Basic word order
VSO, SVO in subordinate clauses
Heads and dependents
Word order of heads and dependents| Head | Dependent | Which comes first |
|---|
| adposition | noun | Noun |
|---|
| noun | determiner | Determiner |
|---|
| noun | numeral | Numeral |
|---|
| noun | possessor | Possessor |
|---|
| noun | adjective | Noun |
|---|
| noun | genitive noun | Either, but genitive noun more common |
|---|
| independent clause | subordinate clause | Independent clause |
|---|
| verb | adverb | Either |
|---|
| adjective | adverb | Either |
|---|
Noun declension
Noun declension| Case | Ending | Example |
|---|
| Nominative | none | cina |
|---|
| Definite Accusative | -hv | cinahv |
|---|
| Genitive | -mic | cinamic |
|---|
| Ablative/instrumental | -ibi | cinaibi |
|---|
Verb conjugation
Verb conjugation| Meaning | Form | Example word | Example sentence |
|---|
| Non-past | none | caam | caam nohvI ship them |
|---|
| Past | u- | ucaam | ucaam nohvI shipped them |
|---|
| Irrealis | ni-/nij- | nicaam | imo nicaam nohvIf I shipped them |
|---|
| Imperative | i-/ij- | icaam | icaam nohvShip them! |
|---|
| Active participle | -us | caamus | — |
|---|
| Passive participle | -mek | caamek | — |
|---|
| Gerund | -ir/-jir | caamir | — |
|---|
Alienable and inalienable possession
Alienable
- Objects
- Friends
- Communicable disease
- Property
Inalienable
- Body parts (e.g. corpse, hair)
- Family members
- personal qualities (e.g. age, criminal status, name, gender, emotions, personality, mental illness)
- Incommunicable disease
- Past Actions/Deeds/Utterances/Impact
- Invention/Creation/Conlang/Art/Residue
Other features
- No wh-movement
- No agreement
- Null copula
- Pro-drop
- Adverbs used to form predicative adjectives (like in Russian and Tamil)
- No infinitive