Katabala's Grammar Revised

Here is my revised grammar, so completely disregard the old
one because the example sentence was not grammatically
structured properly.  Also, I'm not sure if I sent you all
the one with the ablative case or not, but here it is in
final form along with the other stuff (and, yes, adverbs DO
modify prepositions):

Katabala Grammatical Sketch

Noun Declension (singular/plural)

1st

Nominative:  -u/-ili
Accusative:   -un/-ilin
Genitive:       -ua/-ilia
Ablative: (prepositional phrases): -ulu/ilimu

2nd

Nom: -ko/-kum
Acc:   -kon/-kumun
Gen:  -koa/-kuma
Abl:   -kolu/kumulu

Verbs

Because person and number are always contained within the subject, verbs are not
conjugated. Tense/mood is accomplished by adding the appropriate particle
directly before the main part of the verb (which always ends in -er), the
particles occuring in the following order of precedence: voice particle, tense
particle, and mood particle. If more than one particle is present, they are
joined to form a single word.

Voice particles:

(no particle): active
sed: passive

Tense particles:

NB: In paradigms, the pronoun "I" is the subject.

(no particle): present (I love)
dul: present progressive (I am loving)
chak: imperfect (I was loving)
hadat: past (I loved)
vishol: perfect (I have loved)
fwesh: perfect progressive (I have been loving)
gav: pluperfect (I had loved)
godo: pluperfect progressive (I had been loving)
go: future (I will love)
tsan: future progressive (I will be loving)
dryel: future perfect (I will have loved)
akam: future perfect progressive (I will have been loving)

Mood Particles:

(no particle): indicative
tal: infinitive
yer: subjunctive
hsara: imperative
lem: interrogative

Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives, including nouns in the genitive, come directly after the noun they modify,
inflected exactly like that noun, except for nouns in the genitive. Verbs
cannot "link" adjectives to the subject as in English; adjectives modify the
noun directly. Articles are nonexistent. Adverbial functions are accomplished
by adding prefixes to the adjective or preposition; adverbs do not modify
verbs. Prefixes can also modify prepositions.

E.g.: malako rinenko [malako- power line (nom. sing.) ri-         slightly nenko- worn]
      melsavis [mel- a great distance (modifier) savis- above (preposition)]

Word Order

The word order of a Katabala sentence is SOV.

An Example

malako rinenko- a slightly worn power line (nom.)
ker- to be
melsavis- a great distance above (prep. phrase)
Jekoa- Jack (gen.)
demulu- head (abl.)

Malako rinenko melsavis demulu Jekoa ker.

Literally: The slightly worn power line a great distance above the head of Jack exists.

Better: The slightly worn power line is a great distance
        above Jack's head.

Debetis amare Latina quod lingua pulchra est!

--
Austin Taylor
aemilius7@onebox.com - email
(703) 234-3965 x1020 - voicemail/fax



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