Ükäntel

Consonants

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

Allophony

 * Obstruents are voiced intervocalically, following a nasal, and are unvoiced otherwise.
 * The nasal consonants /n ɲ ŋ/ are only contrastive when before a vowel and are otherwise subject to extreme neutralization, with all three being realized as [n] word-finally and being subject to significant assimilation when in a cluster, being realized as:
 * [n̪] before or after a dental consonant, the sequence /nl̪/ is [l̪:];
 * [n] before or after an alveolar, the sequence /nɾ/ is [r], the sequence /ɾn/ is [n:];
 * [ɲ] before or after a palatal consonant; the sequence /nj/ becomes [ɲ];
 * [ŋ] before or after a velar consonant or /h/.
 * Short /r/ is tapped while geminate /r/ is trilled.
 * When affricates are geminate, the stop component is lengthened.
 * The distinction between affricates and fricatives is neutralized in certain environments
 * Affricates are realized as fricatives before a plosive or nasal consonant, as well as /t͡s/ (but not /t͡ʃ/) before /ɾ/
 * Fricatives are realized as affricates following a nasal consonant
 * 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/, and except /l̪ɾ ɾl̪ nɾ ɾn/.
 * The clusters /l̪ɾ ɾl̪/ are realized as [r l̪:].
 * The clusters /nɾ ɾn/ are realized as [r n:]
 * 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 ɾ/ > [ɲ t͡ʃ ʃ j]) before a palatal consonant, while the alveolar sibilants also become palatal (i.e. /t͡s s/ > [t͡ʃ ʃ]) following the palatal sibilants.
 * /nj t͡sj sj ɾj/ are [ɲ t͡ʃ ʃ j].
 * /h/ is subject to significant allophony and assimilation:
 * /h/ is realized as:
 * [h] at the beginning of a word, following a back vowel and before a voiceless consonant other than /k/, and following another consonant;
 * [ɦ] intervocalically and in between a vowel and a sonorant consonant;
 * [ç] word-finally after a front vowel and following a front vowel and before a voiceless consonant other than /k/;
 * [x] word-finally after a back vowel and always before /k/;
 * [x:] when geminate regardless of vocalic environment.
 * /h/ will assimilate to a fricative that precedes it, resulting in a geminate fricative, i.e. /sh/ is realized as [s:]. This does not happen following an affricate.

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.

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 nasal neutralization, any consonant can appear word-initially or word-finally, or as the coda or onset of syllables not at word boundaries. Consonant clusters thus are not allowed to be longer than two segments; anaptyxis is employed to avoid this. Certain clusters are subject to assimilation, which is detailed in the above consonant allophony section.

The syllable structure is obeyed in roots and at the word level, however, affixes are not bound to syllabic structure and can take any form, even that of a single consonant or a string of two consonants and thus lacking a nucleus.

Hiatus is preferred with strings of vowels, although a weak glide co-occurs when the first vowel in a sequence is /i/ or /u/ (with [j] or [w] appearing respectively).

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 cedilla to mark (historically) palatalized alveolar consonants and the diaeresis to mark additional vowel sounds.

Alphabet
Making note of the placements of y, g, and d, Ukantel alphabetical ordering is observably different than the average Latin alphabet. These deviations exist because it was decided that letters with similar pronunciations 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 an exception in h (named ha).
 * a, ä, ce, çe, e, ë, ha, i, ye, ke, le, ne, ņe, ge, or, ör, re, se, şe, te, de, u, ü, we

Orthographic notes

 * Nasal consonants are written according to their pronunciation when prevocalic and unclustered, otherwise  is utilized, even in clusters where the nasal pronunciation may be lost.
 * When words beginning in <ņ g> are used in compounds so that <ņ g> no longer is word-initial or intervocalic, their spelling is changed to  to reflect the neutralization of nasals elsewhere.
 * A number of roots with final  have irregular forms that result in <ņ g> when followed by a vowel-initial suffix; these alternations are indicated in writing.
 *  is omitted following palatal consonants <ņ ç ş>.

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/. /i/ does not have a back variant and patterns largely as a front vowel. In back vowel words /i/ is transparent, i.e. it does not change the harmony to front. Roots that contain only /i/ take front vowel suffixes. Generally, archiphonemes are used in grammatical writings, being transcribed /U E O A/ and representing pairs /y~u e~ɤ ø~o æ~ɑ/. There is no harmonization according to roundedness and thus all Ukantel grammatical suffixes have two variants, although suffixes containing only /i/ have only a single variant. It is also worth noting here that some suffixes consist only of one or two consonants, with vowels being inserted epenthetically if necessary according to harmony.

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.

Anaptyxis
Anaptyxis, or epenthesis of a vowel, is necessary with certain grammatical suffixes as the stringing together of certain morphemes would violate the Ukantel syllable structure. A (C)V(C) syllable structure is obeyed at the word level, meaning consonant clusters can only be two segments long and must appear intervocalically, and that all syllables must have a vocalic nucleus. Some suffixes have already two forms outside of epenthesis in order to avoid consonant or vowel strings, such as the dative case suffix, which appears as -t following a vowel and as -Ot following a consonant. Consonant strings longer than two may appear due to suffixing, and an epenthetic vowel -E is inserted to avoid that. The epenthetic vowel follows a string of two consonants that would otherwise appear before another consonant unless it would appear within the suffix itself.

Nouns
Nouns are manditorily inflected for number and case and optionally for possession. The below table outlines the detail of the nominal structure.

Stem
The stem includes nominal roots and any possible derivational suffixes attached thereto and is essentially the barest form of a noun found in regular speech, as well as being the dictionary citation form. The bare stem is identical to that of the nominative singular, and not always to the nominal root.

Number
Ukantel distinguishes between singular and plural. The singular is unmarked and the plural is formed with the suffix -ş (or -Eş if necessary).

There are homophones where a singular noun may appear to be plural in form (or in fact the plural form of a separate noun) due to ending in -ş.

Possession
Possession is indicated by a suffix in Ukantel. The head in a genitive phrase is marked with a possessive suffix, agreeing with the possessor in person and number, which is sometimes called a construct state due to the influence of Semitic linguistics. Concerning the two-variant singular possessive suffixes, the first appears following vowels and the second following consonants.

Case
Ukantel nouns decline for 8 cases, the suffixes of which are listed in the table below; the nominative 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 preceding morpheme that end in a consonant and -yE 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. -Ot is used following stems or a preceding morpheme that ends in a consonant and -t following those ending in a vowel.

The genitive case is used to mark the possessor 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, and is extended in its latter usage to express ownership with the the verb copular verb tehe.

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 endings to the nominative stem, except the first person singular, whose stem is äk. Ukantel is a pro-drop language, meaning subject pronouns are omitted unless for emphasis.Similarly, genitive pronouns are usually omitted in a possessor-possessed structure unless for emphasis. The third-person singular pronouns are only used for human referents, whereas the demonstrative pronouns are used for any other third-person referents. This distinction is not realized with other third-person indicators (i.e. the possessive suffix or verbal agreement), as they are used to refer to all third-person referents. Compare the following two sentences:


 * Hala yën!
 * that-ACC eat-2SG
 * Eat it/that!


 * Awa yën!
 * 3SG-ACC eat-2SG
 * Eat him/her!

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


 * Äksä aşuhtouldëk.
 * 1SG.ACC stand-CAUS-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, which pull double duty as both pronouns and adjectives, and are listed as pronouns on this page for simplicity. As adjectives they do not decline and simply precede the noun, while as pronouns, they decline regularly as nouns. The proximal demonstrative is regular while the distal demonstrative bears irregular forms with its stem eg- which appears as en- in isolation and when followed by a consonant.

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.

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. The semantics of the voice suffixes are not always in line with their defined meanings and have unpredictable meanings with certain verb roots.

Polarity
Negation is indicated with the suffix -ul.

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.

Mood
The admonitive mode is generally used to indicate warnings and translates as "should", "must", "have to".


 * Hal öylet nesätäk.
 * this man-DAT listen-ADM-1SG
 * I should listen to this man.

The permissive mode indicates that the action is allowed.


 * Sänşe etültöülegäk.
 * 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 sençök.
 * Ukantel-ACC speak-ABIL-1SG
 * I can speak Ukantel.

The potential mode indicates that the action is likely.


 * En üney unya sokdëwër.
 * that dog 2SG.ACC bite-PRF-POT
 * That dog could have bitten you.

The desiderative mode indicates that the action is wanted.


 * Körhü unkat astuşëk.
 * 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, including -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.


 * Halë äköt sanun.
 * that-ACC 1SG.DAT give-2SG
 * Give that to me.


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

Non-finite Verbal Morphology
Non-finite verb forms in Ukantel 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 ambiguity 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 -irE.


 * Urënşawot nesire unut çinyür.
 * parent-PL-2SG-DAT 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 -sE.

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


 * Öttese öyle ayëkda senes tin.
 * sit-PRS.PTCP man mom-1SG-COM talk-CONV be-PST
 * The sitting man was talking with my mom.


 * Oştasë röne etülined.
 * burn-PRS.PTCP building fall-PST-PFV
 * The burning building fell.


 * Sanëyë nohawë orrë ertäyse äk astuinëd üney äköt wiyü heşes 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".


 * Äk şiwkolnë esälätöin örüshü kininätün.
 * 1SG.NOM bowl-2SG-ACC be.full-CAUS-PST time-TEMP ask-PST-ADM-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.

-şA describes a repeated action contemporaneous with the main verb. This is also used to construct the progressive aspect in conjunction with the verb tehe.


 * Etülşä hal sör önin.
 * fall-CONV that woman walk-PST
 * That woman stumbled (i.e. walked falling).


 * Yenehü ölöcşä teyüräk.
 * 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."


 * Eş köylük üneyäwe eytäyöce awot çinindeçökäş.
 * 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 heşes tin.
 * building-DAT inside-from run-CONV 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 koga "hundred (100)", hüttö "thousand (1,000)", and yalit "ten thousand (10,000)". In forming powers of ten higher than ten thousand, compounds of these roots and yalit are used, namely kine yalit "hundred thousand (100,000)", koga yalit "million (1,000,000)", hüttö yalit "ten million (10,000,000)", and yalit yalit "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 when acting numerically. The word "nothing" is used in place of zero. Other numerals are formed using decimal structural principles. Teens, twenties, thirties, etc are formed using the tens word (10, 20, 30, etc) followed by a unit digit, written as a single word. Tens, except for 10 itself, are formed semi-regularly from unit digits using the suffix ''-tUk. ''When forming tens with this suffix, some of the unit digits may drop or elide their final vowel.

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 öt hüttö salë koga şac or 5,649 five thousand six hundred fourty nine and saç hüttö ege koga aynutukäd .However, ten-thousands (i.e. 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, etc) themselves are formed using 10,000 eylit. For example, 10,000 is eş yalit (lit. one ten-thousand) and 20,000 is öt yalit instead of kine koga and öttük koga respectively. However, thousands in between are formed as in English, meaning 21,000 is öttükeş hüttö. This is true for other bases denoting powers of ten as well.

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