Syntax Pronouns Nouns Verbs Prepositions Subordinate Clauses Particles
Ziotaki is a Subject-Object-Verb language. In English, you say "Kalime saw Lisaka"; in Ziotaki you say "Kalime Lisaka saw".
The basic order of a Ziotaki sentence is Subject - Indirect Object - Direct Object - Verb. Any modifiers must come directly before what they modify. Particles are used to show the relationships between words.
Example: Kalime yo Lisaka o zatu tenga galiama. "Kalime gave a white book to Lisaka."
Ziotaki has two sets of pronouns: Class I and Class II.
These pronouns are more common by far.
They are used to refer to sentient members of the speaker's "group" and to all nonsentient beings.
The speaker's "group", for most native speakers of Ziotaki, is the Retiku race and any other obvious subjects of the Retika Empire.
Class I pronouns behave as nouns, except that they have the plural ending -vi instead of -a. Note that there is no way to indicate gender or animacy.
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These are used to refer to sentient creatures who are not considered part of the speaker's "group".
Nowadays that means creatures of other species, such as gods, aliens, and non-Retiku Retians. Class II pronouns are also used frequently
in poetry, where syllable count is important. In poetry, Class II pronouns can refer to anyone.
The first-person Class II pronouns require some explanation. First person singular is used when the speaker is speaking to an audience of a different race. Yana can be used if the speaker wishes to obscure the distinction between the two races, but it sounds utterly presumptuous to use yana to gods and stupid to use yana to aliens.
The first person plural forms are used when "we" includes the audience. When it does not, yanavi is used.
An alien speaker of Ziotaki will use these forms more than the "normal" Class I pronouns.
Class II pronouns have five cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and prepositional. Therefore, these pronouns do not require case particles.
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Third-person pronouns, of either class, may take a set of special suffixes to reduce ambiguity. If there is more than one possible antecedent for tira or rua, then the suffix -a is added to refer to the first antececent, -ya to the second, -i to the third, and so on.
Ziotaki nouns have two cases, nominative and possessive, and two numbers, singular in plural. In that respect, they function exactly like English nouns. Also like English nouns, Ziotaki nouns have no specific ending.
The default case is nominative; the possessive case ends in –pa. This case ending is added after any other suffixes. Other cases are formed using particles.
The plural of most nouns is formed by adding –a. For nouns that end in –a, change the –a to –ei.
Examples: chane "mouth", chanea "mouths"; Retiku "Retiku", Retikua "Retikus"; tenga "book", tengei "books".
Remember, the possessive suffix follows, so maresa "warrior", maresei "warriors", mareseipa "warriors'", not *maresapei.
A few nouns have irregular plurals. These fall into three categories: nouns that end in –i, nouns that end in –u, and complete irregulars. Irregulars in –i change the –i to –ai; irregulars in –u change the –u to –au.
Examples: suzuru "daughter", suzurau "daughters"; si "fruit", sai "fruits".
Complete irregulars usually have plural forms similar to a regular form or an –ai/-au form, but with additional changes.
Examples: kiatu "child", kyatau "children"; yosui "penny", yosuya "pence".
Words borrowed from other languages have regular plurals without exception.
The plural is only used when a group of a certain size is envisioned; to speak of something in general, the singular is used. In some slang dialects, the ending –k (no final vowel; it is derived from the Western ending –q/–k) is used for human collective plural, but this must be strictly avoided in good Ziotaki.
Nouns can also take the pronoun disambiguating suffixes –a and –ya. On nouns, though, they each acquire special meanings. The suffix –ya is often used simply to mean "the other one," without a corresponding word marked with –a. The suffix –a is used to mean "the said one," but its primary use is to make a reflexive construction more evident when a reflexive could be confused with a passive. This –a suffix can be distinguished from the –a plural suffix in speech because it does not count as a syllable for stress (forcing the first stress to fall on the antepenult), whereas the –a marking plural does (forcing the stress to fall on the penultimate syllable, the final of the root word). They are indistinguishable in writing.
Compound nouns are easily formed. Neither noun changes form, and the first noun modifies the second noun.
Example: zingu "news", tenga "book", zingutenga "newspaper".
The Ziotaki verb is the most heavily inflected part of speech. Verbs inflect for voice, tense, and mood, but not for person or number. Like nouns, Ziotaki verbs have no specific ending.
The dictionary form is the timeless passive indicative, the simplest form of the verb and the one which all other forms are based on. Ziotaki has no true infinitive form; verbal nouns will be covered later, and are regularly formed from the timeless passive indicative.
To form the active voice, insert an –i between the consonant and vowel of the final syllable. For this purpose, y counts as part of the vowel. In colloquial speech, this –i often changes to –y-.
Examples: masa "to help", masia "helps"; zhinye "to offer", zhiniye "offers".
Almost all irregular verbs have an irregular active voice; they behave regularly otherwise.
Examples: sei "to go", saia "goes"; meyai "to change", meiyai "changes".
Suffixes:
Examples: masa "to help", masiama "helped"; meyai "to change", meyainə "will be changed".
Ziotaki permits very elaborate expressions of mood. Each mood is expressed by a suffix, and multiple suffixes can be affixed to one verb to form a complex mood. In this case, unlike the rest of the language, each additional suffix modifies the whole verb before it; order matters. All mood suffixes follow a tense suffix, if present.
Examples: pialaitase "want to be able to see," pialaiseta "able to want to see"
Suffixes:
Ziotaki verbs also have an "impersonal" form, used to indicate that there is no specific subject; either an impersonal force or a generalized group is the subject. The impersonal is formed by inserting an –u after the final consonant of the last syllable of the verb, before the active marker if it is present. If the vowel of the last syllable is –u, then change the –u to –au and insert the active marker (if present) before –au.
Examples: tasa'uroni "to have an earthquake", tasa'uronuima "there was an earthquake"; yabu "to say", yabiau "everyone says".
Reflexives and passives are identical in form. Thus, the suffix –a is often used on the subject of a reflexive verb, to show that the verb is not passive. This suffix is not mandatory, but is much more common than no suffix.
Example: sololu "to love", sololuma "was loved / loved each other"; tiravi sololuma "they were loved / they loved each other", tiravia sololuma "they loved each other".
Verbs are negated by the prefix ya-.
Examples: masa "to help", yamasama "was not helped"; yabu "to say", yayabiunə "will not say".
The abstract verbal noun is formed by adding –tu to the dictionary form.
Examples: niri "to build", niritu "building"; maryobu "to defend", maryobutu "defense".
Ziotaki has eight participles, one for each tense, both active and passive. The verb is conjugated for voice, and then the appropriate participial ending is added. Participles are rare, except in formal writing and comparative or superlative statements.
Suffixes:
Compound verbs are formed by placing the dictionary form of the secondary verb before the primary verb. The secondary verb often functions as the object of the primary verb.
Example: theri "to plan", tauku "to travel", taukutheri "to plan to travel".
The verb "to be" (Zio. gachu) is unusual because it has no passive voice and has irregular tense forms.
| Present | gacha |
| Past | gata |
| Future | ganə |
| Timeless | gachu |
Any mood or other suffixes are regular.
Ziotaki does not distinguish between adverbs and adjectives, lumping both together as "modifiers". The class of modifier also includes prepositional phrases and some subordinate clauses, which will be dealt with later. Modifiers directly precede what they modify, and do not agree with what they modify in any way.
Most modifiers are formed from nouns using the modifier suffix –i. This suffix is its own syllable; do not confuse –ta'i, the modifier form of any noun ending in –ta, with –tai "-able". Verbs are usually used in subordinate clauses instead of participles.
Examples: rakuta "government", rakuta'i "governmental"; zeriga "ideology", zeriga'i "ideological".
Ziotaki has four degrees; positive, comparative, superlative, and excessive. The positive is the base form; the others are formed with suffixes.
Suffixes:
To indicate comparison, use the structure (X-ri) (Y) (Z), where Y is more X than Z.
Ziotaki modifiers can either modify a noun or verb directly or modify a modifier-modified combination. The first level (modifying a noun or verb) is unmarked. The second level (modifying modifiers that modify a noun) is marked by adding –ha or changing –i to –ha. The third level (modifying second-level modifiers) is marked by –xo. Fourth level is marked by –xoa, fifth level by –xoya, etc., but they are almost never used.
Example: zazhya "fast", kunasaimusa "sparkling", sila "star", zazhyaha kunasaimusa sila "rapidly sparkling star", zazhya kunasaimusa sila "quick, sparkling star".
Ziotaki has a number of special modifying affixes. They don’t behave quite like modifiers, because they fuse with the word they modify, but cannot be considered any other part of speech.
Hi- and chi- require special mention. As prefixes, they mean something like "very", "most"; as suffixes, they mean something like "less", "least". The prefixes are more common than the suffixes. The suffixes are placed after any other grammatical markers.
Example: aghali "sick", hiaghali "very sick", chiaghali "exceedingly sick", aghalihi "slightly sick", aghalichi "barely sick".
The other prefixes, such as ma- "male" and si- "female", are derived from bits of other words, and behave like elements of a compound.
Ziotaki prepositions are rather different from English prepositions. First and foremost, the preposition is added directly to its object, rather than coming first in a prepositional phrase. Also, a preposition must agree with its object. Prepositions are listed in the dictionary without a final vowel; they take the final vowel of the noun they modify.
Examples: kek "at, on", takara "bed", keka-takara "on the bed"; m "about", tilezeninyotu "history", mu-tilezeninyotu "about history".
Both the above examples had only a preposition and an object. To make a longer phrase, the prepositional phrase marker ka is placed before the first word of the phrase.
Example: m "about", tilezeninyota "history", Ziotaka "Ziotan", ka Ziotaka ma-tilezeninyota "about Ziotan history".
[No, this is not a misprint; both tilezeninyotu and tilezeninyota mean "history."]
Since prepositional phrases are modifiers, the modifier hierarchy rules affect them too. For second level, use kaha instead of ka; for third, kaxo; etc.
Example: ngam "during", ilana "night", chana "to rise", sila "star", kaha ngama-ilana chanamatu sila "a star rising at night".
The use of ka to mark a prepositional phrase is only forbidden when the object is a subordinate clause (see subordinate clauses, below); however, ka is almost never used for a one-word prepositional phrase. Ka must be used if the prepositional phrase is more than one word long, and its use is preferred, but not mandatory, when the prepositional phrase is not first-level (see the example above).
The Ziotaki subordinate clause is very easy to form. A subordinate clause is a regular sentence preceded by the marker lo, unless the clause is one word long. The rules for the use of lo are the same as the rules for the use of ka, above. A subordinate clause is generally a modifier, but can be used as a subject or object without any additional markers. Subordinate clauses can also be the objects of a preposition (often kek "at/on" or ngam "during"). In that case, the verb acts as the object of the preposition; the preposition attaches directly to the verb and agrees with it. Since Ziotaki lacks relative pronouns, a prepositional phrase with a subordinate clause as object is usually used instead.
Example: ngam "during", tanilo "a youth", mara "to fight", lo taniloaa ngama-marama "while the youths were fighting each other".
Because of the brevity of the construction, inflected verbs are often used as one-word subordinate clauses, instead of using the participial form.
Example: kunasi "to sparkle", sila "star", kunasaicha sila "star that sparkles" (much more common than kunasaimusa sila "sparkling star".)
Remember that subordinate clauses are modifiers, and they belong directly before what they modify, even if the subordinate clause is a conditional sentence.
Example: Kalime (personal name), Lisaka (personal name), ta "to come", nei "to leave", Kalime lo Lisaka tiafyə niei "Kalime leaves if Lisaka comes".
Ziotaki conjunctions generally work like the English equivalents. No complex, Japanese-like system of ways of saying “and”!
Ziotaki sytax relies very heavily on a large set of particles. Particles fall into three classes: sentence-final particles, case particles, and emotion particles.
Sentence-final particles follow what they modify. Each one has a sentence-final form, used to influence the whole sentence, and a medial form used to influence one word. If that word is the verb, the medial form can occur at the end of a sentence (though good stylists frown upon this).
Case particles, unlike other particles, precede what they modify. They indicate grammatical relationships.
Emotion particles show the speaker's state of mind regarding what they follow. If preceded by the prefix ru-, they show the state of mind of what they follow. The second one shows stronger emotion.
Example: Alaku Leisirə (personal name), tozutu "why", takyane "to invite", Kangə o Alaku Leisirə chə tozutu nu takyaniema ga? "Why did you invite Alaku Leisirə, whom I hate?"
A better translation might be "Why the hell did you invite Alaku Leisirə?! I hate her!
More advanced topics coming later!
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This page last modified 20 Jan 2003 / 26 Furiori 3281
© Shihali Ramichu 2003