Ornu

Overview
Ornu is an Analytical Language that incorporates Fusional Elements. Syntax follows a Focus-Topic word order and sentences are Topic Prominent. The alignment is Ergative-Absolutive and the language is fairly Head-Initial.

This page describes the Wyd dialect of Ornu, which itself can be broken into 2 separate lesser dialects with only minor differences.

Morphemes are created through Derivational Systems that derive new, related morphemes from a singular root. There are different classes of roots that each have and follow their own patterns and derivation processes; this can involve the addition of inflectional morphemes onto stems or internal alterations to the root.

Orthography
''*This page is following the Wyd dialect of Ornu; â and ā̂ are representative of sounds in the Gaati dialect, but are different here. The letter [i] may be written as a letter [y] as the Gaati dialect has phonemic distinctions between /i/ and /y/ where Wyd only has (y) as an allophone of /i/ after voiced consonants.''

Determiners
Often, Ornu employs the use of Determiners that can also operate as pronouns. Many are of a Second Class Root type. Below are some of the most common. These determiners operate just like "this/that" in English. They can operate as "these/those" when used in conjunction with a plural noun. These determiners have a meaning akin to "such" or "such a kind" in English; these are often used to signify titles or specificity on important/of note topics or subjects. While these have more complex usage in other Ornu dialects, in Wyd, they are mostly assigned the meaning of "some" when with plural nouns. However; if used with a singular noun, it may operate as a Partitive. When used as a partitive determiner, it is not uncommon to see 'hwa-' prefixed to the noun, but is usually left out by speakers. These are used mainly as a plural marker for neuter inanimate nouns.

Pronouns
All pronouns are in the Third Person; even the First Person "I" does not exist. The only true personal pronoun that exists could be said to be 'hla' which is a Second Person singular pronoun meaning "you". It is a formal pronoun to stand in-place of the all-purpose, third person 'hy-' pronouns. These pronouns literally translate to "this one" or "that one" depending on the context; however, the ambiguous form, 'hy', is often used to mean the first person in spoken form, but in writing, a proper gendered form is preferred.

It should be of note that the other two determiners above may also be used as pronouns respective to their meaning as determiners, except 'my-' which has a different use as a pronoun. As a pronoun it takes on the meaning of "one"

Nouns
Nouns will fall into an Animacy hierarchy being either Inanimate or Animate, take a gender of masculine, feminine, or neuter, and will be either of a Strong Class or a Weak Class.

Adjectives
Adjectives agree in gender and class; strong or weak.

Verbs
Verbs do not conjugate at all aside from a prescribed Aspect being Imperfective, Perfective, or Stative. The aspect is associated semantically with the verb and represented through a bound, suffixed morpheme; however, verbs CAN be associated with more than one aspect, but only imperfective and perfective.

Aspect
The aspect is tied semantically to the verb, but is still shown morphologically. Some verbs can be associated with a Perfective and Imperfective aspect, but not one or the other with a Stative aspect. Verbs can undergo changes by affixation that causes them to change aspect; however, such strategies typically involve changes in Transitivity as well. There are two types of perfective in Ornu: Perfective 1 and Perfective 2. The perfective 1 is showing a more short-duration state or tentative state of perfectiveness and the perfective 2 is showing a more long-lasting state or something with more permanence.

Imperfective: -ni, -(a)r

Perfective 1: -(e)k

Perfective 2: -ku

Stative: -(e)s

Descriptive Verbs
Descriptive verbs are stative verbs that describe an object that are derived from ablaut or from -a Stems.

Lemma Form
The Lemma, or the Citation form, is an indexed form of a verb which contains a basic stem of the verb with the dummy subject 'hūt'; it is also the Non-Finite Construction.

Transitivity
While unmarked on the verb, transitivity is still expressed and understood by knowing the agent/subject and the direct/indirect object of a verb, along with the arguments the verb takes based on semantics. Avalency can be shown by using a dummy subject 'hūt'.

Roots and Stems
The core to every word is the '''[https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_(linguistics)#:~:text=The%20root%20in%20language%20is,be%20reduced%20into%20smaller%20units. Root]; derivations from the root are called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_stem#:~:text=In%20linguistics%2C%20a%20word%20stem,of%20the%20language%20in%20question. Stems]'''. This is a system that allows word creation in Ornu for words that have a related meaning. The process can be defined by different Root Classes and Derivational Patterns.

Root Classes
Roots are divided into 4 Root Classes based on their features. This causes different derivation patterns for stem creation; the phonemic composition of roots also play a huge role in what sort of route a root takes to form into stems. There are also Sub-Classes of roots which fit into a main class, but exhibit pattern-like features worth distinguishing. The key takeaway is knowing how to identify a root in a stem in order to understand the core meaning, and then understanding any derivational affixation to fully understand and interpret a word.

First Class
Roots that undergo no alteration to the base root are First Class Roots. Derivational affixes may still attach to these roots to create stems. The gender of noun stems that derived from first class roots is often related to the vowels within the root; however, there are always exceptions.

Stranded Adpositions
Many adpositions lose their lative or locative endings when the noun declines for the lative or locative case causing them to be "stranded". This can also cause some adpositions to become Clitics; for example, the adposition 'wem' when losing its endings becomes a cliticized form, 'wem egūsnim' > 'w'egūsnim'. Adpositions that do not have lative or locative endings, and a select few that do, will not be stranded. The focus cannot have a cliticized adposition. Speakers in the North typically do not have nouns agree in the lative or locative cases at all and rely on the adposition alone to form the phrase; however, they too share these cliticized forms with the case endings.

Word Order
The typical word order is SVO (Subject, Verb, Object); however, the word order can change its structure based on a sentence's Topics and Comments. Every sentence in Ornu will have a topic and some sentences will have comments or a Focus. The topic is what is usually the subject and the focus is something that has a sort of emphasis or focusing attribute placed upon it; it may also be the topic. It can be confusing to understand this system at first since often it appears as if the focus is the object and topic is the subject, but its best to remember that they are not mutually exclusive from one another.

There are 2 main word orders: the neutral, V2 Word Order, or Topic Word Order, where the Finite Verb MUST come second, and there is the Focus Word Order where the verb is final and the focus is in first position. Examples below; topic underlined, focus emboldened, other comments/continuants unmarked:

Neutral order: Hla-nâ stu-k kwūt egūs-ni wem stekūs-um / You always poke mushrooms with (your) finger / [2S-ERG poke-PERF always mushroom-PL.ABS with finger-LAT] / "Hlanâ stuk kwūt egūsni wem stekūsum"

Focus order with Egūsni as focus: Egūs-ni Ø hla-nâ wem stekūs-um kwūt stu-k / You always poke mushrooms with (your) finger / [mushroom-PL.ABS FOC 2S-ERG with finger-LAT always poke-PERF] / "Egūsni hlanâ wem stekūsum kwūt stuk"

This system of topics and comments is demonstrated by syntax alone rather than by grammatical markings such as particles, inflection, etc. Therefore, Ornu clausework can get rather finicky by the interplay of this system causing all sorts of changes. A good example of this would be in the following example where the focus of the sentence is the adpositional phrase in a subordinate clause:

Neutral order: Hla-nâ sо̄-ku kâbum nekwūt h-ūr, hwahūt plâ-ku wem egūs-ni-m / You never told him what happened with the mushrooms / [2S tell-PERF again never this_one-MASC.ABS, what.ABS happen-PERF with mushroom-PL-LAT] / "Hlanâ sо̄ku kâbum nekwūt hūr, hwahūt plâku wem egūsnim"

Focus order with Egūsni as focus: Egūs-ni-m Ø wem hla-nâ h-ūr hwahūt plâ-ku kâbum nekwūt sо̄-ku / You never told him what happened with the mushrooms [mushroom-PL-LAT.ABS FOC 2S-ERG this_one-MASC.ABS what.ABS happen-PERF again never tell-PERF] / "Egūsnim wem hlanâ hūr hwahūt plâku kâbum nekwūt sо̄ku"

* note that when a phrase takes focus, the Head Directionality changes to be Head-Final.

Head Direction
Most phrases use a Head-Initial order, this means that the head will come first in a phrase. However, the head directionality does switch to head-final for a phrase in focus position. Below are some examples to demonstrate various orders with different parts of speech.

Adposition Order
*Notice that when in focus position, the noun does not decline for case

Non-Finite Constructions and Clauses
These constructions involve the use of a lemma/non-finite verb form.

Final Clause
The infinitive construction, 'hūt' + (verb), is used to form these clauses.