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Lithian grammar in an article-shell
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 30 Apr 2017, 10:26.

[comments]
3. Heron
1. Delvia
Menu 1. Introduction 2. Pronouns 3. Nouns 4. Relative clause 5. Verbs 6. Adjectives
[merate ~iranaдim]
Strikethroughed parts are out of date given the change of Lithian grammar.

[top]Introduction

Lithian is a language, that when analyzed grammatically, is probably going to sit in between English and Indonesian. Each of these get a third of Lithian grammar. The other third is the a priori elements, in the other hand, particularly include the verb conjugation system and a frequent copula dropping.

Here, I'm going to show, how Lithian grammar works, at least in a large nutshell.

[top]Pronouns

Single SGSingular (number)
one countable entity
Plural PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
First 1First person (person)
speaker, signer, etc; I
Mei
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
"I, me"
Tra
1PEFirst person plural exclusive (person)
we (exclusive)
"We, us"
Nel
1PIFirst person plural inclusive (person)
we (inclusive)
"We, us"
Second 2Second person (person)
addressee (you)
Nur
2SSecond person singular (person)
addressee (you)
"You"
Nuir
2PSecond person plural (person)
addressee (plural)
"You"
Third 3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee
Dei
3SAThird person singular animate (person)
he/she/etc, not it
"He, she"
Ti
3SIThird person singular inanimate (person)
it
"It"
Dri
3PAThird person plural animate (person)
they
"They"
Thi
3PIThird person inanimate plural (person)
those, these
"These"

Lithian pronouns take the same forms regardless of being a subject or an object, making "I" and "me" a same word - in other words, a direct morphosyntatic alignment. Also, Lithian does not have an equivalent to the English to be (is, am, are, etc.).
To create a possessive pronoun, the genitive (or possessive, if your mind likes this term more) suffix -di is used, like in meidi "my". And to create a reflexive pronoun (English -self), the reflexive suffix -mair is used and placed after the object pronoun, like dolumair "their" (note the [m] assimilation).

Example:
mei liel dei. "I see him/her."
mei liellu dei. "I am seeing him/her."
dei hit mair. "He hurt himself/She hurt herself."
dei sifenu mitel i-mei. "He/she is cooking my food."

[top]Nouns

Structurally, a Lithian noun can be made into this:

Demonstrative - Quantity - Genitive - NOUN - Plural - Adjective

Plurals
Lithian has a PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
suffix -na, which however works differently than English: If the quantity of the noun is unspecified, the noun takes the plural form, like in patrumna "books". If the quantity of the noun is specified, however, the noun takes the singular form. For example, you may say hanafa patrum "ten books", and not hanafa patrumna.
Irregularly, if the target word ends with [na], like in mitna "human", the pluralization works differently - If the syllable before the said [na] has a coda (like in the said example - mitna), the [na] is replaced with [anna], making mitanna "humans". However, if the syllable before the [na] does not have a coda (eg. fiena "sand"), the [n] becomes geminated, making fienna "sands".

Articles
Lithian he "one" as an indefinite article. Lithian doesn't really have particles, but demonstratives (this/that) do exist to replace them.

Genitive
Lithian uses -di as the genitive indicator, just like English "'s". This suffix is also applied in pronouns. For example, like in de mitranadi gidana "the peoples' lands" and deidi witha "his/her house". This is also used as the Lithian default equivalent of English "A of B", forming into "B's A", like in Niaganadi Kerta "League of Nations". (Some might prefer to use "of", using fia, because, vowel rhymes.)
In words ending with [t] (eg. junt "hour"), the [t] is assimilated into the following [d] upon genitification, making it jundi "hour's".


[top]Relative clause

In Lithian, relative clauses are placed after the specified noun. Lithian relative clauses almost always begin with the word, ga, which is unlike English but not unlike Indonesian yang. This makes the word being able to translate into either the English relative pronouns who, which, whom, whose, or that which by the way is my hardest part of English grammar. For example, like in de fidri ga mei gitane "the man who I met (with)" and gam de shut ga komu ithana lat "That is the girl that almost everyone likes".
Exceptions to this universality includes time (when) and place (where) relative clauses.
ga is additionally used to move adjectives after the noun, like in de fidri ga wilwa "the man who is brave". It may be treated as a pronoun, as "the one [relative pronoun]", like in ga lulimne mei "the one who saw me".

[top]Verbs

Lithian, as an agglutinating language, has affixes conjugating into verbs. There are about 4 levels of verb conjugations, as shown in this table below:

Polarity
ø-
AFFAffirmative (polarity)
positive, opposite of NEG
"do, does"
do-Becomes a seperate word if verb starts with a vowel, like in do ave "don't exist"
NEGNegative (polarity)
not
"don't, doesn't, not"
Base Verb
verb
Voice

ACTActive voice (valency, volition)
the subject acts, voluntarily
-rior -ir if verb ends with [r]
PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed
"be verb-ed"
Aspect
-no
PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed
"have verb-ed"
-nou
IPRFImperfect (aspect/tense)
was verb-ing
"was verb-ing"
Tense
PRESPresent tense (tense)
current
or INFInfinitive (TAM)
non-tensed verb
-nu
PRESPresent tense (tense)
current
.CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action
"verb-ing"
-ne
PASTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
-neu
PASTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
.CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action
-nia
FUTFuture (tense)
action occurring after the moment of speech
"will"
-nei
FUTFuture (tense)
action occurring after the moment of speech
.CONDConditional (mood)
would
"would"

Using all of these combinations, there are about 72 possible tenses in Lithian. Despite the large numbers, only a few of the combinations are practically usable in colloquial use.

There is also some other verb conjugation sets, which modifies the verb. For example, the word lika "to work" can be conjugated with AGEAgent (role)
cause or initiator of event/action
suffix [le], to make likale "worker". There is also the PATPatient (role)
recipient or target of event/action
suffix [lin], like in lefailin "employee". There is also a GERGerund
verbal noun
infix -un-, which is mostly used as "act of", like in lunika "working".
Some verbs can be conjugated with the [(l)um] suffix to convert it into a "resulting object" noun, aka. nominalizer. In the case of [um], which occurs frequently, the targeted verb had its last vowel removed, assuming the said verb ends with a vowel, like in likum "a work". Otherwise (if word ends with a consonant), there are no vowel elimination. Irregularly, if the said verb ends with [u], like in daku "to pile", [em] is used instead, making dakem "pile".

Examples:
dei miput ratle. "He/she eats bread."
dei miputne ratle. "He/she ate bread."
ratle miputri dei. "A bread is eaten by him/her."
ratle miputrino dei. "A bread has been eaten by him/her."
dei domiput ratle. "He/she doesn't eat bread."
dei domiputne ratle. "He/she doesn't ate bread."
ti domiputrinonei dri. "It would not have been be eaten by them."

[top]Adjectives

Adjectives in Lithian is placed in before the "targeted" noun, like in lastra witha "great house". However, adjectives can be moved after the noun, by inserting ga before the adjective, like in witha ga lastra "great house".

Comparatives are *kinda* interesting - The words "most" and "more", as well as "less" and "least", are all affixes in Lithian. Using lastra "great" as an example, here comes the affixes:
MostMoreNeutralLessLeast
lastraga
"greatest"
lastragi
"greater"
lastra
"great"
lastrago
"less great"
lastragu
"least great"

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