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#1Zoģaŋ by Gwaur
ZoģaŋEnglish

góņa tiriļiv ķorogoiv haro keņataev hepeļorolov debiŋ

The hole in your face will be a source of beautiful sounds.

copula-FUT.SG?(I) hole-ABS(I)=SG.DEF-CARD face-ESS(III)=SG.DEF-CARD 2SG.GEN source-OBL(I)=SG.INDEF-CARD sound-GEN=PL.INDEF-CARD beautiful

  • debiŋ – adj. beautiful
  • goņ – v. to be
  • haro – prn. 2SG.GEN
  • hepeļ – n. sound (class III)
  • keņa – n. source (class I)
  • ķur – n. face (class III)
  • tiri – n. hole (class I)

1. SYNTAX

Word order is VSO. Alignment is ergative-absolutive. Descriptors come after the words they describe.

2. UMLAUT

  • In an umlaut, a vowel in an added affix lowers or rises a vowel in a nearby syllable a single step into the direction of the affix vowel according to this height table:
/y/ ‹y›/u/ ‹u›
/i/ ‹i›/o/ ‹o›
/e/ ‹e›/ɒ/ ‹ó›
/æ/ ‹a›/ɑ/ ‹á›

3. VERBS

If no tense particle precedes the verb, the verb is in a future tense.

Verb conjugation fuses tense, aspect and number. There's a set of affixes for each noun class, and the affix should agree with subject noun class.

1st future tense suffixes for class I (singular, paucal, plural): ‹a› ‹n› ‹en›

Umlaut always happens in verb conjugation.

4. NOUNS

4.1 Cases

  • Ergative case is not marked.
  • Absolutive case ending for class I: ‹ļ›
  • Olbique case ending for class I: ‹ta›
  • Genitive case ending for class III: ‹oro›
  • Locative/essive case ending for class III: ‹ogo›

Umlaut happens only in class III.

4.2 Numbers

Numbers are clitics attached to the nouns. The clitics are strings of numeral affixes closed by an affix conveying cardinality/ordinality.

There are different numeral affixes for definite and indefinite meanings.

  • The indefinite affix for 1/singular is ‹e›.
  • The definite affix for 1/singular is ‹i›.
  • The indefinite affix for plural is ‹lo›.
  • The cardinal closing affix is ‹(e)v›.