Nambāno grammar

Nambāno is a Koyanic language spoken in the Nambō region of Qnōp'. It is closely related to Arklobu and several other languages spoken in western Fountainhead, with which it shares many grammatical features which are often found in Koyanic languages. These include agglutinative verbs, noun classes distinguished by countability, and a general lack of grammatical number.

Nouns
Nouns have three stem forms, absolutive, oblique and relative, onto which case suffixes attach. For example, soha "fish" has the following stem forms:

Numerosity
Nouns in Nambāno carry a lexical property called numerosity which constrains which grammatical numbers they can take. There are four types of numerosity: The singular and plural forms of a noun are identical, distinguished solely through pluractionality on verbs. Because of this, grammatical number is really only present on nouns which are "core" arguments of a verb, and so is restricted to just a few nominal cases.
 * Countable — Can take all three grammatical numbers, singular, plural and numberless.
 * Uncountable — Only has a numberless form.
 * Individual — Always singular.
 * Numerous — Either singular or plural.

Verbs additionally distinguish the "numberless" grammatical number, but the nouns themselves also take different inflectional morphology. A numberless noun refers to an entity which cannot be enumerated, either because it has no discrete form (a mass noun), because the reference is generic rather than to a specific instance of the object, or because there is only one such object in existence. Though used in a slightly different way, the function of grammatical number in Nambāno may have developed through contact with Möxali, which features a similar concept known as instancing.

The animacy of a noun, either animate or inanimate, is related to its numerosity and can influence its syntactic behaviour. Countable and numerous nouns can be animate or inanimate, while uncountable nouns are always inanimate and individual always animate.

Cases
Nambāno uses five core cases: As well as two additional cases present on certain animate nouns: A table of all case suffixes is shown below. The relative case can be used to represent the agent or causator of a transitive verb, a feature unique to Nambāno and one of many ergative features of the language.sō nem-i t-ō-mān-ā
 * Absolutive — The least marked case, the direct object of a verb.
 * Dative — Motion towards, target, recipient or beneficiary.
 * Comitative — Coordination, equal accompaniment, i.e. not instrumental.
 * Oblique — The patient of a verb, instrument or attribute.
 * Relative — Generic relationship, often bidirectional. With prepositions, the relative case can take a much broader range of meanings including motion away from, general location, source, cause or agent.
 * Nominative — The agent or sole subject of a verb, can also be used as a vocative.
 * Possessive — Ownership, a one-way relationship.

1SG.NOM father-REL PST.1-GNR-learn-IND.1SG

"I learnt from my father."Nouns in the "individual" numerosity category follow a nominative-accusative pattern with some transitive verbs, in which the nominative case marks the agent and the absolutive takes the accusative role. A nominative noun is usually placed in initial position.nam-ā am hu-ō-mol-ī

father-NOM 1SG.ACC PST.2/3-GNR-teach-IND.2/3

"My father taught me."The nominative case also has a vocative function. An animate noun can be elevated to an "individual" by use of the nominative and possessive cases, which can be used as an expression of reverence or respect for an animal.ijj-ā sadā r-ā(n)-huim-ī

pig-NOM/VOC INTERR.DAT PRS-EMPH-travel-IND.2/3

"What's up, pig?"Inanimate referents use the absolutive case as the patient or direct object of a verb, with the oblique typically having an instrumental meaning.sō tatā-hua r-ō-talip-ī soh-a

1SG.NOM hook-OBL PRS-GNR-catch-IND.2/3 fish-ABS

"I caught a fish with a hook."On animate nouns, the oblique often acts like a comitative (with, in the company of), leaving the actual comitative case for coordination only (and, as well as).pod-(hu)am pnarr-o huam-∅ hu-ā(n)-mōt-ī

cow-COM child-OBL traveller-ABS PST.2/3-EMPH-arrive-IND.2/3

"The traveller then arrived with a child and a cow."The possessive case specifically expresses ownership, distinguishing it from the broad range of relationships of the relative.kisi nēn-ī ōmēs-nō tī-∅

stone.REL build-IND.2/3 lord-POS house-ABS

"The lord's house is made of stone."

Countable nouns
The most common inflection is the countable paradigm. Nouns which take the countable inflection have a discrete, countable form, which includes all animate and many inanimate nouns, and have both numbered and numberless forms.

Uncountable nouns
Uncountable nouns are most typically mass nouns, things with no discrete form. They are morphologically categorised by the absolutive case, which typically ends in -ō, but can also end in -ā or -ē.

Individual nouns
Individual nouns are also exclusively singular things, similar to unique nouns, but represent a distinctly separate category of things. Typical examples of individual nouns are personal names, roles and titles e.g. "father" or "lord", deities, rivers and some other named objects. Unique nouns are always inanimate, while individual nouns are always animate. There is an additional conceptual difference, that individual nouns are unique only within a given context, e.g. there are many people who may be addressed with ōmōdā "lord", but only one hatō "sun".

Individual nouns take the special nominative and possessive cases, but the comitative and oblique cases are simply not present. An individual noun has a "super-animate" animacy level and can only occur as a core argument, agent or possessor.

Numerous nouns
Numerous nouns take numbered inflection, but any given numerous noun may only singular or plural. They most typically refer explicitly to quantity, usually used in an adjective-like function, where the noun matches the case of a head noun it modifies. Numerous nouns only exhibit the absolutive, dative and relative cases, since the other cases are entirely unnumbered. Numerals are the most common example of numerous nouns.

Verbs
Nambāno verbs take several prefixes and suffixes which express tense, polarity, voice and mood, and show agreement with the person of the subject.

Verb prefix
The primary verb prefix is the "modal" prefix which appears on many finite verb expressions, of which there are two forms:


 * The generic prefix ō-/oh- appears only in basic declarative statements in the indicative conjugation.
 * The emphatic prefix ā(n)- may be used with the indicative or subjunctive conjugations, and is used to ask or answer questions or to affirm or deny a statement in order to correct or append information to the discourse. In its basic unmarked form, the emphatic prefix has the function of negating the verb.

Both the generic and emphatic prefix can take an additional tense-marking prefix. This tense is relative to a temporal focus defined by various time-adverbs, context, or a previous verb with a tense prefix.

Regular verbs
Verbs fall into one of four primary conjugation patterns, shown in the table below.

Class I
Most verbs are class I, characterised by a consonant-final stem, the first person singular and plural indicatives -a and -o and the gerund form -enē. Some examples of class I verbs are shown in the table below.

Class II
Verbs in class II take the gerund -inē and feature a long vowel -ē in the subjunctive, gerund and first person singular indicative.

Class III
Class III is similar to class II, but features a merged first person indicative -ō and the subjective stem vowel -ī.

Class IV
Class IV is characterised by first person singular indicative -o and the unique second/third person indicative -ō, which is also used for the first person plural.

Hybrid classes
Some verbs follow a class I pattern in the indicative and jussive, while conjugating like a class III verb in the subjunctive and gerund.

Irregular verbs
A small number of Nambāno verbs have irregular conjugation paradigms, the most common among them being the two copulas. The copulas feature plurality in the second/third person indicative and subjunctive, unlike the vast majority of verbs, but only allow tense marking prefixes on the emphatic form.

Na
The first copula na ascribes intrinsic or characteristic properties of things.

Ha
The second copula ha is used for attribution, including locative and possessive uses.

Io
Another common irregular verb io is similar to a copula, describing states of existence, usually temporary or involving actions performed by the subject. When the tense marking prefixes r- t- hu- are used in the generic indicative, the stems take an alternate form.

Indicative
The indicative is the most common verb form, used to express general statements of fact. sip-a oh-al-ī

chicken-ABS GNR-sleep-IND.2/3

"The chicken is sleeping."The verbal prefix is optional in the indicative mood, primarily used to establish chronology or the topic of the discourse, usually being omitted otherwise.

Gnomic
The gnomic mood is similar to the indicative, but is formed without a verbal prefix.knab-ō krad-ī

rain-ABS fall-IND.2/3

"Rain falls."

Subjunctive
The most basic use of the subjunctive conjugation is in subordinate clauses.It is also used in constructions where some languages would use an infinitive.

Optative
A subjunctive verb can also appear as a main verb, taking on an optative or cohortative meaning.

Interrogative
Yes/no questions are formed with a fronted emphatic verb, unmarked for tense.anī Okuorr-ō Tannet-i

COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Hnäzb-ABS Koyan-REL

"Is the Hnäzb in the Koyan region?"Questions with interrogative pronouns also use emphatic verbs, but can be marked for tense and do not require the verb to be fronted.seti r-anī Siguont-ō

INTERR.LOC.REL PRS-COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Uhustaw-ABS

"Where is Uhustaw?"

Negative
Though any verb can be negated, there exists a special negative mood which places emphasis on the negative polarity, used to answer a yes/no question, deny a claim or just generally emphasise that something is false. The negative mood is formed with the tenseless emphatic prefix, identical in form to the interrogative.Tannet-i anī Laband-ō

Koyan-REL COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Labando-ABS

"No, Labandō is not in the Koyan region." or "Labandō is not, in fact, in the Koyan region"

Affirmative
When marked for tense, the emphatic prefix takes on an affirmative meaning, emphasising that something is indeed the case.Hēsint-i anī, Tannet-i ranī Katt-ō

Oksandanderi-REL COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Koyan-REL PRS-COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Kóty-ABS

"Kóty is not in Oksandanderi, but rather Koyan"This can also be used to correct or append information to the discourse.Tannet-i rī Namb-(hu)am Kīrabb-ō Tannet-i ranī Senzepp-ō

Koyan-REL COP.GNR.IND.2/3PL Nambo-COM Krobu-ABS Koyan-REL COP.EMPH.IND.2/3SG Senzeppo-ABS

"Nambo and Krobu are in Koyan. Senzeppo is also in Koyan"