Sanap Þoi

Sanap Þoi (great speech) is a Leic language.

Phonology

Consonants

	labial	dental	alveolar	palatal	dorsal
stop	/p/	/t/			/k/
fricative	/ɸ/ <f>	/θ/ <þ>	/s/		/h/
nasal	/m/	/n/
sonorant		/l/	/r/	/j/ <y>	/w/

Vowels

	front	back
close	/i/, /i:/	/u/, /u:/
mid	/e/, /e:/	/o/, /o:/
open	/a/	/a:/

Long vowels are marked with a circumflex (â).

The valid diphthongs are /ai au oi eu/.

Syllable Structure

Syllables are of the form CV(C).

Stress is always root-initial, and is realised with high pitch. All other syllables receive low pitch.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Sanap Þoi decline for patientive, agentive, genitive, dative and locative cases, and singular and plural numbers. All inflections are prefices, and are largely agglutinative. The exception is the genitive plural, which bears no relation to the genitive singular or the other plural prefices. There is also a two-way animacy distinction in the genitive, between animate and inanimate. The patientive is the unmarked form of the noun, and is the citation form. The dictionary form is patientive, genitive.

Nouns also fall into two inflectional types which are identified by the form of the genitive. If the genitive ends in a nasal (which assimilates in place to a following stop, and is n otherwise) then the noun is said to be type N, while if it ends in þ then the noun is said to be type Þ. The distinction also manifests itself in all other caseforms (other than the patientive singular, which has a zero-prefix) as an alternation in the consonant (the second if there are two).

Nouns beginning in a vowel regularly delete the final vowel of a vowel-final prefix.

The various forms of the case prefices are given below.

		Type Þ	Type N
Singular	Patientive	Ø-	Ø-
	Agentive	wo-	no-
	Gen. Anim.	kaþ-	kaN-
	Gen. Inanim.	þaþ-	þaN-
	Dative	ta-	þa-
	Locative	fo-	po-
Plural	Patientive	ra-	na-
	Agentive	wor-	woN-
	Genitive	raþ-	raN-
	Dative	tar-	taN-
	Locative	for-	foN-

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Sanap Þoi differentiates 3 persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd) in 2 numbers (singular and plural). It additionally has an honorific 2nd person pronoun, which is also used in a vocative construction, and an animacy distinction in the 3rd singular. The pronouns distinguish 5 cases, similarly to nouns. The pronominal inflection can be compared to nominal inflection, though all the pronouns are irregular to various degrees.

	Singular					Plural
	Patientive	Agentive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Patientive	Agentive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st	tê	ner	fenir	þar	per	katir	wanhatir	hanir	tanhatir	fanhatir
2nd	won	wowon	faþwon	tawon	fowon	kaþwon	wanhaþwon	haþwon	tanhaþwon	fanhaþwon
Hon	nat	wanat	faþnat	tanat	fanat	kaþnat	wanhaþnat	haþnat	tanhaþnat	fanhaþnat
3a	kô	nô	kan	þô	pô	nau	wan	ran	tan	fan
3i	þam	nuþam	þan	taþam	puþam

Correlatives

The first three columns contain pronouns (whose inflection I've not worked out yet), and the second three contain adverbs. The semantics of each column are illustrated by the interrogatives given as headings.

	who	what	who/what (pl)	where	when	how
who	hamaf	koi	ham	yim	þau	ham
some	pas	kis	nas	yinis	þas	hamif
other	þamaf	tai	þam	þayim	taþ	þanham
every	tanhaþ	taram		tim	him	þafam
none	wanhaþ	fam		merim	mihim	marfam

Verbs

Verbs inflect for voice (active and mediopassive), and the number (singular and plural) and animacy (animate and inanimate) of their subject. Animacy, however, is only distinguished in the active singular, and not all verbs make the distinction. Verbs optionally inflect for person, but only ever when their subject is a personal pronoun, and these inflections replace the independent pronoun. Furthermore, verbs belong to 4 lexical classes, which determines the form of the affices. Verbal inflection is also characterised by a complex system of vowel apophony (which I'm nowhere near close to figuring out) and mutations.

Inflection

Disregarding apophony, mutation, and syncope, verbal inflection can be summarised as follows (V represents a stem-final vowel) (note that the class assignment is fairly arbitrary, and liable to change): (WIP)

		Active			Mediopassive
		Sg Anim	Sg Inan	Plural	Singular	Plural
Class 1	a i	-Ø		-aþ	-am	-(a)maþ
	a ii	-Ø		-aþ	-em	-(e)maþ
	b i	-i-		-aþ	-am	-(a)maþ
	b ii	-i-		-aþ	-em	-(e)maþ
Class 2	a i	-Ø	-Vu	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	a ii	-Ø	-Vf	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	b i	-V-	-Vu	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	b ii	-V-	-Vf	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
Class 3	a i	-Ø		-aþ	-am	-(a)maþ
	a ii	-Ø		-aþ	-em	-(e)maþ
	b i	-i-		-aþ	-am	-(a)maþ
	b ii	-i-		-aþ	-em	-(e)maþ
Class 4	a i	-Ø	-Vu	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	a ii	-Ø	-Vf	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	b i	-V-	-Vu	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ
	b ii	-V-	-Vf	-Vþ	-Vm	-(V)maþ

Person Marking

When their subject is a personal pronoun, verbs can be marked for the person with a series of prefices. However, final vowels can sometimes mutate in certain phonological environments. A couple of prefices also have variants for the agentive and patientive cases. Additionally, the normal form of the pronoun is not given in the subject slot. Instead, if the subject is in the agentive case, a special particle is employed to fill the slot (but, if the person prefix does have a patientive variant, the particle need not be given). If the subject is in the patientive case, the subject slot is left empty.

The particles and prefices are given below.

	Particle	Agentive	Patientive
1st	nô	rV-	tV-
2nd	wô	won-
Hon	wô	nat-
3a	nô	kV-	wV-
3i	nô	þam-
3pl	wô	na-

Before m and n, and most instances of r, y, and w, the V in the first person is e, and in the third animate, it's o. Otherwise, they are both u before all front vowels, and some instances of a, and i otherwise. When a prefix ending in a vowel is attached to a vowel-initial verb, the vowel of the prefix is lost.

Numerals

Cardinal Numerals

0 wam	10 hemef
1 mas	11 hefam	10 hemef	100 þeyem
2 sê	12 hemfê	20 sehemef	200 hereyem
3 fam	13 hemfefam	30 fehemef	300 fereyem
4 tas	14 hefanaþ	40 tahemef	400 tareyem
5 þam	15 hefþam	50 þamhemef	500 þamþeyem
6 toi	16 hefenþoi	60 toihemef	600 toiþeyem
7 tafam	17 hefanþafam	70 tafhemef	700 tafþeyem
8 sanaþ	18 hemfeyanaþ	80 senþahemef	800 senþareyem
9 saþam	19 hemfêþam	90 saþamhemef	900 saþamþeyem

The other numbers 21-99 are formed by replacing the -hemef element with the appropriate teen. Thus, 42 tahemfê. Numbers greater than 100 are formed by compounding the hundreds with the tens+units. Thus, 429 tareyem sehemfeþam.

Ordinal Numerals

	10 heremef
1 fanis	11 hefram	10 heremef	100 þêrem
2 sim	12 hefnê	20 seheremef	200 herêrem
3 ferem	13 hemfefrem	30 feheremef	300 ferêrem
4 þanis	14 hefranaþ	40 taheremef	400 tarêrem
5 þaram	15 hefþaram	50 þamheremef	500 þamþêrem
6 þanê	16 hefeþanê	60 toiheremef	600 toiþêrem
7 tafrem	17 hefanþafrem	70 tafheremef	700 tafþêrem
8 seranaþ	18 hemfêranaþ	80 senþaheremef	800 senþarêrem
9 saþaram	19 hemfêþaram	90 saþamheremef	900 saþamþêrem

The other ordinals are formed in the same way as the corresponding cardinals, but with the ordinal forms.

Fractional Numerals

	10 tuhemef
	11 tuhefam	10 tuhemef	100 þureyem
2 þê	12 tuhemfê	20 þêhemef	200 þûþeyem
3 tufam	13 tuhemfefam	30 tufhemef	300 tufþeyem
4 þanþas	14 tuhefanaþ	40 þenþahemef	400 þanþareyem
5 þeþam	15 tuhefþam	50 þeþamhemef	500 þeþamþeyem
6 þenþoi	16 tuhefenþoi	60 þenþoihemef	600 þanþoiþeyem
7 þanþafam	17 tuhefanþafam	70 þanþafhemef	700 þanþafþeyem
8 þeyanaþ	18 tuhemfeyanaþ	80 þeyenþahemef	800 þeyanþareyem
9 þeyaþam	19 tuhemfêþam	90 þeyaþamhemef	900 þeyaþamþeyem

The other fractional numerals are formed in the same way as the cardinal and ordinal numerals, using fractional forms.

Syntax

Noun Phrases

Noun phrases in Sanap Þoi consist of an inflected noun, zero or more adjectives, an optional demonstrative, and zero or more oblique phrases. The adjectives and demonstrative must follow the noun in that order, while oblique phrases may go on both sides of the phrase. However, they must always be the outermost element.

Clauses

The default word order is A(=agent)P(=patient)V, with indirect objects and modifiers following the verb. However, when the agent is a pronoun, a particle with several allomorphs with complex distribution is placed in the agent slot. This can be replaced by the full agentive pronoun for emphasis. When an intransitive verb takes a patientive argument, and that argument is a pronoun, no particle is placed in the sole argument slot, and the patientive pronoun can be used for emphasis. Negation is done by placing the particle mô immediately before the verb, and interrogation by placing the particle kô immediately after.

Conjunctions

Coordinate conjunction simply conjoin two clauses with no changes to each. Subordinate conjunctions, on the other hand, change the word order of their head clause. The relative conjunction moves its head noun to the very end of the parent clause, and moves indirect objects and modifiers before the verb. The complement conjunction takes the place of the patient of a transitive verb, and also moves indirect objects and modifiers before the verb.

Lexicon

See the Lexicon.