determiners

I've created determiners for my conlang and I'd like to know what you think
about them:


The articles are reconisable by the fact they beggin with "h-" (only a few
other words beggin like this such as some aspect and mood markers)

The determiners are necessary for all the nominals including the proper
names

They will take a different tone with the case of their name, these changing
with the voice of the verb: in an active sentence, the subject takes the
rising tone and the object the falling tone; in a passive sentence, the
subject takes the rising and the object the falling; in a middle voice
sentence, the only argument takes the mid tone; in a reciprocal voice
sentence, the two arguments take the mid tone and in an intransitive
sentence, the subject takes the rising tone (I envisage to use the falling
tone to mean that the subject is an experiencer making my conlang nom-abs
but for now it is simply nom-acc)

the three tones are:

Rising: /
Falling: \
Mid: |

A tone affects the whole word and is continuous in it, so longer is the word
slower are the rising and the falling to be on the whole word


The first type of determiners are the possessive adjectives

They indicate the number of the possessed thing(s)

Singular: "he-"
Plural: "heje-"

It takes also the person/number's ending of the possessor(?). These endings
are the same used to conjugate the verbs

            Sing  Plur

1st          -m    -bwe

2nd          -d    -de

3rd          -g    -j

3rd neutral  -gi   -hi


So:

\kibine = house

hem \kibine = my house

hejed \kibine = your houses

/wi-zamag /hejed \kibine = your houses is huge/big/high

(/wi-zamag being the verb "to be huge/big/high" conjugated at third person
and "hejed" being at nominative

Etc..


The second type contains the demonstrative articles

       Sing   Plur

Near    hu     hudon

Far     hin    hikan


The third type contains the articles of definiteness

        Sing   Plur

Def.     ha     haden

Indef.   ho     hodin


And the last type contains only the "empty" determiner

Singular: hyt [h9t]
Plural: hythen [h2t_hEn]


It has a few uses:

* It is used for the partitive case

\nege = water

hyt \nege = some water

/me /ze-zabi \hyt \nege = I drink water


* It is used to form some correlatives that need an indication of their case
and number

ho \itawe = a thing

\it = what?

hyt \itawe = something

hyt \it = everything


ho /nuhu = a person

/ite = who?

hyt /nuhu = someone

hyt /ite = everyone


ho \zedwe = a place

\it-zedwe = where?

hyt \zedwe = somewhere

hyt \ze = every where


-> These question words lack the case marking by an article _and they are
the only 3 words to do so_ their case is normaly deductable from the case of
the other argument and if they are both question words there are 2
possibilities

They can be the same question word and in that case, knowing wich is the
subject and the object is useless

If asking "who eats what" or "what eats whom" is the same the context will
probably allow the hearer to know what to answer because such a question in
wich there are more than one questions (what did you say? who did what to
whom?) are often asked by someone who didn't follow a conversation and is
asking to know more, so a sentence like this doesnt carry any information
and does not need to be so precise


* It is used as the word "any" in English

ho /dwabno = a book

hyt /dwabno = any book


But there are exceptions for "anyone" and "anything" whose use of "hyt" with
there related noun means "someone" and "something"

So, both "anything" and "any one" are only "hyt", the context is there to
know wich is meant


/de      |uyb        /we-zdegod     \it     \hyt
You-nom.  Opt. asp.  See-2nd pers.  What?   Anything!
What do you want to see? Any thing

/de      |uyb        /we-zdegod     \it     \hyt
You-nom.  Opt. asp.  See-2nd pers.  Who ?   Anyone!
Who do you want to see? Any one


And "anywhere" is the same thing as "somewhere"

They are both "hyt \zedwe" because their meanings are similar in context




So, what you think of these and particularly of that "empty" determiner?

- Max