Ancient Naastnaat Syntax
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Terminology and provisional structural description
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 17 Jan 2023, 00:45.
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
A clause is a grouping of words that can convey an idea and potentially make a (simple) sentence. For Sheeyiz, the formal definition is the presence of a verb. (A complex sentence can have multiple clauses, each separated by a conjunction.)
A citation form is the way a basic word or suffix would be listed in a dictionary. Another term sometimes used for this is root.
A compound word in Ancient Naastnaat has one word attached after an initial word, such that the grammatical class of the first word is unchanged. Additional sound(s), called an interfix, are always inserted between the words.
A function word refers to a type of word that performs a grammatical purpose in a sentence. In the case of Ancient Naastnaat, this type of word provides the natural gender of a noun/pronoun and hints at its verb role. Historically, function words in Ancient Naastnaat represent the transition from the prepositional phrases of Nása language using gendered indirect pronouns, to the gendered case suffixes of Naastnaat language.
An interfix in Ancient Naastnaat is one or more written (and pronounced) sounds added between words within a compound word. A compounding interfix always contains a consonant and may contain an additional schwa vowel.
An interjection in Ancient Naastnaat grammar refers to onomatopoeia, exclamations, greetings, slang or other expressions that aren't analyzable or valid according to the official grammar. Interjections are not covered in this document.
Natural gender refers to nouns like ᶂᴝḟọ "brother" being referred to via a male function word whereas ᴞᶑᴞῃ● "sister" is referred to via a female function word. Natural gender in Ancient Naastnaat applies in only a very limited way. For the third person pronouns, there is no distinguishing male, female or neuter and one pronoun serves all singular situations and another serves all plural situations .
A phrase is a grouping of words that has a structure and meaning but may be insufficient to make a full sentence. Traditional Naastnaat grammar used the term ᴝdᶑọυọᶑ for this, as well as for clauses. Noun phrases, qualifier phrases and prepositional phrases are the main phrases in Ancient Naastnaat.
A qualifier describes a verb (thus acting as an adverb) or noun (thus acting as an adjective).
An unmodified root is the citation form in which a root or suffix could appear in a Naastnaat dictionary. Many roots can take a suffix, or sometimes more than one. They are then considered a modified root.
A word is a modified or unmodified root.
A word break is what separates words in writing. For Ancient Naastnaat, a space constitutes a word break. Punctuation includes the break symbol - and the sentence end symbol |.
Sentences that are grammatical* have one or more main clauses, these are separated by a conjunction. Clauses always have a verb word. The unmarked word order is VSO (Verb Subject Objects).
For a verb, the subject role can be filled by a noun, personal pronoun or relative pronoun (for a relative clause).
For auxiliary verb usage, function words can be present but no subject or objects.
There can be zero to two object verb roles possible, depending on the verb.
For a valid clause using a transitive verb, there are 2 possible configurations:
A Clause Adjunct is an extension of a main clause. Specifically, it is one of the following:
A Clause Conjunct is the use of a conjunction within a relative clause or main clause, but not to start a new main clause.
A qualifier phrase contains adjectives and/or adverb words and/or words that are other parts of speech but with a qualifier suffix. Each word further qualifies all the words to its left.
A relative clause must be a verbal clause.
It is possible to have multiple relative clauses in a row, by introducing each with a relative pronoun.
Compound words are roots that have other word roots attached to them with intervening sounds. A compound verb (for example) has a more qualified or specific meaning, but is still just a verb word.
* Certain greetings, expressions and slang are considered interjections, and formal rules of Ancient Naastnaat syntax are not applied within these.
The use of "provisional" indicates that the details below have not been subject to rigorous review and testing, but may be of use in understanding the Ancient Naastnaat language.
Legend for this sub-section:
- Curly braces indicate required conditions;
- Square brackets indicate a structural component which will be defined in this sub-section; undefined items (in bold) have their normal non-formal Ancient Naastnaat meaning (but aren't defined here);
- Round brackets surround a set of component options or extra components, with the word OR indicating that a maximum of 1 option can be chosen and AND/OR indicating multiple options;
- The term 'nil' indicates that not choosing any of the alternative options (that the term is grouped with) is permissible;
- The plus sign indicates something that follows the previous component in the sentence order, after a space (when written);
- The & sign indicates something that directly follows without any spacing (when written) ;
- A number range in subscript formatting indicates how many times a component may be present;
- Subscript m means "as many as is practical" are theoretically allowed, n means number depends on the verb roles, p means 0 or 1 determined by phonological rules and q means 0 or 1 depending on other grammatical or sentence components present;
- The ≡ sign means "is defined as";
- Items in quotation marks are words or punctuation of the Ancient Naastnaat language.
Note: This subsection only defines the 'well-formed' version(s) of each sentence component.
Root ≡ ([Unmodified Root] OR [Modified Root])
Modified Root ≡ Unmodified Root (& [Suffix]1-q)
Word ≡ (Letter)1-m
Word Spacing ≡ " "
Letter ≡ ([Vowel Letter] OR [Consonant Letter])
Vowel Letter ≡ ("ᴝ" OR "ᴞ" OR "O" OR "ọ" OR "●" OR "ᴥ)1
Consonant Letter ≡ ("☼" OR "Ϥ" OR "y" OR "ḟ" OR "f" OR "ᶂ" OR "d" OR "ᶑ" OR "ὒ" OR "υ" OR "ᶌ" OR "ᶘ" OR "ᶋ" OR "ἤ" OR "η" OR "ῃ")1
Sentence ≡ ( (+ [Auxiliary Clause Adjunct]0-1) + ([Main Clause]1) (+ [Auxiliary Clause Adjunct]0-1) (+ [Relative Clause]0-1) (+ Conjunction1 + [Main Clause]1)0-m ) (+ [Auxiliary Clause Adjunct]0-1) ) &"|"
Main Clause ≡ [Verbal Phrase]1
Auxiliary Clause Adjunct ≡ [Simple Verb Word] (+ [Function Word]0-n)
Function Word ≡ ("ọὒᴞ" OR "ọὒọ" OR "ọὒᴥ" OR "ᶑᴞ" OR "ᶑọ" OR ""ᶑᴥ" OR "ᶘᴞ" OR "ᶘọ" OR "ᶘᴥ")1
Relative Clause ≡ {Relative Pronoun as Verb Subject} [Verbal Phrase]1
Qualifier Phrase ≡ [Qualifier Word]1-m (+ Qualifier Conjunct Phrase)
Qualifier Conjunct Phrase ≡ (Conjunction1 + [Qualifier Word]1-m) 1-m
Qualifier Word ≡ (Qualifier OR (Non-qualifier root & Qualifier Suffix)1)
Prepositional Phrase ≡ [Preposition]1 + [Extended Noun Phrase]1
Extended Noun Phrase ≡ [Noun Phrase]1 (+ [Noun Conjunct Phrase]0-1
Noun Conjunct Phrase ≡ (Conjunction1 + [Noun Phrase]1) 1-m
Noun Phrase ≡ [Simple Noun Phrase] (+ [Prepositional Phrase] OR [Relative Clause]
Simple Noun Phrase ≡ ([Noun Word] OR )[Pronoun Unmodified Root] OR [Proper Noun])
Proper Noun ≡ [Word]1 (+ [Word]1-m)
Noun Word ≡ (Noun Unmodified Root OR Noun-suffix Modified Root)
Pronoun Unmodified Root ≡ Personal pronoun root
Noun Unmodified Root ≡ Noun root
Noun-suffix Modified Root) ≡ (Verb root OR Qualifier root) & Noun-suffix1-q
Verbal Phrase ≡ [([Adverbial Phrase]1 +)Verb Word]1 + ({copula verb} (+ [Qualifier Phrase]1)) + [Verb Subject ] ({object roles} (+ [Extended Noun Phrase]0-n)q)) )
Verb Subject ≡ [Extended Noun Phrase]1
Verb Object ≡ [Extended Noun Phrase]1
Adverbial Phrase ≡ [Qualifier Phrase]
Verb Word ≡ Compound Verb Word OR Simple Verb Word
CompoundVerb Word ≡ (Simple Verb Word & Interfix 1 & (Qualifier root OR Noun root OR Verb root)
Simple Verb Word ≡ (Verb Unmodified Root OR Verb-suffix Modified Root)
Interfix ≡ [Consonant Letter]1 ( & [Vowel Letter]0-p)
Verb Unmodified Root ≡ Verb root
Verb-suffix Modified Root) ≡ (Noun root OR Qualifier root) & Verb-suffix1
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