Ükäntel

Ükäntel Ükäntel
Type
Agglutinative
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Head-final
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

Phonology

Consonants

	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	t̪	t͡s	t͡ʃ	k
Fricative	θ	s	ʃ		h
Approximant	l̪		j	w
Rhotic		ɾ~r

• 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 POA assimilation occurs when both consonants of a 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.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i y	u
Mid	e ø	ɤ o
Open-mid	æ
Open		ɑ

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

Aa	Ää	Cc	Çç	Ee	Ëë	Hh	Ii	Yy	Kk	Ll	Nn
/ɑ/	/æ/	/t͡s/	/t͡ʃ/	/e/	/ɤ/	/h/	/i/	/j/	/k/	/l̪/	/n/
Ņņ	Gg	Oo	Öö	Rr	Ss	Şş	Tt	Dd	Uu	Üü	Ww
/ɲ/	/ŋ/	/o/	/ø/	/ɾ/	/s/	/ʃ/	/t̪/	/θ/	/u/	/y/	/w/

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 <n> 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 <n> to reflect the neutralization of nasals elsewhere.
  • A number of roots with final <n> have irregular forms that result in <ņ g> when followed by a vowel-initial suffix; these alternations are indicated in writing.
• <y> is omitted following palatal consonants <ņ ç ş>.

Morphophonology

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.

Non-verbal Morphology

Nouns

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

Stem	Number	Possession	Case

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. 

Possessor	Suffix
1SG	-k, -Ak
2SG	-n, -Un
3SG	-w, -Aw
1PL	-kAş
2PL	-nAş
3PL	-wAş

Case

Ukantel nouns decline for 8 cases, the suffixes of which are listed in the table below; the nominative is unmarked.

Case	Suffix
Nominative	-Ø
Accusative	-E, -yE
Dative	-Ot, -t
Genitive	-n
Instrumental	-dA
Comitative	-tE
Temporal	-hU
Durative	-lUk

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 of an object, the object of verbs implying transfer or perception, or the 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, relation, and composition. 

The instrumental case is used to mark the means by which an action is done or the instrument used to accomplish the action, whether physical or abstract. It also marks the logical agent of a passive clause. 

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

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 ______.

Pronouns

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.

Case	1S	2S	3S	1P	2P	3P
Nominative	äk	un	a	kaş	naş	waş
Accusative	äksä	unya	awa	kaşa	naşa	waşa
Dative	äköt	unut	awot	kaşot	naşot	waşot
Genitive	äksen	unën	an	kaşën	naşën	waşën
Instrumental	äkdä	unda	awda	kaşda	naşda	waşda
Comitative	äkte	untë	atë	kaştë	naştë	waştë

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:

Ege yën!

^{DEM.DIST-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 aşuhtoldëk.

^{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.

	Stem
Proximal	hal
Distal	eg

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. 

	Root
What?	ka
Who?	löt
Which?	eylä
How many?	uç

Ka 'what' is the most common interrogative root used in forming interrogative compounds.

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Modifiers

Modifiers in Ukantel can be separated into three categories:

1. Numerals
2. Determiners
3. Adwords
   1. Adjectives
   2. Adverbs

Adwords are further divided into 'adjectives' and 'adverbs' on the basis that there exist certain adwords that cannot be used in conjunction with nouns, and certain adwords that logically cannot be used to modify a verb, although the two syntactic functions are largely treated as one in the same. In most instances, adwords can modify either nouns or verbs with no restriction or change in form.

Numerals and determiners are distinct from adwords because they cannot modify verbs alone, with numerals furthermore being distinct from quantifiers because they take a larger amount of derivational affixes, detailed under the 'numerals' section. Determiners are a type of pronoun that can be used to modify.

Any modifier precedes that which it modifies. Modifiers do not agree with nouns they modify on basis of number or case and simply precede their head. Most modifiers can be used nominally, in which case they are declined as and behave syntactically as a noun, usually with the semantic meaning of someone or something possessing whichever quality (sat öylete 'with the tall man' sattë 'with the tall one, person').

Adwords

Adwords have synthetic comparative and superlative forms that can be used attributively and predicatively, and that are obligatory in structures indicating a basis of comparison. Duplicating an adjective indicates a negative excess. The bare form of an adjective, and the citation form, is its positive form. 

Degree	Suffix
Positive	-Ø
Comparative	-Eç
Superlative	-rAh
Excessive	duplication

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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	Voice	Polarity	Tense	Aspect	Mood	Person

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.  

Voice	Suffix
Active	-Ø
Passive	-hU
Reciprocal	-s
Causative	-tO

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.

Tense	Suffix
Past	-in
Present	-Ø
Future	-yUr

Aspect

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

Aspect	Suffix
Imperfect	-Ø
Perfective	-d

Mood

Mode	Suffix
Declarative	-Ø
Admonitive	-At
Permissive	-Eg
Abilitative	-çO
Potential	-wEr
Desiderative	-şE
Imperative-Hortative	-∅

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

Hal öylet yukuratak.

^{DEM.PROX man-DAT listen-ADM-1SG}

I should listen to this man.

The permissive mode indicates that the action is allowed.

Sänşe etültölegäk.

^{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 häce 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 -w, -Aw 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.

^{DEM.PROX-ACC 1SG.DAT give-2SG}

Give this to me.

Äköt yukurun.

^{1SG.DAT listen-2PL}

Listen to me (spoken to multiple people)

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Person

Person	Suffix
1S	-k, -Ak
2S	-n, -Un
3S	-w, -Aw
1P	-kAş
2P	-nAş
3P	-wAş

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 yukurirë 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 senä 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.

Nohawot är sanëtë ertäyse äk astuinëd häce sakakot är heşä te.

^{mouth-3SG-DAT in meat-ACC hold-PRS 1SG.NOM see-PST.PFV dog back-1SG-DAT in 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 latinë 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 through some form of conjunction. 

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

Etülä en şëlu önin.

^{fall-CONV DEM.DIST woman walk-PST}

That woman stumbled (i.e. walked falling).

Yenehü ölöcä 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 that of the main verb. This often corresponds to the English "by doing" or "with doing."

Eş köylük häcewe 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.

-nU describes an action that happens entirely before that of the main verb and often has the connotation that the main verb follows this action. It translates into English using "and then" or "after." Duplicating the converb itself indicates continuity and dissatisfaction along with the main verb negated.

Awa aşuhtonu ölöcin.

^{3SG.ACC stand-CAUS-CONV leave-PST}

He stood up and left.

Çöwenäwe yënu wisëwë yëtoyur.

^{meal-3SG-ACC eat-CONV child-3SG-ACC eat-CAUS-FUT}

After eating his meal, he will feed his child.

Yukurnu yukurnu senirewäşe nesledäk.

^{listen-CONV listen-CONV talk-GER-3SG-DAT hear-NEG-PFV-1SG}

I kept listening but I did not hear their conversation.

-tE marks a clause as the condition under which the main action happens. It translates into English using "when", "if", or "in case." 

Häcen yëhutoltë unya sokyurwër.

^{dog-2SG eat-PASS-CAUS-NEG-CONV 2SG.ACC bite-FUT-POT}

If your dog is not fed, it may bite you.

Hököt ugutë suşunë aņuntoyurun.

^{sun-DAT look-CONV eye-PL-2SG-ACC hurt-CAUS-FUT-2SG}

If you look at the sun, you will hurt your eyes.

-silA marks a clause as concessive, meaning that the action of the main verb happens in spite of it. It is usually translated into English as "although."

Ugusila sänşöt sed ayëkë astulinçok.

^{look-CONV tree-PL-DAT among mother-1SG-ACC see-NEG-PST-ABIL-1SG}

Although I looked, I could not see my mother among the trees.

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 all force their complements into a specific case. They are a closed class and are listed below in a table by the case they govern. The majority of postpositions are governed by the dative and genitive case, while one postposition takes nominative arguments ('acu' like).

Postposition	Meaning	Case
acu	like, as, than	Nominative
är	at, in	Dative
üle	on (horizontal)	Dative
şän	on (vertical)	Dative
të	in (s.t hollow)	Dative
sed	in, among	Dative
wik	outside	Dative
üçü	near, next to	Dative
ossat	against	Dative
üsör	because of	Genitive
tege	except	Genitive
liş	to, towards	Genitive
höre	from	Genitive
kittö	through, via	Genitive
hudut	until, as far as	Genitive

Numerals

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 kosa "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)", kosa 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 kosa şac or 5,649 five thousand six hundred fourty nine and saç hüttö ege kosa 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 kosa and öttük kosa 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.

Numerals
0		20	öttük
1	eş	21	öttükeş
2	öt	22	öttüköt
3	salë	23	öttüksalë
4	aynu	24	öttükaynu
5	şac	30	saltuk
6	ege	40	aynutuk
7	awço	50	şactuk
8	ņeli	60	entük
9	äd	70	awçotuk
10	kine	80	ņeltük
11	kineeş	90	ädtük
12	kineöt	100	eş kosa
13	kinesalë	200	öt kosa
14	kineaynu	1,000	eş hüttö
15	kineşac	30,000	salë yalit
16	kineege	55,000	şactuk şac hüttö
17	kineawço	140,000	kineaynu yalit
18	kineņeli	7,000,000	awço kosa yalit
19	kineäd	80,000,000	ņeli hüttö yalit
10,741,056	eş hüttö yalit awço kosa aynutukeş hüttö şactuk ege
236,800,599	öt kosa saltukege kosa yalit ņeltük yalit şac kosa ädtükäd