Jeʂtəra syntax

Main article: Jeʂtəra

This page gives an extensive description of Jeʂtəra syntactical features.

Main clause and word order

Jeʂtəra is a mainly VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language.

līloṕət́ līroliə sopa 
the man sees the dog

There are clear traces hinting to a previous underlying SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) order, not being VSO a retention of the earlier first word order in Proto-Piti. Some of thiese traces are the position of the negative adverb ʔīs, not, and the position of the verbal infinitives when supported by other verbs.

līloṕət́ līroliə sopa ʔīs
the man does not see the dog

The quite rich case system allows every other possible word order, but most of them prove to be very marked and infrequently used. The only word order with a clear role and a frequent usage is VOS (Verb-Object-Subject), which marks the so-called passive construction.

līloṕ sopa līroliə
the dog is seen by the man

The other elements in the sentence are usually placed in the order “place-manner-cause-time”, although they are basically freer than the main elements. An object in the dative case, when conveying the indirect object, tends to be placed after the direct object of the sentence.

Nouns

The noun cluster is formed by a noun, carrying the main meaning, and by other noun-type forms, namely adjectives, which specify this meaning or add other meanings to the main noun. Inside of a noun cluster, the noun can be replaced by a pronoun.

The noun usually introduces the noun cluster, being followed by every other specifying form. Thus, other elements conveying possession and belonging are always placed after the noun, as well as every attributive adjective.

sōgo līrora
the man’s house

liəlā oltəwra
my hand

ʔōna jōpā
the young woman

Non-qualifying adjectives display, however, an irregular behavior about their positioning inside the noun cluster. The indefinite adjectives are nearly always placed before the noun.

hēsəw līro
no man

The interrogative adjectives tend to be placed before the noun, but this is not a strict rule. In complex sentences they appear to be placed after the noun:

ʂəko sōgo?
which house?

līloṕer sōgo fūkara ʂākor?
which man's house do you see?

The demonstrative adjectives, conversely, display a variable diachronic tendency. In texts from the earlier period, they are almost always placed before the noun, while in later texts they almost always placed after the noun.

niəhtəw sopa / sopa niəhtəw
this dog

The role of the noun cluster in the sentence and its number are marked by case and number endings. These endings mark also other adjectival elements inside the noun cluster, resulting this in the process called nominal agreement.

Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they specify. Attributive adjectives display a particular declension, with different endings from the predicative declension. Other elements, which convey possession or belonging do not agree with the main nominal form.

līloṕət́ līroliə jōpāl sōgo
the young man sees the house

sōgo oltəwrano
our house

ʔōnano jōpān
the young women

ʔəɳon ʔōnano jōpāno
the women are young

The agreement among nouns and adjectives is not a universal phenomenon. Indefinite adjectives, indeed, usually do not agree with the nominal form, neither in case nor in number.

The grammar role of noun clusters can be further specified by prepositions, which are placed before the cluster. Thus, it can be stated that the noun cluster can be introduced by a preposition.

ʔiəmēhol kōl sōgoxə
I am going home

The cases

The grammatical role of the noun cluster in a sentence is conveyed by some endings. These endings are bound to grammatical cases, with usually well-defined roles.

The cases in Jeʂtəra are 6:

• Ergative
• Absolutive
• Genitive
• Dative
• Causative
• Abessive

The grammatical roles and all possible differences in usage among similar cases are enlisted below: