Ecclesiastical Atili Reference Grammar Andrew Ray Version 3.0.2021.0414 April 14, 2021 Contents Foreword 3 Phonology 4 1 Phonemic Inventory ........................................ 4 1.1 Romanizations ........................................ 4 1.2 Phonological processes .................................. 5 2 Phonotactics ............................................. 5 Verbs 6 3 The verb template .......................................... 6 4 Aspect marking and agreement morphology ......................... 7 4.1 Direct aspects ........................................ 7 4.2 Auxiliary aspects ...................................... 10 4.3 Verbal obviation ....................................... 12 4.4 Inverse marking ....................................... 12 5 Classifiers and positionals ..................................... 12 5.1 Classifiers ........................................... 13 5.2 Positionals .......................................... 15 6 Relativization and Imperatives .................................. 17 7 Noun incorporation and instrumentals ............................. 17 7.1 Derivational noun incorporation ............................ 17 7.2 Noun incorporation in discourse ............................ 17 7.3 Instrumentals ........................................ 19 8 Causatives and transitivity .................................... 19 8.1 Ordinary causatives .................................... 19 8.2 Causativization as a valency-changing operation . 19 9 Agreement morphology for ditransitive verbs ........................ 19 10 Nominalization strategies ..................................... 19 Syntax 20 11 Sentence-level syntax ........................................ 20 11.1 Word order restrictions .................................. 20 11.2 Sentence focus ........................................ 21 11.3 Implicit referents ...................................... 21 11.4 Sentences with two obviate persons .......................... 22 11.5 Quanitifiers .......................................... 22 11.6 Discourse particles and adverbs ............................. 22 1 List of Figures 1.1 Consonant inventory ......................................... 4 1.2 Vowel inventory ............................................ 4 1.3 The phonetic Romanization ..................................... 5 1.4 The orthographic Romanization .................................. 5 3.1 The verb template ........................................... 6 4.1 Agreement morphology for the imperfective aspect ...................... 8 4.2 Agreement morphology for the perfective aspect ........................ 8 4.3 Agreement morphology for the irrealis aspect ......................... 8 4.4 Formation of the auxiliary aspects ................................. 10 5.1 Classifiers ................................................ 14 5.2 Positionals ................................................ 15 2 Foreword This document describes the grammar of the invented language known as Atili (natively Atïli, pro- nunced /ʌˈtʰɨ.ɫi/), created by Andrew Ray. Production of Atili started in 2018. It is intended as a naturalistic artlang, and was constructed as a personal linguistics exercise for the author’s sole en- tertainment. Hopefully, others will find it enjoyable also. It is probable that this language will change with time; therefore, this reference grammar is not an ultimate authority on the current state of the language. There is and can be no date set down at which this project will be set in stone and made, as it were, final. It will continue to evolve for exactly as long as the author chooses. Throughout this document, words in Atili are set in italics. Informal inline translations are given in “quotation marks.” IPA pronunciations are set in /ˈslæ.ʃəz/. Examples will be set out from the main document and numbered. Examples will be drawn as follows: 3 Phonology 1 Phonemic Inventory Atili has a moderate phonemic inventory consisting of 15 phonemic consonants and 6 phonemic vowels, along with several allophonic variants. (1.1) Consonant inventory of Atili; allophones are displayed in [brackets]. Series Labial Coronal Lateral Dorsal Nasals m n [ŋ] voiced b d [ɡ] Plosives voiceless t k voiced v ʒ ɣ~ʁ Fricatives voiceless ʃ x voiced [dʒ] [dɮ] [ɡɣ] Affricates voiceless [tʃ] [tɬ] Liquids u̯~o̯ i̯~ə̯ ɫ (1.2) Vowel inventory of Atili; allophones are displayed in [brackets], phones in (parentheses) appear only in diphthongs. i• ɨ*• • u (e)• (ə) • o ɛ• ɜ*• [ʌ]• ɑ• 1.1 Romanizations There are two Romanizations in use throughout this document. The first Romanization is a reason- able match for the phonetic inventory of the language, though not all allophones are distinguished. 4 Vowels with acute accents in this Romanization indicate irregular stress patterns. This “phonetic Romanization” will be set in italics throughout the document. (1.3) The phonetic Romanization Consonants Vowels Diphthongs b /b/ k /k/ tl /tɬ/͡ a, á /ɑ~ʌ/ ay /ɑi̯/ wa /o̯ɑ~o̯ʌ/ ya /e̯ɑ~i̯ʌ/ d /d/ l /ɫ/ ts /tʃ/͡ e, é /ɛ/ aÿ /ɑə̯~ʌə̯/ we /u̯ɛ/ ye /i̯ɛ/ dl /dɮ/͡ m /m/ v /v/ ë, e̋ /ɜ/ ew /ɛo̯/ wë /u̯ɜ/ yë /i̯ɜ/ dz /dʒ/͡ n /n~ŋ/ w /u̯~o̯/ i, í /i/ ey /ei̯/ wi /u̯i/ yo /i̯o/ g /ɡ/ r /ɣ~ʁ/ y /i̯~e̯/ ï, ı̋ /ɨ/ eÿ /ɛə̯/ wï /u̯ɨ/ yu /i̯u/ gr /ɡɣ/͡ s /ʃ/ ÿ /ə̯/ o, ó /o/ oy /oi̯/ h /x/ t /t/ z /ʒ/ u, ú /u/ oÿ /oə̯/ The second Romanization more closely matches the native orthography of Atili, and is used as a secondary Romanization to assist with etymological spelling. Vowels with acute accents in this Ro- manization indicate historical long vowels, which are pronounced identically to the short versions in the modern language, but preserve a distinction in the written language. This “orthographic Romanization” is used mostly in places such as the lexicon and in conjugation and derivation charts to assist with spelling. It is used instead of the native orthography due to the vertical nature of the latter, which makes it difficult to include Atili native writing alongside English text. The orthographic Romanization will be set in SMALL CAPS throughout the document. (1.4) The orthographic Romanization Consonants Vowels B /b/ KR /ɡɣ~ɡʁ/͡ T /t/, /d/ A, Á /ɑ~ʌ/ D /d/ L /l~ɫ/, /Ø/ TL /tɬ~tl/͡ E, É /ɛ/, /ɜ/ DL /dɮ~dl/͡ M /m/, /n~ŋ/ TS, TZ /tʃ~tʃ/͡ I, Í /i/, /ɨ/, /i̯~e̯/, /ə̯/ DS, DZ /dʒ~dʒ/͡ N /n~ŋ/, /m/ V /v/ O, Ó /o/ H /x~h/ R /ɣ~ʁ/ Z /ʒ/ U, Ú /u/, /u̯~o̯/ K /k~ɡ/ S /ʃ/, /ʒ/ ʻ /Ø~ʔ/ The difference between the two Romanizations may be observed in words like atsı̋ (ÁTZÍIL), midzu (MÍDSÚ), and ágramva (ʻAKRÁNV). This reflects the idiosyncrasies of Atili writing. 1.2 Phonological processes 2 Phonotactics Atili has a moderate syllable structure, with the maximum permitted syllable as (C)(G)V(V)(C), where C represents a consonant, V a vowel, and G a glide consonant y or w. There are also limitations on where certain consonants may appear. 5 Verbs 3 The verb template Atili verbal morphology is templatic; each segmentable morphological unit can be placed into a single specific slot within the verb template. The slot for the verb root is called “R,” whileprefixand suffix slots are labeled with “P” or “S,” respectively, along with a number indicating thedistanceto the verb root, with higher numbers indicating slots farther away from the root. Multiple types of marking are sometimes assigned the same slot. This happens when the markings either cannot co-occur (for example, aspect marking occurs only on finite verbs while infinitive marking only occurs on non-finite verbs) or are not segmentable. (3.1) The verb template Auxiliary aspect marking P8 Infinitive marking Inverse marking P7 Obviation P6 Number marking Agreement morphology P5 Direct aspect marking Prefixes P4 Negation P3 Positionals P2 Causatives Incorporated nouns P1 Classifiers Instrumentals R Verb root Root Converb marking S Relativization Nominalization Suffixes 6 4 Aspect marking and agreement morphology Atili “aspect marking” is really a combination of tense, aspect, and mood. However, since it is not normally possible to split the markings into individual tense, aspect, or mood markers, it is easier to consider all of these together. There are broadly two kinds of aspect marking, which are called “direct” and “auxiliary.” Direct aspect marking is fused with the polypersonal agreement morphol- ogy in slot P5, and is non-segmentable, while auxiliary aspect marking is segmentable and goes in slot P8. Below is a list of each aspect split up into direct and auxiliary marking type: Direct aspects: Auxiliary aspects: • Imperfective (IPFV) • Future (FUT) • Perfective (PFV) • Habitual (HAB) • Irrealis (IRR) • Incohative (INCH) • Perfect (PRF) • Presumptive (PSM) • Restive (REST) • Restive–Imperative (RIMP) Auxiliary aspects are always build by adding a P8 prefix to a fully finite verb in one of thedirect aspects. In the list above, each auxiliary aspect is listed alongside its associated direct aspect. Some P8 prefixes can construct different auxiliary aspects when used alongside different direct aspects. For example, the P8 prefix ba creates the habitual aspect when added to an imperfective, but forms the future tense when attached to a perfective. 4.1 Direct aspects There are three direct aspects in Atili: Imperfective, perfective, and irrealis. The markings for these are combined with the verbal agreement morphology and cannot be easily taken out. However, each aspect has a charactaristic sound or sequence that is present in most of the forms for that aspect; thus, throughout this paper, these sounds may be used to stand in for that non-segmentable prefix: