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.

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.
 * 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 1.PST-GNR-learn-1.IND

"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 t-ō-mol-ī

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

"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-2/3.IND

"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 tatāhu-o r-ō-talip-ī soh-a

1SG.NOM hook-OBL PRS-GNR-catch-2/3.IND 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 2/3.PST-EMPH-arrive-2/3.IND

"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-2/3.IND 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.

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

chicken-ABS sleep-2/3.IND

"The chicken sleeps."

Regular conjugation
Verbs fall into one of four different conjugation classes which determines the form of their mood suffixes. Most verbs are class I, characterised by a consonant-final stem and the first person singular realis suffix -a. Some examples of class I verbs are shown in the table below. Class II verbs derive from ancestral forms with a stem final *-r, now present in only the first person plural and second/third person indicative forms due to regular loss of coda *r. The conjugation of class III is similar to that of class II, featuring a long vowel -ē or -ō in the subjunctive, gerund and first person singular indicative, but not deriving from ancestral *-r and therefore having different first person plural and second/third person indicatives. Class IV is the only verb class to not feature the distinct second/third person indicative suffix -ī, instead exhibiting an identical suffix to the first person plural -ō.

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.

The first copula na ascribes intrinsic or characteristic properties of things. The second copula ha is used for attribution, including locative and possessive uses. Another common irregular verb io is similar to a copula, describing states of existence, usually temporary or involving actions performed by the subject.