The Ámérizkunxa Syntax

The simple sentence

Intransitive sentence (VᵢSₐ) :	Transitive sentence (SₑVₜOₐ) :
The boy speaks.	My mum is looking [at] the stars.

Like Basque, Ámérizkunxa has an impure ergative-absolutive morphosyntactic alignment. Impure, in that its sentence structure is accusative ; it results in the absolutive subject of an intransitive verb being put after said verb like an object.

The ergative case is marked [-(e)z] after its number, while the absolutive is unmarked. There is no other case in Ámérizkunxa, unless we count genitive as such. A genitive is formed by hyphenating the possessor after the possessee. Here, ama-niz is « my mum ».

In the strong form, transitive verbs agree with both the agent and the patient.
See more about the Ámérizkunxa Conjugation.

The completive subordinate

In Ámérizkunxa, only intransitive sentences can be completed with a completive subordinate clause.

The squirrel waits [for] the trees [to] fruit.

The completive subordinate is simply put after the absolutive argument of the sentence. It stands as a direct object, but the subject isn't ergative. Here, with an intransitive verb (kald « to speak »), the absolutive argument is the subject. Contrary to English, the subordinate verb is conjugated too. When dealing with third person arguments, the subordinate is always obviative, even if it's animate. If the sentence were to be the other way round, both verbs would be conjugated to the "4ᵗʰ person" (sagorin because bazkak is inanimate, kald because it would be part of the subordinate).

The bird expects [that] a lizard will come out of the ground in the morning.

As stated above, the relative subordinate is put after the absolutive argument, not at the end of the sentence. Here, the subordinate has a transitive verb, so the main clause absolutive subject xorri «  bird » is followed by the subordinate ergative agent marru « lizard ». It doesn't affect the main clause structure.

However, this sentence has an adverbial clause (here, a temporal adverb). It is thus put after the subordinate, as the adverbial clause must be at the end of the whole sentence. It stacks this way.

The conjunctive (and relative) subordinate

The firefighters wetted the house, so that the fire struggles to spread.

When a subordinate come with a conjunction, locution, or introduce a clause that is relative to the patient of a transitive sentence, the subordinate clause is put after a comma, and must start with a link word. Here, xok « for, because, so that » makes up a causal link between the main clause and the subordinate, that are otherwise independant clauses and could be part of split sentences (and xok « so that » could be replaced with o « and »).

Also notice that there is a temporal correspondence. While the verb of the main clause has an anterior grammatical aspect onto a present tense form (making it past), the relative clause has a present tense, making it thus happen after, as the consequence of the main clause.

Close-ended questions

In English, there are two ways to form an open-ended question : either with the auxiliary "do" at the beginning of an affirmative sentence, or with a question tag at the end. In Ámérizkunxa, only that second way is possible. There are three question tags :

• Atta means « yes », « right ? »
• Ses means « no », « wrong ? »
• Dirim means something like « Do you promise it will be the case soon ? ».

Atta and ses work the same was as in English, in that you assume something and the question tag is the least probable answer to you. The adressee will then agree or deny. Dirim is a special case : The adressor remind a fact to the adressee, and expect them to promise to change it.
Example : Ƶúz al zauęgisé al ǫrųzúrrená ger anno, dirim ?
« Thou didn't put rain above our head yet, will you please do so ? »

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions begin with an interrogative adverb.

For how long did the dog get away from us ?

In transitive sentences, the ergative agent is put after the patient.

Where will y’all begin to search, once the dragons will have burnt down the villages ?

In intransitive sentences, the structure doesn't change. Similarly, if the question has a subordinate clause, its structure won't be affected either. In this second example, remove ƶelekǫ « where », and you have a grammatically correct affirmative sentence, which is not the case with the first example.

The Ámérizkunxa Phonology
    [ðiː ə'mɛ.ɹɪs.kʊn.t͡ʃə fəˈnɒ.lə.dʒi]

Vowels :

Ámérizkunxa has 8 vocal phonemes (plus 2 allophones).

Consonants :

Ámérizkunxa has 25 consonants (plus 3 allophones).

1. Only in the diphtongs /ew/ and /ow/.

Orthography-phonology matching :

Tones and their genders

Ámérizkunxa is a pitch accent language with two tones :

• The default low tone, unmarked, is used for terrestrial nouns, divided into animate gender and inanimate gender roots, including most physical and psychological (but not spiritual) concepts.
• The high tone, marked with an acute accent on every vowel, is used for "divine" gender nouns, that includes superior beings, natural phenomenons like the weather or stellar objects, and high honorifics.

A word can be built with both high and low tone roots, but its gender (and sometimes meaning) is determined by the tone of its final vowel. For example the language name Ámérizkunxa is composed by Áméx « Dreamgod » + hizkunxa « language ». The theme (head) is Áméx because if of divine essence, but what is referred to is a language, which is an animate gender noun, so the final -a keeps the low tone of hizkunxa. Complementary examples would be lagiƶ « worker »  + lúrá « earth »  which give lagizyúra « farmer » (a kind of worker, terrestrial animate, so lúrá loses its final high tone), or the other way round, shá « fire » + etzyo « home » which give sháytzyó « residential fire » (a kind of fire, divine, so etzyo gets a final high tone).

Phonotactics, allophony and reparations

Vowels :

• Only six vowel pairs (in green) cannot be reduced. In these cases, not only both vowels are fully pronounced, but the ‹u/ų› cannot be affected by any allophonic rule, that is channeled to the other vowel.
• Two vowel pairs (in blue) have their ‹u› reduced into a [w]. It's considered as a voiced glide like /l/.
• If the diphtong include a weak vowel (‹i› < ‹u› < ‹e›), it becomes a ‹y› /j/.
• If it only includes strong vowels (‹o› < ‹ǫ› < ‹ę› < ‹ų› < ‹a›), the weakest is deleted.

The only triphtongs allowed are eua, aua, eue, auę, euo and auǫ. Here, ‹u› is not reduced, and remains a full /u/.

When another triphong is to be formed by a merging :

• If it can be made possible by changing the aperture of the third vowel (for euę, aue, euǫ and auo), we do so.
• If the third vowel is weak (‹i›-‹u›-‹e›), it's reduced into ‹y› /j/. It's a final lenition.
• If the third vowel is strong, we add an ‹m› before it. It's a relabialization.

Consonants :

• A ‹j› becomes ‹h› in initial position and before –a, –o and –ų to represent the phoneme /x/. Used in these positions, ‹j› replaces ‹d› to represent the phoneme /d/. So the opposite of hedihad /xɛdixad/ would be jejijaj /dɛxidax/.
  Example : arraj which becomes arraha in the 1SD present.
• A final ‹f› takes a –s when a vowel is suffixed to it, to keep the phoneme /θ/.
  Example : potęnf, which becomes potęnfsi in the 1ST present.
• If we suffix a word ending with a voiced consonant followed by a vowel different than ‹a›, and that the addition of this suffix won't lead to a consonant triphtong, then the vowel is deleted.
  Example : mendekaldǫ « revenge » gives mendekaldil « avenger » and mendekaldilpul « revengefully », but mendekaldǫgin « take revenge », and temendekaldǫgin « avenge someone ».
• If we suffix a ‹x› /tʃ/ with a consonant, the ‹x› becomes ‹ť›, that is /ʈ’/.
  Example : áméx, which becomes áméťk in plural form.
• If a voiced consonant (except ‹l›, ‹m› and ‹n›) in followed by an unvoiced consonant, it becomes unvoiced.
  Example : lagiƶ + (s)há gives lagizha.
• If an unvoiced consonant is followed by the matching voiced consonant, the latter is deleted.
  Example : ʒúh + –rV give ʒúhú, not ʒúhrú.
• If ‹x› /tʃ/ is the root final phoneme, follows a vowel and is suffixed with another vowel, that ‹x› becomes ‹r›, that is /ʁ/, and then can undergo the rules applying to ‹r›.
  Example : áméx, which becomes ámér– in ámérizkunxa.
• If a ‹ť› precedes or follows a voiced consonant, this one becomes unvoiced. If it's impossible (with ‹l›, ‹m› or ‹n›), a linking -u- must be added. The indirect unvoicing of ‹ʒ› /ʒ/ is ‹s› /ʂ/ and for ‹r› /ʁ/ it's ‹h› (or ‹j›) /x/.
  Example : amex + gauzt give ameťkauzt(o).
• If a ‹r› /ʁ/ ends up between two vowels, including an ‹a› :
  • If the other vowel is also an ‹a›, of the ‹a› is after the -r- that follows an ‹o› or an ‹e›, it becomes ‹rr› /ʀ/.
    Example : (amex + -au >) amer + -au > amerrau.
  • If the previous consonant becomes voiced (except ‹l›-‹m›-‹n›), it becomes ‹l› /l/.
    Example : pegar, which becomes pegali in the 1ST present.
  • If the previous consonant is unvoiced, it becomes ‹y› /j/ except if the other vowel is an –i.
    Example : latar, which becomes latayu in the reflexive 3ST present.
  • Else, it doesn't change. Example : latari.
• If an ‹s› /ʂ/ ends up between two vowels, including an ‹a›, it becomes ‹ʒ› /ʒ/.
  Example : ųťs (ųťisi), which becomes ųťiʒá in the 1SD present.
• If a ‹ƶ› /z/ ends up before an –l /l/, they turn into the digraph ‹zy› /sj/.
  Example : lagiƶ + lúrá give lagizyúra.
• If a verb has its stem ending with –d /d/ or –t /t/, they will become –dd /ɖ / or –tt /ʈ / when conjugated. It can happen with –r /ʁ/ becoming –rr /ʀ/, and –n /n/ becoming –nn /ɲ/, but not predictably. This gemination phenomenon will be indicated with "₂" (2) in dictionaries.
  Example : ozot₂, which becomes ozotti in the 1ST present.
• If a ‹nn› is followed by a stop, it becomes ‹n›, and the stop becomes voiced. Special cases : ‹ť› becomes ‹d›, ‹tz› becomes ‹dƶ›, and ‹x› becomes ‹dʒ›.
  Examples : mennǫ + –te give mende ; anno + xuri give andʒuri.
• If a consonant triphtong should appear when merging two roots, then we duplicate the first vowel of the first root between them.
  Example : egun + zkal give egunezkal(a).

The Ámérizkunxa Numbers

The grammatical numbers :

Ámérizkunxa distinguishes three numbers : zero [-l], singular (unmarked) and plural [-k]. Nouns are inflected for case and number, and adjectives/verbs agrees on gender and number (although zero verb will use the singular inflections). A zero-number noun must be preceded by the negation clitic al.
Example : ʒila « a bee » > al ʒilal « no bee » > ʒilak « bees ».

If a noun ending is to change upon inflection (either case or number), it's not up to the affix to change.
Example : amex « a dream » > al ameťul « no dream » > ameťk « dreams ».

Small note that ergative is marked [-(e)z] after the number.
Examples : Al ʒilalz eginup edʒilo pejuo « no bee makes free honey ».
   Hodelkez drramųrrek ilʒúhúk « Clouds kinda seem like mountains ».

The mathematical numbers :

Ámérizkunxa has a core vigesimal counting system (base-20), which means it has twenty distinct digits. However, it has a quaternary overlapping system with hexadecimal factors, which means multiples of 4 are distinguished from the usual count (for example, 8 is 2×4 and 16 is 4², so 32 is 2×4², and so on).
It leads to a quite complicated way to count, that is actually very efficient to parse.

Due to overlapping counting systems, some numbers can be parsed two ways.
Example : 184 can be either eunolajkeuolaur (100 + 4×20 + 4) or amaykaberraurobilaur (11×4² + 2×4). The former is preferred, but the latter is to be used in certain situations like herd counting, similar to how we'd use "dozen" for eggs instead of "twelve".

Ámérizkunxa number parser

Enter a number between 0 and 999999 and press Parse :