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=Phonology= The Latin transliteration of Ja uses an alphabet of 16 letters: A /ɑ/, /a/ K /k/ E /e/, /ɛ/ H /h/ I /i/, /ɪ/ J /tʃ/ L /l/ M /m/ N /n/ O /ɔ/, /o/ P /p/ R /r/ S /s/ T /t/ U /u/, /ʊ/ V /v/.

- Overall, the letters sound the way you would expect them to be (standard Latin pronunciation). Note that "j" is pronounced voicelessly or semi-voicelessly. All letters generally sound the same way regardless of their placement.

- As an exception from this rule, the letter "i" tends to form diphthongs /aɪ/, /eɪ/, /oɪ/ and /uɪ/ when it follows another vowel; other vowels are pronounced separately from each other.

Ja words are stressed on the last root vowel. Most often, this turns out to be the penultimate syllable, or the last syllable if the word ends with a consonant. In a multi-syllable word, when the stress falls in an unusual place, it is sometimes denoted by an accent: á, é, í, ó, ú. (We will do this more often here than what is usually seen in Ja texts, where accents may be ommitted altogether.) In certain grammatical constructions the accent is also put on one-syllable words.

=Phonotactics= Generally, Ja syllable structure can be described as (C)v(C). Out of all consonants, however, K, H, J and P cannot be syllable-final, while V and T can end a syllable but cannot be word-final.

=Examples=

=Basic Grammar= Ja has a very simple and regular grammar.

Syntax
Ja is a SVO language. Verbs are placed after the subject, adjectives follow the noun, and adverbs follow the verb.

It is not uncommon, however, to place a word or phrase in front of the sentence for additional emphasis. E.g. one would say Kasunoté ju mia kasphaohute (Today I am going to the store) instead of Ju mia kasphaohute kasunoté (I am going to the store today).

Ja adjectives are virtually indistinguishable from intransitive verbs.

Ja makes an extensive use of supines and subordinate clauses.

Noun
A Ja noun has four cases, each marked with its distinctive ending. Ja nouns have no genders.

Nominative
A noun in Nominative has zero ending: su (water), junotó (toy), punsé (tree), kojekemijas (airplane). Note that with words in Nominative, the stress is always on the last syllable.

Nominative is used for the subjects of a sentence or a subordinate clause. Nominative is also used when two nouns are linked with the copula oa: Ku oa men ju sípao sorsunoté! -- You are the man I saw yesterday!

Accusative
A noun in the Accusative case receives the ending -u: sú, junotou, punseu, kojekemijasu. Note that if the word root already ends with -u, u is not doubled but instead it receives the accent mark.

Accusative denotes the direct object of a transitive verb, and follows the verb. In composite verbs (and the majority of verbs in Ja are composite) the signature of the verb is defined by its last (main) root: whatever object the root-verb takes will also be the object of the composite verb.

For example, the verb mia (to move) may take an object -- the thing that is being moved. Therefore, the composite verb jaemia (to think, lit. "to move in one's head") also takes a direct object, and, unlike in English, the phrase Ju jaemia kú (I am thinking of you) needs no prepositions.

On the other hand, the verb sattia (to learn, lit: "to come to know") has the root tia (to come, to become) which in this form is intransitive (the transitive form of tia means "to bring"). Therefore, sattia cannot have direct objects either, and in Ju sattia sati Jau (I am learning Ja) an adverbial is required before Jau. (Lit. "I learn to know Ja".)

Genitive
Nouns in Genitive have the ending -o. As with other endings, if the root ends with an o, it is not doubled but receives the accent mark. Nouns in Genitive describe other nouns and follow them. They usually are placed after adjectives describing the same noun.

Genitive in Ja carries a wide range of semantic meanings, from posession to having a quality to being related to the main word in some way or another. Overall the range of cases when Genitive is used in Ja is similar to those where you use posessive or the preposition "of" in English.

Ja nouns in Genitive can also serve as a Verb of a sentence, replacing the use of a copula. Genitive in this role expresses belonging to a group, e.g.: Ju meno! (I am a man!), Ka punseo jea (This is a tall tree) etc.

Locative / Instrumental
Locative / Instrumental nouns receive the ending -e.

When used as Locative, it indicates place or time: sue (in water), punseolane (in a forest), kojemijase (on an airplane), sorsunoté (yesterday), vorté (soon; lit. "in a short time"). Sometimes locative also denotes possession, but such usage is rare: e.g. compare Ku athata ju ati taorulanu ká (Give me this book) vs. Ku tita jute taorulanu ká (Bring this book to me, i.e. to my place).

If the location needs to be specified more precisely, e.g. "on the desk" vs. "under the desk", or "near the house" vs. "in the house", Ja uses a position indicator + Genitive to express that: jé taoruo (on the desk, lit. "on top of the desk"), jere taoruo (under the desk), nere huo (outside the house), nertenke huo (around the house), né huo (in / inside the house), hue (at the house). As you can see, all these constructions follow the pattern "at" (expressed as Locative) "position" (e.g. top, under, outside etc.) "of" (expressed as Genitive) original word. The position indicators are grammatically nouns, although they are usually translated into English as prepositions.

To form a sentence indicating an object / person location, e.g. "The boy is in the house", Ja speakers would use the verb ná (vi: "be located", vt: "put"): Nunmen ná né huo. One can also say Nunmen nea hue, using the root ne as a verb with meaning "be inside".

When used as Instrumental, the same form indicates a tool or object with which an action is done. This usage usually translates into English with the help of preposition "with", although not always: Nunmen ká lojana vovuovu-lojanaolae (This boy plays a violin). In Ja, it is interchangeable with a phrase that includes the word lai (using): Jamen tala saraotutirhonu seorure (The master beats the dog with a stick) can be said as Jamen tala saraotutirhonu lai seoruru (The master beats the dog using a stick).

Although Locative and Instrumental share the same ending, it is usually quite obvious whether the place, time, or tool is meant in each given case.

Nouns in Locative / Instrumental folow the verb and play the role of indirect objects or adverbial modifiers.

Infixes -t-, -p- and -k-
Three infixes, -t-, -p- and -k-, can be used in different parts of speech and with different noun cases. The general semantic meaning of them is as follows: In particular, when used with Locative, -t-, -p- and -k- have the meaning of "to", "from" and "through", respectively. E.g. Ju mia hute (I go home) vs. Ju mia hupe (I am leaving home) vs. Ju mia nomiske (I am walking on a path); Karmel nepa taoruru jete taolono (She put the pencil on the desk) vs. Karmel hapa taoruru jepe taolono (She took the pencil from the desk), etc.

-p- and -t- can also be used with Genitive (e.g. huomen juo "my husband" vs. huomen jupo "my ex-husband") but such usage is much more rare.

When used in verbs, -t-,  -p- and -k- form prospective, perfective and progressive aspects. Used in adverbials, -t- and -p- produce adverbs of purpose and adverbs of cause, etc. We will give examples of these in each respective section below.

Verb
Verbs in Ja receive the ending -a. As with other endings, if the root ends with the same vowel, it is not duplicated but receives the accent instead. Verbs do not conjugate.

A large percentage of Ja verbs are ergative and change their meaning depending on whether they are used as transitive or intransitive verbs. For example: mia (goes and moves /something/), tia (comes and brings /something/), kela (errs and breaks /something/) etc.

There are no verb tenses in Ja, but there are aspects. Unmodified verbs are assumed to be in imperfective aspect. The infixes -t- and -p- put them into prospective and perfective aspects, signifying the action that is about to start or has been completed. Quite often aspects are translated into other languages using future and past tenses: Ju sipa tou siaotenovue juo! (I have seen it with my own two eyes!) or Ku kasta paki katou! (You will pay for this!). On the other hand, a narrative like Palsunoté moa korujamen pala... (Once upon a time there lived a king...) usually does not require an aspect change.

The infix -k- produces the progressive aspect: compare Ju maka sunoteoporomau katé (I am eating lunch now) and Ju má honokanu sunoté pana (I eat meat every day).

Infix -i-
The infix -i- is used with verbs and denotes imaginary actions. When put in the perfective aspect, it it used to mark actions that could happen, but never did (subjunctive). On the other hand, when it is used with verbs in the prospective aspect, it shows that the action may happen, оr may not, depending on the circumstances (conditional).

For example: Ju tipia ku tithipi jú! (I would come if you called me!) or Ju patia katou api teu (I will do it if I have time). Compare this with: Ju tipa ku tithipi jú! (I came because you called me) and Ju pata katou api teu (I will do it for I have the time).

Intransitive Verbs as Adjectives
Ja adjectives, form the grammatical point of view, do not differ from intransitive verbs. In a way, all Ja adjectives are participles. They end with -a and go after the noun.

Adjectives often play the role of a verb in a sentence, requiring no copula. For example, losia (beautiful) can be used in Ku nunmelo losia (You are a beautiful girl) as well as Nunmel ká losia roi (This girl is very beautiful).

Just like verbs, adjectives can have aspects: Mijas losipa jila e nerekélao katé (The car, once beautiful, was now dirty and scratched).

Another way of looking at adjectives is to see them as one-word subordinate clauses. The word losia is composed of two words, loi "good" and sia "look" and literally means "good-looking". One can look at it as the verb that means "to look good". The phrase nunmel losia can be equally well translated as "a beautiful girl", "a good-looking girl" and "a girl that looks good".

Adverb and Adverbial Caluses
Ja adverbs end with -i: roi (strongly, from roa strong), loi (well, from loa good) etc.

Adverbs are often used with infixes -t- for adverbs of goal or purpose, and -p- for cause or condition. With their dependent words, such adverbs form adverbial clauses that are ubiquitous in Ja. Some of the most frequent uses of such adverbial clauses include:

- with modal verbs, like ria (want, need), kia (can) etc.: Ku kia hiti Jae? (Can you speak Ja?); Ju ria nertenepelti kú (I want to hug you).

- with verbs like tia (come, become), lia (let, allow) and similar: Ju sattia hiti Jae (I learn to speak Ja).

- when you state intent or purpose: Ju tipa siti menmeu juo (I came to see my father).

- when you state reason or cause: Karmen skaenea lorranuapi (He is not in here because he is sick).

Please note that the adverbal phrase can be quite developed, incuding a subject, object etc., e.g. Ju ria ku pati katou vorté (I want you to do this immediately) is formed by taking Ku pata katou vorté (You will do this immediately) and turning it into a adverbial phrase by changing the ending -a into -i: pata (will do) -> pati (to do).

Adverbs and Prepositions
There are no prepositions in Ja, and the case system is not that extensive. Where the noun cases are not enough to express the relationship between the verb and the indirect object, adverbs are commonly used as links between the two. The range of adverbs and adverbial phrases used for this purpose is extensive:

Pantú ria sattiti sati Jau (Everyone should learn Ja; lit: Everyone should learn to know Ja)

Hikista jú hí Johnu (My name is John; lit: Call me saying John)

In many cases when is an indirect object in English becomes the subject of a subordinate clause in Ja:

Ju pikpathia ku atharti ju ati taoruolanu ká! (Please give me this book! lit: I ask that you give me to have this book).

As you can see, the first part of the verb is often used as an adverb later in the sentence. This is the general practice; e.g. if hara simply means "give (away), let go", the verb athara, made up from ati (to have) + hara (give) means "give to someone". The first part, ati (to have) can be repeated as a part of an adverbial phrase: Ju athara ku ati katou (I give this to you).

Supine and Subordinate Clauses
A Ja verb can be put into noun cases, forming a supine. To do that you keep the verb ending -a and add the case ending after it. For example, má (eat) -- huovon mao (eating room, dining room); jaurá (rest, sleep) -- te jaurao (time of sleep, resting time).

A supine is linked by its case ending to the main word it describes, but at the same time it can retain all words that were linked to it as a verb, forming a subordinate clause. Here are some examples:

Ju sá ku rípau tonthiti ju tonti paltou -- I know you wanted to tell me something (compare with: Ku ripa tonthiti ju tonti paltou "You wanted to tell me something" and Ju tonta paltou "I will hear something").

John má té ventú tuo tíao hute -- John was eating when his friend entered the house (compare with Ventú tuo tia hute "His friend enters the house").

The case in which the supine is placed determines the relationship between the main word and the subordinate clause:

- when the supine is in Accusative, it decribes a verb and can be translated using the English conjunction "that": Sorpe siaopuo melme sia ju sorttíau. ("From the window, mother saw that I was coming back" or "saw me coming back"); ''Ju sapa tu sorttítau! menme hia.'' ("I knew he would come back, said father").

- when the supine is in Genitive, it describes a noun. This noun is "raised" from being an object in the subordinate clause; that is, it is assumed to play the role of an object there. This can either be a direct object in Accusative (tu panesao "a well-known person"; to ju essípao sorté "something I've never seen before"), or an indirect object in Locative / Instrumental (te mao "time of eating, dinner time"; mis noemíao "a traveled path", siaotenovú ju sipao lorpaonu ká skia siti jori "the pair of eyes with which I have seen these horrors can not see any more" etc.)

- when the supine is in Locative / Instrumental, it describes a verb and can be translated using such English conjunctions as "while" or "by" (Melme sia ju sorttíau síae sorpe siaopuo "Mother saw me coming while (she was) looking out of the window.")

Finally, supine can be used in Nominative, naming the action or quality, e.g. Romia junpia ("Running is fun") or Losia mortlirta pankor morti ("Beauty will save the world").

Note that if Genitive plays the role of a verb, it can also form supine:

Té ju nunménoo jora ju lua konmau -- When I was a little boy I liked candy (Ju nunmeno jora "I am a little boy", Ju lua konmau "I like candy").

Please refer to the "Advanced Examples" for more examples of supine, which is very widely used in Ja.

Transitions Between Parts of Speech
Ja roots do not have an inherent part of speech attached to them; instead, each root word can freely transition between different parts of speech, and often has a separate meaning when it is used as a noun, verb etc. Of course all these meanings are closely related. Let us give just a couple of examples:

This list can go on and on. Most of the time the meaning for the same root as a different part of speech does not need to me memorized, as it is self-evident. (There are some exceptions, however; for example, the word te (time), when used as a verb, means "to wait").

Note that when a composite word is is used as certain part of speech, its meaning is always related to the last root's meaning for this part of speech.

For example, the English noun "face" is translated into Ja as jaosó, lit. "the front of head". The same English word can be used as a verb, meaning, depending on context, "to meet face-to-face" or "to confront".

The Ja verb soa, however, means "to advance" and any verb ending with soa is expected to have a related meaning. Therefore, the English "to face" cannot be expressed by just using jaosó as a verb. Indeed, one has to say sotetia (lit. "come to the front") or sousittia (lit. "come to see the face") or a similar verb.

Composite Words
Ja is rife with composite words. Most words in the dictionary are composed by linking together a relatively small number of short "primary" roots.

Ja composite word is a little phrase fused together into a word. The individual parts of a composite word relate to each other using the same morphemes as those used to link words in a sentence.

Examples start with very simple words: te suno "time of light" --> sunoté "day, daytime"; se puna "hard plant" --> punsé "tree"; mel nuna "young woman" --> nunmel "girl"; jas mia "moving box" --> mijas "car" and so forth.

Here we need to stress a couple of very important points that are essential for understanding how composite words work in Ja.

1. A composite word is not "equal" to the meaning of the phrase that was used to build it. Mel nuna means just that, a young woman; it does not mean "girl", while nunmel means "girl" but not "a young woman". Fusing a phrase into a composite word gives it additional idiomatic meaning. You can often guess what that meaning is, and thus deduce the meaning of the word; but, when in doubt, one should turn to a dictionary.

The same goes about word creation: one cannot expect to throw a bunch of words together and hope to create a word that another Ja speaker will understand.

In short, knowing etymology of composite words helps one memorize them and helps to understand a new word one has never heard before. But that does not mean one can skip the dictionary altogether.

2. Composite words in Ja are not just a bunch of roots thrown together. The infixes and endings needed to link those roots together in a phrase are retained in the composite word, making its meaning much more clear.

For example, the Ja word for "learn", sattia, is comprised of two root-words, sá "know" and tia "come, become". However, you don't simply put these two together and let everyone guess the relationship of the two (come knowing? come for knowledge?). Instead, you create a phrase, tia sati "come to know" and only then turn it into a composite word, sattia.

On the other hand, the word for "buy" is composed of two roots, kasa "pay" and tá "take". The relationship between those if different: you take things because you have paid for them. Therefore, the phrase that is used to describe this is tá kaspi, and the word for "buy" is kasptá.

There are two easy rules describing how composite words are constructed in Ja:

1. The word order is reversed. While in Ja the main word is usually the first, with adjectives following the nouns, objects and adverbs following the verbs etc, in the composite word the main root is always the last part.

2. Adjectives, verbs and adverbs lose their endings (-a and -i) when they become a part of a composite word (supines do not lose the final '-a'!). Those ending, however, are most of the time easily reconstructed.

Let us give you a couple more examples:

tu sarao "unknown person" --> saraotú "stranger"

tira saraotú "drive strangers away" --> saraotutira "guard"

hon saraotutira "guard animal" --> saraotutirhon "a dog"

Translating Pronouns
=Advanced Examples=

The North Wind and the Sun
Jupinokó e Sunoten velhika hotú joróau té vomisomen nereá jurheu kartetíao.

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

Tuovú sanhia jaesíau tu hertpá kei misomen herti jurheu joróau.

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Jupinokó koumia sanroi sani kíau, oi té ko koumíao joi men ranuhetpena jurheu joi.

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

''E ko japetira patléau jirté. Karté Sunoten jursuna e misomen hera jurheu vorté.''

and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.

E Jupinokó via saphiti Sunoten joróau sí tuovú.

And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the

=Dictionary=