The morphology of Ituyagul is polysynthetic, noun incorporating, and exclusively suffixing (except for the noun class and validation prefixes) with an ergative–absolutive morphosyntactic alignment. Ituyagul nouns belong to one of 55 classes, each with a specific prefix with which the verb or an accompanying adjective agrees. The verb agrees with all arguments.
Nouns and verbs conjugate for 6 genders, 4 persons, 37 moods, 20 aspects, and 151 cases. Like most East Asian languages, classifiers are used.
Word order[]
Ituyagul sentences have a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order, like most languages in the world. Word order is determined by syntactic roles and pragmatic factors. Word order is consistently right-branching.
The four parts that a sentence usually contains are topic, focus, verb and the rest; however, any of the four parts may be empty. The topic and the rest may contain any number of phrases, but the focus may contain only one phrase.
Root and stem formation[]
The roots of nouns and verbs are a sequence of one or two consonants. Words are formed by combining roots and vowels, which go with a morphological category between the root consonants. In this case, tranfixes in nouns indicate morphosyntatic case, while those in verbs indicate causativity.
There are three stems associated with each root. It is at the level of stem that Ituyagul roots become actual words with instantiated meaning. Each stem in turn manifests itself in three separate Patterns, which in turn come in two Forms. Furthermore, this array of Pattern and Form is duplicated within a two-fold framework called Mode. Thus, each stem has twelve different vowel patternings associated with it.
Ituyagul uses consonant mutation to derive roots.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| p | b | pʰ | bʱ | pʼ | ɓ | pp | bb | mb |
| t | d | tʰ | dʱ | tʼ | ɗ | tt | dd | nd |
| ʈ | ɖ | ʈʰ | dʱ | ʈʼ | ᶑ | ʈʈ | ɖɖ | ɳɖ |
| c | ɟ | cʰ | ɟʱ | cʼ | ʄ | cc | ɟɟ | ɲɟ |
| k | g | kʰ | gʱ | kʼ | ɠ | kk | gg | ŋg |
| q | ɢ | qʰ | ɢʱ | qʼ | ʛ | ɢɢ | ɴɢ | |
| m | m̥ | m̥ʰ | mʱ | mm | m̥m̥ | mp | mb | bm |
| n | n̥ | n̥ʰ | nʱ | nn | n̥n̥ | nt | nd | dn |
| ɳ | ɳ̊ | ɳ̊ʰ | ɳʱ | ɳɳ | ɳ̊ɳ̊ | ɳʈ | ɳɖ | ɖɳ |
| ɲ | ɲ̊ | ɲ̊ʰ | ɲʱ | ɲɲ | ɲ̊ɲ̊ | ɲc | ɲɟ | ɟɲ |
| ŋ | ŋ̊ | ŋ̊ʰ | ŋʱ | ŋŋ | ŋ̊ŋ̊ | ŋk | ŋg | gŋ |
| t | d | tʰ | dʱ | tʼ | ɗ | tt | dd | nd |
| ʈ | ɖ | ʈʰ | dʱ | ʈʼ | ᶑ | ʈʈ | ɖɖ | ɳɖ |
| c | ɟ | cʰ | ɟʱ | cʼ | ʄ | cc | ɟɟ | ɲɟ |
| k | g | kʰ | gʱ | kʼ | ɠ | kk | gg | ŋg |
| ts | dz | tsʰ | dzʱ | tsʼ | tss | dzz | nts | ndz |
| ʈʂ | ɖʐ | ʈʂʰ | ɖʐʱ | ʈʂʼ | ʈʂʂ | ɖʐʐ | ɳʈʂ | ɳɖʐ |
| cç | ɟʝ | ʈʂʰ | ɟʝʱ | cçʼ | cçç | ɟʝʝ | ɲcç | ɲɟʝ |
| kx | gɣ | kxʰ | gɣʱ | kxʼ | kxx | gɣɣ | ŋkx | ŋgɣ |
| qχ | ɢʁ | qχʰ | ɢʁʱ | qχʼ | qχχ | ɢʁʁ | ɴqχ | ɴɢʁ |
| Plain | Genitive (G) | Comitative (C) | Dative (D) | Ornative (O) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ergative (ER) | -i | -y | -e | -ø | -a |
| Absolutive 1 (AB1) | -ɯ | -u | -ɤ | -o | -aa |
| Absolutive (AB2) | -ɪ | -ʏ | -ɛ | -œ | -ʌ |
| Absolutive 3 (AB3) | -ɯ̝ | -ʊ̝ | -ɤi | -oi | -ai |
| Oblique (OB) | -ii | -yy | -ee | -øø | -aa |
| Vocative (VO) | -ɯɯ | -uu | -ɤɤ | -oo | -ɐɐ |
| Instrumental (IN) | -ɯu | -ui | -eu | -ou | -au |
| Partitive (PA) | -ɪɪ | -ʏʏ | -ɛɛ | -ɔɔ | -aɪ |
| Instructive (INS) | -ia | -ya | -ea | -øa | -ɛi |
| Intransitive (INT) | -ɯa | -ua | -ɤa | -oa | -ɔi |
| Number | Meaning | Inflection |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | state | -i |
| 1 | action | -ɯ |
| 2 | intransitive | -y |
| 2 | transitive | -u |
| 3 | willing | -e |
| 3 | unwilling | -ɤ |
| 4 | lacking control | -ø |
| 4 | having control | -o |
| 5 | partially affected | -ɛ |
| 5 | fully affected | -ʌ |
| 6 | direct | -œ |
| 6 | indirect | -ɔ |
| 7 | intentional | -ɐ |
| 7 | accidential | -a |
| 8 | naturally | -ɪ |
| 8 | with effort | -ʊ |
Parts of speech[]
Ituyagul distinguishes the following parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner.
Root classes[]
There are 11 classes of roots: nouns, verbs, adjectives, numerals, agent nouns, adjectival nouns, verbal nouns, attributive verbs, nominal verbs, transgressive verbs, and nominalized adjectives.
Phonological shape of roots[]
In this table below, C represents a consonant, while T represents a vocal transfix.
| Root class | Phonetic shapes | Example (in IPA) | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noun (n) | CTC, TCT | d-d, -g- | human chicken |
| Verb (v) | CTCC, CCTC | ɡ-nd dʑ-nʕ |
run turn |
| Adjective (a) | CTCT, TCTC | pʼ-n- -w-b |
green short |
| Numeral (#) | CTCTC | r-w-j ʐ-j-ʕ |
one ten |
| Agent noun (nv) | CTCCk, CCTCk | ɡ-ndk dʑ-nʕk |
runner turner |
| Adjectival noun (an) | CTCTa, TCTCa | d-da -g-a |
human-like chicken-like |
| Verbal noun (vn) | CTCCa, CCTCa | ɡ-nd -w-bn |
running turning |
| Attributive verb (atv) | iCTCC, iCCTC | iɡ-nd idʑ-nʕ |
running turning |
| Nominal verb (sv) | CTCCi, CCTCi | iɡ-nd idʑ-nʕ |
running turning |
| Transgressive verb (trv) | CTCCp, CCTCp | ɡ-ndp dʑ-nʕp |
running turning |
| Nominalized adjective (na) | iCTCT, iTCTC | ipʼ-n- i-w-b |
green short |
Example[]
The native name rjɯtʐiaq, is a formative of the root rj-t, meaning 'to say', through the addition of several morphological determinants: rjɯtʐiaq
- The -ɯ- vocalic transfix
- ɯ is a transfix used for action verbs, signifying that speaking is an action.
- The -ʐ suffix
- ʐ is the delimitative present aspect, meaning it could be done infinitely.
- The -i marker
- i is a nominalizing suffix. The suffix is used to signify nominalization of said verb or adjective.
- The -a article
- a is the definite article of a noun (corresponding to the), meaning the language is a specific entity.
- The -q number
- q is the superplural number, meaning the noun (language) is composed of a vast number of words.
The sentence-word ʎgrizzɪʈetʰnʱɪnktun˥, meaning I feel that I believe he was affirmatively, and generally achieved to killing women frequently a long time ago is formed from the roots gr-z (kill) and nʱ-n (woman).
- The ʎ- validation
- ʎ is the intuitive-renarrative validation, meaning the state was emotional without confirmation.
- The z → zz ability
- Gemination of the final consonant is used to identify the global action. In this case, z is geminated to zz.
- The -i- transfix
- Signifies that it was a state instead of an action.
- The -ʈ remote past progressive aspect
- Roughly translates to "-ing a long time ago". Ituyagul has no simple way of indicating past and future tense, instead dividing them into remote and recent past/future tenses.
- The -etʰ affix
- The degree 5 vowel e mutates the affix for frequency tʰ. The 5th form of the frequency affix means frequently.
- The -ɪ- transfix
- ɪ represents the 2nd absolutive case. Since it mutated the root nʱ-n (woman), it means the woman was the patient/involuntary experiencer.
- The -k plural marker
- k is used for a plural.
- The ˥ tone
- Ituyagul uses tone to inflect nouns and verbs for person. In this case, ˥ is used to represent the third-person point of view.