I love grammar yahoo
Ektari Tai uses SVO word order, and conjugates with a present, future, past, past participle, and present participle denoted by different suffixes on verbs which have a specific infinitive form also represented by a removalbe suffix (a-la spanish (i. e. correr -> corrió)). All words change meaning and form depending on two sets of criteria/genders: the 'class' gender, and the 'gender' gender (it makes sense trust). Both genders of a word is determined phonologically with the 'gender' gender being based on method of articulation and 'class' gender being based on place of articulation. There are three 'gender' genders, which I will call all just 'gender' from now on— Feminine, Neutral, and Masculine, and 11 'class' genders, which I will call all just 'class' from now on— -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, familial 1, 3, familial 2, 4, familial 3, and 5, though there too is subclassing that applies because I couldn't possible allow things to be easy. The three genders are based, as stated prior, on method of articulation. Specifically, it is split by whether a phone is a vowel, a fricative, or a plosive, corresponding to Feminine, Neutral, and Masculine respectively. The 11 classes are denoted, as stated prior, by place of articulation; however the 'direction' of class is changed by the gender of the phone. For example, [b] is in a higher rank than [d], but [w] is in a lower rank than [s] because the neutral and masculine directions lead to the opposite half of the mouth (neutral leads back, masculine leads forwards). This is less noticeable in the feminine as it spans all vowels, back and front, but generally it goes from back to front, open to closed, with the closed unrounded front vowel being the highest class and what was once the unrounded open back vowel being the lowest class; though now it's pronounced as an unrounded open front vowel, but it retains its low class through the kinda minor phonological shift. Gender itself is subject to class, as class is to gender, which means that nobody is safe from Prejudice The Language. Feminine is higher than Neutral is higher than Masuline. To help explain all of this, below lies three charts of phones in order of class, from highest to lowest, split between genders that are themselves ordered by class, and including labeling to distinguish what exactly those classes are (wherein 'f' stands for 'familial'):
Feminine
| Class | Letter |
|---|
| 5/f3 | İ, i |
| 4/f2 | Î, î |
| 3 | I, ı |
| 2/f1 | E, e |
| 1 | U, u |
| 0 | Ė, ė |
| -1 | O, o |
| -1 | Ū, ū |
| -2 | A, a |
Masculine
| Class | Letter |
| 5/f3 | B, b |
| 4/3/f2 | Bb, bb |
| 2/1/f1 | D, d |
| 0 | Dd, dd |
| -1 | C, c |
| -1 | K, k |
| -2 | Cc, cc |
| -2 | Kk, kk |
Neutral
| Class | Letter |
| 5 | Gk, gk |
| 4a/f3a | G, g |
| 4b/f3b | Kkg, kkg |
| 4c/f3c | Kg, kg |
| 4d/f3d | Şş, şş |
| 3a/f2 | Ss, ss |
| 3b | Śś, śś |
| 3c | Šš, šš |
| 2a/f1a | Jj, jj |
| 2b/f1b | J, j |
| 1a | Žž, žž |
| 1b | Rr, rr |
| 1c | Ş, ş |
| 0a | L, l |
| 0a | M, m |
| 0a | N, n |
| 0a | Nc, nc |
| 0a | Ncc, ncc |
| 0b | R, r |
| 0c | Ś, ś |
| 0d | Ž, ž |
| -1a | Š, š |
| -1b | S, s |
| -1c | Ð, ð |
| -1d | Ðð, ðð |
| -1e | V, v |
| -2a | Vv, vv |
| -2b | W, w |
| -2c | Ww, ww |
Alright, fun, no? Well, next up is adjectives. Adjectives are thankfully quite simple, needing only a single suffix to respond to the end sound of the following root word. The trick is, though, that that said suffix changes in relation to both of the subject's genders. This isn't as complicated as it seems, though, as it leaves only 30 possible endings to choose from! Thankfully, there exists a helpful table below:
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 5 | -ii | -iigk | -iib |
| f3 | -îî | -îîg | -îîb |
| 4 | -i | -ikg | -ib |
| f2 | -î | -îss | -îbb |
| 3 | -ı | -ıšš | -ıp |
| 2/f1 | -e | -ej | -ed |
| 1 | -u | -uş | -ud |
| 0 | -ė | -ėncc | -ėdd |
| -1 | -ū | -ūð | -ūk |
| -2 | -a | -aw | -akk |
It should be noted that all of the above applies universally to every word, so it seems complicated, but one would get much practice in speaking regularily. In turn, such rules apply to pronouns. Pronouns follow the same structure of change as adjectives, but not the same suffixes, as they use the higher subclass to differentiate as they are more likely to be used for people. There are three perspectives: First Person, Second Person, and Third Person. There is a universal rule for plurality that means that I don't have to care for its inclusion in the chart, so I won't be including plural versions of words in the chart. Speaking of:
First Person
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 0 | Nė | Nėn | Nėk |
Third Person
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 5 | Addašii | Addašiigk | Addašiib |
| f3 | Addašîî | Addašîîg | Addašîîb |
| 4 | Addaši | Addašikkg | Addašib |
| f2 | Addašî | Addašîss | Addašîbb |
| 3 | Addašı | Addašıśś | Addašıbb |
| 2/f1 | Addaše | Addašejj | Addašed |
| 1 | Addašu | Addašužž | Addašud |
| 0 | Addašė | Addašėl | Addašėdd |
| -1 | Addašo | Addašoš | Addašoc |
| -2 | Addaša | Addašavv | Addašacc |
Second Preson
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 5 | Boddii | Boddiigk | Boddiib |
| f3 | Boddîî | Boddîîg | Boddîîb |
| 4 | Boddi | Boddikkg | Boddib |
| f2 | Boddî | Boddîss | Boddîbb |
| 3 | Boddı | Boddıśś | Boddıbb |
| 2/f1 | Bodde | Boddejj | Bodded |
| 1 | Boddu | Boddužž | Boddud |
| 0 | Boddė | Boddėl | Boddėdd |
| -1 | Boddo | Boddoš | Boddoc |
| -2 | Bodda | Boddavv | Boddacc |
Now, it's occurred to me that I've been explaining a whole lot of where things go, but not a whole lot of why things go. Gender is based on one's gender as judged by appearance and actual sense of self, and classes work the same, but instead of being based off of one's sense of self, they're based on one's opinion of another. Class 0 is completely neutral, one would use this with Anybody, and is mostly used in objective text. Class 1 is slightly higher, and would be used with a stranger in politeness. Class 2 would be used with an acquaintence or someone that you know fairly well. Familial class 1 is usually lumped in with class 2, and would apply to mostly cousins, nieces, and nephews and such. Class 3 would be used with friends regardless of how close they are. Familial class 2 would be used with parents, aunts, and uncles and the like. Class 4 would be used with non-familial authority figures like teachers or basically anyone who one plans on listening to. Familial class 3 would apply to grandparents, great aunts, and great uncles and such. Class 5 would apply to higher authorities like a king or a god if you believe in talking to those. There also exists the two negative classes which are used to refer to one that someone has some or much authority over respective to Class -1, which would be used with a younger sibling or from a parent to their child, and Class -2, which would be used from a king to their subjects or a boss to a lower-ranking employee; though they could also be used for insulting purposes (think phrases like "get owned").
Verbs
Because of their relative complexity (many charts), I've decided to section off verbs from the rest of the grammatical features. As mentioned above, Ektari Tai conjugates with respect to five tenses: a present, future, past, past participle, and present participle, and there is a suffix for infinitives (-ėėb) that is universal (thank god). As well, all non-present tenses are conjugated with a universal prefix attached to the verb conjugated in present tense. These prefixes are as follows: Odo-, Ośı, Sı-, and Ajė- for the past, past participle, present participle, and future tenses respectively. Below are the conjugactions for the present tense split by perspective:
First Person
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 0 | -ėnė | -ėėn | -ėnėdd |
Third Person
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 5 | -igkii | -iigk | -igkiib |
| f3 | -îgîî | -îîg | -îgîîb |
| 4 | -ikkgi | -ikkg | -ikkgib |
| f2 | -îssî | -îîss | -îssîbb |
| 3 | -ıśśı | -ııśś | -ıśśıbb |
| 2/f1 | -ejje | -eejj | -ejjed |
| 1 | -užžu | -uužž | -užžud |
| 0 | -ėşė | -ėėş | -ėşėdd |
| -1 | -ošo | -ooš | -ošoc |
| -2 | -avva | -aavv | -avvacc |
Second Person
| Class | Feminine | Neutral | Masculine |
| 5 | -ibii | -ibiigk | -iib |
| f3 | -îbîî | -îbîîg | -îîb |
| 4 | -ibi | -ibikkg | -iib |
| f2 | -îbbî | -îbbîss | -îîbb |
| 3 | -ıbbı | -ıbbıśś | -ııbb |
| 2/f1 | -ede | -edejj | -eed |
| 1 | -udu | -udužž | -uud |
| 0 | -ėddė | -ėddėl | -ėėdd |
| -1 | -oco | -ocoš | -ooc |
| -2 | -acca | -accavv | -aacc |
Sentences yayay
Odowežėnė kėbbėjėdosėėb addašužžužžuş lowadşaiddadda
oˌdoːweˈʒɛnɛ cɛˌpɛːd͡zɛdoˈsɛːb ˌataʃuˈʐuʐut͡ʃ ˌlowadt͡ʃaiˈtata
Oh goodness me. The sentence translates to "I wanted to learn their names", where the speaker is feminine and there are multiple people to whom she is reffering with some respect indicating that they are likely strangers that she knows nothing about but wants to be polite towards, which makes sense given that she wants to learn their names. Isn't that fun? In this sentence, one might notice that I used the plural form of words without ever actually explaining how its formed. As you maybe see, the plural is indicated by the repeating of the final syllable of a word, and applies universally. There is also present here a semblence of a case system that works much like how anshens sentence structure works, with the word 'lo' (to) starting the main object of the sentence, marking it. There is also an instrumental case that does the same but instead starting the object with the word 'bbo' (with), but since these are based from separate words and are few, I didn't make a chart to explain them :).
