Thalutian/Grammar

Thalutian Grammar (Thalúkskéloska) is the grammar of the Thalutian language.

Thalutian follows a Subject-Object-Verb typological system and is highly agglutinative (in terms of both prefixes and affixes). The language has five genders; four of which make use of determiners represented by suffixes and decline according to case, number and gender while the other makes use of free-standing definite and indefinite articles which never declines.

Nouns
Thalutian nouns have one of five grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter, common gender, omnigender) and are conjugated according to case and number.

Genders
Thalutian makes use of all four (masculine, feminine, neuter and common gender) genders found in the Thalic languages family but has, uniquely, a fifth gender, the omnigender. As with most languages, the gender of a noun does not necessarily correspond with the actual gender of the real-life object and therefore must be learnt with the noun, since it is almost impossible to determine the gender using only the root word.

The common gender

The common gender, marked in dictionaries as (c), is applied to nouns which may be either masculine or feminine (which depends on the real-life sex of the object which is referred to) but not omnigender nor neute r.

Example: The uninflected Thalutian word for parent is ba which takes the common gender as it can become batt (father) or taba (mother), where -tt serves as the masculine singular definite suffix, while ta- serves as the feminine singular definite prefix. This often occurs in the cases of nouns such as parent, teacher, worker. If the gender of the real-life object, the masculine is used by default.

Omnigender The omnigender is used for certain Thalutian nouns that are not considered neutral, masculine nor feminine, rather that are considered masculine and feminine. The formation of the omnigender is realtively simple: the noun uses both the feminine prefix (ta- in the nominative singular) and the masculine suffix (-att in the nominative singular).

An example of such a noun is gott (god), which in the nominative singular would be tagottatt (the god).

Cases
Thalutian has a highly extensive grammatical case system according to which nouns, pronouns and adjectives decline. There are 33 cases in total which are are divided into 6 grammatical categories (morphosyntactical, relational, state, semantic, temporal and locative) while the locative category (which alone has 19 cases) is divided into 4 subcategories (static location, motion towards, motion from and motion via)

Morphosyntactical cases

 * 1) Accusative: The direct object of a transitive verb (whom or what?).
 * 2) Instrumental: The object with with the verb is completed (using what?).
 * 3) Nominative: The subject of the verb (who or what?).

Relational cases

 * 1) Aversive: The object which is avoided (for fear of, avoiding)
 * 2) Benefactive: The object for the benefit of which somethinge is done (for (the sake of))
 * 3) Causal: The object which is the reason for something happening (due to, because of)
 * 4) Comitative: The object in the company of something else (with what or whom?)
 * 5) Dative: The indirect object of the the sentence (to whom or what?)
 * 6) Distributive: Indicates distribution by piece (per)
 * 7) Genetive: The possessor of another object (whose?)

Cases of state

 * 1) Abessive: The object which is lacked (without)
 * 2) Essive: The object's state of being (as)

Semantic cases

 * 1) Partitive: Used for amounts of something (3 'of' houses)

Temporal cases

 * 1) Temporal: Specifies a time when something occurs (at 7 o' clock, on Monday)

Static location

 * 1) Adessive: The object which adjacent to which something else is located (at, near, by).
 * 2) Antessive: The object in front of which something else is located (in front of).
 * 3) Apudessive: The object next to which something else is located (next to).
 * 4) Inessive: The object inside of which something else is located (inside, within).
 * 5) Intrative: The object(s) between which something else is located (between).
 * 6) Postessive: The object behind which something else is located (behind).
 * 7) Subessive: The object underneath which something else is located (under, underneath).
 * 8) Superessive: The object on the surface of which something else is located (on (top of)).

Motion towards

 * 1) Allative: The object towards which something else moves (toward)
 * 2) Illative: The object into which something else moves (into)
 * 3) Sublative: The object onto which something else moves (onto)
 * 4) Terminative: The object where something else ends (ending at, at the end of)

Motion from

 * 1) Ablative: The object away from which somethine else moves (away from).
 * 2) Delative: The object off of which somethine else moves (off of).
 * 3) Elative: The object out of which something else moves (out of).
 * 4) Initiative: The object where something else begins (starting at, at the start of).

Motion via

 * 1) Perlative: The object through which something else moves (through).
 * 2) Prosecutive: The object near which something else moves (near, nearby).
 * 3) Vialis: The object across/on which something else moves (along, on).

====Locative case system parameters ==== Note: the cases that are marked as exterior without motion (antessive, apudessive, intrative, postessive, subessive and superessive) can be used in both 'motion away' and 'motion toward' latives.

Example use of cases
Mönd äikä 1, murúk att 2 kövlä llé lär 3 tarvotlað átt lopekiria k lar 4 köväi. Murúk inén 5 lopéjan att lar 2 lopélia idén 6 lopékirialést ök4 datlað, ok4  lopélia tt lar 2   éksi lopéslär 7 tarvodron. Att raiklað, éta jun én 8 ádrað, jok rais ök4 juntalo ltén 9 alklað 2 kilométér iä 10 att inén5 talo lla 11, jok tarkotlað, éta yli tijé 12   tarvotlað kävéll, jok lopélädé ja paikalan parkk inén5   <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">äzrä täbytlär 13   átlað. Tyrän <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">älän lär 14 , joklar lopél <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">äzäk 15  nautlaron kérätt, att dölän ök4  ádrað köttürr, jok att ok4  jénint körpy <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">rön 16  ja kittint suttu <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">ran 17  apavlirað. Att inén5  dölän inén5  souna lla11 , juntalo <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">lt 18  kälänlät, jok göndilä <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">ndé 19  ja parala ndé19  ölénlät, jok kouviri <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">z lär 20 ölénlät. Ta juntijélär 2 akkant statt inén5  dir <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">älläk 21, vuonta <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">lta 22  ja stattsközä <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">än 23  juokslon. Alla, murúk att2 jun <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">dur 24  ramazlað ja kövläközä llé3  alklað andatt. Post alla llé3  kälänlät, kertan aika1  andatlað bis trouvlað, jok <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">átun 25  katslað. Kiria tt lar 2 kallin olenlon: kiria idén6  déjö de 50 éjuron ia10  makslað muva lopélia <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">nna 26, att ale k4  potlað satta. Töd ök4  kiria inén lär 5 lasku <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">l 27  laitlað étén ö kövläru 4 pettallað. Post pettallað, töd ök4  att inén5 kiria inén lär 5 lauku un23  laitlað, muva att inén5  salju k4  lasku dur24  uonlað ansatta muva da k4  vainka tajunlað, alut juntalo llé3  énkälänlät allé3 , ilmalainen, salju <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">tta 28  liputo k4  talo llé3  plys potlað köff. Ö kéri 4, Julia, vylät, jok samant kiriakövlä llé3   inén ta 5 taban <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">itsé lär 29   atlað. Kérilai <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">dan 30, Julia attok 4  kiriakövlä <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">ssä 31 abunlað. Tatt lar 2 sulju k4 lasku ran17, kirianési <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">dé 32 , hoomlon ja postjok, murúk att2  kövlä <u style="font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;">stä 33 kétlät ja talo llé3  átlað. Translation: ''On Monday, a boy needed to go to the shops in order to buy some textbooks. The boy's teachers had given each student a list of all of the books that they would require for their studies. He decided that he would go by train which began it's journey at the station 2 kilometers from his house which meant that he would have to walk along the road which ran next to the school and through the trees of the local park. In order to avoid the bullies that liked to gather behind the school, he decided to take a detour which would lead him under the new bridge and over the little ravine. At the end of his detour, he reached the train station which was located in between the post office and the bank which was in front of the old hotel. The railway line ran past the the agricultural part of town, away from the residential area and into the city centre. Once there, the boy climbed off the train and began to walk in the direction of the mall. After arriving there, he walked around for some time until he was finally inside the bookstore that he had been looking for. He finally found all the books which were quite expensive: each book cost more than €50 but being a student he was eligible to receive a discount. He placed all the books on the counter before paying the shopkeeper. After paying, he forgot to take his wallet off the counter in his excitement but he only realised this when he had gone back to the station where obviously, because he didn't have his wallet, he could not buy a ticket home. He saw his friend, James, who was on his way to the same bookstore with his parents. Because of their friendship, Julia helped him look in the bookstore. They found the wallet on the counter, next to the book display after which the boy left the shop and went home. ''

Verbs
Thalutian verbs may be classified into either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd conjugation, depending on the infinitive suffix. Thalutian is highly rare in the sense that it contains no irregular verbs.

Conjugations
<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Thalutian has three persons, two numbers and four moods that are used to conjugate verbs which themselves are divided into 3 regular conjugations and these are determined by the infinitive suffix:

<li style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Verbs that end in double consonants except -rr and -ff.</li> <li style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Verbs that end in -rr or -ff.</li> <li style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Verbs that end on a vowel.</li>

Tense and aspect
Thalutian exhibits a past-present-future tense system and the past and future tenses of which are further divided into aspects. These indicate and specify smaller divisions of time and are either constructed simply (the verb itself is conjugated) or compoundedly (use of an auxilliary verb and the appropriate participle).

The following tables illustrate the past, present and future aspects of the indicative mood and whether the constructions are compound or simple:

Additional moods
In addition to the indicative, Thalutian also makes use of the conditional, imperative and interrogative moods.

Conditional
The conditional mood only functions with the present and past tenses, each of which only has the simple aspect:

Imperative
The imperative only funtions with the present tense and is used to express orders and commands and is used for the second and thrid person in both plural and singular. Note: Although the translations of the1st and 3rd person use let me, it does not have the same meaning as release as the instruction does not lie in let. Rather, it lies in go in the same way that live functions in long live the king.

Interrogative
The Thalutian interrogative mood functions like that of most other languages. Interrogative sentences contain either polar questions (requiring an exclusive disjunction such as either yes or no) or non-polar questions (which require a response that answers an interrogative word such as why or how).

Polar questions are formed by simply adding the interrogative suffix -ún or -yyn, depending on the final vowel of the stem. (See example below)