LEXICON
Each line is a possible meaning of the word, differing in grammatical usage. For instance, the first line for the meaning of a verb can be one that expresses transitivity, while the second line doesn't.
- kos
- that/which is the cause of
- because (of)
- lalowapo
- lamka
- to understand, to comprehend
- to be taught
- oll'a
- om
- concatenation/juxtaposition conjunction
- otemo
- peti
- quantifier indicating a limited sample
- se'e
- sulso
- to confront, to face (something)
- sola
- (one) time, moment, try
- now
- this (previously referred to) moment
- teluk
- to attempt, to try
- to be tempted
- to be confronted with
- tjela
- tsekju
- to happen, to occur
- to make happen, to cause
- tul
- wumo
- indicates similarity to a previously designated concept, object or person
- too, also
- wuta
- to leave, to quit, to abandon, to forsake
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Kotulese is an ergative-absolutive language with two genders (masculine and feminine), three numbers (singular, plural and singulative) and no completely set word order thanks to its 7-case system, however words can change meaning depending on their position in the sentence. INVENTORY
| Category | IPA | Orthography |
| Plosives | p t k ʔ | <p t k '> |
| Nasals | m | <m> |
| Fricatives | s | <s> |
| Approximants | l j w | <l j w> |
| Vowels | i e a o u | <i e a o u> |
SYLLABLES and phonotactic rules
C({j,w})V(V)(C) {i,u} > ∅ / {j,w)_V
CC[identical] > C[+length] NUMBER
Examples with kwes - tree and otla - flower
Plural is marked with -(a)s, with the a dropping in favour of an already present vowel, except /i/ (> j_#) and /u/ (> w_#).
Singulative is marked with -em, following the same rules as the plural.
| Singular | Plural | Singulative | Singular | Plural | Singulative |
| kwes | kwesas | kwesem | otla | otlas | otlam |
| the tree | (the) trees | a tree | the flower | (the) flowers | a flower |
CASES
| Case | Ending |
| Absolutive | unmarked |
| Ergative | (o)- [ > ∅ / #_V] |
| Genitive | k(i)- [ > k / #_V] |
| Dative | e- [ > eʔ / #_V] |
| Locative | -o [ > V1o / V1V2_#] |
| Causal | m(i)- [ > m / #_V] |
| Essive-modal | a(s)- [ > a / #_CC] |
Examples with lusi - man and okmi - woman
| | sg | pl | sg | pl | Uses |
| Absolutive | lusi | lusias | okmi | okmias | Core argument of an intransitive verb, object of a transitive verb |
| Ergative | olusi | olusias | okmi | okmias | Agent of a transitive verb |
| Genitive | kilusi | kilusias | kokmi | kokmias | Possession, composition, origin |
| Dative | elusi | elusias | e'okmi | e'okmias | Recipient or affected |
| Locative | lusio | lusios | okmio | okmios | Spatial situation |
| Causal | milusi | milusias | miokmi | miokmias | Causation |
| Essive-modal | alusi | alusias | asokmi | asokmias | Way (of being) |
PRONOUNS
Demonstrative pronouns:
| | Singular | | Plural | |
| | masc | fem | masc | fem |
| Near | emam | emal | emas | emas |
| Far | emem | emel | emes | emes |
Indefinite pronoun => "(an)other(s)":
| masc | fem |
| sg | lus | eka |
| pl | ekas | ekas |
| sgv | ekam | ekam |
VERBS
Number, gender and person are carried via an infix, which goes before the last syllable of the infinitive of the verb.
The default gender is the feminine, which is also used as neuter. Only animals and humans are gendered.
The singular is used when the subject is singulative.
The object of a verb can be placed either just before the TAM marker, between the TAM marker and the verb, or directly after the verb.
| Person | masculine | | feminine | |
| | sg | pl | sg | pl |
| 1 | -pam- | -pum- | -pal- | -pul- |
| 2 | -tam- | -tum- | -tal- | -tul- |
| 3 | -kam- | -kum- | -kal- | -kul- |
Example with the verb soswe - to say
| masculine | | feminine | |
| sg | pl | sg | pl |
| sospamwe | sospumwe | sospalwe | sospulwe |
| sostamwe | sostumwe | sostalwe | sostulwe |
| soskamwe | soskumwe | soskalwe | soskulwe |
Tense, aspect and mood are shown via auxiliaries formed as follows: Tenses
| Far-past (general) | se- |
| Close-past | tse- |
| Present | e- |
| Future | sa- |
Aspects
| Perfective | - |
| Imperfective | V > [+length] |
| Gnomic | -s- |
| Inchoat./Incep. | -ks- |
| Delim./Durat./Cont. | -ss- |
| Prospective | -tt- |
Moods
| Indicative | - |
| Interrogative | -ja |
| Imperat./Juss. | -u |
| Optative | -i |
Double consonants can't end a TAM marker, so if it is the case they get reduced to only one. ADVERBS
Adverbs are generally placed between the TAM marker and the verb they qualify.
Adverbs regarding time are placed before the TAM marker. ADJECTIVES
Don't inflect, always before the noun (after the article)
The -ko suffix (see above) may be added to some case forms to make their syntactic function adjectival.
An adjectival phrase can be constructed with a personal pronoun, the copula "ko", that can be conjugated as "ko'o" and the desired adjective.
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