Ükäntel

Consonants

 * Dental consonants are laminal, with /θ/ being interdental in most environments.
 * Alveolar consonants are apical.
 * Palatal consonants are laminal.

Allophony

 * Stops are voiced intervocalically, following a nasal, or preceding /ʒ/, and are unvoiced otherwise.
 * /h/ appears as [x] following a back vowel, [ç] after a front vowel (and likewise /hh/ as [x: ç:]) and only appears as [h] pre-vocalically. [x ç] are both weakly fricated.
 * If /h/ is preceded by a different fricative, /h/ will assimilate and lengthen the preceding fricative, i.e. /sh/ is realized as [s:]. This does not happen following an affricate.
 * Short /r/ is tapped while geminate /r/ is trilled.
 * When affricates are geminate, the stop component is lengthened.
 * Dental consonants and alveolar consonants most often assimilate in place to each other regressively.
 * Regressive assimilation occurs when both consonants of cluster come from the set of consonants /n t̪ s l̪ ɾ/, or in the case of /nθ/.
 * The cluster /θn/ is realized as [θn̪].
 * /t͡s/ forces a preceding or following dental consonant to become alveolar, notably with /θ/ becoming [s].
 * /θ/ does not assimilate except to /t͡s/ and forces a following alveolar consonant to be laminal in articulation with /ɾ/ remaining apical. It may be important to note that /sθ θs/ remain the same.
 * Plain alveolar consonants will become palatal consonants (i.e. /n t͡s s r/ > [ɲ t͡ʃ ʃ ʒ]) next to another palatal consonant regardless of order.
 * /nj t͡sj sj rj/ become [ɲ t͡ʃ ʃ ʒ]. /j/ is elided after existing /ɲ t͡ʃ ʃ ʒ/.
 * /ʃʒ ʒʃ/ are realized as [ʒ: ʃ:] respectively.

Allophony

 * /i y u/ are realized as [ɪ ʏ ʊ] before sonorant consonants.
 * /e ɤ/ are lowered to [ɛ ʌ] following a syllable containing an instance of the same vowel and always if word-final.
 * Unstressed /i/ is elided in specific, syllable-permissive environments.

Phonotactics
Ukantel syllables minimally consist of only a vowel and maximally are CVC. The syllable structure can thus be transcribed as (C)V(C). Outside of restrictions mentioned below, any consonant or vowel can appear in any position in a syllable.

/ø o/ do not appear word-finally, having become [e ɤ] in that environment. This rule is productive, so suffixes containing the archiphoneme /O/ and no coda consonant thus possibly have four variants due to a historical sound change. Geminate consonants sans   [r] are rare in native roots and primarily occur due to inflection or assimilation, with [r] occurring only due to inflection. /θ/ is rare as a syllable coda and especially rare word-finally. /ŋ/ does not occur word initially and is rare as a syllable onset outside of word-initial position. In native roots, affricates do not occur in the first spot of a consonant cluster, but this can arise due to inflection.

Considering syllable boundaries, long vowels and diphthongs do not occur as a result of two juxtaposed morphemes. Two like vowels in sequence always result in an identical short vowel. Two unlike vowels in sequence are broken up by the addition of a sonorant in between the vowels, which is detailed in the morphophonology section below.

Stress
Stress is non-phonemic and falls on the first syllable of a word. Stressed vowels are pronounced significantly longer than unstressed vowels, approximately 50% to 60% longer. Vowels are not regularly reduced when unstressed, although some phonological processes occur only with unstressed vowels.

Orthography
Ukantel is written using a modified variant of the Latin alphabet. There are no digraphs in the language, instead a diacritical system exists, making use of the acute accent to mark (historically) palatalized alveolar consonants and the diaeresis to mark additional vowel sounds. Ukantel orthography is largely phonemic and represents morphophonological processes orthographically as well as a number of allophonic processes.

Alphabet
Making note of the placements of y, g, d, Ukantel alphabetical ordering is observably different than the average Latin alpabet. These deviations exist because it was decided that letters with similar pronounciations should be near each other in the alphabet, based off the idea that accented letters were to follow their unaccented base forms.

Letter names
The vowel letters are named after the vowels themselves, except o (named or) and ö (named ör), named so to retain their original unreduced vocalic pronunciation. Consonant letters are named are named after the consonant plus e, with exceptions in h (named ha) and g (named ag).
 * a, ä, ce, će, e, ë, ha, i, ye, ke, le, ne, ńe, ag, or, ör, re, ŕe, se, śe, te, de, u, ü, we

Orthographic notes

 * The word-final replacement of  with <ë e> respectively, and their alteration when a following consonant is introduced due to suffixing, is indicated orthographically.
 * <ńń ńć ńś ńŕ gg gk> are spelled , that is, orthographic <ń g> will become  if followed by those specific consonants.
 * Alveolar-palatal assimilation is indicated orthographically.
 * In the environment of <ń ć ś ŕ> the alveolar consonants are written with an acute accent unless the sequence is  followed by one of <ń ć ś ŕ>.
 * The sequences coalesce to <ń ć ś ŕ>.
 * <śŕ ŕś> remain unchanged.
 * All processes detailed in the morphophonology section are indicated orthographically.

Morphophonology
Morphophonological processes are rampant in Ukantel, including the characteristic vowel harmony, as well as partial vowel reduplication and epenthesis.

Vowel Harmony
With a few exceptions, native Ukantel roots contain either only front vowels /y e ø æ i/ or only back vowels /u ɤ o ɑ/. The front set contains five vowels as opposed to back set containing four, due to the presence of /i/ which does not have a back variant. Although it patterns largely as a front vowel, in back vowel words /i/ is transparent, i.e. does not change the word harmony to front. Roots containing /i/ as their only vowel are indeed front vowel roots. Generally, archiphonemes are used in grammatical writings, being transcribed /U E O A/ and representing pairs /y~u e~ø ø~o æ~ɑ/. There is no harmonization according to roundedness and thus all Ukantel grammatical suffixes have, in theory, two variants, although suffixes containing only /i/ have a single variant and suffixes that end in /O/ may possibly have four variants as per /ø o/ having become /e ɤ/ word-finally. It is also worth noting here that some suffixes consist only of one or two consonants, and these have three variants depending on their syllabic environment and epenthesis.

In native Ukantel roots, vowel harmony is rarely violated outside of a few roots, such as ayäceć, the Ukantel word for alphabet. Vowel harmony is not applied when compounding if roots contain differing sets of vowels. Loanwords, especially newer loans, do not necessarily adhere to vowel harmony.

Reduplication
Many grammatical suffixes in Ukantel use a reduplicated vowel from the preceding syllable as its own syllable nucleus. This is transcribed in grammars using a capital V in place of the vowel. A few verbal suffixes, personal suffixes on verbs, posessive suffixes on nouns, a few case suffixes, the comparative and superlative morphemes on adjectives, as well as various derivational morphemes all utilize this process. /ø o/ do become /e ɤ/ word-finally in this instance.

Anaptyxis
Anaptyxis, or the insertion of a vowel, is necessary with certain grammatical suffixes as the stringing together of certain morphemes would violate the Ukantel syllable structure. In many instances, the reduplicated vowel detailed in the above section is only present if syllabically necessary, and this is often considered an example of anaptyxis, but is in fact separate due to various suffixes where the reduplicated vowel is always present. Some suffixes contain two consonants in what would seem to be a syllable onset, or some suffixes consist of a single consonant. If either of these types of suffixes follow a morpheme ending in a vowel, no insertion is not necessary. When following a morpheme that ends in a consonant (in both cases) or if sandwiched in between two consonants (in the latter case only), a vowel is inserted before the suffix in question, which is -E in all environments. In suffixes where two consonants ocur in what would seem to be a syllable coda, the epenthetic vowel is inserted after the suffix in question.

Excrescence
Excrescence, or the addition of a consonant, is necessary when two juxtaposed suffixes would result in a vowel sequence. The consonant inserted is always a sonorant. If the first vowel is unrounded, the in-between sonorant is /j/. Similarly, if the first vowel is rounded, the in-between sonorant is /w/.

Elision
Elision is productive in Ukantel with the consonant /j/ and the vowel /i/.
 * /j/ is elided following other palatal consonants, i.e. /ɲ tʃ ʃ ʒ/.
 * The elision of /i/ happens when unstressed in certain syllabic environments, which can trigger further allophony or morphophonology. This happens furthest as possible from the stressed syllable and does not occur if there are more than two /i/ in succession.
 * VCiCV > VCCV
 * VC1iC1C2V or VC1C2iC2V > VC1C2V

Non-verbal Morphology
Ukantel is an exclusively suffixing agglutinative language. Morphology is largely regular outside of certain stem alterations that occur due to regular morphophonologic, phonotactic (specifically word-final /O/ regularly becoming /E/), or orthographic rules. Throughout this section, archiphonemes are used. Annotations will not be made where vowel epenthesis would possibly occur but will be where reduplication only occurs if syllabically necessary, denoted by an asterisk following the suffix.

Posession
Posession is indicated by a suffix in Ukantel, which precedes the case and/or number suffixes if present. In a noun-noun posessive construction, the posessed noun is indicated with the third person singular/plural posession suffix, which is sometimes called a construct state due to the influence of Semitic linguistics.

Case
Ukantel has 16 case suffixes, 8 singular and 8 plural; the nominative singular is unmarked. The nominative case is used to mark the subject of a sentence, more specifically, the agent of a transitive verb and the patient (also called the experiencer) of an intransitive verb.

The accusative case is used to mark the patient (also called the object) of a transitive verb. When making a transitive verb causative, both the causee (the subject of the non-causal clause) and the original object appear in the accusative case, with the causee appearing second. -e is used following stems or a preceeding morpheme that end in a consonant and -ne following those ending in a vowel.

The dative case is used to mark the recipient or geographical destination of an object, the object of verbs implying transfer or perception, the purpose or beneficiary of an action, as well as posession when coupled with the copula.  

The genitive case is used to mark the posessor of another noun, a noun which modifies another noun, description, geographic origin, and composition.

The instrumental case is used to mark the means by which an action is done, whether physical or abstract.

The comitative case is used to mark with whose company an action is done or to express adornment.

The temporal case is used to mark when an action is done and can be applied to numbers to mean at ___ o'clock, or to noun phrases to mean on _____.

The durative case is used to specify the length of an action or during what the action took place, meaning effectively for x ____ (where x is a numeral) or during _____ or throughout ______.

Personal pronouns
As in most languages, personal pronouns in Ukantel are irregular. The temporal and durative forms of the pronouns exist but are not used in colloquial speech, and thus are not listed in the table below. They are formed by suffixing the case edings to the nominative stem, except the first person singular, whose stem is tä. Ukantel is a pro-drop language, meaning subject pronouns are omitted unless for emphasis.Similarly, genitive pronouns are usually omitted in a posessor-posessed structure unless for emphasis.

The accusative case pronouns are used as reflexive pronouns. The dative pronouns are used similarly for verbs that require a dative object.


 * Yeten aśuhtolhët.
 * 1SG.ACC stand-CAUS1-NEG-PFV-1SG
 * I didn't stand up.

The genitive pronouns can be used either attributively, although they are usually omitted in this usage unless for emphasis, or predicatively.

Demonstrative pronouns
Ukantel makes a two-way proximity distinction in its demonstratives. Demonstratives decline slightly irregularly across case and number due to the proximal demonstrative having a stem in att which surfaces as at in the nominative case and the distal demonstrative having a stem in elö which surfaces as ele in the nominative case. Their stems are listed in the table below.

Interrogative pronouns
Interrogative words and phrases are formed regularly from a few interrogative roots either on their own, declined across cases, or with modifiers or particles. Ka 'what' is the most common interrogative root used in forming interrogative compounds.

Modifiers
Modifiers in Ukantel can be separated into three categories: Constituents of all three categories behave similarly to verbs. When used to modify a noun, there are no agreement markers and modifiers precede the head noun. When used as a predicate, modifiers take a derivational suffix and then verbal suffixes in order to agree with a subject.
 * 1) Numerals
 * 2) Non-numeral quantifiers
 * 3) Adjectives

Verbal morphology
Verbs in Ukantel are morphologically regular, bearing no suppletive forms. They take a multitude of suffixes to indicate finite grammatical information and suffixes that construct non-finite forms.

Finite Verbal Morphology
Finite verbs serve as the main verb of a clause. Suffixes attach to finite verbs in a fixed order, illustrated in the table below.

Stem
The stem of a verb in Ukantel is the bare form of the verb and is a bound morpheme. Stems do not have any restrictions insofar as their syllabic structure.

Voice
The active voice in Ukantel is unmarked. More than one voice suffix may be applied to the verb, however, doubly causative verbs are not possible morphologically and instead use a periphrastic construction. Furthermore, the meaning of a derived form is not always apparent from the meanings of the suffixes attached alone.

Polarity
Negation is indicated with the suffix -l.

Tense
Morphologically, Ukantel distinguishes three tenses, of which the present tense is unmarked. Compound tenses are expressed periphrastically.

Aspect
Ukantel distinguishes between two aspects morphologically. Other aspectual meanings are conveyed using auxiliary verbs.

Mode
Modality distinctions in Ukantel are diverse, with finer distinctions being made than in most languages. The table below presents the suffixes and examples can be found below. The necessitative mode indicates that the action is required.


 * At öyleyä ńesähdit.
 * this man-DAT listen-NCS-1SG
 * I have to listen to this man.

The permissive mode indicates that the action is allowed.


 * Sänken etültöleget.
 * tree-PL-ACC fall-CAUS-NEG-PRM-1SG
 * I am not allowed to fell trees.

The abilitative mode indicates that the action is able to be performed.


 * Ükäntele senćöt.
 * Ukantel-ACC speak-ABIL-1SG
 * I can speak Ukantel.

The potential mode indicates that the action is likely.


 * Yön üney śün sokhëwër.
 * that-DIST dog 2SG.ACC bite-PRF-POT
 * That dog could have bitten you.

The obligative mode indicates that the action is heavily suggested but not required.


 * Äle näsinnäś.
 * water-ACC drink-OBG-2SG
 * You should drink water.

The desiderative mode indicates that the action is wanted.


 * Köŕśü unkaya astuńut.
 * night-TMP sky-DAT see-DES-1SG
 * I want to see the sky at night.

The imperative-hortative mood (usually referred to solely as the imperative and likewise glossed as IMP) expresses command, request, suggestion, exhortation, and urging. The imperative cannot take tense or aspect suffixes. It can only be preceded by voice suffixes or the negative suffix, and followed by person suffixes, incluidng -hV to indicate a 3rd person imperative. First and third person imperatives are cross-linguistically referred to as the hortative or jussive moods respectively, and those terms are akin to their semantic meanings in Ukantel.

First person imperatives have a hortative sense, whether singular or plural, suggesting that either the speaker or the speaker and addressee(s) perform the action. Second person imperatives have a general sense of command or request. Third person imperatives have a jussive sense, suggesting that a third party perform the action or be permitted to perform the action. Translations of first-person singular imperatives are often awkward when translated to English. Examples are given below.

Because it is not overtly marked, all imperatives sans 3rd person forms are phonologically identical to present imperfect forms of the verb.


 * Attë täyä sanaś.
 * that-ACC 1SG.DAT give-2SG
 * Give that to me.


 * Täyä yukurśan.
 * 1SG.DAT listen-2PL
 * Listen to me (spoken to multiple people)

Non-finite Verbal Morphology
Non-finite verb forms in Ükäntel are numerous and common in the language. This includes the infinitive, gerunds, and participles. and converbs.

Infinitive
The infinitive form of a verb ends in -hE. As the infinitive is the citation form of a verb, this presents an ambiguitity concerning roots that end in vowels and roots that end in a consonant cluster or geminate consonant, as roots of the latter type end in -EhE due to anaptyxis. In a dictionary, an asterisk is placed before those forms with -EhE due to anaptyxis. In speech and writing, however, distinguishing these forms is unnecessary. The infinitive in Ukantel is found in constructions where one finite verb is a constituent of another.

Gerund
The gerund in Ukantel is the nominal form of a verb that is not entirely deverbal, meaning it can take some of the morphological suffixes and arguments that a finite verb would. Entirely deverbal nouns are listed under derivational morphology. The gerund is marked with -Vr.


 * Urënëśka ńeser śüyä ćinäyür.
 * parent-2SG-DAT.PL listen-GER 2SG.DAT help-FUT
 * Listening to your parents will help you.

Participles
Participles in Ukantel function as verbal adjectives, meaning they serve to modify a noun. They use the same endings as normal finite verbs, with the addition of an ending for a present tense participle, but nothing marking imperfective aspect, both of which are unmarked in finite verb forms, and do not take personal affixes. Third-person singular verb forms are often indistinct from a similarly-constructed participle because of this. To show nominative arguments in a participial phrase, nominative-case pronouns are used. In this manner, as they are not restricted in what tenses, aspects, modalities, etc, they can appear in, participles often take the place of relative clauses. The present tense ending, which is only used in participial constructions, is -lA.

As participles, verbs govern the same cases as they would if used finitely, meaning some participles make take dative objects.


 * Öttelä öyle ayëtda seńit.
 * sit-PRS.PTCP man mom-1SG-COM talk-PST
 * The sitting man was talked with my mom.


 * Ośtala röne etülithe.
 * burn-PRS.PTCP building fall-PST-PFV
 * The burning building fell.


 * Sanëtë nohhonë orrë ertäylä yetä astuwithë üney täyä wiyü heśes te.
 * meat-ACC mouth-3SG-ACC in-STT hold-PRS.PTCP 1SG.NOM see-PST.PFV dog 1SG.DAT behind-toward run-CONV be
 * The dog that I saw holding meat in its mouth is running after me.

A construction meaning "when" is constructed using a participle before the temporal case of örüs "time".


 * Yetä śiwkolośë esälätöwit örüshü kińitinnaś. 
 * 1SG.NOM bowl-2SG-ACC be.full-CAUS-PST time-TEMP ask-PST-OBLG-2SG
 * You should have asked when I filled your bowl.

Converbs
Converbs are verb forms that are dependent on another verb and usually express some form of adverbial subordination although some forms express coordination with the main verb of a clause. Converbial clauses most often appear in the absolute place of a sentence, i.e. before the verb and all of its constituents.

-s describes a repeated action contemporaneous with the main verb. This is also used to construct the progressive aspect in conjunction with the verb tehe. In this use, the converb and verb appear together at the end of the sentence.


 * Etüles yön sör öńit.
 * fall-CONV that woman walk-PST
 * That woman stumbled (i.e. walked falling).


 * Yenehü ölöces täyürüt.
 * ten-TEMP leave-CONV be-FUT-1SG
 * I will be leaving at 10.

-OcE describes a single instance of or a sustained action slightly prior to or contemporaneous with the main verb. This often corresponds to the English "by doing" or "with doing."


 * Aś köŕśül üneyhene eytäyöce höya ćinithećötän.
 * one night-DUR dog-3SG-ACC take-CONV 3SG.DAT help-PST-PFV-ABIL-1PL
 * We were able to help him by taking his dog for a night.

Particles
Particles in Ukantel are function words that must be associated with another word or phrase to impart their meaning.

Postpositions
Ukantel has postpositions which are used to mark primarily spatial and temporal relations. A large number of these postpositions are formed synthetically from morphemes that indicate location and motion state, akin to the locative case systems of many Caucasian languages. Each postposition requires the noun to be in a specific case.

Synthetic postpositions
The synthetic postpositions are each composed of two morphemes, the primary of which (the prefix) indicates orientation and the secondary of which (the suffix) indicates motion state. The vowels in suffixes harmonize to those in the prefix accordingly. Some combinations of these morphemes are not productive. These postpositions are used with the accusative case if the suffix is -rE or -ś and with the dative for the remaining suffixes.

The following sentences exemplify the postpositions in use.


 * Äthene lasrë öttes tet.
 * chair-ACC on.horiz-STT sit-CONV be-1SG
 * I am sitting on the chair.


 * Röneyä orla heśes titit.
 * building-DAT inside-from run-PST be-PST-1SG
 * He was running from inside the building.

Cardinal numerals
Ukantel has a decimal numeral system. There are distinct numeral roots for each unit digit (1-10) and for powers of ten, namely kusë "hundred (100)", hentü "thousand (1,000)", and elyiŕ "ten thousand (10,000)". In forming powers of ten higher than ten thousand, compounds of these roots and elyiŕ are used, namely yene elyiŕ "hundred thousand (100,000)", kusë elyiŕ "million (1,000,000)", hentü elyiŕ "ten million (10,000,000)", and elyiŕ elyiŕ "hundred million (100,000,000)". These bases denoting powers of ten and compounds thereof are not numerals in themselves, being true nouns instead, and thus may not stand on their own numerically. The word "nothing" is used in place of zero. Other numerals are formed using decimal structural principles. The numeral 7 is irregular, appearing as satta instead of sat in compounds. Teens, twenties, thirties, etc are formed using the tens word (10, 20, 30, etc) followed by a unit digit, both separated by a space. Exceptions lie in many of the teens themselves, where the numeral yene has multiple irregular additive forms, such as in-, en-, yen-, yel- and al-, which can all be analyzed as meaning 'plus ten', and are not written separately from the unit digit. Tens, except for 10 itself, are formed from semi-regularly from unit digits using the suffix -iyOl, meaning essentially 'times ten'.

The formation of larger numerals is somewhat irregular from a semantic point of view. Up to 10,000, numerals are formed similarly to English: cf. 2,304 two thousand three hundred four and yah hentü näwä kusë le or 5,649 five thousand six hundred fourty nine and ayoć hentü tüdü kusë leyyöl lakë. However, ten-thousands (i.e. 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, etc) themselves are formed using 10,000 elyiŕ. For example, 10,000 is aś elyiŕ (lit. one ten-thousand) and 20,000 is yah elyiŕ instead of yene kusë and yayol kusë respectively. However, thousands in between are formed as in English, meaning 21,000 is yayol aś kusë. This is true for other bases denoting powers of ten as well.

A succinct amount of numeral forms are found in the table below.