Thalutian/Grammar

Thalutian Grammar (Thalúkskéloska) is that 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
Nouns, pronouns and adjectives in Thalutian decline according to grammatical case, of which there are 33. These cases are divided into 6 grammatical categories (morphosyntactical, relational, state, semantic, temporal and locative) while the locative category is divided into 4 subcategories (static location, motion towards, motion away 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 lär3 tarvotlað átt lopekiria k lar4 köväi. Murúk inén 5 lopéjanattlar2 lopélia idén 6 lopékirialéstök4 datlað, ok4 lopéliattlar2  éksi lopéslär7 tarvodron. Att raiklað, éta jun én 8 ádrað, jok raisök4 juntalo ltén 9 alklað 2 kilométér iä 10 attinén5 talo lla 11, jok tarkotlað, éta yli tijé12  tarvotlað kävéll, jok lopélädé ja paikalan parkkinén5  äzrä täbytlär13  átlað. Tyrän älän lär14, joklar lopél äzäk 15 nautlaron kérätt, att dölänök4 ádrað köttürr, jok attok4 jénint körpy rön 16 ja kittint suttu ran 17 apavlirað. Attinén5 döläninén5 sounalla11, juntalo lt 18 kälänlät, jok göndilä ndé 19 ja paralandé19 ölénlät, jok kouviri z lär20 ölénlät. Tajuntijélär2 akkant stattinén5 dir älläk 21, vuonta lta 22 ja stattsközä än 23 juokslon. Alla, murúkatt2 jun dur 24 ramazlað ja kövläközällé3 alklað andatt. Post allallé3 kälänlät, kertanaika1 andatlað bis trouvlað, jok átun 25 katslað. Kiriattlar2 kallin olenlon: kiriaidén6 déjö de 50 éjuronia10 makslað muva lopélia nna 26, att alek4 potlað satta. Tödök4 kiriainénlär5 lasku l 27 laitlað étén ökövläru4 pettallað. Post pettallað, tödök4 attinén5 kiriainénlär5 laukuun23 laitlað, muva attinén5 saljuk4 laskudur24 uonlað ansatta muva dak4 vainka tajunlað, alut juntalollé3 énkälänlät allé3, ilmalainen, salju tta 28 liputok4 talollé3 plys potlað köff. Ökéri4, Julia, vylät, jok samant kiriakövlällé3 inénta5 taban itsé lär29  atlað. Kérilai dan 30, Julia attok4 kiriakövlä ssä 31 abunlað. Tattlar 2 suljuk4 laskuran17, kirianési dé 32, hoomlon ja postjok, murúkatt2 kövlä stä 33 kétlät ja talollé3 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 inbetween 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. ''