Ornu

Overview
Ornu is an Analytical Language that incorporates Fusional Elements. Syntax follows a generally SVO order, that can be Topic Prominent. The language follows a Split-Ergativity morpho-syntactical alignment and is mostly Head-Initial.

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; Wyd actually somewhat treats [y] as a long vowel.''

Determiners
Ornu quite often employs the use of Determiners that are used so often they also operate as pronouns, yippie. Below are some of the most common. These determiners operate just like "this/that" in English, but also function as 3rd person pronouns.

These determiners have a meaning akin to "such" or "such a kind" in English; these are often used to signify titles or specificity. 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. The neuter 'nu' sees limited, if any, use as the neuter typically is not quantitated.

Pronouns
Ornu shies from using 'true' pronouns for the 1st and 3rd person, relying more on the determiners of 'hy' to get the job done. Typically 'hy' is always in reference to the speaker both informally, yet the old 1st person plural 'ēky' remains in use. The only 1st person pronouns :(

Nouns
Nouns will fall into an Animacy hierarchy being either Inanimate or Animate, take a gender of common or neuter.

Animacy
Animacy is reserved most to nouns, in order, of: gods, people, professions, anthropomorphic spirits, dogs, most tools, some common household items, and currents (not bodies) of water.

We label Animate nouns under the Common Gender. The common gender allows gods, people, and professions to be either masculine or feminine. All other animate nouns are labeled as masculine.

There also exists a class of animate nouns which will always be ergative, these end in -â.

Inanimacy
Inanimacy basically falls on anything not mentioned in the Animacy category. The Neuter Gender falls on all inanimate nouns.

Adjectives
Being fairly generic, Ornu's adjectives agree with their nouns in gender/animacy, case, and plurality. Below are tables with the 2 most common adjective endings,

'-ty' Patterns
Adjectives ending in '-ty' define an adjective with a qualitative or attributive sense.

'-ūt' Patterns
Adjectives ending in '-ūt' define an adjective with 'respect to', 'with', or sometimes 'appearing'; this adjective pattern is also able to form types of pronouns.

Verbs
Verbs do not conjugate at all aside from Aspect being Imperfective, Perfective. The Stative aspect is more of an inherent aspect and can also form nouns or stative adjectives. The aspect is represented through a bound, suffixed morpheme.

Tense
There are two Tenses; there is the Past and Non-past. The past is not marked or a part of a Periphrastic construction whereas the non-past is made in such a way.

Past: hretūs mâkar / a man was eating

Non-Past: hretūs ges mâkar / a man is eating

Aspect
The Perfective is used to show if an action was completed.

The Imperfective is used to show an ongoing or incomplete action.

The Stative aspect marks that something is in a state or condition.

Imperfective: -ni, -(a)r

Perfective: -ku, -(e)k

Stative: -es

Mood
Ornu only marks the Irrealis mood, using 'de', which contrasts to the unmarked Realis. Further modal expressions are carried out by adverbs or periphrasis.

Descriptive Verbs (Stative Adjectives)
These are morphologically verbs that act as a stative adjective to show the state or condition of that adjective.

Avalency
Avalency can be shown by using a dummy subject 'hūt'. This can also be used to raise the verb to being a topic. This essentially can make the verb a Focus point of the sentence since this cannot be done in Focusing Order.

Neutral: Hy ĥapar nâg dâum / I was spitting in (my) hand

Topic: Hūt ĥapar hy nâg dâum / Spitting is what I did in (my) hand

Roots and Stems
All words come from or contain a Root that has undergone affixation or some change to form into a usable Stem.

The type of root a stem may come from can be based on the Class of root.

Root Classes
We can split roots into 3 Root Classes based on how stems are derived from them.

There is the 1st Class which undergo no inherent change to the root aside from affixation to form stems.

There is the 2nd Class which can be a featural class meaning that while there isn't a whole constructable root, stems with a common meaning have common features; these can sometimes be constructed as consonants for their root form and can be called Consonantal Roots at times.

There is the 3rd Class which are roots that undergo ablaut as well as affixation to form a variety of stems.

Word Order
The typical word order, or Neutral Order, is SVO (Subject, Verb, Object); however, the word order can change its structure based on a sentence's Topics and Comments. A topic is what is being talked about and comments can be made upon that topic. We can also have a completely different structure if we want to Focus something in the sentence.

In Neutral Order, our topic is also the subject.

Ex.

In Topic Order, the topic comes first.

Ex.

In Focus or Focusing order, whatever we want to focus comes first then everything else follows with the verb in final position. What follows after the focus is the topic, then any other comments. It should be noted that the way comments are placed is determined by their Animacy.

Ex.

Ornu is a primarily V2 Word Order language since the verb MUST come second in the sentence; excluding Focus order.

This whole system of topics and comments and focus is based on syntax alone rather than by any sort of morphology; therefore, it is integral to understand how a sentence is laid out to fully understand its meaning.

Where this can be a little tricky is when a Focus order appears and a subordinate clause is embedded within it.

nâg kwunum hwahu kwunes hratānâ leĥūt lâpku

Focus order with Egūsni as focus: Egūs-ni-m Ø wem hla-nâ h-ūr hwahūt plâ-ku nekwūng sā̂-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 never tell-PERF] / "Egūsnim wem hlanâ hūr hwahūt plâku nekwūng sā̂ku"

Head Direction
Most phrases use a Head-Initial order, this means that the head will come first in a phrase.