Modern Standard Sitr grammar

This is the page for the grammar sketch of Modern Standard Sitr.

=Morphology=

Nouns
In Modern Standard Sitr, case suffixes follow number and suffixes. Below are the nominal inflections of Modern Standard Sitr:

Numbers:
 * singular: -Ø
 * plural:
 * Absolutive: -m
 * Ergative-Oblique: -d
 * definite singular: -i(probably from Classical Sitr ye "he/she/it")
 * definite plural:
 * Absolutive: -im(probably from a weakened form of Classical Sitr yam "they(absolutive)", or by analogy of the singular definite suffix)
 * Ergative-Oblique: -id(probably from a weakened form of Classical Sitr yad "they(ergative-oblique)", or by analogy of the singular definite suffix)

Cases:
 * Absolutive: -Ø
 * Ergative-Instrumental: -ch/-ech
 * Genitive: -s/-es
 * Dative-Locative: -n
 * Ablative: -l

The normal TAM suffixes are applied on pronouns too.

Modifiers of nouns
Modifiers of nouns, like numeral, demonstrative, etc. don't agree with noun in cases when modifying the nouns, but demonstratives agree with nouns in number.

Verbs
In Modern Standard Sitr verbs inflect for TAM, adverbial and voice. The antipassive voice suffix is added before the TAM suffix. The adverbial suffix shares the same slot with TAM suffixes.

Below are the verbal conjugatinos of Modern Standard Sitr:


 * present: -o
 * past: -d/-ed
 * desiderative: -ch/-ech
 * conditional: -k/-ek
 * adverbial: -n

Antipassive voice: -m

=Syntax=

Word Order
Modern Standard Sitr uses postpositions instead of prepositions and is highly left-branching, the word order is SOV, and modifiers precede the modified generally.
 * Basic Word Order: Subject-Object-Verb(SOV)
 * Adpositions are postpositions
 * Adjectives, demonstratives, numerals, possessors, relative clauses precede the noun they modify.

Definiteness
In Modern Standard Sitr, definiteness is marked by suffix.

Possession
The possessor precedes the possessee.

Alienability is not distinguished.

Adposition
Adpostions are postpositions, that is, they are placed after the noun in the adpositional phrase.

The postpositions are invariant, that is, they don't take inflections.

Like many other languages, the postpositions may require the noun in the adpositional phrase to be in a certain case.

Relative Clause
Modern Standard Sitr uses the gap strategy as the main strategy and the pronoun-retention strategy is used when relativizing possessors of a noun, and also sometimes for obliques.

Relative clauses are placed before the main clause. There are no relativizers or relative pronouns, and there are no specific verbal morphology for relative clauses either.

In Modern Standard Sitr, all thematic roles can be relativized.

Verb Framing
Modern Standard Sitr is a verb framed language.