Assammakiitina

Introduction

[Placeholder] is the liturgical language of the ŋation of 'o'aben yálekki wanyókóz.

Phonology

Vowels

closure	front	back
close	i ⟨i⟩	u ⟨u⟩
close-mid	e ⟨ei⟩	o ⟨ou⟩
open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
near-open	æ ⟨aei⟩
open	a ⟨a⟩

Vowels may be elongated once or twice

Bright Consonants

Placement → ↓ Manner	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Laryngeal
Nasal	m	n
(Im)Plosive	p ⟨p'⟩ / b ⟨p⟩ / ɓ ⟨b⟩	t ⟨t'⟩ / d ⟨t⟩ / ɗ ⟨d⟩	q ⟨k'⟩ / ɢ ⟨k⟩	ʔ ⟨q⟩
Sibilant fricative		s / z	ʃ ⟨ṡ⟩ / ʒ ⟨ż⟩
Non-sibilant fricative	f / v	θ ⟨ð⟩		h
Approximant		l	y

Dark Consonants

Placement → ↓ Manner	Labial	Coronal	Uvulo-Pharyngeal	Laryngeal
Nasal	mˁ ⟨ṃ⟩	nˁ ⟨ṇ⟩
(Im)Plosive	bˁ ⟨p̣⟩ / ɓˁ ⟨ḅ⟩	dˁ ⟨ṭ⟩ / ɗˁ ⟨ḍ⟩	ɢˁ ⟨ḳ⟩ / ʛˁ ⟨g⟩	ʔˁ ⟨q̣⟩
Sibilant fricative		sˁ ⟨ṣ⟩ / zˁ ⟨ẓ⟩
Non-sibilant fricative	vˁ ⟨ṿ⟩	ðˁ ⟨ð̣⟩	ħ ⟨ḥ⟩	ʕ ⟨r⟩
Approximant		lˁ ⟨ḷ⟩

Morae

All root words have three morae, where morae must contain a vowel, such that the final vowel is either doubled or tripled to complete the morae.

Tones

There are seven musical tones. Patterns of three tones are matched to the three morae of a word, and indicate its case. Dark consonants lower a tone by two notes from its base tone, or raise by one if already within two tones of the lowest. Major scales indicate the indicative (C major, CDEFGAB), interrogative (A♭ major, A♭B♭CD♭E♭FG), justificative (E♭ major, E♭FGA♭B♭C), energetic (F♯ major, F♯G♯A♯BC♯D♯E♯), and imperative (D major, DEF♯GABC♯) sentential moods.

Phonotactics

CV ,where C is any consonant and V is any vowel

V can be lengthened twice or three times over

C can be geminated, which is represented as 2(3) consonants in the romanization but counts as one for phonotactics

There is no set tense patterning, as each mora is given equal weight

Rhyme scheme

In poetic meter, geminated vowels are twice as long, and geminated consonants and stretched rhymes are one and a half times as long.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

na - 1.AN

tou - 1.INAN

poka - 2.AN

tóó - 2.INAN

dããd - 3.AN

ken - 3.INAN

Deictic pronouns

mitta - this

lotta - that

'this' is used for anything within two steps and arm's reach. 'that' is anything outside of that range.

Interrogative pronouns

koko - what

conna - when

mosí - who

(other interrogatives are phrasal, e.g. 'lewa koko' [in_order_to what] meaning 'why')

Indefinite pronouns

Case→	Negative	Universal	Assertive existential	Dubitative existential
Type↓
Person	habunko	habunbaa	habunlin	habunẽn
Thing	lenko	lenbaa	lenlin	lenẽn
Place	ranko	ranbaa	ranlin	ranẽn
Time	cónko	cónbaa	cónlin	cónẽn

Nouns

Role assignment

A noun's semantic role in a sentence is indicated by a pattern of musical tones. The starting tone of the sentence is established by a hum, and is typically the third note, and the numbers are the note shifts (e.g. -1 means shift one note down in the chord, and +1 means shift one up). When a note is shifted by a dark consonant, it also shifts the subsequent notes (e.g. 0,0,0 on starting note 3 is 3-3-3, but when beginning with a dark consonant becomes 2-2-2, and when having an intermediate dark consonant becomes 3-2-2), and if a case note shift would leave the octave it instead shifts in the opposite direction.

• agent of progressive verbs: 0,+1,-1
• agent of stative verbs and copula, patient of progressive verbs: 0,-1,0
• patient of stative verbs: -1,-1,+2
• indirect object of ditransitive verbs: -2,0,-1
• noun complement (Genitive), patient of copula: -1,0,+2
• oblique: +2,-1,0
  

ṿanade /vˁanadɛ/ - black

sameiṡa /sameʃa/ - cat

noze /nɔzɛ/ - to watch

na /na/ - 1SG

The black cat watches me.

m |E| sameiṡa |E-D-D| ṿanade |C-C-E| noze |E-F-F| na |F-E-E|.

Should I watch the black cat?

m |C| na |C-D♭-C| noze |D♭-G-G| sameiṡa |G-F-F| ṿanade |D♭-D♭-F|.

A♭B♭CD♭E♭FG

Number

singular default, plus dual, paucal, and plural marked by suffix on a stem which goes before tense and aspect

dual: -dí

paucal: -ve

plural: -na

Gender

There is no grammatical gender in Tandí

Possession

POSD na POSR: 'obaan na 'obákúún - the room of the house (DEF-OBL-room POSS DEF-OBL-house)

Determiners

Demonstratives

_ wannitta - this _

_ wanlotta - that _

Articles

Tandí does not use articles

Possessive Determiners

_ na _: doro na bín - my ball (ball POSS 1.AN); doro na poka - your ball (ball POSS 2.AN); etc.

_ na koko bac - whose _ (POSS what AN)

Quantifiers

Quantifiers go before the nouns they quantify (see Sentence Order)

Conjunctions

Conjunctions go in between semantic elements they connect, which can include things like nouns, noun phrases, relative clauses, verb argument lists, etc.

Numerals

Cardinals

cardinal "'amend" noun - ní 'amend doro - two CARD ball - ball number two (of a collection)

Ordinals

ordinal tokan noun - ordinal ORD noun, e.g. ní tokan doro - two ORD ball - second ball

Nominals

root-cardinal - doroní - ball-two - two balls

nũm - zero

'ókcí - one

ní - two

ta'í - three

sín - four

kílan - five

jaal - six

kitten - seven

bón - eight

nítta - nine

lan - ten

cen - hundred

tõn - thousand

Adjectives

Placement

directly after the noun

Adjectives may or may not match the number of the noun, as there is a semantic difference

Comparison

yá-adjective-degree-PRS subject: subject is degree adjective than object

Finite Verbs

Tense

attaches to verb

• -da: PRS
• -'ãn: PST
• -lí: FUT

Aspect

goes after tense:

• -bó: PROG.CONT
• -len: PERF
• -món: GNO
• -dada: HAB

goes before verb:

• kon-: INF

Verb Postpositions

Mood

Mood is conveyed by musical tone

• plain - 0,+1,0
• MIR/BEND/OPT - +2,-2,+1
• CONC/HYP - +2,-1,-1
• -
• HORT
• JUSS
• DUB/COND
• ABIL
• PERM
• PRESCR - +1,+1,0

Evidentiality

• -ce'í: RPT
• -mánna: INFR
• -nobã: NEV
• -tócí: SENS

Negation

• 'eeya: NEG

Agreement

The 'present' tense is the present by default, and otherwise the tense of the last verb.

Voice

• mẽna- : CAUS
• lad- : PASS
• 'õm- : REV

Auxiliary Verbs

'ayí (AFF) conveys confirmation of an action, and is verbalized to 'ayída (AFF-PRS) to convey confirmation of a state or truth, or of an object's existence, across the past, present, or future, with tense agreement

'cirette laan ma/im' conveys that the subject has knowingly or unknowingly caused the direct object to be unintentionally involved in the indirect object (a state or event), where if the direct object and subject are the same the direct object may be omitted, or included for emphasis

Copula

There is no copula in Tandí

Adpositions

Agreement

No agreement between adposition and complement is necessary

Interjections

Interjections may be placed before any word to deliver extra mood or other miscellaneous information.

Syntax

Sentence Order

AVP word order with topic marking (e.g. When topic is the agent, AVP. When topic is the verb, VAP. When topic is the patient, PAV.)

Particles go after the words they attach to, and prepositions after

Adjectives may attach to any words except conjunctions and postpositions. They go directly after the word they attach to (except verbs, where they go after the postposition)

Adjectives can also be placed at the head of a verb phrase with tense marking to convey 'SBJ is ADJ'

Verb complements may be placed before the verb phrase's prepositional phrases and connected clauses, but still after the postposition and adjectives, if they are only one word long

Words modify nouns according to the following hierarchy:

• PREP(QUANT(((HNR(N))ADJ)GEN))

Auxiliary Verb Constructions

Nouns cannot be advanded forward within auxiliary verb phrases

'ayí can be either a verb or a particle, as mentioned in Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs follow a regular form:

• V PREP Oi S (Od)

where V PREP is the auxiliary verb (a finite verb with a preposition), S is the subject and is NOT part of a prepositional phrase, Od is the direct object, and Oi is the noun phrase completing the prepositional phrase of the auxiliary verb

Adverb Placement

Adverbs are to verbs exactly as adjectives are to nouns. They follow verbs, and behave the same way to verbs and themselves that adjectives behave to nouns and themselves.

Coordination and subordination

Conjunctions go between anything but postpositions and cannot be omitted. Coordinate and subordinate clauses are separated by conjunctions. There is no distinction made between coordination and subordination on a grammatical level

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses follow a regular form:

• HEAD REL VP

where HEAD is 3.INAN if the relative clause is free and the bound matrix clause if the relative clause is bound, REL is a preposition (kaka /kaxa/), and VP is a verb phrase, and the head is the verb phrase's implied direct object

Questions

Polar Questions

• hal ('eeya) _: is _ (un)true?

WH-Questions

There are three interrogative pronouns, which can form more specific interrogatives through genitives, prepositions, and conjunctions:

• koko - what
• conna - when
• mosí - who
• koko wacón - when (what time), pronoun (emphatic)
• koko wanhabun - who (what person), pronoun (emphatic)
• koko waran - where (what place), pronoun (generic)
• lewa koko - why (to what end), prepositional phrase
• konto koko - why (because of what reasoning), subordinate clause
• lak koko - how (by doing what), prepositional phrase
• no koko - about what, prepositional phrase
• 'im koko - where (near what), prepositional phrase
• 'im conna - when (near when), prepositional phrase
• 'imaan conna - for what time frame (inside when), prepositional phrase
• do koko - from what, prepositional phrase
• laan koko - to what, prepositional phrase
• etc...

questions are asked in the same intonation and word order as statements are declared

Existential Clause

uses the auxiliary verb construction of 'ayí

Miscellaneous

The subject, and sometimes the object, direct or indirect, of a verb phrase can be move up in the sentence in a select set of cases:

1. A quote is being given. Since the quote is a prepositional phrase, it would normally occur before the arguments of the verb. However, because this could result in poorer understanding of the quote itself, the arguments go before SPECIFICALLY the quote, and after any other prepositions or particles, and the quote prepositional phrase always goes last.
2. The subject or object is only one word long. In order to promote faster delivery of important information, the word may be placed before all prepositions and particles, at the 'front' of the verb phrase (behind the verb, postposition, and adverbs)