MNCL5

MNCL5 is yet another version of an old project.

Note: the orthography used is the short version, which omits predictable
vowels, gemination, etc.

MNCL5 Finals

The MNCL5 final suffixes are divided into verb-form finals and non-verb-form
finals. The verb-form finals are:
-e  - present tense (indicative mood)
-ek - past tense (indicative mood)
-es - future tense (indicative mood)
-en - tenseless (indicative mood)
-u  - imperative mood
-us - subjunctive mood
-uk - contrafactual mood

The non-verb-form finals are divided into noun finals (case-and-number
markers) and other suffixes. The noun finals are:
-a  - patientive singular
-an - patientive plural
-ak - agentive singular
-as - agentive plural
-ok - thematic singular
-os - thematic plural
-o or 0 - genitive singular
-on or -l - genitive plural
-ai - vocative singular
-au - vocative plural
The first kind of genitive endings are used before consonants and the second
before vowels (in which case the gentitive word combines with the following
word).

The other finals are:
-o  - adjective (actually any non-final word of a phrase)
-is - infinitive
-i  - adverbial
-i  - secondary predicate, type 1
-in - secondary predicate, type 2

There are also particles ending in -l.


MNCL5 Aspect and Voice

Aspect and grammatical voice are marked by medials (non-final suffixes). While
voice marking occurs only on non-verb forms, aspect marking can occur with
almost any final.

The aspect medials for dynamic verb stems are:
-y- - imperfective
-h- - retrospective
-v- - prospective
with perfective being unmarked. An exception to this is that the imperfective
marker is usually omitted with present tense.

Static verb stems don't take the imperfective medial, being naturally
imperfective. Another thing to note is that aspect marking doesn't occur with
the tenseless final, and usually not on noun stems.

The voice medials are:
-m- - agentive subject (patientive or thematic or no object)
-t- - thematic subject (patientive object)
-g- - thematic subject (agentive object)
with patientive subject (agentive or thematic or no object) being unmarked.
The word's argument structure determines which of these can occur.

When both occur, the aspect medials appear first.

There are two other medials that can occur before the voice medials and that
derive noun stems; -z- for animate and -n- for inanimate.

Finally, there are other aspect-related medials such as the habitual marker -
oft-.

Example:
Ta hoskvuke zo sailoftmok?
2-Pat.S hear-Pro-Int-Prs Def-Adj sing-Habt-AgV-Thm.S
[ta: hOs.ku"vuk:e: zo: sai"lOf.tO.mOk]
"Have you heard the singer?"