Gəjlnigo morphology

Main article: Gəjlnigo

This page gives an extensive description of Gəjlnigo morphological features.

Nouns

Nouns in Gəjlnigo language end predominantly in a vowel. A certain amount of nouns, however, ends in a consonant, usually a palatalized one; these nouns tend to behave as irregular ones, but a euphonic vowel, mostly -i-, is generally added at the end of noun before the normal declension endings.

Nouns display neither gender nor class distinction. There are, however, two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural, and a limited case system. If a noun is deemed as definite, a form of definite article is used and placed before it.

Cases

Gəjlnigo nouns do decline, according to a nominative-accusative system with 2 cases:

Case	Meaning
Direct	This case marks both the subject and the direct object of a verb. It is regarded as the base form of the noun, and it is used as the vocative form.
Oblique	It has no specifical meaning and it is generally used only with prepositions. It can be occasionally used without prepositions, marking the indirect object. In earlier texts it can mark the final point of a movement (motion toward a place) and, limited to proper nouns, possession and belonging.

Articles

There is only one article, the definite article, ež, which is placed before the noun, agreeing with it in case and number.

	singular	plural
direct	ež / ežd	ežno
oblique	ežəre	ežnore

In the singular direct case two forms of the article are listed. The choice between the two forms depends on the first phoneme of the following word:

• ež is placed before a word beginning with a consonant.
• ežd is placed before a word beginning with a vowel.

Examples:

ež pɔge čəjnnos
the person is singing

ežd ɔne čəjnnos
the woman is singing

The definite article, both in its singular and plural forms and in any case, can merge with some prepositions to form the so-called articled prepositions. Such forms will be analyzed in a following section.

Noun declension

Nouns are declined in case and number by adding the following endings to the base form of the noun:

	singular	plural
direct	-	-no
oblique	-re	-nure

Some examples are shown below: bevvo, father, and hɔgo, house.

	bevvo		hɔgo
	singular	plural	singular	plural
direct	bevvo	bevvono	hɔgo	hɔgono
oblique	bevvore	bevvonore	hɔgore	hɔgonore

Nouns ending in a consonant in their base form, except for nouns ending in the semiconsonant -j, usually add a euphonic vowel before the endings of the other cases. This vowel is generally -i-, but other vowels are also possible.

dir. heǵ → obl. heǵire, ...

Some irregular nouns, however, change their last vowel in the root before adding other endings. The commonest change is o → u. A lot of these nouns display both irregular and regular forms, especially in earlier texts. In modern texts the amount of irregular forms is extremely limited, with a strong tendency towards regularization by analogy.

dir. heňo → obl. heňure, ...

A small amount of nouns, conversely, display unpredictable irregularities, both vocalic and consonantal, in the noun root.

dir. beĺ → obl. bejre, ...

Adjectives and pronouns

Adjectives closely resemble the noun form, usually showing the same exceptions of nouns. Pronouns, instead, may exhibit different forms in the root form.

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives are always placed before the nouns they specify, while predicative adjectives are always placed after them of after the verb.

ež hɔva əjro
the young man

ežd əjro hɔva 
the man is young

All adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they specify, being declined with the nominal endings.

Declension of qualifying adjectives

Adjectival declension follow the same rules as the nominal declension, with the same exceptions.

Example: šɔrəj, big, with hɔgo, house

	singular	plural
direct	šɔrəj hɔgo	šɔrəjno hɔgono
oblique	šɔrəjre hɔgore	šɔrəjnure hɔgonure

Numerals

The numeral system relies on a decimal base.

Cardinal numerals

The first ten cardinal numbers are noun-like forms on their own:

digit	noun form
1:	šaw
2:	egəj
3:	məjgo
4:	gɔĺ
5:	haǵ
6:	tɔj
7:	heže
8:	čuj
9:	cɔǧo
10:	pejo

Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + ne + pejo, with some irregularities:

digit	noun form
11:	šawnepejo
12:	egəjnepejo
13:	məjgonepejo
14:	gɔjnepejo
15:	haginepejo
16:	tɔjnepejo
17:	heženepejo
18:	čujnepejo
19:	cɔǧunepejo

The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are noun-like forms on their own:

digit	noun form
100:	ňacco
1000:	iva

The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM + -pejdduno / -ňaccuno / -ivadduno. There is a certain number of irregularities. Moreover, the ending -ivadduno turns into -əjvadduno when added to a form ending with a -i and delets this vowel, while it turns into -jvadduno when added to a form ending with any other vowel, not deleting it:

	tens	hundreds	thousands
2x:	egəjpejddɔw	egəjňaccuno	egivadduno
3x:	məjgopejdduno	məjgoňaccuno	məjgojvadduno
4x:	gɔjpejdduno	gɔjňaccuno	gɔjəjvadduno
5x:	hagipejdduno	hagiňaccuno	hagəjvadduno
6x:	tɔjpejdduno	tɔjňaccuno	tɔjivadduno
7x:	hežepejdduno	hežeňaccuno	hežejvadduno
8x:	čujpejdduno	čujňaccuno	čujəjvadduno
9x:	cɔǧupejdduno	cɔǧuňaccuno	cɔǧujvadduno

The numerals for “million” and “billion” are nominal forms on their own (the latter is an adapted loanword from Iðâɣ language):

digit	noun form
1,000,000:	ivaw
1,000,000,000:	mejšurejntu (from I. mêšúrěntu)

These forms are treated as regularly declinable nouns:

digit	noun form
3,000,000:	məjgo ivawno
6,000,000,000:	tɔj mejšurejntuno

If these numerals are used as simple count forms, they are declined in the direct case. Inside of a structured sentence, they are declined according the case required by their syntactical role. Nouns adjoining such numerals are introduced by the preposition čel and are declined in the oblique case:

gɔ egəj ivawnure čel pɔgenure
to two millions people

Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:

• 1985: iva cɔǧoňaccuno čujpedduno haǵ

When cardinal numbers have an adjective-like function, or when they are used as as simple count forms, they are meant as indeclinable forms (except for "million" and "billion").

ež hɔgo čel ɔddužono məjgo maccudəjnure 
my three friends' house

šaw, egəj, məjgo, gɔĺ, ...
one, two, three, four, ...

Every numeral, however, can also have a pronominal function. In this case, they are declined in the required case. They are declined only in the singular declension and they are generally used the article.

ež hɔgo čejžnore məjgore 
the house of those three (people)

There is, moreover, an additional pronoun-like irregular numeral, egivəj, meaning "both". It display a normal declension, only in the singular form, and it is never used with the any article. The verb agrees with this form in the plural number.

ež hɔgo čel egivəjre
the house of both (of them)

egivəj ezehəjgəjduno
they both walked out

In the earlier modern period the idea of “zero” is introduced from Cärähə language. This numeral is however usually limited to mathematics:

digit	noun form
0:	hesju (from C. xesü)

Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the ordinal ending -ro to the cardinal numeral form, with some irregularities:

digit	adjective form
1st:	šawro
2nd:	egəjro
3rd:	məjgoro
4th:	gɔjro
5th:	hagiro
6th:	tɔjro
7th:	hežero
8th:	čujro
9th:	cɔǧuro
10th:	pejuro
11th:	šawnepejuro
12th:	egəjnepejuro
20th:	egəjpejddɔwro
60th:	hagipejddunuro

Ordinal numerals for “millionth” and “billionth” are regularly formed from their corresponding cardinal forms, while their multiples are formed by unifying the separated forms in an only adjectival word:

digit	adjective form
1,000,000th:	ivawro
1,000,000,000th:	mejšurejnturo
3,000,000,000th:	məjgomejšurejntunoro

If the numeral form is composite, the ending is added only to the last numeral form:

• 25^th: egəjpejddɔw hagiro

Verbs

The verbal system of Gəjlnigo language is based on the fundamental dichotomy between imperfective aspect and perfective aspect. This distinction is conveyed by two different verbal roots for every verbal meaning, the imperfective root (R_imp) and the perfective root (R_prf). The perfective root is usually derived from the imperfective one by means of the prefix e-, known as augment:

Rimp → e(Rimp)prf

Example:

Rimp = gegug- → Rprf = egegug-

By adding the augment, irregular forms may arise:

Rimp = ləjuž- → Rprf = ejjuž-

A very limited amount of roots, conversely, derive their perfective roots by adding the suffix -ig:

Rimp = ɔkez- → Rprf = ɔkezig-

A threefold temporal distinction is also made, among present, past, and future tenses. In the present tense there is no aspectual distinction, being this tense built only on the imperfective root.

There are two verbal moods and two non-finite forms:

• Moods: indicative, conditional
• Non-finite: infinitive, participle

The citation form of verbs is the present imperfective infinitive, marked by the ending -əjge, added to the imperfective root in its present form. From such form the imperfective root can be inferred and can be changed in its perfective equivalent.

The following personal endings are then added to the various aspectual and temporal forms. In this way, verbs show their agreement with the clause subject in person and number:

1st sing.	-ɔ
2nd sing.	-ih
3rd sing.	-
1st plur.	-unɔ
2nd plur.	-unih
3rd plur.	-un

The different moods are formed by adding the following infixes to the verbal root, before the personal endings:

• indicative: Ø
• conditional: -už- / -uš-

The non-finite verbal forms are meant as nominal/adjectival forms of the same verbs. They do not add the personal endings, but they are declined as nouns or adjectives with the nominal declension endings.

As verbal forms can, however, be formed on both roots. The participle can also add the modal infixes before its typical ending.

The non-finite endings are:

• infinitive: -əjge
• participle: -uǵ

Both non-finite fors may display irregularities, with slightly different endings. Both endings can actually cause severe irregularities to arise.

A distinction between an active diathesis and a passive diathesis is made. However, the passive diathesis distinguishes an extremely reduced amount of forms.