial bound morphemes, there are different allomorphs between active and passive constructions. This alternation corresponds to a change in a pronoun's form when assuming a different morphosyntactic case. However because this alternation is due singularly to phonotactical constraints, it is not considered "true" case marking by either myself or the hypothetical speakers. (although, maybe someday!)

The Initial Mutations

There's only two, Lenition and Fortition. Lenition is used to mark plurality, and Fortition is used to mark the Genitive case.

The Noun

Nouns are moderately inflected. There are two numbers, Singular and Plural. Only the Genitive case is marked.
In derivation, compounding is frequent, and multiple derivational suffixes are readily accepted. Fusion and syncopation play a large role.

The Article

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

Pronouns

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Kŵrakán 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 Kŵrakán. They come in three forms: discrete morphemes unto themselves (1), and those derived from either nouns (2) or verbs (3). Multiple derivational morphemes can be present. This class has three major declension paradigms based on the phonological qualities of their Coda phonemes.

Adpositions

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Kŵrakán uses postpositions. They immediately follow that to which they relate. Kŵrakán also uses a system of Postpositional compounds, much like Irish's Prepositional Pronouns. These are simple, agglunating constructions formed firstly of an adposition, and secondly of a pronoun or other demonstrative. These can be analyzed by English phrases such as "into those", "for you", "without which", "on whose behalf?" or "beyond any of us"