Oskarti

Oskarti is a language isolate that is spoken near the northern areas of Taiwan and some places in The Philippines. It is an agglutinative language with ergative-absolutive alignment, SOV word order and no grammatical articles.

Phonotactics
The structure of an Oskarti syllable is mainly (C)(C)V(S)(C)(C). The following constraints apply:


 * Onset
 * Consonant (C). Can be any consonant.
 * Consonant (C). Can be any consonant.
 * Nucleus
 * Vowel (V). Can be any vowel.
 * Semivowel (S).
 * Coda
 * Consonant (C). Can be any consonant.
 * Consonant (C). Can be any consonant.

Oskarti also allows consonant clusters that are absent in English e.g. the cluster /kt/ is absent in English (words like /ktæt/* are not possible), but present in such Oskarti words such as ktaaši (shark). Geminate consonants also exist as well e.g. kirrat (books).

Writing System
Long vowels are made by doubling the vowel (aa, ii, uu).

Gender
Rather than a masculine-feminine gender contrast, Oskarti has a animate-inanimate gender contrast. Animate nouns usually denote living things (humans, plants, animals), while inanimate nouns indicate things that can't move (objects, such as stones, chairs etc.). For example, the comitative marker has two suffixes, -qat, which is used for animates, such as masqat (with the cat), and -qas, which is used for inanimates, such as kirqas (with the book).

Number
Number in Oskarti has a simple singular-plural contrast. Each of the noun number markers have two forms, depending on gender. The Oskarti number markers are:

Demonstrative markers
Demonstrative markers have an unusual four-way distinction between, distal, medial, proximal and comitative. The demonstrative markers in Oskarti are:

Possessive markers
Possessive markers in Oskarti only exist in the 1st and 2nd persons; for the third person, the demonstratives -caq (sg.) and -caqap (pl.) are used.

Alienability
Oskarti has a alienable-inalienable distinction. Alienability is marked with the prefix suum-.


 * suumkirpu (my book)
 * suumtaakalpu (my chair)
 * kuynpu (my (own) bones)
 * suumkuynpu (my bones (the chicken bones I were eating))

Case
Oskarti nouns decline in six cases:


 * ergative: marks the transitive subject
 * absolutive: marks the intransitive object
 * dative: marks the indirect object or a recipient of an action
 * comitative: marks accompaniment of a noun
 * allative: marks movement onto a noun
 * locative: indicates location
 * vocative: marks a noun being addressed.

This table shows how the case system of Oskarti works.

Personal pronouns
Like possessive markers, pronouns only exist in the 1st and 2nd persons as well; demonstrative markers are used for the 3rd person. The personal pronouns of Oskarti are:

Infinitive
The infinitive is formed with the suffix -tuuw.


 * saituuw (to eat)
 * kuttuuw (to drink)

Subject and object markers
There are prefixes which act as subject and object markers in Oskarti:

Conjugation
Verbs are inflected by tense, person, number, and mood. Verbs inflect in 11 tenses (including aspect) (present, imperfect, future, present perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, present progressive, past progressive, future progressive, conditional present), 4 persons (1st, 2nd 3rd), 3 moods (indicative, potential, imperative), and 2 numbers (singular, plural). Oskarti conjugation remains the most complex of all language isolates.

Zero copula
Zero copula is an important feature in Oskarti. Historically, Oskarti contained the copula pan, but it's now falling out of use and it's more used in formal speaking rather than informal.


 * Sak punapul. - I am rich.
 * Cax pulu. - You are good.

Evidentiality
Oskarti has 4 types of evidentiality, witness, hearsay, reported and visual sensory.