Pilonja

Pilonja is not complete, so don't expect much out of it.

=Background= Without getting into the detail of the world that pilonja exists in, I can say that it has a percularity. In the thought process behind the language, you don't just think in a linear fashion, breaking packages of words into groups based on what is applying to what. You also have to understand and think about the charictaristics of the things you are talking about. In order to talk, you need to know what things do, what they look like, how they move, and seemingly anything that could be useful. It is easy to learn charateristics, but there is no avoiding them.

This is all because in pilonja, there are only nouns. To use a verb, you just say a noun that does that thing, and then qualify it as doing that. To use an adjective, you just say something that has the charictaristic you are refering to, and qualify it as an adjective. This makes a pilonja sentence more like a list of characteristics about something, its relation to other things in that situation and when everything is like this.

This page is set up with the knowledge of characteristics, but is laid out to show you how to make a verb, an adjective, ect.

=Vowel Harmony= The first thing you must know about pilonja grammar is the vowel harmony. The vowel harmony is regular, and its use is also regular. Learning where vowel harmony is used is a must in pilonja. on the chart below, if a vowel must harmonize with another vowel, they must be on the same row. You do this by changing the vowel that is harmonizing to the one that is on the same row as the other vowel, but is in the same column as its self.

Additionally, "i" harmonizes with everything and does not change. "á" and "e" are special. Each can only be used with certain preceding consonents, and when they need to harmonize, they change to the vowel that they are harmonzing with. When another vowel is harmonzing with it, it changes according to the preceding consonent. "d" is the exception consonent, it does not change its following vowel when it is either "á" or "e."

Examples. In this chart, the second vowel on the left is harmonzing with the first. The right side is what the result would be. None of these are words, but just examples

=Grammar=

Nouns
Nouns in pilonja are simple. They have no gender, no number, and are not marked to be a noun as opposed to other types of words. Nouns break down into 4 cases. The four cases are regular, locative, the apptly named other, and the specially explainitive.

Regular Case
Nouns in the regular case are used as the nomitive and accusative in other languages. They are the doers and the do-ees. The doer comes first, and the do-ee is suffixed to the qualifier of a verb, see Verbs, and harmonizes its first vowel.

Locative Case
Nouns in the locative case use prepositions, like "to" or "from." The morphology for a locative noun is that it harmonizes its first vowel with its preposition.

Other Case
Nouns in the other case are used similarly to the locative case, except that the locative case is used for anything that describes location. The other case is used for anything else. Like, "because of," "with," ect. Nouns in the other case harmonize their last vowel as either "á" or "e," and are followed by a postposition. The other case is also how you make a possesive, but that comes later.

Explainitive Case

 * See, Copula

Pronouns & Emphatic Pronouns
Pronouns morph the same as any other noun. Here is a list of personal pronouns

Emphatic Pronouns and nouns are used to make the listener understand the situation from the emphatic's perspective. Emphatics are always used as the subject whenever a modal is used. To make a noun an emphatic, íin- is prefixed to it.

Regular Verbs
In pilonja, there aren't verbs in the same sense as in other languages. Instead of a verb, you use a noun that does the thing you are trying to say. There wouldn't be, for instance, a word for "walk." You'd just use "foot," followed by a marker for a verb. The markers harmonize with the last vowel of the noun.

The markers:
 * "rén" is used when nothing is suffixed onto it, or if the siffix begins with a vowel. "ré-" is otherwise used.

The state markers are used to say what state you are in, or a change in state. This is explained in the section on ergativity. The relativity of the marker is used to express what the thing does before, during, and after the action. The tense is when the doer is actually doing it. This concept isn't heavilly relevent on grammar, but more on what the item you use in the sentence as the verb, actually does.

example;

Ergative Verbs
Pilonja is ergative, that is it makes a distinction between an action, and a change in state. "I run," vs. "I sit." Change in states use the state qualifiers, and follow the order below,

Copula
The copula is also a different case than other languages. It is a not an odd verb, it is a special case of a noun. Instead of saying "X is Y," you say "X is Y, in relation to Z." "Z" is the noun that is in the special case. To put a noun in this case, you harmonize the first vowel as "á/e," and prefix "i-" to it. The noun can be translated as either "is in relation to Z," or "is Z-ly."

"i-" is a prefix for progressiveness with verbs. It always has to be used in an "X is Y" situation, even an "X was Y" one. To change the tense of a statement like this, you use the state markers. However in the present during state, no marker is needed, unless a modal or mood is being used. If you use a state marker, "i-" must still be used, but it is prefixed to the qualifier instead.

This construction is usually used for explanations. ie, Someone asks "what do you mean, 'I run cheatah-like?,'" you can reply with, "You are cheetah-like, in respect to speed." More on that in relativity though.

Relativity
A word is relative when it used in two consecutive sentences where the word is anything but the subject in the first, and is only the subject in the second. This is usually just one sentence in english, but pilonjan syntax favours multiple simple sentences than large constructions. Take this example, then I will explain

The marker is used to add any extra meaning to a certain word in a certence. In this case, rather than saying I was going to just any pool, I specified that it was the pool you swim in.

The reletive word, which can be a verb, adjective or noun comes first in the trailing sentence, and takes the prefix "su-" (keeping the hiphen.) "su-" harmonizes to the first vowel of the word. Any prepostion or postposition required is kept in its regular position with the word. If an explainitive noun is used with the relative word, it goes immediately after the reletive word, or if a postposition is used, after that.

Moods
There are 5 moods in pilonja, in both positive and negative. They are prefixed to the verb qualifier. The vowel's in brackets are dropped if the qualifier starts with a vowel, otherwise it harmonizes. These are the moods;


 * The assertive mood is the "default" mood. Emphatic nouns have relatively no affect.


 * The commissive mood commits the speaker to the sentence, that is the speaker is committed to acomplishing the situation Similar to the english axillary verb, "will." Emphatic nouns make it so that the subject is committed.


 * The declarative mood makes the sentence a statment. Emphatic nouns make the sentence like a statement from the perspective of the subject about what it does. The declarative mood can have 2 subjects, if one is emphatic.


 * The directive mood is used to make commands. The Emphatic is used in commands, but it must be 2nd person and is optional. If the subject of the sentence is not 2nd person, the sentence is more like a declaration from the speaker that he wants the sentence accomplished. If the sentence is emphatic, it means that the subject wants the sentence accomplished.


 * The expressive mood is used to describe whether or not the speaker like's that the sentence is true or not. Emphatic nouns makes it whether or not the subject likes that the sentence is true or not