Modern Standard Sitr

Modern Standard Sitr is the modern standard form of the Sitr languages, it is also the sole official language of modern Kompalia.

Modern Standard Sitr is based on the Watce dialect of Central Sitr of the Sir languages. the Watce dialect is the dialect spoken in the metropolitan area of Watche, the capital city of Kompalia.

History

Development from Classical Sitr to Modern Standard Sitr

Below are some developments from Classical Sitr to Modern Standard Sitr:

• The reduction and loss of final short vowel.
• The loss of length distinction and the change of vowel quality.
• The strengthening of glides between vowels: w, j > b, d͡ʒ / V_V.
• The loss of the thorn consonant and the introduction of voicing contrast in fricatives: s > z, θ > s.
• The loss of labiovelar consonants: merging to velars or bilabials depending on the phonological environment.
• The loss of the distinction between Classical Sitr /l/ and /r/
• The development and generalization of epenthetic /e/.
• The loss of personal agreements and the generalization of 3rd singular forms of verbal conjugations.
• The introduction of copula for nominal predicatives.
• Semantic changes of some words.
• The Development of the definite suffixes on nouns.

Grammar

Main article: Modern Standard Sitr grammar

Due to the loss of verbal agreements, Modern Standard Sitr uses personal pronouns more than Classical Sitr; however, it is possible to drop both of the subject and the object when the context is clear, and Modern Standard Sitr is a pro-drop language.

Word Order

• Basic Word Order: Subject-Object-Verb(SOV)
• Adpositions are postpositions
• Adjectives, demonstratives, numerals, possessors, relative clauses precede the noun they modify.

Modern Standard Sitr uses postpositions instead of prepositions and is highly left-branching, the word order is SOV, and modifiers precede the modified generally.

Morphology

Compared to Classical Sitr, Modern Standard Sitr has less inflections, and it has lost the personal inflections of Classical Sitr; nonetheless, it still maintains the ergative alignment of Classical Sitr.

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 order of suffixes on nouns are stem-(definite)-(number)-(case)

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(added before the TAM suffix)

Lexicon

Most words of Modern Standard Sitr are inhereted words, including most words used in academy. Words of Classical Sitr origin are mostly used for proper nouns and some specific vocabulary in academy.

Examples

• dech ki amo wa? - 2.SG-ERG 1.SG.ABS love-PRES Q - do you love me?(also amo wa?, as pronouns can be dropped in Modern Standard Sitr when the context is clear)
• ze as kuch yo - this one book be.PRES - this is a book.
• zomich as hol zaked - person-DEF-ERG one house see-PST - The person saw a house
• zomich as holi zaked - person-DEF-ERG one house-DEF.SG see-PST - The person saw the house
• zom - person(absolutive)
• zomech - person-ERG - person(ergative)
• zomi - person-DEF - the person(absolutive)
• zomich - person-DEF-ERG - the person(ergative)
• zomm - person-PL - persons(absolutive)
• zomim - person-DEF.PL - the persons(absolutive)
• zomdech - person-PL-ERG - persons(ergative)
• zomidech - person-DEF.PL-ERG - the persons(ergative)
• kali telis pol dolmo, yo teli kalis pol dolmo - hand-DEF foot-DEF-GEN for serve-ANTIP-PRES and foot-DEF hand-DEF-GEN for serve-ANTIP-PRES - the hand serves for the foot, and the foot serves for the hand.(the postposition pol descended from Classical Sitr quaalni "for")