New TriCons

A couple of years ago I was working on a language with triconsonantal roots.
It wasn't very realistic and most of my notes are hidden away somewhere, so I
decided to start a new one. Actually, it isn't very realistic either ....

The format of a stem determines its lexical class; here, "noun", "adjective",
and "verb" refer to lexical classes, not syntactical ones.

Noun stems have one of the following forms:
CCVC   -- definite and absolutive
CCVC@  -- definite and genitive
C@CVC  -- indefinite and absolutive
C@CVC@ -- indefinite and genitive

The plural and ergative forms are based on the absolutive stems, by adding
suffixes. In the genitive forms, sometimes a final @ must be replaced by /e/.

Adjective stems have the forms:
CCVCV
C@CVCV

Adjectives aren't worked out very well yet.

Verb stems can have the forms:
CVCCV
CVC@CV ?
CVCVC
CVCVC@

The form CVCCe is used for the Imperative Mood, with the 1st vowel
specifiying perfective, imperfective, retrospective, prospective, or other
aspect. Other CVCCV forms are used for the Indicative Mood, with the 1st
vowel the same as for the imperative and the 2nd indicating past, present, or
future tense.

The forms CVCVC(@) are used for the Hypothetical and Contrafactual Moods.
The 1st vowel specifies the aspect as before.

A noun may have a possessor prefix; a definite noun must have a possessor
prefix or the definite article prefixed.

The verb's subject is specified by a suffix. It may have 0 to 2 objects specified
by prefixes. Affixes are used instead of relative pronouns, and a verb
containing a relative affix is used as a noun or adjective.

Well, that's enough for now.

Jeff