Tikati

Vowels
The letter a is pronounced as an open back-to-front unrounded diphthong after /q/, and as an open front-to-back unrounded diphthong before /q/. There are two phonemic diphthongs: /ai/ (aī) and /au/ (aū).

Alphabet
Aa Ii Kk Ll Pp Qq Rr Tt Ťť Uu

Ť represents the voiceless retroflex lateral fricative.

Phonotactics
Statements of fact, wishes, hopes, commands, admiratives (surprise, irony, sarcasm, pretense, etc.), and intents have rising intonation on the final syllable. Interrogatives and polar questions have falling intonation on the final syllable.

There are a few phonemic changes in TIkati. /t/ becomes /ꞎ/ before or after a plosive. A root cannot begin with <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Optima ExtraBlack"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-fareast-language:JA;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} -ɬ̢ / before or after another stop (/p/, /t/, /k/, /q/). /a/ becomes /i/ when the two syllables immediately before the syllable with /a/ contain /u/ and /i/. For example, iata becomes iita when preceded by the feminine prefix pu, since puiata is not allowed. /i/ becomes /i.u/ immediately before /q/ and /ai/ immediately after /q/. Finally, /ai/ becomes /au/ immediately before /q/.

Noun and verb roots cannot end with /p/, /u/, or, with the exception of certain loanwords, a diphthong (aī or aū). Roots also cannot begin with certain consonant clusters: /kɬ̢/, /ɬ̢t /, /pɾ/, /ta plosive followed by /ɾ/ or /l/. Two consecutive stops can only occur in the coda of a root. Clusters of more than two consonants are prohibited in every environment.

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for gender (masculine and feminine), animacy (animate and inanimate), number (singular and plural), tense (past and non-past), aspect (perfective, continuous, pausative, and resumptive), person (1st inclusive, 1st exclusive, 2nd, and 3rd), and mood (indicative, subjunctive, optative, potential, interrogative, energetic, conditional, dubitative, hypothetical, admirative, adhortative, exhortative, suprahortative, dehortative, inhortative, infrahortative, and cohortative). Consequently, each verb has over 4,000 unique forms. All verbs are transitive, and there are no defective verbs. Volition can be marked on verbs with an infix after the first consonant in the stem. Different infixes are used for different verbs, depending on what type of action the verb denotes and the relative sizes of the subject and object.

The moods of Tikati shall here be described:

The indicative mood in Tikati is used for statements of actuality or strong probability.

The subjunctive mood expresses a state of unreality; an emotion, judgment, or necessity, or an action that has not yet occurred. This mood can be used in any situation where any of the following moods could be used in place thereöf: optative, potential, dubitative, & hypothetical.

The optative mood indicates a wish or hope.

The potential mood indicates that, in the opinion of the speaker, an action or occurrence is likely.

The interrogative mood indicates any question.

The energetic mood expresses something that is strongly believed or that the speaker wishes to emphasize.

The conditional mood expresses a proposition quise validity is dependent on some condition, and is used only for factual or speculative (i.e., not predictive) conditions. Predictive conditions are expressed with the subjunctive.

The dubitative mood expresses the speaker's doubt or uncertainty about the event denoted by the verb.

The hypothetical mood expresses a counterfactual but possible event or situation, usually translated with the modal verb could.

The admirative mood expresses, especially: surprise, irony, sarcasm, and prætense.

There are loads of hortatives in Tikati, namely:

Adhortative (encouragement or gentle urging);

Exhortative (avid encouragement or strong urging);

Suprahortative (pleas of encouragement or absolute urging);

Dehortative (discouragement or gentle urging against);

Inhortative (avid discouragement or strong urging against);

Infrahortative (pleas of discouragement or absolute urging against);

Cohortative (mutual encouragement or discouragement).

Syntax
Word order is OVS (object-verb-subject), and it can only be changed for emphasis if context makes clear the subject and object. The general order of postpositional phrases is manner-place-time. There are nor coördinating nor subordinating conjunctions. Subordinate clauses are instead constructed with serial verbs. There are ten voices: active, passive, passival, mediopassive, middle, causative, reciprocal, adjutative, applicative, and coöperative. These are marked with prefixes on the subject of the verb and inverted word order. Tikati lacks adjectives and adverbs, but does have a few pro-adverbs. Postpositions are employed exclusively.

The voices of Tikati shall here be described:

Active: subject is understood as performing the action upon the object.

Passive: Subject is understood as undergoing the action from a (possibly stated) object.

Passival: Passive in meaning, but active in form, i.e. subject is understood as undergoing the action even though the sentence is active in form. This voice has some overlap with middle voice.

Mediopassive: Passival in form and meaning, but with an additional sense of benefaction for the subject. Also used when the subject causes itself to change state (like reflexive), and with verbs relating to standing, sitting, reclining, etc.

Middle: Used for several deponent verbs, especially ones related to movement. Analogous to English unaccusative verbs, where the subject is the theme.

Causative: Promotes the oblique argument of a verb to the role of subject. It is also used for coërsion, where the thing undergoïng the action beïng coërsed becomes the subject, the coërsee becomes the object, and the coërser becomes the oblique argument.

Reciprocal: Each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to one another. Translated as "[x] and [y] did [z] to/with/for one another".

Adjutative: Carries the meaning "to help to". The helper becomes the subject, the helpee is generally unstated (but can be included as an oblique argument), and the the thing undergoïng the action beïng helped becomes the object.

Applicative: Promotes the oblique argument of a verb to the role of core object. Thus similar to causative voice. Any prepositional phrase in an active utterance can become applicative and the oblique argument of the preposition becomes a core object of the verb.

Coöperative: Signifies a coöperative activity. Can also be used to promote a core object to the role of subject, which it shares with the original subject to create two subjects and an intransitive-appearing verb.

There is a special particle for question tags. Content clauses are included in the verb of the main clause (e.g. "I think (that) [x] is [y]" is represented by a single verb, Uqaūtik, and could be used as follows: Paratiiaqluk Uqaūtupťik ' "I think (that) a killer whale is big", where paratii means "is big", aqluk means "killer whale", and -tup- is the first person singular present active indicative infix.